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[
"KAT-TUN",
"2006: Debut and \"Real Face\"",
"What was Real Face?",
"On March 22,",
"Did it win any awards?",
"754,234 copies"
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C_b1fe27f9b0154d1a89ddb60a5b3acf16_1
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What songs were on the album?
| 3 |
What songs were on Real Face?
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KAT-TUN
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On 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. 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 Shonen." The single sold over a million copies in nine weeks, making "Real Face" the highest selling single for the year 2006. In 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. On 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. KAT-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. CANNOTANSWER
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They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki.
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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.
In 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.
History
2001–2005: Formation and pre-debut activities
Before 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.
In 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.
In 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.
2006: Debut and Best of KAT-TUN
On 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.
In 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
2007: Cartoon KAT-TUN II You
Under 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.
Akanishi 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.
On June 6, KAT-TUN released their fourth single, "Yorokobi no Uta", as the theme song to Tanaka's drama, Tokkyu Tanaka 3 Go.
On 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.
After KinKi Kids, KAT-TUN is the second artist to have all singles since debut to exceed 300,000 in sales during their first week.
2008: Queen of Pirates
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
On June 4, KAT-TUN released their third album, KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates.
On December 3, KAT-TUN released "White X'mas", their first Christmas single.
On 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.
2009 - 2010: Break the Records: By You & For You, Akanishi Jin's departure and No More Pain
On 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
Johnny & 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
On 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.
2011: 5th Anniversary
The 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.
It 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.
On 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.
It 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.
On 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.
On 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.
2012: Chain
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
Official 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
In 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.
2013 - 2014: Tanaka Koki's departure and Come Here
"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”.
In 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.
The 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.
"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.
On 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.
2015: Taguchi Junnosuke's departure
"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.
On 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.
2016 - 2019: Hiatus, Recharging Period, CAST and Ignite
KAT-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.
While 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.
On 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".
2021 - 2022: Resume of Group Activities and Honey
In 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.
In 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.
Current members
(born February 23, 1986), (Main Vocals)
(born October 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
(born September 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
Former members
(born July 4, 1984), (Main Vocals)
(born November 5, 1985), (Rapper, Sub Vocals)
(born November 29, 1985), (Sub Vocals)
Discography
Best of KAT-TUN (2006)
Cartoon KAT-TUN II You (2007)
KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates (2008)
Break the Records: By You & for You (2009)
No More Pain (2010)
Chain (2012)
Come Here (2014)
Cast (2018)
Ignite (2019)
Honey (2022)
Other activities
TV shows
KAT-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.
From 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.
From 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.
After 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
In 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.
Radio
The group has had three different radio shows, each hosted by different members and all have aired for several years.
Former 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.
Kazuya 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.
Taguchi 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.
Musicals
As 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.
Since 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.
Kamenashi 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.
Concerts
Since 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.
KAT-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.
The 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.
Although during their pre-debut years, KAT-TUN had on several occasions toured overseas with their senior groups, while they were still Johnny Jrs.
Their 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.
Commercials
KAT-TUN regularly appeared in TV commercials to endorse for NTT docomo, SKY PerfecTV!, Rohto and Lotte from 2005 to 2009.
Since 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.
Since 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!.
Events
On 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.
Awards
References
External links
Official page on J-Storm/J-One Records
Official page on Johnny's Website
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese rock music groups
Musical groups established in 2001
Johnny & Associates
Japanese boy bands
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Jin Akanishi
| true |
[
"Followers is an album by the American contemporary Christian music (CCM) band Tenth Avenue North. It was released by Provident Label Group, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, under its Reunion Records label, on October 14, 2016. The album reached No. 5 on the Billboard Christian Albums chart, and No. 151 on the Billboard 200. Three singles from the album were released: \"What You Want\" in 2016, and \"I Have This Hope\" and \"Control (Somehow You Want Me)\" in 2017, all of which appeared on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs chart.\n\nRelease and performance \n\nFollowers was released on October 14, 2016, by Provident Label Group LLC, a division of Sony Music Entertainment. It first charted on both the US Billboard Christian Albums and Billboard 200 on the week of November 5, 2016, peaking that week on both charts at No. 5 and No. 151, respectively.\n\nThree singles were released from the album. The first, \"What You Want\", was released five months in advance of the album on May 13, 2016, and charted on the Billboard Hot Christian Songs list, peaking at No. 17 on September 3, 2016. The other two were released in 2017 after the album, and reached the top 10 on Hot Christian Songs: \"I Have This Hope\" peaked at No. 5 on June 10, 2017, and \"Control (Somehow You Want Me)\" peaked at No. 7 on January 13, 2018.\n\nReception \n\nCCM Magazine gave the album 4 out of 5 stars, and cited its \"killer vocal work on honest, relatable lyrics paired with ... strong songwriting.\"\n\nChristian review website JesusFreakHideout rated the album 3.5 out of 5 stars. The review said the album was \"pretty much what you would expect from a CCM release\" and wrote that \"What You Want\" was \"the most energetic song on the album\". It singled out the opening track as \"excellent\" and the closing track as \"powerful\", and characterized the remaining songs as \"eight solid but otherwise ordinary tracks.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\"Afraid\" (3:48)\n\"What You Want\" (3:37)\n\"Overflow\" (3:40)\n\"I Have This Hope\" (3:24)\n\"One Thing\" (3:28)\n\"Sparrow (Under Heaven's Eyes)\" (3:59)\n\"No One Can Steal Our Joy\" (3:40)\n\"Control (Somehow You Want Me)\" (4:08)\n\"Fighting for You\" (3:22)\n\"I Confess\" (5:15)\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\n2016 albums\nTenth Avenue North albums",
"\"Lies\" is a song written by Beau Charles and Buddy Randell, performed by The Knickerbockers; the single was produced by Jerry Fuller. It reached #20 on the U.S. pop chart in 1965. It was featured on their 1966 album Lies and is famous for often being mistaken for a Beatles track due to its similarities to their style and harmonies.\n\nBackground\nHere is what original Knickerbockers member Beau Charles said about the song's behind-the-scenes story:\n\n\"We desperately tried to write something that sounded like the British Invasion'. We wrote 'Lies' in less than one half hour. We demo-ed it in New York.\" After a Jerry Fuller inspired re-arrangement, the track was recorded at Sunset Sound in West Hollywood with Bruce Botnick as the Engineer. Things were not quite right, so the multi-track master was taken to Leon Russell's house in Hollywood Hills. Jerry Fuller knew Leon and \"Leon had this great little studio - just a four track\". The band recorded the vocals there and overdubbed a new guitar part that was recorded from a beat up old Fender guitar amp that gave the guitar sound a meaty, edgy feel\".\n\nOther versions\nThe Ventures on their 1965 album Where the Action Is.\nNancy Sinatra on her 1966 album Boots.\nThe T-Bones on their 1966 album No Matter What Shape (Your Stomach's In).\nGary Lewis & the Playboys on their 1967 album Gary Lewis & the Playboys.\nLulu on her 1966 album From Lulu...with Love.\nStyx on their 1974 album Man of Miracles.\nTarney/Spencer Band on their 1979 album Run for Your Life.\nLinda Ronstadt on her 1982 album Get Closer.\nThe Delmonas on their 1985 album Dangerous Charms.\nThe Undead on their 1986 album Never Say Die!\nThe Landlords on their 1987 EP Our Favorite Songs!\nThe Basement Wall on their 1993 compilation album There Goes the Neighborhood! Volume 2 Featuring The Basement Wall.\nThe Fireballs on their 2006 compilation album Firebeat! The Great Lost Vocal Album.\nThe Brymers on their 2007 compilation album Sacrifice.\nThe Black Belles as the B-side to their 2010 single \"What Can I Do?\"\n\nSee also\n List of 1960s one-hit wonders in the United States\n\nReferences\n\n1965 songs\n1965 singles\nThe Ventures songs\nNancy Sinatra songs\nGary Lewis & the Playboys songs\nLulu (singer) songs\nStyx (band) songs\nLinda Ronstadt songs\nThe Fireballs songs\nSong recordings produced by Jerry Fuller"
] |
[
"KAT-TUN",
"2006: Debut and \"Real Face\"",
"What was Real Face?",
"On March 22,",
"Did it win any awards?",
"754,234 copies",
"What songs were on the album?",
"They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki."
] |
C_b1fe27f9b0154d1a89ddb60a5b3acf16_1
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What other albums did they make?
| 4 |
Besides Real Face, what other albums did KAT-TUN make?
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KAT-TUN
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On 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. 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 Shonen." The single sold over a million copies in nine weeks, making "Real Face" the highest selling single for the year 2006. In 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. On 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. KAT-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. CANNOTANSWER
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label J-One
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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.
In 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.
History
2001–2005: Formation and pre-debut activities
Before 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.
In 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.
In 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.
2006: Debut and Best of KAT-TUN
On 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.
In 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
2007: Cartoon KAT-TUN II You
Under 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.
Akanishi 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.
On June 6, KAT-TUN released their fourth single, "Yorokobi no Uta", as the theme song to Tanaka's drama, Tokkyu Tanaka 3 Go.
On 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.
After KinKi Kids, KAT-TUN is the second artist to have all singles since debut to exceed 300,000 in sales during their first week.
2008: Queen of Pirates
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
On June 4, KAT-TUN released their third album, KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates.
On December 3, KAT-TUN released "White X'mas", their first Christmas single.
On 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.
2009 - 2010: Break the Records: By You & For You, Akanishi Jin's departure and No More Pain
On 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
Johnny & 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
On 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.
2011: 5th Anniversary
The 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.
It 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.
On 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.
It 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.
On 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.
On 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.
2012: Chain
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
Official 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
In 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.
2013 - 2014: Tanaka Koki's departure and Come Here
"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”.
In 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.
The 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.
"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.
On 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.
2015: Taguchi Junnosuke's departure
"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.
On 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.
2016 - 2019: Hiatus, Recharging Period, CAST and Ignite
KAT-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.
While 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.
On 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".
2021 - 2022: Resume of Group Activities and Honey
In 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.
In 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.
Current members
(born February 23, 1986), (Main Vocals)
(born October 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
(born September 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
Former members
(born July 4, 1984), (Main Vocals)
(born November 5, 1985), (Rapper, Sub Vocals)
(born November 29, 1985), (Sub Vocals)
Discography
Best of KAT-TUN (2006)
Cartoon KAT-TUN II You (2007)
KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates (2008)
Break the Records: By You & for You (2009)
No More Pain (2010)
Chain (2012)
Come Here (2014)
Cast (2018)
Ignite (2019)
Honey (2022)
Other activities
TV shows
KAT-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.
From 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.
From 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.
After 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
In 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.
Radio
The group has had three different radio shows, each hosted by different members and all have aired for several years.
Former 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.
Kazuya 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.
Taguchi 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.
Musicals
As 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.
Since 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.
Kamenashi 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.
Concerts
Since 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.
KAT-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.
The 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.
Although during their pre-debut years, KAT-TUN had on several occasions toured overseas with their senior groups, while they were still Johnny Jrs.
Their 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.
Commercials
KAT-TUN regularly appeared in TV commercials to endorse for NTT docomo, SKY PerfecTV!, Rohto and Lotte from 2005 to 2009.
Since 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.
Since 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!.
Events
On 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.
Awards
References
External links
Official page on J-Storm/J-One Records
Official page on Johnny's Website
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese rock music groups
Musical groups established in 2001
Johnny & Associates
Japanese boy bands
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Jin Akanishi
| 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",
"Singing in the Twins Wonderland (Volume 3) is an album by Hong Kong girl duo Twins. It is the third album in their series of their children's albums. It was released in April 2004. Whole four albums of \"Singing in the Twins Wonderland\" had a great success because they became very popular among children. Twins had one more album released for children, named Singing in the Twins Wonderland (Volume 4).\n\nBackground\nThe album was recorded in 2003, along with other first two albums in series. The first, Singing in the Twins Wonderland (Volume 1) is released in November 2003. The second album is released in the same month, and it had also very good success like the first one, but it did not make the same success. Their third album is released on April 3, 2004. It had a good success.\n\nTrack listing\n\"The Music Room\"\n\"I've Got No Strings\"\n\"Good Morning to You\"\n\"Did You Ever See a Lassie?\"\n\"The Library\"\n\"Cuckoo Clock\"\n\"Sing a Song\"\n\"Ding Dong Bell\"\n\"Hide and Seek\"\n\"Are You Sleeping?\"\n\"Can You Tell Me What This Is?\"\n\"Follow Me\"\n\"I Have Two Hands\"\n\"On the Way to School\"\n\"Donkey Donkey\"\n\"Boy & Girl\"\n\"Ten Green Bottles\"\n\"The Hokey Pokey\"\n\"Merry-Go-Round\"\n\"By the Beach\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n2004 albums\nTwins (group) albums"
] |
[
"KAT-TUN",
"2006: Debut and \"Real Face\"",
"What was Real Face?",
"On March 22,",
"Did it win any awards?",
"754,234 copies",
"What songs were on the album?",
"They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki.",
"What other albums did they make?",
"label J-One"
] |
C_b1fe27f9b0154d1a89ddb60a5b3acf16_1
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Did this one win any awards?
| 5 |
Did label J-one win any awards?
|
KAT-TUN
|
On 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. 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 Shonen." The single sold over a million copies in nine weeks, making "Real Face" the highest selling single for the year 2006. In 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. On 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. KAT-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. CANNOTANSWER
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Real Face Film topped all three Oricon
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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.
In 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.
History
2001–2005: Formation and pre-debut activities
Before 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.
In 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.
In 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.
2006: Debut and Best of KAT-TUN
On 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.
In 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
2007: Cartoon KAT-TUN II You
Under 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.
Akanishi 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.
On June 6, KAT-TUN released their fourth single, "Yorokobi no Uta", as the theme song to Tanaka's drama, Tokkyu Tanaka 3 Go.
On 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.
After KinKi Kids, KAT-TUN is the second artist to have all singles since debut to exceed 300,000 in sales during their first week.
2008: Queen of Pirates
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
On June 4, KAT-TUN released their third album, KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates.
On December 3, KAT-TUN released "White X'mas", their first Christmas single.
On 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.
2009 - 2010: Break the Records: By You & For You, Akanishi Jin's departure and No More Pain
On 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
Johnny & 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
On 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.
2011: 5th Anniversary
The 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.
It 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.
On 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.
It 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.
On 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.
On 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.
2012: Chain
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
Official 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
In 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.
2013 - 2014: Tanaka Koki's departure and Come Here
"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”.
In 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.
The 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.
"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.
On 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.
2015: Taguchi Junnosuke's departure
"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.
On 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.
2016 - 2019: Hiatus, Recharging Period, CAST and Ignite
KAT-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.
While 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.
On 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".
2021 - 2022: Resume of Group Activities and Honey
In 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.
In 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.
Current members
(born February 23, 1986), (Main Vocals)
(born October 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
(born September 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
Former members
(born July 4, 1984), (Main Vocals)
(born November 5, 1985), (Rapper, Sub Vocals)
(born November 29, 1985), (Sub Vocals)
Discography
Best of KAT-TUN (2006)
Cartoon KAT-TUN II You (2007)
KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates (2008)
Break the Records: By You & for You (2009)
No More Pain (2010)
Chain (2012)
Come Here (2014)
Cast (2018)
Ignite (2019)
Honey (2022)
Other activities
TV shows
KAT-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.
From 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.
From 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.
After 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
In 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.
Radio
The group has had three different radio shows, each hosted by different members and all have aired for several years.
Former 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.
Kazuya 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.
Taguchi 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.
Musicals
As 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.
Since 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.
Kamenashi 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.
Concerts
Since 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.
KAT-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.
The 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.
Although during their pre-debut years, KAT-TUN had on several occasions toured overseas with their senior groups, while they were still Johnny Jrs.
Their 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.
Commercials
KAT-TUN regularly appeared in TV commercials to endorse for NTT docomo, SKY PerfecTV!, Rohto and Lotte from 2005 to 2009.
Since 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.
Since 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!.
Events
On 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.
Awards
References
External links
Official page on J-Storm/J-One Records
Official page on Johnny's Website
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese rock music groups
Musical groups established in 2001
Johnny & Associates
Japanese boy bands
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Jin Akanishi
| true |
[
"This is a list of films with performances that have been nominated in all of the Academy Award acting categories.\n\nThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences annually bestows Academy Awards for acting performances in the following four categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.\n\nFilms \n\nAs of the 93rd Academy Awards (2020), there have been fifteen films containing at least one nominated performance in each of the four Academy Award acting categories. \n\nIn the following list, award winners are listed in bold with gold background; others listed are nominees who did not win. No film has ever won all four awards.\n\nSuperlatives \n\nNo film has won all four awards.\n\nTwo films won three awards: \n\n A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) \n Network (1976)\n\nFour films hold a total of five nominations, each with an additional nomination within one of the four categories:\n\n Mrs. Miniver (1942) – two nominations for Best Supporting Actress\n From Here to Eternity (1953) – two nominations for Best Actor\n Bonnie and Clyde (1968) – two nominations for Best Supporting Actor\n Network (1976) – two nominations for Best Actor\n\nThree of the nominated films failed to win any of the four awards: \n\n My Man Godfrey (1936) – also failed to win any other Academy Awards\n Sunset Boulevard (1950)\n American Hustle (2013) – also failed to win any other Academy Awards\n\nOnly two of the nominated films won Best Picture:\n\n Mrs. Miniver (1942)\n From Here to Eternity (1953)\n\nOnly one of the nominated films was not nominated for Best Picture:\n\n My Man Godfrey (1936)\n\nFive performers were nominated for their work in two different films that received nominations in all acting categories (winners in bold):\n\n William Holden (Sunset Boulevard, Network)\n Warren Beatty (Bonnie and Clyde, Reds)\n Faye Dunaway (Bonnie and Clyde, Network)\n Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle)\n Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle)\n\nOnly one director has directed two films that received nominations in all four categories:\n\n David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle)\n\nThe 40th Academy Awards (1967) was the only ceremony in which multiple films held at least one nomination in all four acting categories:\n\n Bonnie and Clyde\n Guess Who's Coming to Dinner\n\nAll of the films, except My Man Godfrey and For Whom the Bell Tolls, were also nominated for the \"Big Five\" categories (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted)).\n\nSee also \n\n List of Big Five Academy Award winners and nominees\n List of films with two or more Academy Awards in an acting category\n\nActing nom",
"This is a list of drama serials with performances that have been nominated in all of the Star Awards acting categories.\n\nMediacorp annually bestows Star Awards for acting performances in the following four categories: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.\n\nDrama serials\n\nAs of 2022, there have been 25 drama serials containing at least one nominated performance in each of the four Star Awards acting categories, with two drama serials winning all four awards.\n\nIn the following list, award winners are listed in bold; others listed are nominees who did not win.\n\nSuperlatives \n\nTwo drama serials won all four awards:\n\n Holland V 荷兰村 (2003)\n The Dream Makers II 志在四方II (2016)\n\nFive drama serials won three awards:\n\n The Price of Peace 和平的代价 (1997) – lost Best Supporting Actor\n Stepping Out 出路 (1999) – lost Best Supporting Actress\n The Dream Makers 志在四方 (2014) – lost Best Actor\n The Journey: Tumultuous Times 信约：动荡的年代 (2015) – lost Best Actress\n A Million Dollar Dream 给我一百万 (2019) – lost Best Supporting Actress\n\nSix of the nominated drama serials failed to win any of the four awards:\n\n The New Adventures of Wisely 卫斯理传奇 (1998)\n The Return of the Condor Heroes 神雕侠侣 (1998)\n Together 当我们同在一起 (2010) – but won Best Drama Serial\n Pillow Talk 再见单人床 (2013) – but won Best Drama Serial\n Against the Tide 逆潮 (2015)\n 118 (2016)\n\nExternal links \n\nStar Awards"
] |
[
"KAT-TUN",
"2006: Debut and \"Real Face\"",
"What was Real Face?",
"On March 22,",
"Did it win any awards?",
"754,234 copies",
"What songs were on the album?",
"They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki.",
"What other albums did they make?",
"label J-One",
"Did this one win any awards?",
"Real Face Film topped all three Oricon"
] |
C_b1fe27f9b0154d1a89ddb60a5b3acf16_1
|
Did they win any other awards?
| 6 |
Besides Real Face Film, did KAT-TUN win any other awards?
|
KAT-TUN
|
On 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. 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 Shonen." The single sold over a million copies in nine weeks, making "Real Face" the highest selling single for the year 2006. In 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. On 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. KAT-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. CANNOTANSWER
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respectively. They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki.
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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.
In 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.
History
2001–2005: Formation and pre-debut activities
Before 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.
In 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.
In 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.
2006: Debut and Best of KAT-TUN
On 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.
In 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
2007: Cartoon KAT-TUN II You
Under 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.
Akanishi 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.
On June 6, KAT-TUN released their fourth single, "Yorokobi no Uta", as the theme song to Tanaka's drama, Tokkyu Tanaka 3 Go.
On 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.
After KinKi Kids, KAT-TUN is the second artist to have all singles since debut to exceed 300,000 in sales during their first week.
2008: Queen of Pirates
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
On June 4, KAT-TUN released their third album, KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates.
On December 3, KAT-TUN released "White X'mas", their first Christmas single.
On 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.
2009 - 2010: Break the Records: By You & For You, Akanishi Jin's departure and No More Pain
On 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
Johnny & 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
On 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.
2011: 5th Anniversary
The 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.
It 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.
On 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.
It 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.
On 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.
On 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.
2012: Chain
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
Official 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
In 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.
2013 - 2014: Tanaka Koki's departure and Come Here
"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”.
In 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.
The 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.
"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.
On 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.
2015: Taguchi Junnosuke's departure
"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.
On 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.
2016 - 2019: Hiatus, Recharging Period, CAST and Ignite
KAT-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.
While 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.
On 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".
2021 - 2022: Resume of Group Activities and Honey
In 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.
In 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.
Current members
(born February 23, 1986), (Main Vocals)
(born October 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
(born September 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
Former members
(born July 4, 1984), (Main Vocals)
(born November 5, 1985), (Rapper, Sub Vocals)
(born November 29, 1985), (Sub Vocals)
Discography
Best of KAT-TUN (2006)
Cartoon KAT-TUN II You (2007)
KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates (2008)
Break the Records: By You & for You (2009)
No More Pain (2010)
Chain (2012)
Come Here (2014)
Cast (2018)
Ignite (2019)
Honey (2022)
Other activities
TV shows
KAT-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.
From 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.
From 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.
After 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
In 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.
Radio
The group has had three different radio shows, each hosted by different members and all have aired for several years.
Former 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.
Kazuya 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.
Taguchi 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.
Musicals
As 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.
Since 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.
Kamenashi 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.
Concerts
Since 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.
KAT-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.
The 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.
Although during their pre-debut years, KAT-TUN had on several occasions toured overseas with their senior groups, while they were still Johnny Jrs.
Their 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.
Commercials
KAT-TUN regularly appeared in TV commercials to endorse for NTT docomo, SKY PerfecTV!, Rohto and Lotte from 2005 to 2009.
Since 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.
Since 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!.
Events
On 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.
Awards
References
External links
Official page on J-Storm/J-One Records
Official page on Johnny's Website
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese rock music groups
Musical groups established in 2001
Johnny & Associates
Japanese boy bands
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Jin Akanishi
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"Le Cousin is a 1997 French film directed by Alain Corneau.\n\nPlot \nThe film deals with the relationship of the police and an informant in the drug scene.\n\nAwards and nominations\nLe Cousin was nominated for 5 César Awards but did not win in any category.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1997 films\n1997 crime films\nFilms about drugs\nFilms directed by Alain Corneau\nFrench crime films\nFrench films\nFrench-language films",
"The 1952–53 Boston Bruins season was the Bruins' 29th season in the National Hockey League (NHL).\n\nOffseason\n\nRegular season\n\nFinal standings\n\nRecord vs. opponents\n\nSchedule and results\n\nPlayoffs\n\nPlayer statistics\n\nRegular season\nScoring\n\nGoaltending\n\nPlayoffs\nScoring\n\nGoaltending\n\nAwards and records\n\nAwards\n\nThe Boston Bruins did not win any NHL awards for the 1952-53 NHL season.\n\nAll-Star teams\n\nTransactions\n\nThe following is a list of all transactions that have occurred for the Boston Bruins during the 1952–53 NHL season. It lists which team each player has been traded to and for which player(s) or other consideration(s), if applicable.\n\nSee also\n1952–53 NHL season\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nBoston Bruins season, 1952-53\nBoston Bruins season, 1952-53\nBoston Bruins seasons\nBoston\nBoston\n1950s in Boston"
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"2006: Debut and \"Real Face\"",
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"On March 22,",
"Did it win any awards?",
"754,234 copies",
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"They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki.",
"What other albums did they make?",
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"Did they win any other awards?",
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C_b1fe27f9b0154d1a89ddb60a5b3acf16_1
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Did they have any hit songs?
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Did KAT-TUN have any hit songs?
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KAT-TUN
|
On 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. 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 Shonen." The single sold over a million copies in nine weeks, making "Real Face" the highest selling single for the year 2006. In 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. On 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. KAT-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. CANNOTANSWER
|
In March 2006, KAT-TUN became the first group to hold their own performances in Japan's most popular stadium,
|
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.
In 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.
History
2001–2005: Formation and pre-debut activities
Before 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.
In 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.
In 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.
2006: Debut and Best of KAT-TUN
On 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.
In 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
2007: Cartoon KAT-TUN II You
Under 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.
Akanishi 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.
On June 6, KAT-TUN released their fourth single, "Yorokobi no Uta", as the theme song to Tanaka's drama, Tokkyu Tanaka 3 Go.
On 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.
After KinKi Kids, KAT-TUN is the second artist to have all singles since debut to exceed 300,000 in sales during their first week.
2008: Queen of Pirates
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
On June 4, KAT-TUN released their third album, KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates.
On December 3, KAT-TUN released "White X'mas", their first Christmas single.
On 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.
2009 - 2010: Break the Records: By You & For You, Akanishi Jin's departure and No More Pain
On 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
Johnny & 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
On 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.
2011: 5th Anniversary
The 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.
It 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.
On 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.
It 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.
On 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.
On 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.
2012: Chain
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
Official 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
In 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.
2013 - 2014: Tanaka Koki's departure and Come Here
"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”.
In 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.
The 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.
"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.
On 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.
2015: Taguchi Junnosuke's departure
"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.
On 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.
2016 - 2019: Hiatus, Recharging Period, CAST and Ignite
KAT-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.
While 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.
On 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".
2021 - 2022: Resume of Group Activities and Honey
In 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.
In 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.
Current members
(born February 23, 1986), (Main Vocals)
(born October 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
(born September 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
Former members
(born July 4, 1984), (Main Vocals)
(born November 5, 1985), (Rapper, Sub Vocals)
(born November 29, 1985), (Sub Vocals)
Discography
Best of KAT-TUN (2006)
Cartoon KAT-TUN II You (2007)
KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates (2008)
Break the Records: By You & for You (2009)
No More Pain (2010)
Chain (2012)
Come Here (2014)
Cast (2018)
Ignite (2019)
Honey (2022)
Other activities
TV shows
KAT-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.
From 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.
From 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.
After 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
In 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.
Radio
The group has had three different radio shows, each hosted by different members and all have aired for several years.
Former 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.
Kazuya 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.
Taguchi 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.
Musicals
As 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.
Since 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.
Kamenashi 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.
Concerts
Since 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.
KAT-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.
The 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.
Although during their pre-debut years, KAT-TUN had on several occasions toured overseas with their senior groups, while they were still Johnny Jrs.
Their 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.
Commercials
KAT-TUN regularly appeared in TV commercials to endorse for NTT docomo, SKY PerfecTV!, Rohto and Lotte from 2005 to 2009.
Since 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.
Since 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!.
Events
On 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.
Awards
References
External links
Official page on J-Storm/J-One Records
Official page on Johnny's Website
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese rock music groups
Musical groups established in 2001
Johnny & Associates
Japanese boy bands
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Jin Akanishi
| true |
[
"Return of the 1 Hit Wonder is the fourth album by rapper, Young MC. The album was released in 1997 for Overall Records and was Young MC's first release on an independent record label. While the album did not chart on any album charts, it did have two charting singles; \"Madame Buttafly\" reached No. 25 on the Hot Rap Songs and \"On & Poppin\" reached No. 23. The title refers to Young MC's only Billboard Hot 100 top 10 hit, \"Bust A Move\".\n\nTrack listing\n\"One Hit\" \n\"Freakie\" \n\"On & Poppin'\" \n\"You Ain't Gotta Lie Ta Kick It\" \n\"Madame Buttafly\" \n\"Lingerie\" \n\"Coast 2 Coast\" \n\"Fuel to the Fire\" \n\"Bring It Home\" \n\"Intensify\" \n\"Mr. Right Now\" \n\"On & Poppin'\" (Remix)\n\nReferences\n\nYoung MC albums\n1997 albums",
"Here Comes That Sound Again is a 1979 disco single by Love De-Luxe, a dance studio group formed by British producer, Alan Hawkshaw. Vicki Brown and Jo-Ann Stone were the lead vocalists on the single.\nThe single hit number one on the dance charts in the middle of 1979, for one week. The single did not cross over to any other chart and Love De-Luxe had no other charted singles in the United States. However, elements from the song were used for the intro to the Sugarhill Gang's hit single \"Rapper's Delight\".\n\nThe song’s chorus would later be sampled in another Billboard Dance Club Songs number one single, \"That Sound\" by Pump Friction, in 1997.\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\n1979 singles\n1979 songs\nDisco songs\nSongs about dancing\nWarner Records singles"
] |
[
"KAT-TUN",
"2006: Debut and \"Real Face\"",
"What was Real Face?",
"On March 22,",
"Did it win any awards?",
"754,234 copies",
"What songs were on the album?",
"They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki.",
"What other albums did they make?",
"label J-One",
"Did this one win any awards?",
"Real Face Film topped all three Oricon",
"Did they win any other awards?",
"respectively. They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki.",
"Did they have any hit songs?",
"In March 2006, KAT-TUN became the first group to hold their own performances in Japan's most popular stadium,"
] |
C_b1fe27f9b0154d1a89ddb60a5b3acf16_1
|
Did they perform any where else?
| 8 |
Did KAT-TUN perform any where else besides Japan's most popular stadium?
|
KAT-TUN
|
On 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. 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 Shonen." The single sold over a million copies in nine weeks, making "Real Face" the highest selling single for the year 2006. In 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. On 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. KAT-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. CANNOTANSWER
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KAT-TUN is the first group in Japan to have all three singles from debut to exceed 500,000 in yearly sales,
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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.
In 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.
History
2001–2005: Formation and pre-debut activities
Before 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.
In 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.
In 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.
2006: Debut and Best of KAT-TUN
On 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.
In 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
2007: Cartoon KAT-TUN II You
Under 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.
Akanishi 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.
On June 6, KAT-TUN released their fourth single, "Yorokobi no Uta", as the theme song to Tanaka's drama, Tokkyu Tanaka 3 Go.
On 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.
After KinKi Kids, KAT-TUN is the second artist to have all singles since debut to exceed 300,000 in sales during their first week.
2008: Queen of Pirates
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
On June 4, KAT-TUN released their third album, KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates.
On December 3, KAT-TUN released "White X'mas", their first Christmas single.
On 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.
2009 - 2010: Break the Records: By You & For You, Akanishi Jin's departure and No More Pain
On 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
Johnny & 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
On 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.
2011: 5th Anniversary
The 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.
It 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.
On 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.
It 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.
On 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.
On 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.
2012: Chain
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
Official 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
In 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.
2013 - 2014: Tanaka Koki's departure and Come Here
"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”.
In 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.
The 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.
"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.
On 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.
2015: Taguchi Junnosuke's departure
"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.
On 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.
2016 - 2019: Hiatus, Recharging Period, CAST and Ignite
KAT-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.
While 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.
On 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".
2021 - 2022: Resume of Group Activities and Honey
In 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.
In 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.
Current members
(born February 23, 1986), (Main Vocals)
(born October 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
(born September 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
Former members
(born July 4, 1984), (Main Vocals)
(born November 5, 1985), (Rapper, Sub Vocals)
(born November 29, 1985), (Sub Vocals)
Discography
Best of KAT-TUN (2006)
Cartoon KAT-TUN II You (2007)
KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates (2008)
Break the Records: By You & for You (2009)
No More Pain (2010)
Chain (2012)
Come Here (2014)
Cast (2018)
Ignite (2019)
Honey (2022)
Other activities
TV shows
KAT-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.
From 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.
From 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.
After 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
In 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.
Radio
The group has had three different radio shows, each hosted by different members and all have aired for several years.
Former 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.
Kazuya 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.
Taguchi 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.
Musicals
As 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.
Since 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.
Kamenashi 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.
Concerts
Since 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.
KAT-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.
The 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.
Although during their pre-debut years, KAT-TUN had on several occasions toured overseas with their senior groups, while they were still Johnny Jrs.
Their 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.
Commercials
KAT-TUN regularly appeared in TV commercials to endorse for NTT docomo, SKY PerfecTV!, Rohto and Lotte from 2005 to 2009.
Since 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.
Since 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!.
Events
On 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.
Awards
References
External links
Official page on J-Storm/J-One Records
Official page on Johnny's Website
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese rock music groups
Musical groups established in 2001
Johnny & Associates
Japanese boy bands
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Jin Akanishi
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"Else Hansen (Cathrine Marie Mahs Hansen) also called de Hansen (1720 – 4 September 1784), was the royal mistress of king Frederick V of Denmark. She is his most famous mistress and known in history as Madam Hansen, and was, alongside Charlotte Amalie Winge, one of only two women known to have been long term lovers of the king.\n\nLife\n\nThe background of Else Hansen does not appear to be known. Tradition claims her to be the sister of Frederick's chamber servant Henrik Vilhelm Tillisch, who in 1743 reportedly smuggled in his sister to the king at night, but modern research does not support them to be the same person.\n\nRoyal mistress\nIt is not known exactly when and how Hansen became the lover of the king. Frederick V was known for his debauched life style. According to Dorothea Biehl, the king was known to participate in orgies or 'Bacchus parties', in which he drank alcohol with his male friends while watching female prostitutes stripped naked and danced, after which the king would sometime beat them with his stick and whip them after having been intoxicated by alcohol. These women where economically compensated, but none of them seem to have had any status of a long term mistress, nor did any of the noblewomen and maids-of-honors, which according to rumors where offered to the king by their families in hope of advantages but simply married of as soon as they became pregnant without any potential relationship having been anything but a secret. The relationship between the king and Else Hansen was therefore uncommon.\n\nElse Hansen gave birth to five children with the king between 1746 and 1751, which is why the affair is presumed to have started in 1746 at the latest and ended in 1751 at the earliest. At least her three younger children where all born at the manor Ulriksholm on Funen, a manor owned by Ulrik Frederik von Heinen, brother-in-law of the de facto ruler of Denmark, the kings favorite Adam Gottlob Moltke, who likely arranged the matter. The manor was named after the royal Ulrik Christian Gyldenlove, illegitimate son of a previous king. The king's children with Hansen where baptized in the local parish church near the manor, where they were officially listed as the legitimate children of the wife of a non existent man called \"Frederick Hansen, ship writer from Gothenburg to China\". The frequent trips to Ulriksholm by Hansen as soon as her pregnancies with the king became evident was publicly noted. Neither Else Hansen nor any other of the king's mistresses where ever any official mistress introduced at the royal court, nor did they have any influence upon state affairs whatever, as politics where entrusted by the king to his favorite Moltke.\n\nIn 1752, the relationship between the king and Hansen may have ended – in any case, it was not mentioned more or resulted in any more children. She settled in the property Kejrup near Ulriksholm with her children, officially with the status of \"widow of the late sea captain de Hansen\".\n\nLater life\nAfter the death of Frederick in 1766, she acquired the estate Klarskov on Funen. She sold Klarskov and moved to Odense in 1768. In 1771, however, she bought Klarskov a second time and continued to live there until her death.\n\nHer children were not officially recognized, but unofficially they were taken care of by the royal court: her daughters were given a dowry and married to royal officials and the sons careers where protected, and her grandchildren where also provided with an allowance from the royal house.\n\nAfter Hansen, the king did not have any long term mistress until Charlotte Amalie Winge (1762–66).\n\nLegacy\nAt Frederiksborgmuseet, there are three paintings of Hansen by Jens Thrane the younger from 1764. Hansen is known by Dorothea Biehl's depiction of the decadent court life of Frederick V.\n\nIssue \nHer children were officially listed with the father \"Frederick Hansen, sea captain\".\nFrederikke Margarethe de Hansen (1747–1802)\nFrederikke Catherine de Hansen (1748–1822)\nAnna Marie de Hansen (1749–1812)\nSophie Charlotte de Hansen (1750–1779)\nUlrik Frederik de Hansen (1751–1752)\n\nSources\n Charlotte Dorothea Biehl, Interiører fra Frederik V's Hof, udgivet af Louis Bobé.\n Aage Christens, Slægten de Hansen, 1968.\n\nReferences\n\n1720 births\n1784 deaths\nMistresses of Danish royalty\n18th-century Danish people\n18th-century Danish women landowners\n18th-century Danish landowners",
"Personation of a juror is a common law offence in England and Wales, where a person impersonates a juror in a civil or criminal trial. As a common law offence it is punishable by unlimited imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine. Personation of a juror also constitutes a contempt of court.\n\nThere is no requirement to prove that the defendant had any corrupt motive or a specific intention to deceive other than the fact that they entered the jury box and took the oath in someone else's name, and it is no defence that they did not know what they did to be wrong. If a juror has been personated, the trial in which he sat can be voided.\n\nSee also\nPerverting the course of justice\n\nReferences\n\nR v Clark (1918) 82 JP 295, (1918) 26 Cox CC 138\nR v Levy (1916) 32 TLR 238\nR v Wakefield [1918] 1 KB 216, 13 Cr App R 56, CCA\n\nCrimes\nEnglish criminal law"
] |
[
"KAT-TUN",
"2006: Debut and \"Real Face\"",
"What was Real Face?",
"On March 22,",
"Did it win any awards?",
"754,234 copies",
"What songs were on the album?",
"They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki.",
"What other albums did they make?",
"label J-One",
"Did this one win any awards?",
"Real Face Film topped all three Oricon",
"Did they win any other awards?",
"respectively. They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki.",
"Did they have any hit songs?",
"In March 2006, KAT-TUN became the first group to hold their own performances in Japan's most popular stadium,",
"Did they perform any where else?",
"KAT-TUN is the first group in Japan to have all three singles from debut to exceed 500,000 in yearly sales,"
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C_b1fe27f9b0154d1a89ddb60a5b3acf16_1
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Besides KAT-TUN exceeding 500,000 in yearly sales, are there any other interesting aspects about KAT-TUN, 2006: Debut and Real Face?
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KAT-TUN
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On 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. 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 Shonen." The single sold over a million copies in nine weeks, making "Real Face" the highest selling single for the year 2006. In 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. On 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. KAT-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. CANNOTANSWER
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and thirteenth place on the Oricon yearly singles chart.
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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.
In 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.
History
2001–2005: Formation and pre-debut activities
Before 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.
In 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.
In 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.
2006: Debut and Best of KAT-TUN
On 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.
In 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
2007: Cartoon KAT-TUN II You
Under 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.
Akanishi 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.
On June 6, KAT-TUN released their fourth single, "Yorokobi no Uta", as the theme song to Tanaka's drama, Tokkyu Tanaka 3 Go.
On 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.
After KinKi Kids, KAT-TUN is the second artist to have all singles since debut to exceed 300,000 in sales during their first week.
2008: Queen of Pirates
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
On June 4, KAT-TUN released their third album, KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates.
On December 3, KAT-TUN released "White X'mas", their first Christmas single.
On 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.
2009 - 2010: Break the Records: By You & For You, Akanishi Jin's departure and No More Pain
On 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
Johnny & 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
On 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.
2011: 5th Anniversary
The 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.
It 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.
On 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.
It 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.
On 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.
On 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.
2012: Chain
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
Official 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
In 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.
2013 - 2014: Tanaka Koki's departure and Come Here
"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”.
In 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.
The 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.
"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.
On 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.
2015: Taguchi Junnosuke's departure
"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.
On 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.
2016 - 2019: Hiatus, Recharging Period, CAST and Ignite
KAT-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.
While 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.
On 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".
2021 - 2022: Resume of Group Activities and Honey
In 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.
In 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.
Current members
(born February 23, 1986), (Main Vocals)
(born October 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
(born September 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
Former members
(born July 4, 1984), (Main Vocals)
(born November 5, 1985), (Rapper, Sub Vocals)
(born November 29, 1985), (Sub Vocals)
Discography
Best of KAT-TUN (2006)
Cartoon KAT-TUN II You (2007)
KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates (2008)
Break the Records: By You & for You (2009)
No More Pain (2010)
Chain (2012)
Come Here (2014)
Cast (2018)
Ignite (2019)
Honey (2022)
Other activities
TV shows
KAT-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.
From 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.
From 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.
After 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
In 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.
Radio
The group has had three different radio shows, each hosted by different members and all have aired for several years.
Former 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.
Kazuya 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.
Taguchi 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.
Musicals
As 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.
Since 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.
Kamenashi 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.
Concerts
Since 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.
KAT-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.
The 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.
Although during their pre-debut years, KAT-TUN had on several occasions toured overseas with their senior groups, while they were still Johnny Jrs.
Their 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.
Commercials
KAT-TUN regularly appeared in TV commercials to endorse for NTT docomo, SKY PerfecTV!, Rohto and Lotte from 2005 to 2009.
Since 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.
Since 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!.
Events
On 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.
Awards
References
External links
Official page on J-Storm/J-One Records
Official page on Johnny's Website
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese rock music groups
Musical groups established in 2001
Johnny & Associates
Japanese boy bands
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Jin Akanishi
| 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"
] |
[
"KAT-TUN",
"2006: Debut and \"Real Face\"",
"What was Real Face?",
"On March 22,",
"Did it win any awards?",
"754,234 copies",
"What songs were on the album?",
"They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki.",
"What other albums did they make?",
"label J-One",
"Did this one win any awards?",
"Real Face Film topped all three Oricon",
"Did they win any other awards?",
"respectively. They became the second artists to do so, the first being Ayumi Hamasaki.",
"Did they have any hit songs?",
"In March 2006, KAT-TUN became the first group to hold their own performances in Japan's most popular stadium,",
"Did they perform any where else?",
"KAT-TUN is the first group in Japan to have all three singles from debut to exceed 500,000 in yearly sales,",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"and thirteenth place on the Oricon yearly singles chart."
] |
C_b1fe27f9b0154d1a89ddb60a5b3acf16_1
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Did they do anything for the community?
| 10 |
Did KAT-TUN do anything for the community?
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KAT-TUN
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On 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. 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 Shonen." The single sold over a million copies in nine weeks, making "Real Face" the highest selling single for the year 2006. In 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. On 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. KAT-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. CANNOTANSWER
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On October 12, member Akanishi announced a hiatus from the group in order
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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.
In 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.
History
2001–2005: Formation and pre-debut activities
Before 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.
In 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.
In 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.
2006: Debut and Best of KAT-TUN
On 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.
In 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
2007: Cartoon KAT-TUN II You
Under 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.
Akanishi 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.
On June 6, KAT-TUN released their fourth single, "Yorokobi no Uta", as the theme song to Tanaka's drama, Tokkyu Tanaka 3 Go.
On 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.
After KinKi Kids, KAT-TUN is the second artist to have all singles since debut to exceed 300,000 in sales during their first week.
2008: Queen of Pirates
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
On June 4, KAT-TUN released their third album, KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates.
On December 3, KAT-TUN released "White X'mas", their first Christmas single.
On 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.
2009 - 2010: Break the Records: By You & For You, Akanishi Jin's departure and No More Pain
On 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
Johnny & 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
On 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.
2011: 5th Anniversary
The 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.
It 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.
On 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.
It 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.
On 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.
On 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.
2012: Chain
KAT-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.
KAT-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.
Official 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.
On 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.
KAT-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.
In 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.
2013 - 2014: Tanaka Koki's departure and Come Here
"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”.
In 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.
The 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.
"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.
On 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.
2015: Taguchi Junnosuke's departure
"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.
On 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.
2016 - 2019: Hiatus, Recharging Period, CAST and Ignite
KAT-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.
While 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.
On 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".
2021 - 2022: Resume of Group Activities and Honey
In 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.
In 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.
Current members
(born February 23, 1986), (Main Vocals)
(born October 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
(born September 4, 1983), (Sub Vocals)
Former members
(born July 4, 1984), (Main Vocals)
(born November 5, 1985), (Rapper, Sub Vocals)
(born November 29, 1985), (Sub Vocals)
Discography
Best of KAT-TUN (2006)
Cartoon KAT-TUN II You (2007)
KAT-TUN III: Queen of Pirates (2008)
Break the Records: By You & for You (2009)
No More Pain (2010)
Chain (2012)
Come Here (2014)
Cast (2018)
Ignite (2019)
Honey (2022)
Other activities
TV shows
KAT-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.
From 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.
From 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.
After 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.
KAT-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.
On 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.
In 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.
Radio
The group has had three different radio shows, each hosted by different members and all have aired for several years.
Former 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.
Kazuya 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.
Taguchi 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.
Musicals
As 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.
Since 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.
Kamenashi 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.
Concerts
Since 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.
KAT-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.
The 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.
Although during their pre-debut years, KAT-TUN had on several occasions toured overseas with their senior groups, while they were still Johnny Jrs.
Their 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.
Commercials
KAT-TUN regularly appeared in TV commercials to endorse for NTT docomo, SKY PerfecTV!, Rohto and Lotte from 2005 to 2009.
Since 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.
Since 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!.
Events
On 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.
Awards
References
External links
Official page on J-Storm/J-One Records
Official page on Johnny's Website
Japanese pop music groups
Japanese rock music groups
Musical groups established in 2001
Johnny & Associates
Japanese boy bands
Japanese idol groups
J Storm
Musical groups from Tokyo
Jin Akanishi
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[
"Lorraine Crosby (born 27 November 1960) is an English singer and songwriter. She was the female vocalist on Meat Loaf's 1993 hit single \"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)\". Her debut album, Mrs Loud was released in 2008.\n\nEarly life\nCrosby was born in Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne. Her father died in a road accident when his car collided with a bus when she was two years old, leaving her mother to raise Lorraine, her two sisters, and one brother. She attended Walker Comprehensive school. She sang in school and church choirs and played the violin in the orchestra, but did not start singing professionally until she was 20.\n\nWork with Meat Loaf and Jim Steinman\nInspired by Tina Turner, Crosby searched the noticeboard for bands wanting singers at the guitar shop Rock City in Newcastle. After joining several bands she set up a five-piece cabaret band which toured extensively, playing to British and American servicemen throughout the early 1980s.\n\nBack in Newcastle, she met Stuart Emerson, who was looking for a singer for his band. They began writing together, and also became a couple. In the early 1990s, Crosby sent songwriter and producer Jim Steinman some demos of songs she had written with Emerson. Steinman asked to meet them so they decided to move to New York. They then followed Steinman after he moved to Los Angeles. Steinman became their manager and secured them a contract with Meat Loaf's recording label MCA. While visiting the label's recording studios on Sunset Boulevard, Crosby was asked to provide guide vocals for Meat Loaf, who was recording the song \"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)\". Cher, Melissa Etheridge and Bonnie Tyler were considered for the role. The song was a commercial success, becoming number one in 28 countries. However, as Crosby had recorded her part as guide vocals, she did not receive any payment for the recording but she receives royalties from PRS, and so the credit \"Mrs. Loud\" was used on the album. Also, Crosby did not appear in the Michael Bay-directed music video, where model Dana Patrick mimed her vocals. Meat Loaf promoted the single with American vocalist Patti Russo performing the live female vocals of this song at his promotional appearances and concerts. Crosby also sang additional and backing vocals on the songs \"Life Is a Lemon and I Want My Money Back\", \"Objects in the Rear View Mirror May Appear Closer Than They Are\", and \"Everything Louder Than Everything Else\" from the album Bat Out of Hell II: Back into Hell. On these three selections, she was credited under her real name rather than the alias of Mrs. Loud.\n\nSolo work\nCrosby regularly performed at holiday camps and social clubs in England until April 2005 when she took a break from live work.\n\nIn 2005, she sang a duet with Bonnie Tyler for the track \"I'll Stand by You\" from the album Wings. The song was written and composed by Stuart Emerson about Crosby's and Tyler's relationship. Also in 2005, Crosby appeared as a contestant on ITV's The X Factor. She performed \"You've Got a Friend\" and progressed to the second round after impressing judges Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne but Simon Cowell expressed doubt saying she \"lacked star quality.\"\n\nCrosby returned to live performances in April 2007. In November 2007, she appeared on the BBC Three television show Most Annoying Pop Songs We Hate to Love discussing the Meat Loaf track \"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)\" which featured at No. 76.\n\nIn November 2008, Crosby appeared at Newcastle City Hall with special guest Bonnie Tyler to launch her self-produced album entitled Mrs Loud. The concert was later repeated in March 2011. In April 2009, she was also featured on The Justin Lee Collins Show and performed a duet with Justin, singing the Meat Loaf song \"Dead Ringer for Love\". She also performed \"I'd Do Anything for Love\" with Tim Healy for Sunday for Sammy in 2012.\n\nCrosby performs in cabaret shows with her band along with her partner Stuart Emerson.\n\nCrosby appeared in the first round of BBC's second series of The Voice on 6 April 2013. She failed to progress when she was rejected by all four coaches.\n\nOther work\nIn the mid-1990s, Crosby appeared as an extra in several television series episodes.\n\nIn 2019, she joined Steve Steinman Productions in the show Steve Steinman's Anything for Love which toured the UK during 2019 and 2020, performing hits such as \"Good Girls Go to Heaven\", \"Holding Out for a Hero\" and dueting with Steinman on \"What About Love\" and \"I'd Do Anything for Love\", amongst others.\n\nIn 2020, she released a duet with Bonnie Tyler, \"Through Thick and Thin (I'll Stand by You)\" as a charity single in aid of the charity Teenage Cancer Trust.\n\nDiscography\nCrosby has provided backing vocals on Bonnie Tyler's albums Free Spirit (1995) and Wings (2005).\n\nStudio albums\n Mrs Loud (2008)\n\nSingles\n \"I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)\" (with Meat Loaf) (1993)\n \"Through Thick and Thin (I'll Stand by You)\" (with Bonnie Tyler) (2020)\n\nOther recordings\n \"I'll Stand by You\" (with Bonnie Tyler) (2005)\n \"Double Take\" (with Frankie Miller) (2018)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n\n1960 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Newcastle upon Tyne (district)\nThe Voice UK contestants\n21st-century English women singers",
"\"Anything\" is a song by rapper Jay-Z that is found on the Vinyl 12\" \"Anything (The Berlin Remixes)\" 1999 with a Remix of DJ Tomekk from Def Jam Germany and later on Beanie Sigel's 2000 album The Truth. It is produced by Sam Sneed and P. Skam, who sample Lionel Bart's \"I'll Do Anything\" for the track's beat and chorus. The sample from Oliver! heavily popularized \"Anything\", as did the Annie sample on \"Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)\", \"Anything\" was also a bonus track on Jay-Z's album Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter (UK/Europe edition) as is \"Anything (Mr. Drunk Mix)\" on the Japanese version of the album.\n\nJay-Z admitted to Angie Martinez in a 2009 interview on the BET program Food for Thought that he hoped the song would be a success like \"Hard Knock Life (Ghetto Anthem)\" due to their similarities but was surprised when it wasn't, even saying \"I dropped the record and then nothing\". The song did, however, achieve moderate success in the UK reaching #18 on the singles chart. A music video for the song was also released, which was directed by Chris Robinson.\n\n\"Anything (The Berlin Remixes)\"\n\nFormats and track listings\n\nVinyl 12\"\n\nA-side\n \"Anything (GBZ Remix)\"\t\t\n \"Anything (GBZ Remix Instrumental)\"\n\nB-side\n \"Anything (DJ Tomekk Remix)\"\t\n \"Anything (Original Version)\"\t\n \"Anything (Original Version Instrumental)\"\n\nFormats and track listings\n\nCD\n \"Anything (Radio Edit)\"\n \"So Ghetto\"\n \"There's Been a Murder\"\n \"Anything (Video)\"\n\nVinyl\n\nA-side\n \"Anything (Radio Edit) (3:47)\"\n \"Anything (LP Version) (4:47)\"\n \"Anything (Instrumental) (4:48)\"\n\nB-side\n \"Big Pimpin' (Radio Edit) (3:56)\"\n \"Big Pimpin' (LP Version) (4:44)\"\n \"Big Pimpin' (Instrumental) (4:59)\"\n\nCharts\n\nSee also\nList of songs recorded by Jay-Z\n\nReferences\n\n2000 singles\nJay-Z songs\nMusic videos directed by Chris Robinson (director)\nSongs written by Jay-Z\nSongs written by Lionel Bart\nRoc-A-Fella Records singles\n2000 songs"
] |
[
"Cito Gaston",
"World Series seasons"
] |
C_6d42b036edaa4b2db141de2927c6b520_1
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Who did he play for?
| 1 |
Who did Cito Gaston play for?
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Cito Gaston
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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 a new stadium to play in when Gaston took the helm. The Jays opened the SkyDome a few weeks after Gaston became manager and the financial success translated into major free agent signings, including pitcher Jack Morris, outfielder Dave Winfield, and designated hitter Paul Molitor. They also retained core All-Stars such as Joe Carter, Devon White, Roberto Alomar, and John Olerud. Joe 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 transferred this to the job of 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 games the Blue Jays played in those places 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 widely recognized as the first for a non-American team, and Gaston was the first ever African-American manager to win a World Series. The Blue Jays followed their 1992 success with a repeat victory in the 1993 World Series. CANNOTANSWER
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Blue Jays
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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 |
[
"Joseph Jef Nelis was a Belgian footballer, born on 1 April 1917 in Tutbury, Staffordshire, (England), who died on 12 April 1994. Striker for Royal Berchem Sport, he was picked for the World Cup in 1938 in France, but did not play. However, he played two games and scored two goals in 1940 for Belgium.\n\nHonours \n International in 1940 (2 caps and 2 goals)\n Picked for the 1938 World Cup (did not play)\n\nReferences \n\nBelgium international footballers\nBelgian footballers\n1938 FIFA World Cup players\nK. Berchem Sport players\nRoyale Union Saint-Gilloise players\n1917 births\n1994 deaths\nAssociation football forwards\nPeople from Tutbury",
"Boris Kotoff (born c. 1928) is a former Canadian football player who played for the Ottawa Rough Riders. He previously played football in Hamilton, Ontario.\n\nKotoff was a fullback who played three years for Ottawa from 1954 to 1957. Kotoff was probably at training camp with Ottawa in 1957, but did not play in any regular season games. In 1958, Kotoff was in the Montreal training camp, but again did not play any regular season games. He ran for 132 yards in his career on 31 attempts, scoring 1 rushing touchdown. He also caught 7 passes for 106 yards.\n\nReferences\n\nPossibly living people\n1920s births\nPlayers of Canadian football from Ontario\nCanadian football running backs\nOttawa Rough Riders players\nSportspeople from Hamilton, Ontario"
] |
[
"Cito Gaston",
"World Series seasons",
"Who did he play for?",
"Blue Jays"
] |
C_6d42b036edaa4b2db141de2927c6b520_1
|
What did they win
| 2 |
What did Blue Jays win?
|
Cito Gaston
|
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 a new stadium to play in when Gaston took the helm. The Jays opened the SkyDome a few weeks after Gaston became manager and the financial success translated into major free agent signings, including pitcher Jack Morris, outfielder Dave Winfield, and designated hitter Paul Molitor. They also retained core All-Stars such as Joe Carter, Devon White, Roberto Alomar, and John Olerud. Joe 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 transferred this to the job of 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 games the Blue Jays played in those places 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 widely recognized as the first for a non-American team, and Gaston was the first ever African-American manager to win a World Series. The Blue Jays followed their 1992 success with a repeat victory in the 1993 World Series. CANNOTANSWER
|
World Series
|
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 |
[
"The 1950 Fordham Rams football team represented Fordham University during the 1950 college football season. The Rams went 8–1 and scored 174 points while their defense allowed 123 points. Despite an 8-1 record, Fordham finished the season unranked and were left out of any postseason play, although they did get strong consideration from the Gator Bowl. Ultimately, a poor strength of schedule—Fordham's opponents combined for a dismal 28–53–4 mark–in what was a weak year for the entire Eastern region and a belief that Fordham would not travel well—Fordham only averaged about 10,000 fans per home game—kept them home during bowl season. Still, their .889 win percentage (the 1937 team had a .933 win percentage while going 7–0–1) is tied for second best in school history.\n\nSchedule\n\nReferences\n\nFordham\nFordham Rams football seasons\nFordham Rams football",
"Fathers' Rights-Responsibility Party was an Irish political party, led by Liam Ó Gógáin and formed in 2007. It did not register with the Clerk of Dáil Éireann (a legal requirement for entities seeking to form political parties in the Republic of Ireland) and thus it contested the 2007 general election with 8 candidates running as Independents. They polled 1,355 first preference votes in total in that election but did not win any seats. The party campaigned on fathers' rights issues in Ireland \"growing from what it argues are injustices against fathers within the courts system.\" As of 2010, it is defunct.\n\nReferences \n\nDefunct political parties in the Republic of Ireland\nFathers' rights\nMasculism\nPolitical parties established in 2007\nPolitical parties disestablished in 2010\n2007 establishments in Ireland\n2010 disestablishments in Ireland"
] |
[
"Cito Gaston",
"World Series seasons",
"Who did he play for?",
"Blue Jays",
"What did they win",
"World Series"
] |
C_6d42b036edaa4b2db141de2927c6b520_1
|
What happen in the series
| 3 |
What happened in World Series?
|
Cito Gaston
|
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 a new stadium to play in when Gaston took the helm. The Jays opened the SkyDome a few weeks after Gaston became manager and the financial success translated into major free agent signings, including pitcher Jack Morris, outfielder Dave Winfield, and designated hitter Paul Molitor. They also retained core All-Stars such as Joe Carter, Devon White, Roberto Alomar, and John Olerud. Joe 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 transferred this to the job of 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 games the Blue Jays played in those places 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 widely recognized as the first for a non-American team, and Gaston was the first ever African-American manager to win a World Series. The Blue Jays followed their 1992 success with a repeat victory in the 1993 World Series. CANNOTANSWER
|
In the six games the Blue Jays played in those places during World Series play, the Jays went 4-2, including the title clincher in Game 6
|
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 |
[
"Dude, What Would Happen is an American live-action reality series that aired on Cartoon Network originally as part of its CN Real block which aired a line of live-action reality shows promoted in the summer season of 2009. The show premiered on August 19, 2009, preceded by another CN Real series Bobb'e Says. The show is hosted by three male teenagers (C.J. Manigo, Jackson Rogow, and Ali Sepasyar) who wondered what would happen if some wild event, scheme or experiment were to occur. The three teens attempt to create the event themselves and consult experts (\"The Lab Dudes\") when needed.\n\nThe series went on to have four seasons aired throughout a span of two years, in which the series eventually ended in September 2011, as the series was not announced for a renewal by Cartoon Network.\n\nDude, What Would Happen was one of only two CN Real shows (the other being Destroy Build Destroy) to have been renewed for additional seasons, as the other CN Real shows had already been cancelled earlier.\n\nCast\n C.J. Manigo\n Jackson Rogow\n Ali Sepasyar\n\nProduction\nIn the \"Dudes Make It Happen\" weekend special, it was revealed that new episodes were coming. These episodes ranked #1 in their timeslot among boys 6–11 on all television.\n\nThe show was listed as returning for Cartoon Network's 2010–2011 season. The next season began airing on October 6, 2010.\n\nIn February 2011, Vincent Cariati renewed his contract to serve an additional four seasons as the series' showrunner, co-creator and co-executive producer. The show had four seasons aired, but was not announced as a returning series, automatically cancelling the series altogether.\n\nEpisodes\n\nSeries overview\n\nSeason 1 (2009–10)\n\nSeason 2 (2010)\n\nSeason 3 (2011)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\n2009 American television series debuts\n2011 American television series endings\n2000s American television series\n2010s American television series\nAmerican educational television series\n2000s American reality television series\nCartoon Network original programming\nEnglish-language television shows\nAmerican non-fiction television series\nScience education television series\nTelevision series about teenagers\n2010s American reality television series",
"Jackson Rogow (born October 5, 1991) is an American actor. He is best known for starring in the Cartoon Network live action series Dude, What Would Happen?\n\nCareer\nRogow was on Dude, What Would Happen on Cartoon Network until it was cancelled in 2011. Rogow was also on the Lego Top Secret Project after The Yoda Chronicles on Cartoon Network.\n\nPersonal life\nRogow resides in Bel Air, Los Angeles, California.\n\nFilmography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\nLiving people\n1991 births\nPeople from Kissimmee, Florida\nPeople from Bel Air, Los Angeles\nLos Angeles County High School for the Arts alumni\nAmerican male television actors"
] |
[
"Cito Gaston",
"World Series seasons",
"Who did he play for?",
"Blue Jays",
"What did they win",
"World Series",
"What happen in the series",
"In the six games the Blue Jays played in those places during World Series play, the Jays went 4-2, including the title clincher in Game 6"
] |
C_6d42b036edaa4b2db141de2927c6b520_1
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What else did Cito do
| 4 |
In addition to Cito Gaston playing for Blue Jays, what else did Cito do?
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Cito Gaston
|
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 a new stadium to play in when Gaston took the helm. The Jays opened the SkyDome a few weeks after Gaston became manager and the financial success translated into major free agent signings, including pitcher Jack Morris, outfielder Dave Winfield, and designated hitter Paul Molitor. They also retained core All-Stars such as Joe Carter, Devon White, Roberto Alomar, and John Olerud. Joe 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 transferred this to the job of 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 games the Blue Jays played in those places 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 widely recognized as the first for a non-American team, and Gaston was the first ever African-American manager to win a World Series. The Blue Jays followed their 1992 success with a repeat victory in the 1993 World Series. CANNOTANSWER
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Gaston had worked with players at an individual level as a hitting instructor and transferred this to the job of manager.
|
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 |
[
"Cito may refer to:\n\n Cito Culver (born 1992), American professional baseball shortstop in the New York Yankees organization\n Cito Gaston (born 1944), former Major League Baseball outfielder and manager\n Claus Cito (1882 – 1965), Luxembourgian sculptor \n Mercedes-Benz Cito, a low-floor midibus built by EvoBus for Continental Europe between 1999 and 2003\n Latin for urgent / rapid.\n\nCITO may refer to:\n\n CITO-TV, Canadian television station\n Cache In Trash Out, abbreviated to CITO, are geocaching events and coordinated activities of trash pickup and other maintenance tasks in to improve the environment.",
"Giancarlo Cito (born 12 August 1945) is an Italian politician and entrepreneur, former mayor of Taranto.\n\nBiography \nIn 1985, Cito founded the local TV station Antenna Taranto 6 (AT6); his channel gets great success and Cito becomes very popular in his city also because, intercepting the dissatisfaction with the bankruptcy management of the city administration lead by the Christian Democracy and the Socialist Party in the early 1990s, he created a political column in which he denounced the offenses committed by local administrators. In 1997 some of his family members bought the historic Lucanian broadcaster Tele Basilicata Matera, whose operational headquarters were soon transferred to Taranto. Between 2003 and 2007, during his detention to serve the sentence for external competition in association with organized crime, he graduated in Legal Sciences.\n\nIn the 1970s, Cito joined the Italian Social Movement, from which he has been expelled because of his extremism. In 1992, Cito founded his own party: AT6 - Southern Action League, a far-right meridionalist party.\n\nCito candidates for mayor of Taranto in the municipal elections of 1993, winning the run-off against the progressive candidate Gaetano Minervini, often insulted by Cito during the electoral campaign through his television channel. In 1996, Cito leaves the office of mayor in order to candidate for the Chamber of Deputies during the 1996 general elections, managing to gain a seat in Parliament.\n\nIn 1997 he became a provocative candidate for the office of mayor of Milan, contrasting his unbridled meridionalism to the northern tendencies of the Lega Nord, while in 2000 he candidates for the role of president of Apulia during the 2000 regional elections.\n\nIn 1997 Cito was accused of collusion with the Sacra Corona Unita: he was found guilty in 2002 and imprisoned between 2003 and 2007. During the years in jail, Cito managed to graduate in Legal Sciences. In May 2004 he tried to commit suicide by cutting his wrists veins; however, he was rescued and saved in time.\n\nIn 2007, due to the accusation of collusion with organizated crime, unable to candidate again as mayor, he candidates his son Mario, who became the party candidate for the role of mayor of Taranto during the elections of 2007, 2012 and 2017.\n\nReferences \n\n1945 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Taranto\nItalian Social Movement politicians\nPoliticians of Apulia\n20th-century Italian politicians\n21st-century Italian politicians\nMayors of Taranto"
] |
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"In the six games the Blue Jays played in those places during World Series play, the Jays went 4-2, including the title clincher in Game 6",
"What else did Cito do",
"Gaston had worked with players at an individual level as a hitting instructor and transferred this to the job of manager."
] |
C_6d42b036edaa4b2db141de2927c6b520_1
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What job he did
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What job did Cito Gaston do?
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Cito Gaston
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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 a new stadium to play in when Gaston took the helm. The Jays opened the SkyDome a few weeks after Gaston became manager and the financial success translated into major free agent signings, including pitcher Jack Morris, outfielder Dave Winfield, and designated hitter Paul Molitor. They also retained core All-Stars such as Joe Carter, Devon White, Roberto Alomar, and John Olerud. Joe 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 transferred this to the job of 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 games the Blue Jays played in those places 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 widely recognized as the first for a non-American team, and Gaston was the first ever African-American manager to win a World Series. The Blue Jays followed their 1992 success with a repeat victory in the 1993 World Series. CANNOTANSWER
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Gaston had worked with players at an individual level as a hitting instructor and transferred this to the job of manager.
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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
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[
"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 situation, task, action, result (STAR) format is a technique used by interviewers to gather all the relevant information about a specific capability that the job requires. \n\n Situation: The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenging situation in which you found yourself.\n Task: What were you required to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation. Some performance development methods use “Target” rather than “Task”. Job interview candidates who describe a “Target” they set themselves instead of an externally imposed “Task” emphasize their own intrinsic motivation to perform and to develop their performance.\n Action: What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what the alternatives were.\n Results: What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions? Did you meet your objectives? What did you learn from this experience? Have you used this learning since?\n\nThe STAR technique is similar to the SOARA technique.\n\nThe STAR technique is also often complemented with an additional R on the end STARR or STAR(R) with the last R resembling reflection. This R aims to gather insight and interviewee's ability to learn and iterate. Whereas the STAR reveals how and what kind of result on an objective was achieved, the STARR with the additional R helps the interviewer to understand what the interviewee learned from the experience and how they would assimilate experiences. The interviewee can define what they would do (differently, the same, or better) next time being posed with a situation.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nThe ‘STAR’ technique to answer behavioral interview questions\nThe STAR method explained\n\nJob interview"
] |
[
"Men at Work",
"Two Hearts and break-up (1984-86)"
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What is Two Hearts?
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What is Two Hearts?
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Men at Work
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During 1984 the band took a break as members pursued other interests. Upon reconvening later that year, tensions during rehearsals between Hay and Speiser over songwriting and the band's management led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production. Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renee Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists. On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)--"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians. CANNOTANSWER
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Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (
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Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Down Under". Its founding member and frontman is Colin Hay, who performs on lead vocals and guitar. After playing as an acoustic duo with Ron Strykert during 1978–79, Hay formed the group with Strykert playing bass guitar and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, saxophone, and keyboards and John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching back to lead guitar. The group was managed by Russell Depeller, a friend of Hay, whom he met at La Trobe University. This line-up achieved national and international success during the early to mid 1980s.
In January 1983, they were the first Australian artists to have a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the United States Billboard charts: Business as Usual (released on 9 November 1981) and "Down Under" (1981), respectively. With the same works, they achieved the distinction of a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the Australian, New Zealand, and United Kingdom charts. Their second album Cargo (2 May 1983) was also No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in New Zealand, No. 3 in the US, and No. 8 in the UK. Their third album Two Hearts (3 April 1985) reached the top 20 in Australia and top 50 in the US.
They won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1983, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1994, and they have sold over 30 million albums worldwide. In May 2001, "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs and Business as Usual appeared in the book 100 Best Australian Albums (October 2010).
In 1984, Speiser and Rees were asked to leave the group, leaving Hay, Ham and Strykert. During the recording of the Two Hearts album, Strykert decided to leave. Soon after the release of Two Hearts, Ham left also, leaving Hay as the sole remaining member. From 1996 until 2002 Hay and Ham toured the world as Men at Work. On 19 April 2012, Ham was found dead at his home from an apparent heart attack.
In 2019, Hay revived the Men at Work moniker and began touring with the assistance of a backing band including none of the other original members.
History
Origins
The nucleus of Men at Work formed in Melbourne around June 1979 with Colin Hay on lead vocals and guitar, Ron Strykert on bass guitar, and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, sax and keyboards, and then John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching to lead guitar. Hay had emigrated to Australia in 1967 from Scotland with his family. In 1978, he had formed an acoustic duo with Strykert, which expanded by mid-1979 with the addition of Speiser. Around this time as a side project, keyboardist Greg Sneddon (ex-Alroy Band). a former bandmate of Jerry Speiser, together with Speiser, Hay and Strykert performed and recorded the music to 'Riff Raff", a low budget stage musical, upon which Sneddon had worked.
Hay asked Greg Ham to join the group, but Ham hesitated, as he was finishing his music degree. Ultimately, he decided to join the band in October 1979. John Rees, a friend of Jerry, joined soon after. The name Men At Work was thrown into the hat by Colin Hay, and was seconded by Ron Strykert, when a name was required to put on the blackboard outside The Cricketer's Arms Hotel, Richmond. The band built a "grass roots" reputation as a pub rock band. In 1980, the group issued their debut single, "Keypunch Operator" backed by "Down Under", with both tracks co-written by Hay and Strykert. It was "self-financed" and appeared on their own independent, M. A. W. label. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt the A-side was "a fast-paced country-styled rocker with a clean sound and quirky rhythm". Despite not appearing in the top 100 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, by the end of that year the group had "grown in stature to become the most in-demand and highly paid, unsigned band of the year".
International success - Business as Usual and Cargo (1981–1983)
Early in 1981 Men at Work signed with CBS Records, the Australian branch of CBS Records International, (which became Sony Music) on the recommendation of Peter Karpin, the label's A&R person. The group's first single with CBS Records in Australia "Who Can It Be Now?", was released in June 1981 which reached No. 2 and remained in the chart for 24 weeks. It had been produced by United States-based Peter McIan, who was also working on their debut album, Business as Usual.
McIan, together with the band worked on the arrangements for all the songs that appeared on Business As Usual. Their next single was a re-arranged and "popified" version of "Down Under". It appeared in October that year and reached No. 1 in November, where it remained for six weeks. Business as Usual was also released in October and went to No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart, spending a total of nine weeks at the top spot. The Canberra Times Garry Raffaele opined that it "generally stays at a high level, tight and jerky ... There is a delicacy about this music — and that is not a thing you can say about too many rock groups. The flute and reeds of Greg Ham do much to further that". McFarlane noted that "[a]side from the strength of the music, part of the album's appeal was its economy. The production sound was low-key, but clean and uncluttered. Indeed, the songs stood by themselves with little embellishment save for a bright, melodic, singalong quality".
By February the following year both "Down Under" and Business as Usual had reached No. 1 on the respective Official New Zealand Music Charts – the latter was the first Australian album to reach that peak in New Zealand. Despite its strong Australian and New Zealand showing, and having an American producer (McIan), Business as Usual was twice rejected by Columbia's US parent company. Thanks to the persistence of Russell Depeller and Karpin, the album was finally released in the US and the United Kingdom in April 1982 – six months after its Australian release. Their next single, "Be Good Johnny", was issued in Australia in April 1982 and reached No. 8 in Australia, and No. 3 in New Zealand.
Men at Work initially broke through to North American audiences in the western provinces of Canada with "Who Can It Be Now?" hitting the top 10 on radio stations in Winnipeg by May 1982. It peaked at No. 8 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles Chart in July. In August the group toured Canada and the US to promote the album and related singles, supporting Fleetwood Mac. The band became more popular on Canadian radio in the following months and also started receiving top 40 US airplay by August. In October "Who Can It Be Now?" reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while Canada was one single ahead with "Down Under" topping the Canadian charts that same month. In the following month Business as Usual began a 15-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
While "Who Can It Be Now?" was still in the top ten in the US, "Down Under" was finally released in that market. It entered the US charts at No. 79 and ten weeks later, it was No. 1. By January 1983 Men at Work had the top album and single in both the US and the UK – never previously achieved by an Australian act. "Be Good Johnny" received moderate airplay in the US; it reached the top 20 in Canada.
"Down Under" gained international media exposure in September 1983 through television coverage of the Australian challenge for the America's Cup yacht trophy in September 1983 when it was adopted as the theme song by the crew of the successful Australia II.
The band released their second album, Cargo, in April 1983, which also peaked at No. 1 – for two weeks – on the Australian charts. In New Zealand it reached No. 2. It had been finished in mid-1982 with McIan producing again, but was held back due to the success of their debut album on the international market, where Business as Usual was still riding high. Cargo appeared at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and No. 8 in the UK. The lead single, "Overkill", was issued in Australia ahead of the album in October 1982 and reached No. 6, it peaked at No. 3 in the US. "Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive" followed in March 1983 made it to No. 5 in Australia, and No. 28 in the US. "It's a Mistake" reached No. 6 in the US. The band toured the world extensively in 1983.
Two Hearts and break-up (1984–1986)
In 1984, long standing tensions between Hay and Speiser led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production.
Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renée Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists.
On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)—"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians.
Partial reunion and second break-up (1996–2002)
By mid-1996, after a ten-year absence, Hay and Ham reformed Men at Work to tour South America. They had enjoyed strong fan support there during their earlier career and demands for a reunion had persisted. The 1996 line up had Stephen Hadley on bass guitar and backing vocals (ex-The Black Sorrows, Paul Kelly Band); Simon Hosford on guitar and backing vocals (Colin Hay backing band); and John Watson on drums (The Black Sorrows). The tour culminated in a performance in São Paulo, which was recorded for the Brazilian release of a live album, Brazil '96, in 1997, which was co-produced by Hay and Ham for Sony Music. It was re-released worldwide in 1998 as Brazil with a bonus track, "The Longest Night", the first new studio track since Two Hearts.
In 1997 drummer Tony Floyd replaced Watson but by 1998 the lineup was Hay, Ham, James Ryan (guitar, backing vocals), Rick Grossman (of the Hoodoo Gurus) on bass and Peter Maslen (ex-Boom Crash Opera) on drums. In 1999 Ryan, Grossman and Maslen were out and Hosford and Floyd were back in, along with bassist Stuart Speed. Rodrigo Aravena was brought in on bass in 2000, along with Heta Moses on drums. Moses was replaced by Warren Trout in 2001 as Stephen Hadley returned on bass.
The band toured Australia, South America, Europe and the US from 1998 to 2000. Men at Work performed "Down Under" at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, alongside Paul Hogan of "Crocodile" Dundee (1986).
One of their European tours for mid-2000 was cancelled and the group had disbanded by 2002, although Hay and Ham periodically reunited Men at Work with guest musicians (including an appearance in February 2009, when they performed "Down Under" as a duo at the Australia Unites Victorian Bushfire Appeal Telethon).
Copyright lawsuit and the death of Greg Ham
In February 2010 Larrikin Music Publishing won a case against Hay and Strykert, their record label (Sony BMG Music Entertainment) and music publishing company (EMI Songs Australia) arising from the uncredited appropriation of "Kookaburra", originally written in 1932 by Marion Sinclair and for which Larrikin owned the publishing rights, as the flute line in the Men at Work song, "Down Under". Back in early 2009 the Australian music-themed TV quiz, Spicks and Specks, had posed a question which suggested that "Down Under" contained elements of "Kookaburra".
Larrikin, then headed by Norman Lurie, filed suit after Larrikin was sold to another company and had demanded between 40% and 60% of the previous six years of earnings from the song. In February 2010 the judge ruled that "Down Under" did contain a flute riff based on "Kookaburra" but stipulated that neither was it necessarily the hook nor a substantial part of the hit song (Hay and Strykert had written the track years before the flute riff was added by Ham). In July 2010 a judge ruled that Larrikin should be paid 5% of past (since 2002) and future profits. Ham took the verdict particularly hard, feeling responsible for having performed the flute riff at the centre of the lawsuit and worried that he would only be remembered for copying someone else's music, resulting in depression and anxiety. Ham's body was found in his Carlton North home on 19 April 2012 after he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 58.
Post 2012
In June 2019, Hay toured Europe with a group of Los Angeles-based session musicians under the name Men at Work, despite the band featuring no other original members of the band.
In 2021, Australian producer Christian 'Luude' Benson (from the Tasmanian tech house dance duo Choomba) remixed "Down Under" as a drum and bass track, which became popular online. Hay re-recorded the vocal for the track's official release, now credited to Luude featuring Colin Hay, with the record charting at number 32 on the UK Singles chart on 7 January 2022 and at number 48 in Australia (on the ARIA Top 50 Singles for the week of 10 January 2022).
Other projects
Hay maintained a solo career and played with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Strykert relocated to Hobart in 2009 from Los Angeles, and continued to play music and released his first solo album, Paradise, in September that year. He expressed resentment towards Hay, mainly over royalties. Ham remained musically active and played sax with the Melbourne-based group The Nudist Funk Orchestra until his death. Rees was a music teacher in Melbourne and also played the violin and bass guitar for the band Beggs 2 Differ. Speiser played drums for the band The Afterburner.
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Men at Work were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994.
|-
| ARIA Music Awards of 1994
| Men at Work
| ARIA Hall of Fame
|
Countdown Australian Music Awards
Countdown is an Australian pop music TV series that aired on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
|-
| rowspan="5" |1981
| "Down Under"
| Best Australian Single
|
|-
| Business as Usual
| Best Debut Album
|
|-
| "Who Can It Be Now?"
| Best Debut Single
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Best New Talent
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1982
| Colin Hay (Men At Work)
| Best Songwriter
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1983
| Cargo
| Best Australian Album
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
Grammy Awards
|-
| 1983
| Men at Work
| Best New Artist
|
Other awards
In August 1983 they were given a Crystal Globe Award for $100 million worth of record business by their US label. That same year in Canada they were awarded a Juno Award for "International LP of the Year". Men at Work have sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
On 28 May 2001 "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs. In October 2010, Business as Usual was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.
Members
Colin Hay has been the only constant member in all configurations.
Present
Colin Hay – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, bass (1978–1986, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; 2019–present)
Current touring members
Jimmy Branly – drums (2019–present)
San Miguel Perez – guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Yosmel Montejo – bass, backing vocals (2019–present)
Scheila Gonzalez – saxophone, flute, keyboards, backing vocals (2019–present)
Cecilia Noel – backing vocals (2019–present)
Former
Ron Strykert – lead guitar, bass, vocals (1978–1985)
Jerry Speiser – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1979–1984)
Greg Ham – keyboards, vocals, saxophone, harmonica, flute (1979–1985, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; died 2012)
John Rees – bass, backing vocals (1980–1984)
Former touring members
Jeremy Alsop – bass, backing vocals (1985–1986)
James Black – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Mark Kennedy – drums (1985)
Colin Bayley – guitar, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Chad Wackerman – drums, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Paul Williamson – saxophone, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Simon Hosford – guitar, backing vocals (1996–1998, 1999–2001)
Stephen Hadley – bass, backing vocals (1996–1998, 2001)
John Watson – drums (1996–1997)
Tony Floyd – drums (1997–1998, 1999–2000)
Rick Grossman – bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
James Ryan — guitar, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Peter Maslen – drums (1998–1999)
Stuart Speed — bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Rodrigo Aravena – bass, backing vocals (2000–2001)
Heta Moses – drums (2000–2001)
Warren Trout – drums (2001)
Discography
Business as Usual (1981)
Cargo (1983)
Two Hearts (1985)
See also
Artists achieving simultaneous US and UK number-one hits
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
APRA Award winners
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Australian new wave musical groups
Australian pop rock groups
Columbia Records artists
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1978
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups reestablished in 1996
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups reestablished in 2019
Musical groups from Melbourne
Reggae rock groups
Victoria (Australia) musical groups
Musical quintets
1978 establishments in Australia
| true |
[
"King is a Russian compendium card game of the Hearts family for 3 or 4 players that goes back to the 1920s. It may be related to Barbu, but its country of origin is unknown.\n\nRules\n\nThree players\nKing is played by three players with 36 Russian-pattern, French-suited playing cards ranking in their natural order, Aces high. Deal and play are assumed clockwise and each player receives 12 cards. Eldest hand leads and players must follow suit if able; failing that they may play any card.\n\nThere are two rounds of six contracts. The first is a round of negative games as follows:\n\n No Tricks. Each trick taken incurs 6 penalty points.\n No Hearts. Each heart taken is worth 8 penalty points. Hearts may not be led unless there is no choice.\n No Men. Each King and Jack incurs 9 penalty points.\n No Queens. Each Queen costs 18 penalty points.\n No Last Two Tricks. Taking either of the last two tricks is worth 36 penalty points.\n No King of Hearts. K is worth 72 penalty points. Hearts may not be led unless there is no choice. K must be played if unable to follow suit.\n\nThe second round is identical, except that all the games are now positive – Tricks, Hearts, Men, etc., and score plus points instead.\n\nFour players \nA version of King for four players is played with 32-card deck, each player receives 8 cards.\nThere are two rounds of six contracts. The first is a round of negative games as follows:\n No Tricks. Each trick taken incurs 2 penalty points.\n No Hearts. Each heart taken is worth 2 penalty points. Hearts may not be led unless there is no choice.\n No Men. Each King and Jack incurs 2 penalty points.\n No Queens. Each Queen costs 4 penalty points.\n No Last Two Tricks. Taking either of the last two tricks is worth 8 penalty points.\n No King of Hearts. K is worth 16 penalty points. Hearts may not be led unless there is no choice. K must be played if unable to follow suit.\n\nThe second round is identical, except that all the games are now positive – Tricks, Hearts, Men, etc., and score plus points instead.\n\nJeu du Roi \nThere appears to be a French version, Jeu du Roi played between four players using a standard 52-card pack.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links\n \n Jeu du Roi, French version of King, at jeuxdecartes.net.\n\n Compendium games\nThree-player card games",
"is a Japanese manga artist who has worked on several projects, including his adaptation on the popular Kingdom Hearts series.\n\nCareer\n\nAmano worked on the manga adaptation of the Legend of Mana video game series. It was serialized from 2000 to 2002 and published in five volumes.\n\nAmano also worked on the Kingdom Hearts manga adaptations, following the events that took place in the video games with differences to account for the loss of interactivity a video game provides. The manga was originally serialized in Japan by Square Enix's Monthly Shōnen Gangan and eventually released in tankōbon format. The first tankōbon was released in Japan in October 2003. The manga was released in the US by Tokyopop two years later in October 2005. Yen Press now holds the rights to publish the books for the USA market. The first series, Kingdom Hearts, consists of four volumes, while the second series, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, has two volumes. The third series, Kingdom Hearts II, has had five volumes published and is currently on hiatus. A fourth series based on Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is being serialized. The games have also been adapted as a light novel series, written by Tomoco Kanemaki and illustrated by Shiro Amano. Like the manga series, it is divided into separate series based on the games. Kingdom Hearts is divided into two volumes; \"The First Door\" and \"Darkness Within\". Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories is divided into two volumes. Kingdom Hearts II is divided into four volumes; \"Roxas—Seven Days\", \"The Destruction of Hollow Bastion\", \"Tears of Nobody\", and \"Anthem—Meet Again/Axel Last Stand\".\n\nWorks\n\nArtbook\n Amano Shiro (天野 シロ) Art Works Kingdom Hearts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n\nLiving people\nManga artists\n1976 births"
] |
[
"Men at Work",
"Two Hearts and break-up (1984-86)",
"What is Two Hearts?",
"Four tracks were released as singles, \"Everything I Need\" (May 1985), \"Man with Two Hearts\", \"Maria\" (August), and \"Hard Luck Story\" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia ("
] |
C_fe2c25bf11cb417cb5ba0a277c739c09_1
|
Which single hit the charts?
| 2 |
Of the four songs which single hit the charts?
|
Men at Work
|
During 1984 the band took a break as members pursued other interests. Upon reconvening later that year, tensions during rehearsals between Hay and Speiser over songwriting and the band's management led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production. Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renee Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists. On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)--"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians. CANNOTANSWER
|
CANNOTANSWER
|
Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Down Under". Its founding member and frontman is Colin Hay, who performs on lead vocals and guitar. After playing as an acoustic duo with Ron Strykert during 1978–79, Hay formed the group with Strykert playing bass guitar and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, saxophone, and keyboards and John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching back to lead guitar. The group was managed by Russell Depeller, a friend of Hay, whom he met at La Trobe University. This line-up achieved national and international success during the early to mid 1980s.
In January 1983, they were the first Australian artists to have a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the United States Billboard charts: Business as Usual (released on 9 November 1981) and "Down Under" (1981), respectively. With the same works, they achieved the distinction of a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the Australian, New Zealand, and United Kingdom charts. Their second album Cargo (2 May 1983) was also No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in New Zealand, No. 3 in the US, and No. 8 in the UK. Their third album Two Hearts (3 April 1985) reached the top 20 in Australia and top 50 in the US.
They won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1983, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1994, and they have sold over 30 million albums worldwide. In May 2001, "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs and Business as Usual appeared in the book 100 Best Australian Albums (October 2010).
In 1984, Speiser and Rees were asked to leave the group, leaving Hay, Ham and Strykert. During the recording of the Two Hearts album, Strykert decided to leave. Soon after the release of Two Hearts, Ham left also, leaving Hay as the sole remaining member. From 1996 until 2002 Hay and Ham toured the world as Men at Work. On 19 April 2012, Ham was found dead at his home from an apparent heart attack.
In 2019, Hay revived the Men at Work moniker and began touring with the assistance of a backing band including none of the other original members.
History
Origins
The nucleus of Men at Work formed in Melbourne around June 1979 with Colin Hay on lead vocals and guitar, Ron Strykert on bass guitar, and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, sax and keyboards, and then John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching to lead guitar. Hay had emigrated to Australia in 1967 from Scotland with his family. In 1978, he had formed an acoustic duo with Strykert, which expanded by mid-1979 with the addition of Speiser. Around this time as a side project, keyboardist Greg Sneddon (ex-Alroy Band). a former bandmate of Jerry Speiser, together with Speiser, Hay and Strykert performed and recorded the music to 'Riff Raff", a low budget stage musical, upon which Sneddon had worked.
Hay asked Greg Ham to join the group, but Ham hesitated, as he was finishing his music degree. Ultimately, he decided to join the band in October 1979. John Rees, a friend of Jerry, joined soon after. The name Men At Work was thrown into the hat by Colin Hay, and was seconded by Ron Strykert, when a name was required to put on the blackboard outside The Cricketer's Arms Hotel, Richmond. The band built a "grass roots" reputation as a pub rock band. In 1980, the group issued their debut single, "Keypunch Operator" backed by "Down Under", with both tracks co-written by Hay and Strykert. It was "self-financed" and appeared on their own independent, M. A. W. label. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt the A-side was "a fast-paced country-styled rocker with a clean sound and quirky rhythm". Despite not appearing in the top 100 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, by the end of that year the group had "grown in stature to become the most in-demand and highly paid, unsigned band of the year".
International success - Business as Usual and Cargo (1981–1983)
Early in 1981 Men at Work signed with CBS Records, the Australian branch of CBS Records International, (which became Sony Music) on the recommendation of Peter Karpin, the label's A&R person. The group's first single with CBS Records in Australia "Who Can It Be Now?", was released in June 1981 which reached No. 2 and remained in the chart for 24 weeks. It had been produced by United States-based Peter McIan, who was also working on their debut album, Business as Usual.
McIan, together with the band worked on the arrangements for all the songs that appeared on Business As Usual. Their next single was a re-arranged and "popified" version of "Down Under". It appeared in October that year and reached No. 1 in November, where it remained for six weeks. Business as Usual was also released in October and went to No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart, spending a total of nine weeks at the top spot. The Canberra Times Garry Raffaele opined that it "generally stays at a high level, tight and jerky ... There is a delicacy about this music — and that is not a thing you can say about too many rock groups. The flute and reeds of Greg Ham do much to further that". McFarlane noted that "[a]side from the strength of the music, part of the album's appeal was its economy. The production sound was low-key, but clean and uncluttered. Indeed, the songs stood by themselves with little embellishment save for a bright, melodic, singalong quality".
By February the following year both "Down Under" and Business as Usual had reached No. 1 on the respective Official New Zealand Music Charts – the latter was the first Australian album to reach that peak in New Zealand. Despite its strong Australian and New Zealand showing, and having an American producer (McIan), Business as Usual was twice rejected by Columbia's US parent company. Thanks to the persistence of Russell Depeller and Karpin, the album was finally released in the US and the United Kingdom in April 1982 – six months after its Australian release. Their next single, "Be Good Johnny", was issued in Australia in April 1982 and reached No. 8 in Australia, and No. 3 in New Zealand.
Men at Work initially broke through to North American audiences in the western provinces of Canada with "Who Can It Be Now?" hitting the top 10 on radio stations in Winnipeg by May 1982. It peaked at No. 8 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles Chart in July. In August the group toured Canada and the US to promote the album and related singles, supporting Fleetwood Mac. The band became more popular on Canadian radio in the following months and also started receiving top 40 US airplay by August. In October "Who Can It Be Now?" reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while Canada was one single ahead with "Down Under" topping the Canadian charts that same month. In the following month Business as Usual began a 15-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
While "Who Can It Be Now?" was still in the top ten in the US, "Down Under" was finally released in that market. It entered the US charts at No. 79 and ten weeks later, it was No. 1. By January 1983 Men at Work had the top album and single in both the US and the UK – never previously achieved by an Australian act. "Be Good Johnny" received moderate airplay in the US; it reached the top 20 in Canada.
"Down Under" gained international media exposure in September 1983 through television coverage of the Australian challenge for the America's Cup yacht trophy in September 1983 when it was adopted as the theme song by the crew of the successful Australia II.
The band released their second album, Cargo, in April 1983, which also peaked at No. 1 – for two weeks – on the Australian charts. In New Zealand it reached No. 2. It had been finished in mid-1982 with McIan producing again, but was held back due to the success of their debut album on the international market, where Business as Usual was still riding high. Cargo appeared at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and No. 8 in the UK. The lead single, "Overkill", was issued in Australia ahead of the album in October 1982 and reached No. 6, it peaked at No. 3 in the US. "Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive" followed in March 1983 made it to No. 5 in Australia, and No. 28 in the US. "It's a Mistake" reached No. 6 in the US. The band toured the world extensively in 1983.
Two Hearts and break-up (1984–1986)
In 1984, long standing tensions between Hay and Speiser led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production.
Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renée Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists.
On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)—"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians.
Partial reunion and second break-up (1996–2002)
By mid-1996, after a ten-year absence, Hay and Ham reformed Men at Work to tour South America. They had enjoyed strong fan support there during their earlier career and demands for a reunion had persisted. The 1996 line up had Stephen Hadley on bass guitar and backing vocals (ex-The Black Sorrows, Paul Kelly Band); Simon Hosford on guitar and backing vocals (Colin Hay backing band); and John Watson on drums (The Black Sorrows). The tour culminated in a performance in São Paulo, which was recorded for the Brazilian release of a live album, Brazil '96, in 1997, which was co-produced by Hay and Ham for Sony Music. It was re-released worldwide in 1998 as Brazil with a bonus track, "The Longest Night", the first new studio track since Two Hearts.
In 1997 drummer Tony Floyd replaced Watson but by 1998 the lineup was Hay, Ham, James Ryan (guitar, backing vocals), Rick Grossman (of the Hoodoo Gurus) on bass and Peter Maslen (ex-Boom Crash Opera) on drums. In 1999 Ryan, Grossman and Maslen were out and Hosford and Floyd were back in, along with bassist Stuart Speed. Rodrigo Aravena was brought in on bass in 2000, along with Heta Moses on drums. Moses was replaced by Warren Trout in 2001 as Stephen Hadley returned on bass.
The band toured Australia, South America, Europe and the US from 1998 to 2000. Men at Work performed "Down Under" at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, alongside Paul Hogan of "Crocodile" Dundee (1986).
One of their European tours for mid-2000 was cancelled and the group had disbanded by 2002, although Hay and Ham periodically reunited Men at Work with guest musicians (including an appearance in February 2009, when they performed "Down Under" as a duo at the Australia Unites Victorian Bushfire Appeal Telethon).
Copyright lawsuit and the death of Greg Ham
In February 2010 Larrikin Music Publishing won a case against Hay and Strykert, their record label (Sony BMG Music Entertainment) and music publishing company (EMI Songs Australia) arising from the uncredited appropriation of "Kookaburra", originally written in 1932 by Marion Sinclair and for which Larrikin owned the publishing rights, as the flute line in the Men at Work song, "Down Under". Back in early 2009 the Australian music-themed TV quiz, Spicks and Specks, had posed a question which suggested that "Down Under" contained elements of "Kookaburra".
Larrikin, then headed by Norman Lurie, filed suit after Larrikin was sold to another company and had demanded between 40% and 60% of the previous six years of earnings from the song. In February 2010 the judge ruled that "Down Under" did contain a flute riff based on "Kookaburra" but stipulated that neither was it necessarily the hook nor a substantial part of the hit song (Hay and Strykert had written the track years before the flute riff was added by Ham). In July 2010 a judge ruled that Larrikin should be paid 5% of past (since 2002) and future profits. Ham took the verdict particularly hard, feeling responsible for having performed the flute riff at the centre of the lawsuit and worried that he would only be remembered for copying someone else's music, resulting in depression and anxiety. Ham's body was found in his Carlton North home on 19 April 2012 after he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 58.
Post 2012
In June 2019, Hay toured Europe with a group of Los Angeles-based session musicians under the name Men at Work, despite the band featuring no other original members of the band.
In 2021, Australian producer Christian 'Luude' Benson (from the Tasmanian tech house dance duo Choomba) remixed "Down Under" as a drum and bass track, which became popular online. Hay re-recorded the vocal for the track's official release, now credited to Luude featuring Colin Hay, with the record charting at number 32 on the UK Singles chart on 7 January 2022 and at number 48 in Australia (on the ARIA Top 50 Singles for the week of 10 January 2022).
Other projects
Hay maintained a solo career and played with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Strykert relocated to Hobart in 2009 from Los Angeles, and continued to play music and released his first solo album, Paradise, in September that year. He expressed resentment towards Hay, mainly over royalties. Ham remained musically active and played sax with the Melbourne-based group The Nudist Funk Orchestra until his death. Rees was a music teacher in Melbourne and also played the violin and bass guitar for the band Beggs 2 Differ. Speiser played drums for the band The Afterburner.
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Men at Work were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994.
|-
| ARIA Music Awards of 1994
| Men at Work
| ARIA Hall of Fame
|
Countdown Australian Music Awards
Countdown is an Australian pop music TV series that aired on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
|-
| rowspan="5" |1981
| "Down Under"
| Best Australian Single
|
|-
| Business as Usual
| Best Debut Album
|
|-
| "Who Can It Be Now?"
| Best Debut Single
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Best New Talent
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1982
| Colin Hay (Men At Work)
| Best Songwriter
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1983
| Cargo
| Best Australian Album
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
Grammy Awards
|-
| 1983
| Men at Work
| Best New Artist
|
Other awards
In August 1983 they were given a Crystal Globe Award for $100 million worth of record business by their US label. That same year in Canada they were awarded a Juno Award for "International LP of the Year". Men at Work have sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
On 28 May 2001 "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs. In October 2010, Business as Usual was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.
Members
Colin Hay has been the only constant member in all configurations.
Present
Colin Hay – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, bass (1978–1986, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; 2019–present)
Current touring members
Jimmy Branly – drums (2019–present)
San Miguel Perez – guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Yosmel Montejo – bass, backing vocals (2019–present)
Scheila Gonzalez – saxophone, flute, keyboards, backing vocals (2019–present)
Cecilia Noel – backing vocals (2019–present)
Former
Ron Strykert – lead guitar, bass, vocals (1978–1985)
Jerry Speiser – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1979–1984)
Greg Ham – keyboards, vocals, saxophone, harmonica, flute (1979–1985, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; died 2012)
John Rees – bass, backing vocals (1980–1984)
Former touring members
Jeremy Alsop – bass, backing vocals (1985–1986)
James Black – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Mark Kennedy – drums (1985)
Colin Bayley – guitar, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Chad Wackerman – drums, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Paul Williamson – saxophone, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Simon Hosford – guitar, backing vocals (1996–1998, 1999–2001)
Stephen Hadley – bass, backing vocals (1996–1998, 2001)
John Watson – drums (1996–1997)
Tony Floyd – drums (1997–1998, 1999–2000)
Rick Grossman – bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
James Ryan — guitar, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Peter Maslen – drums (1998–1999)
Stuart Speed — bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Rodrigo Aravena – bass, backing vocals (2000–2001)
Heta Moses – drums (2000–2001)
Warren Trout – drums (2001)
Discography
Business as Usual (1981)
Cargo (1983)
Two Hearts (1985)
See also
Artists achieving simultaneous US and UK number-one hits
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
APRA Award winners
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Australian new wave musical groups
Australian pop rock groups
Columbia Records artists
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1978
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups reestablished in 1996
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups reestablished in 2019
Musical groups from Melbourne
Reggae rock groups
Victoria (Australia) musical groups
Musical quintets
1978 establishments in Australia
| false |
[
"\"I Live for Your Love\" is a 1987 song by Natalie Cole. It was the second of four charting singles from her \nEverlasting LP, and was also the second greatest hit from the album.\n\nThe song reached number 13 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 during the winter of 1988. It was a major Adult Contemporary and R&B hit, reaching number two and number four on those charts, respectively.\nIt was less of a hit on the Canadian pop and AC charts, and also charted minorly in the UK.\n\n\"I Live for Your Love\" is Cole's longest-running chart single. It is her only song which spent over five months on the American pop charts. Her only bigger hit on the U.S. Adult Contemporary chart was \"Miss You Like Crazy\", which reached number one a year later.\n\nThe single shared a B-side with its predecessor, \"Jump Start\". Both songs were backed with \"More Than the Stars\".\n\nChart history\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1987 songs\n1988 singles\nNatalie Cole songs\nManhattan Records singles\nSongs written by Pam Reswick\nContemporary R&B ballads\nPop ballads",
"\"For You\" is a song by the English rock band the Outfield. It was the lead single from their fourth studio album, Diamond Days (1990), released on MCA Records. The single was released in 1990. In the U.S., the song hit number 13 on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart and number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the best-performing single from Diamond Days, as well as the group's last top 40 hit.\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n\n1990 songs\n1990 singles\nThe Outfield songs\nMCA Records singles\nSongs written by John Spinks (musician)"
] |
[
"Men at Work",
"Two Hearts and break-up (1984-86)",
"What is Two Hearts?",
"Four tracks were released as singles, \"Everything I Need\" (May 1985), \"Man with Two Hearts\", \"Maria\" (August), and \"Hard Luck Story\" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (",
"Which single hit the charts?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_fe2c25bf11cb417cb5ba0a277c739c09_1
|
When did the band break up?
| 3 |
When did the band break up?
|
Men at Work
|
During 1984 the band took a break as members pursued other interests. Upon reconvening later that year, tensions during rehearsals between Hay and Speiser over songwriting and the band's management led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production. Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renee Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists. On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)--"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians. CANNOTANSWER
|
Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album.
|
Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Down Under". Its founding member and frontman is Colin Hay, who performs on lead vocals and guitar. After playing as an acoustic duo with Ron Strykert during 1978–79, Hay formed the group with Strykert playing bass guitar and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, saxophone, and keyboards and John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching back to lead guitar. The group was managed by Russell Depeller, a friend of Hay, whom he met at La Trobe University. This line-up achieved national and international success during the early to mid 1980s.
In January 1983, they were the first Australian artists to have a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the United States Billboard charts: Business as Usual (released on 9 November 1981) and "Down Under" (1981), respectively. With the same works, they achieved the distinction of a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the Australian, New Zealand, and United Kingdom charts. Their second album Cargo (2 May 1983) was also No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in New Zealand, No. 3 in the US, and No. 8 in the UK. Their third album Two Hearts (3 April 1985) reached the top 20 in Australia and top 50 in the US.
They won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1983, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1994, and they have sold over 30 million albums worldwide. In May 2001, "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs and Business as Usual appeared in the book 100 Best Australian Albums (October 2010).
In 1984, Speiser and Rees were asked to leave the group, leaving Hay, Ham and Strykert. During the recording of the Two Hearts album, Strykert decided to leave. Soon after the release of Two Hearts, Ham left also, leaving Hay as the sole remaining member. From 1996 until 2002 Hay and Ham toured the world as Men at Work. On 19 April 2012, Ham was found dead at his home from an apparent heart attack.
In 2019, Hay revived the Men at Work moniker and began touring with the assistance of a backing band including none of the other original members.
History
Origins
The nucleus of Men at Work formed in Melbourne around June 1979 with Colin Hay on lead vocals and guitar, Ron Strykert on bass guitar, and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, sax and keyboards, and then John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching to lead guitar. Hay had emigrated to Australia in 1967 from Scotland with his family. In 1978, he had formed an acoustic duo with Strykert, which expanded by mid-1979 with the addition of Speiser. Around this time as a side project, keyboardist Greg Sneddon (ex-Alroy Band). a former bandmate of Jerry Speiser, together with Speiser, Hay and Strykert performed and recorded the music to 'Riff Raff", a low budget stage musical, upon which Sneddon had worked.
Hay asked Greg Ham to join the group, but Ham hesitated, as he was finishing his music degree. Ultimately, he decided to join the band in October 1979. John Rees, a friend of Jerry, joined soon after. The name Men At Work was thrown into the hat by Colin Hay, and was seconded by Ron Strykert, when a name was required to put on the blackboard outside The Cricketer's Arms Hotel, Richmond. The band built a "grass roots" reputation as a pub rock band. In 1980, the group issued their debut single, "Keypunch Operator" backed by "Down Under", with both tracks co-written by Hay and Strykert. It was "self-financed" and appeared on their own independent, M. A. W. label. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt the A-side was "a fast-paced country-styled rocker with a clean sound and quirky rhythm". Despite not appearing in the top 100 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, by the end of that year the group had "grown in stature to become the most in-demand and highly paid, unsigned band of the year".
International success - Business as Usual and Cargo (1981–1983)
Early in 1981 Men at Work signed with CBS Records, the Australian branch of CBS Records International, (which became Sony Music) on the recommendation of Peter Karpin, the label's A&R person. The group's first single with CBS Records in Australia "Who Can It Be Now?", was released in June 1981 which reached No. 2 and remained in the chart for 24 weeks. It had been produced by United States-based Peter McIan, who was also working on their debut album, Business as Usual.
McIan, together with the band worked on the arrangements for all the songs that appeared on Business As Usual. Their next single was a re-arranged and "popified" version of "Down Under". It appeared in October that year and reached No. 1 in November, where it remained for six weeks. Business as Usual was also released in October and went to No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart, spending a total of nine weeks at the top spot. The Canberra Times Garry Raffaele opined that it "generally stays at a high level, tight and jerky ... There is a delicacy about this music — and that is not a thing you can say about too many rock groups. The flute and reeds of Greg Ham do much to further that". McFarlane noted that "[a]side from the strength of the music, part of the album's appeal was its economy. The production sound was low-key, but clean and uncluttered. Indeed, the songs stood by themselves with little embellishment save for a bright, melodic, singalong quality".
By February the following year both "Down Under" and Business as Usual had reached No. 1 on the respective Official New Zealand Music Charts – the latter was the first Australian album to reach that peak in New Zealand. Despite its strong Australian and New Zealand showing, and having an American producer (McIan), Business as Usual was twice rejected by Columbia's US parent company. Thanks to the persistence of Russell Depeller and Karpin, the album was finally released in the US and the United Kingdom in April 1982 – six months after its Australian release. Their next single, "Be Good Johnny", was issued in Australia in April 1982 and reached No. 8 in Australia, and No. 3 in New Zealand.
Men at Work initially broke through to North American audiences in the western provinces of Canada with "Who Can It Be Now?" hitting the top 10 on radio stations in Winnipeg by May 1982. It peaked at No. 8 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles Chart in July. In August the group toured Canada and the US to promote the album and related singles, supporting Fleetwood Mac. The band became more popular on Canadian radio in the following months and also started receiving top 40 US airplay by August. In October "Who Can It Be Now?" reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while Canada was one single ahead with "Down Under" topping the Canadian charts that same month. In the following month Business as Usual began a 15-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
While "Who Can It Be Now?" was still in the top ten in the US, "Down Under" was finally released in that market. It entered the US charts at No. 79 and ten weeks later, it was No. 1. By January 1983 Men at Work had the top album and single in both the US and the UK – never previously achieved by an Australian act. "Be Good Johnny" received moderate airplay in the US; it reached the top 20 in Canada.
"Down Under" gained international media exposure in September 1983 through television coverage of the Australian challenge for the America's Cup yacht trophy in September 1983 when it was adopted as the theme song by the crew of the successful Australia II.
The band released their second album, Cargo, in April 1983, which also peaked at No. 1 – for two weeks – on the Australian charts. In New Zealand it reached No. 2. It had been finished in mid-1982 with McIan producing again, but was held back due to the success of their debut album on the international market, where Business as Usual was still riding high. Cargo appeared at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and No. 8 in the UK. The lead single, "Overkill", was issued in Australia ahead of the album in October 1982 and reached No. 6, it peaked at No. 3 in the US. "Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive" followed in March 1983 made it to No. 5 in Australia, and No. 28 in the US. "It's a Mistake" reached No. 6 in the US. The band toured the world extensively in 1983.
Two Hearts and break-up (1984–1986)
In 1984, long standing tensions between Hay and Speiser led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production.
Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renée Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists.
On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)—"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians.
Partial reunion and second break-up (1996–2002)
By mid-1996, after a ten-year absence, Hay and Ham reformed Men at Work to tour South America. They had enjoyed strong fan support there during their earlier career and demands for a reunion had persisted. The 1996 line up had Stephen Hadley on bass guitar and backing vocals (ex-The Black Sorrows, Paul Kelly Band); Simon Hosford on guitar and backing vocals (Colin Hay backing band); and John Watson on drums (The Black Sorrows). The tour culminated in a performance in São Paulo, which was recorded for the Brazilian release of a live album, Brazil '96, in 1997, which was co-produced by Hay and Ham for Sony Music. It was re-released worldwide in 1998 as Brazil with a bonus track, "The Longest Night", the first new studio track since Two Hearts.
In 1997 drummer Tony Floyd replaced Watson but by 1998 the lineup was Hay, Ham, James Ryan (guitar, backing vocals), Rick Grossman (of the Hoodoo Gurus) on bass and Peter Maslen (ex-Boom Crash Opera) on drums. In 1999 Ryan, Grossman and Maslen were out and Hosford and Floyd were back in, along with bassist Stuart Speed. Rodrigo Aravena was brought in on bass in 2000, along with Heta Moses on drums. Moses was replaced by Warren Trout in 2001 as Stephen Hadley returned on bass.
The band toured Australia, South America, Europe and the US from 1998 to 2000. Men at Work performed "Down Under" at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, alongside Paul Hogan of "Crocodile" Dundee (1986).
One of their European tours for mid-2000 was cancelled and the group had disbanded by 2002, although Hay and Ham periodically reunited Men at Work with guest musicians (including an appearance in February 2009, when they performed "Down Under" as a duo at the Australia Unites Victorian Bushfire Appeal Telethon).
Copyright lawsuit and the death of Greg Ham
In February 2010 Larrikin Music Publishing won a case against Hay and Strykert, their record label (Sony BMG Music Entertainment) and music publishing company (EMI Songs Australia) arising from the uncredited appropriation of "Kookaburra", originally written in 1932 by Marion Sinclair and for which Larrikin owned the publishing rights, as the flute line in the Men at Work song, "Down Under". Back in early 2009 the Australian music-themed TV quiz, Spicks and Specks, had posed a question which suggested that "Down Under" contained elements of "Kookaburra".
Larrikin, then headed by Norman Lurie, filed suit after Larrikin was sold to another company and had demanded between 40% and 60% of the previous six years of earnings from the song. In February 2010 the judge ruled that "Down Under" did contain a flute riff based on "Kookaburra" but stipulated that neither was it necessarily the hook nor a substantial part of the hit song (Hay and Strykert had written the track years before the flute riff was added by Ham). In July 2010 a judge ruled that Larrikin should be paid 5% of past (since 2002) and future profits. Ham took the verdict particularly hard, feeling responsible for having performed the flute riff at the centre of the lawsuit and worried that he would only be remembered for copying someone else's music, resulting in depression and anxiety. Ham's body was found in his Carlton North home on 19 April 2012 after he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 58.
Post 2012
In June 2019, Hay toured Europe with a group of Los Angeles-based session musicians under the name Men at Work, despite the band featuring no other original members of the band.
In 2021, Australian producer Christian 'Luude' Benson (from the Tasmanian tech house dance duo Choomba) remixed "Down Under" as a drum and bass track, which became popular online. Hay re-recorded the vocal for the track's official release, now credited to Luude featuring Colin Hay, with the record charting at number 32 on the UK Singles chart on 7 January 2022 and at number 48 in Australia (on the ARIA Top 50 Singles for the week of 10 January 2022).
Other projects
Hay maintained a solo career and played with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Strykert relocated to Hobart in 2009 from Los Angeles, and continued to play music and released his first solo album, Paradise, in September that year. He expressed resentment towards Hay, mainly over royalties. Ham remained musically active and played sax with the Melbourne-based group The Nudist Funk Orchestra until his death. Rees was a music teacher in Melbourne and also played the violin and bass guitar for the band Beggs 2 Differ. Speiser played drums for the band The Afterburner.
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Men at Work were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994.
|-
| ARIA Music Awards of 1994
| Men at Work
| ARIA Hall of Fame
|
Countdown Australian Music Awards
Countdown is an Australian pop music TV series that aired on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
|-
| rowspan="5" |1981
| "Down Under"
| Best Australian Single
|
|-
| Business as Usual
| Best Debut Album
|
|-
| "Who Can It Be Now?"
| Best Debut Single
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Best New Talent
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1982
| Colin Hay (Men At Work)
| Best Songwriter
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1983
| Cargo
| Best Australian Album
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
Grammy Awards
|-
| 1983
| Men at Work
| Best New Artist
|
Other awards
In August 1983 they were given a Crystal Globe Award for $100 million worth of record business by their US label. That same year in Canada they were awarded a Juno Award for "International LP of the Year". Men at Work have sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
On 28 May 2001 "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs. In October 2010, Business as Usual was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.
Members
Colin Hay has been the only constant member in all configurations.
Present
Colin Hay – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, bass (1978–1986, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; 2019–present)
Current touring members
Jimmy Branly – drums (2019–present)
San Miguel Perez – guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Yosmel Montejo – bass, backing vocals (2019–present)
Scheila Gonzalez – saxophone, flute, keyboards, backing vocals (2019–present)
Cecilia Noel – backing vocals (2019–present)
Former
Ron Strykert – lead guitar, bass, vocals (1978–1985)
Jerry Speiser – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1979–1984)
Greg Ham – keyboards, vocals, saxophone, harmonica, flute (1979–1985, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; died 2012)
John Rees – bass, backing vocals (1980–1984)
Former touring members
Jeremy Alsop – bass, backing vocals (1985–1986)
James Black – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Mark Kennedy – drums (1985)
Colin Bayley – guitar, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Chad Wackerman – drums, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Paul Williamson – saxophone, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Simon Hosford – guitar, backing vocals (1996–1998, 1999–2001)
Stephen Hadley – bass, backing vocals (1996–1998, 2001)
John Watson – drums (1996–1997)
Tony Floyd – drums (1997–1998, 1999–2000)
Rick Grossman – bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
James Ryan — guitar, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Peter Maslen – drums (1998–1999)
Stuart Speed — bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Rodrigo Aravena – bass, backing vocals (2000–2001)
Heta Moses – drums (2000–2001)
Warren Trout – drums (2001)
Discography
Business as Usual (1981)
Cargo (1983)
Two Hearts (1985)
See also
Artists achieving simultaneous US and UK number-one hits
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
APRA Award winners
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Australian new wave musical groups
Australian pop rock groups
Columbia Records artists
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1978
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups reestablished in 1996
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups reestablished in 2019
Musical groups from Melbourne
Reggae rock groups
Victoria (Australia) musical groups
Musical quintets
1978 establishments in Australia
| true |
[
"The Break and Repair Method is the side project of Matchbox Twenty drummer and rhythm guitarist Paul Doucette. Doucette put the band together when Matchbox Twenty was on hiatus, and when all the band's members were unsure whether their band would reunite. He has said he started The Break and Repair Method as an \"experiment\" to find out what he sounds like out on his own, as opposed to performing in a band where he was not a songwriter, as he did with Matchbox Twenty. Their debut album Milk the Bee was released on September 16, 2008. The group toured with Matt Nathanson in support of the album.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n The Break and Repair Method on Myspace\n The Break and Repair Method on Allmusic\n\nAmerican rock music groups",
"Wicked! is the third studio album by German band Scooter, released in 1996. It contains two singles, \"I'm Raving\", and \"Break It Up\".\n\nTrack listing\nAll tracks written by H.P. Baxxter, Rick J. Jordan, Jens Thele, and Ferris Bueller, except \"I'm Raving\" written by Marc Cohn; and \"Don't Let It Be Me\" and \"Break It Up\" written by Nosie Katzmann.\n\n\"Wicked Introduction\" – 1:44\n\"I'm Raving\"– 3:28\n\"We Take You Higher\" – 4:22\n\"Awakening\" – 4:26\n\"When I Was a Young Boy\" – 3:58\n\"Coldwater Canyon\" – 5:16\n\"Scooter Del Mar\" – 4:58\n\"Zebras Crossing the Street\" – 4:58\n\"Don't Let It Be Me\" – 3:59\n\"The First Time\" – 5:25\n\"Break It Up\" – 3:39\nNotes\n\"Wicked Introduction\" is the tune of \"Scotland the Brave\". The next song, \"I'm Raving\", features samples of the same song, and also \"Walking in Memphis\" by Marc Cohn.\n\"When I Was A Young Boy\" is based on The Loop!'s remix of the 1995 single \"Babylon\" by Prince Ital Joe Feat. Marky Mark. The Loop! was a remix project composed of the same members as Scooter - H.P. Baxxter, Rick J. Jordan and Ferris Bueller.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n1996 albums\nScooter (band) albums\nEdel AG albums"
] |
[
"Men at Work",
"Two Hearts and break-up (1984-86)",
"What is Two Hearts?",
"Four tracks were released as singles, \"Everything I Need\" (May 1985), \"Man with Two Hearts\", \"Maria\" (August), and \"Hard Luck Story\" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (",
"Which single hit the charts?",
"I don't know.",
"When did the band break up?",
"Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album."
] |
C_fe2c25bf11cb417cb5ba0a277c739c09_1
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Is there additional information on the breakup?
| 4 |
Is there additional information on the breakup?
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Men at Work
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During 1984 the band took a break as members pursued other interests. Upon reconvening later that year, tensions during rehearsals between Hay and Speiser over songwriting and the band's management led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production. Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renee Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists. On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)--"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians. CANNOTANSWER
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By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians.
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Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Down Under". Its founding member and frontman is Colin Hay, who performs on lead vocals and guitar. After playing as an acoustic duo with Ron Strykert during 1978–79, Hay formed the group with Strykert playing bass guitar and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, saxophone, and keyboards and John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching back to lead guitar. The group was managed by Russell Depeller, a friend of Hay, whom he met at La Trobe University. This line-up achieved national and international success during the early to mid 1980s.
In January 1983, they were the first Australian artists to have a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the United States Billboard charts: Business as Usual (released on 9 November 1981) and "Down Under" (1981), respectively. With the same works, they achieved the distinction of a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the Australian, New Zealand, and United Kingdom charts. Their second album Cargo (2 May 1983) was also No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in New Zealand, No. 3 in the US, and No. 8 in the UK. Their third album Two Hearts (3 April 1985) reached the top 20 in Australia and top 50 in the US.
They won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1983, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1994, and they have sold over 30 million albums worldwide. In May 2001, "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs and Business as Usual appeared in the book 100 Best Australian Albums (October 2010).
In 1984, Speiser and Rees were asked to leave the group, leaving Hay, Ham and Strykert. During the recording of the Two Hearts album, Strykert decided to leave. Soon after the release of Two Hearts, Ham left also, leaving Hay as the sole remaining member. From 1996 until 2002 Hay and Ham toured the world as Men at Work. On 19 April 2012, Ham was found dead at his home from an apparent heart attack.
In 2019, Hay revived the Men at Work moniker and began touring with the assistance of a backing band including none of the other original members.
History
Origins
The nucleus of Men at Work formed in Melbourne around June 1979 with Colin Hay on lead vocals and guitar, Ron Strykert on bass guitar, and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, sax and keyboards, and then John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching to lead guitar. Hay had emigrated to Australia in 1967 from Scotland with his family. In 1978, he had formed an acoustic duo with Strykert, which expanded by mid-1979 with the addition of Speiser. Around this time as a side project, keyboardist Greg Sneddon (ex-Alroy Band). a former bandmate of Jerry Speiser, together with Speiser, Hay and Strykert performed and recorded the music to 'Riff Raff", a low budget stage musical, upon which Sneddon had worked.
Hay asked Greg Ham to join the group, but Ham hesitated, as he was finishing his music degree. Ultimately, he decided to join the band in October 1979. John Rees, a friend of Jerry, joined soon after. The name Men At Work was thrown into the hat by Colin Hay, and was seconded by Ron Strykert, when a name was required to put on the blackboard outside The Cricketer's Arms Hotel, Richmond. The band built a "grass roots" reputation as a pub rock band. In 1980, the group issued their debut single, "Keypunch Operator" backed by "Down Under", with both tracks co-written by Hay and Strykert. It was "self-financed" and appeared on their own independent, M. A. W. label. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt the A-side was "a fast-paced country-styled rocker with a clean sound and quirky rhythm". Despite not appearing in the top 100 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, by the end of that year the group had "grown in stature to become the most in-demand and highly paid, unsigned band of the year".
International success - Business as Usual and Cargo (1981–1983)
Early in 1981 Men at Work signed with CBS Records, the Australian branch of CBS Records International, (which became Sony Music) on the recommendation of Peter Karpin, the label's A&R person. The group's first single with CBS Records in Australia "Who Can It Be Now?", was released in June 1981 which reached No. 2 and remained in the chart for 24 weeks. It had been produced by United States-based Peter McIan, who was also working on their debut album, Business as Usual.
McIan, together with the band worked on the arrangements for all the songs that appeared on Business As Usual. Their next single was a re-arranged and "popified" version of "Down Under". It appeared in October that year and reached No. 1 in November, where it remained for six weeks. Business as Usual was also released in October and went to No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart, spending a total of nine weeks at the top spot. The Canberra Times Garry Raffaele opined that it "generally stays at a high level, tight and jerky ... There is a delicacy about this music — and that is not a thing you can say about too many rock groups. The flute and reeds of Greg Ham do much to further that". McFarlane noted that "[a]side from the strength of the music, part of the album's appeal was its economy. The production sound was low-key, but clean and uncluttered. Indeed, the songs stood by themselves with little embellishment save for a bright, melodic, singalong quality".
By February the following year both "Down Under" and Business as Usual had reached No. 1 on the respective Official New Zealand Music Charts – the latter was the first Australian album to reach that peak in New Zealand. Despite its strong Australian and New Zealand showing, and having an American producer (McIan), Business as Usual was twice rejected by Columbia's US parent company. Thanks to the persistence of Russell Depeller and Karpin, the album was finally released in the US and the United Kingdom in April 1982 – six months after its Australian release. Their next single, "Be Good Johnny", was issued in Australia in April 1982 and reached No. 8 in Australia, and No. 3 in New Zealand.
Men at Work initially broke through to North American audiences in the western provinces of Canada with "Who Can It Be Now?" hitting the top 10 on radio stations in Winnipeg by May 1982. It peaked at No. 8 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles Chart in July. In August the group toured Canada and the US to promote the album and related singles, supporting Fleetwood Mac. The band became more popular on Canadian radio in the following months and also started receiving top 40 US airplay by August. In October "Who Can It Be Now?" reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while Canada was one single ahead with "Down Under" topping the Canadian charts that same month. In the following month Business as Usual began a 15-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
While "Who Can It Be Now?" was still in the top ten in the US, "Down Under" was finally released in that market. It entered the US charts at No. 79 and ten weeks later, it was No. 1. By January 1983 Men at Work had the top album and single in both the US and the UK – never previously achieved by an Australian act. "Be Good Johnny" received moderate airplay in the US; it reached the top 20 in Canada.
"Down Under" gained international media exposure in September 1983 through television coverage of the Australian challenge for the America's Cup yacht trophy in September 1983 when it was adopted as the theme song by the crew of the successful Australia II.
The band released their second album, Cargo, in April 1983, which also peaked at No. 1 – for two weeks – on the Australian charts. In New Zealand it reached No. 2. It had been finished in mid-1982 with McIan producing again, but was held back due to the success of their debut album on the international market, where Business as Usual was still riding high. Cargo appeared at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and No. 8 in the UK. The lead single, "Overkill", was issued in Australia ahead of the album in October 1982 and reached No. 6, it peaked at No. 3 in the US. "Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive" followed in March 1983 made it to No. 5 in Australia, and No. 28 in the US. "It's a Mistake" reached No. 6 in the US. The band toured the world extensively in 1983.
Two Hearts and break-up (1984–1986)
In 1984, long standing tensions between Hay and Speiser led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production.
Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renée Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists.
On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)—"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians.
Partial reunion and second break-up (1996–2002)
By mid-1996, after a ten-year absence, Hay and Ham reformed Men at Work to tour South America. They had enjoyed strong fan support there during their earlier career and demands for a reunion had persisted. The 1996 line up had Stephen Hadley on bass guitar and backing vocals (ex-The Black Sorrows, Paul Kelly Band); Simon Hosford on guitar and backing vocals (Colin Hay backing band); and John Watson on drums (The Black Sorrows). The tour culminated in a performance in São Paulo, which was recorded for the Brazilian release of a live album, Brazil '96, in 1997, which was co-produced by Hay and Ham for Sony Music. It was re-released worldwide in 1998 as Brazil with a bonus track, "The Longest Night", the first new studio track since Two Hearts.
In 1997 drummer Tony Floyd replaced Watson but by 1998 the lineup was Hay, Ham, James Ryan (guitar, backing vocals), Rick Grossman (of the Hoodoo Gurus) on bass and Peter Maslen (ex-Boom Crash Opera) on drums. In 1999 Ryan, Grossman and Maslen were out and Hosford and Floyd were back in, along with bassist Stuart Speed. Rodrigo Aravena was brought in on bass in 2000, along with Heta Moses on drums. Moses was replaced by Warren Trout in 2001 as Stephen Hadley returned on bass.
The band toured Australia, South America, Europe and the US from 1998 to 2000. Men at Work performed "Down Under" at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, alongside Paul Hogan of "Crocodile" Dundee (1986).
One of their European tours for mid-2000 was cancelled and the group had disbanded by 2002, although Hay and Ham periodically reunited Men at Work with guest musicians (including an appearance in February 2009, when they performed "Down Under" as a duo at the Australia Unites Victorian Bushfire Appeal Telethon).
Copyright lawsuit and the death of Greg Ham
In February 2010 Larrikin Music Publishing won a case against Hay and Strykert, their record label (Sony BMG Music Entertainment) and music publishing company (EMI Songs Australia) arising from the uncredited appropriation of "Kookaburra", originally written in 1932 by Marion Sinclair and for which Larrikin owned the publishing rights, as the flute line in the Men at Work song, "Down Under". Back in early 2009 the Australian music-themed TV quiz, Spicks and Specks, had posed a question which suggested that "Down Under" contained elements of "Kookaburra".
Larrikin, then headed by Norman Lurie, filed suit after Larrikin was sold to another company and had demanded between 40% and 60% of the previous six years of earnings from the song. In February 2010 the judge ruled that "Down Under" did contain a flute riff based on "Kookaburra" but stipulated that neither was it necessarily the hook nor a substantial part of the hit song (Hay and Strykert had written the track years before the flute riff was added by Ham). In July 2010 a judge ruled that Larrikin should be paid 5% of past (since 2002) and future profits. Ham took the verdict particularly hard, feeling responsible for having performed the flute riff at the centre of the lawsuit and worried that he would only be remembered for copying someone else's music, resulting in depression and anxiety. Ham's body was found in his Carlton North home on 19 April 2012 after he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 58.
Post 2012
In June 2019, Hay toured Europe with a group of Los Angeles-based session musicians under the name Men at Work, despite the band featuring no other original members of the band.
In 2021, Australian producer Christian 'Luude' Benson (from the Tasmanian tech house dance duo Choomba) remixed "Down Under" as a drum and bass track, which became popular online. Hay re-recorded the vocal for the track's official release, now credited to Luude featuring Colin Hay, with the record charting at number 32 on the UK Singles chart on 7 January 2022 and at number 48 in Australia (on the ARIA Top 50 Singles for the week of 10 January 2022).
Other projects
Hay maintained a solo career and played with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Strykert relocated to Hobart in 2009 from Los Angeles, and continued to play music and released his first solo album, Paradise, in September that year. He expressed resentment towards Hay, mainly over royalties. Ham remained musically active and played sax with the Melbourne-based group The Nudist Funk Orchestra until his death. Rees was a music teacher in Melbourne and also played the violin and bass guitar for the band Beggs 2 Differ. Speiser played drums for the band The Afterburner.
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Men at Work were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994.
|-
| ARIA Music Awards of 1994
| Men at Work
| ARIA Hall of Fame
|
Countdown Australian Music Awards
Countdown is an Australian pop music TV series that aired on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
|-
| rowspan="5" |1981
| "Down Under"
| Best Australian Single
|
|-
| Business as Usual
| Best Debut Album
|
|-
| "Who Can It Be Now?"
| Best Debut Single
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Best New Talent
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1982
| Colin Hay (Men At Work)
| Best Songwriter
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1983
| Cargo
| Best Australian Album
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
Grammy Awards
|-
| 1983
| Men at Work
| Best New Artist
|
Other awards
In August 1983 they were given a Crystal Globe Award for $100 million worth of record business by their US label. That same year in Canada they were awarded a Juno Award for "International LP of the Year". Men at Work have sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
On 28 May 2001 "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs. In October 2010, Business as Usual was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.
Members
Colin Hay has been the only constant member in all configurations.
Present
Colin Hay – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, bass (1978–1986, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; 2019–present)
Current touring members
Jimmy Branly – drums (2019–present)
San Miguel Perez – guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Yosmel Montejo – bass, backing vocals (2019–present)
Scheila Gonzalez – saxophone, flute, keyboards, backing vocals (2019–present)
Cecilia Noel – backing vocals (2019–present)
Former
Ron Strykert – lead guitar, bass, vocals (1978–1985)
Jerry Speiser – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1979–1984)
Greg Ham – keyboards, vocals, saxophone, harmonica, flute (1979–1985, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; died 2012)
John Rees – bass, backing vocals (1980–1984)
Former touring members
Jeremy Alsop – bass, backing vocals (1985–1986)
James Black – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Mark Kennedy – drums (1985)
Colin Bayley – guitar, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Chad Wackerman – drums, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Paul Williamson – saxophone, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Simon Hosford – guitar, backing vocals (1996–1998, 1999–2001)
Stephen Hadley – bass, backing vocals (1996–1998, 2001)
John Watson – drums (1996–1997)
Tony Floyd – drums (1997–1998, 1999–2000)
Rick Grossman – bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
James Ryan — guitar, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Peter Maslen – drums (1998–1999)
Stuart Speed — bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Rodrigo Aravena – bass, backing vocals (2000–2001)
Heta Moses – drums (2000–2001)
Warren Trout – drums (2001)
Discography
Business as Usual (1981)
Cargo (1983)
Two Hearts (1985)
See also
Artists achieving simultaneous US and UK number-one hits
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
APRA Award winners
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Australian new wave musical groups
Australian pop rock groups
Columbia Records artists
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1978
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups reestablished in 1996
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups reestablished in 2019
Musical groups from Melbourne
Reggae rock groups
Victoria (Australia) musical groups
Musical quintets
1978 establishments in Australia
| true |
[
"Capillary breakup rheometry is an experimental technique used to assess the extensional rheological response of low viscous fluids. Unlike most shear and extensional rheometers, this technique does not involve active stretch or measurement of stress or strain but exploits only surface tension to create a uniaxial extensional flow. Hence, although it is common practice to use the name rheometer, capillary breakup techniques should be better addressed to as indexers.\n\nCapillary breakup rheometry is based on the observation of breakup dynamics of a thin fluid thread, governed by the interplay of capillary, viscous, inertial and elastic forces. Since no external forcing is exerted in these experiments, the fluid thread can spatially rearrange and select its own time scales. Quantitative observations about strain rate, along with an apparent extensional viscosity and the breakup time of the fluid, can be estimated from the evolution of the minimal diameter of the filament. Moreover, theoretical considerations based on the balance of the forces acting in the liquid filament, allow to derive information such as the extent of non-Newtonian behaviour and the relaxation time.\nThe information obtained in capillary breakup experiments are a very effective tool in order to quantify heuristic concepts such as \"stringiness\" or \"tackiness\", which are commonly used as performance indices in several industrial operations.\n\nAt present, the unique commercially available device based on capillary breakup technique is the CaBER.\n\nTheoretical framework\nCapillary breakup rheometry and its recent development are based on the original experimental and theoretical work of Schümmer and Tebel and Entov and co-workers. Nonetheless, this technique found his origins at end of the 19th century with the pioneering work of Joseph Plateau and Lord Rayleigh. Their work entailed considerable progress in describing and understanding surface-tension-driven flows and the physics underlying the tendency of falling liquid streams to spontaneously break into droplets. This phenomenon is known as Plateau–Rayleigh instability.\n \n\nThe linear stability analysis introduced by Plateau and Rayleigh can be employed to determine a wavelength for which a perturbation on a jet surface is unstable. In this case, the pressure gradient across the free-surface can cause the fluid in the thinnest region to be \"squeezed\" out towards the swollen bulges, thus creating a strong uniaxial extensional flow in the necked region.\n\nAs the instability grows and strains become progressively larger, the thinning is governed by non-linear effects. Theoretical considerations on the fluid motion suggested that the behaviour approaching the breakup singularity can be captured using self-similarity. Depending on the relative intensity of inertial, elastic and viscous stresses, different scaling laws based on self-similar considerations have been established to describe the trend of the filament profile near breakup throughout the time.\n\nExperimental configurations\n\nCapillary thinning and breakup of complex fluids can be studied using different configurations. Historically, mainly three types of free-surface conformations have been employed in experiments: statically-unstable liquid bridges, dripping from a nozzle under gravity and continuous jets. Even though the initial evolution of the capillary instability is affected by the type of conformation used, each configurations capture the same phenomenon at the last stages close to breakup, where thinning dynamics is dominated by fluid properties exclusively.\n\nThe different configurations can be best distinguished based on the Weber Number, hence on the relative magnitude between the imposed velocity and the intrinsic capillary speed of the considered material, defined as the ratio between the surface tension and shear viscosity ().\nIn the first geometry, the imposed velocity is zero (We=0), after an unstable liquid bridge is generated by rapid motion of two coaxial cylindrical plate. The thinning of the capillary bridge is purely governed by the interplay of inertial, viscous, elastic and capillary forces. This configuration is employed in the CaBER device and it is at present the most used geometry, thanks to its main advantage of maintaining the thinnest point of the filament approximately located in the same point.\nIn dripping configuration, the fluid leaves a nozzle at a very low velocity (We < 1), allowing the formation of a hemispherical droplet at the tip of the nozzle. When the drop becomes sufficiently heavy, gravitational forces overcome surface tension, and a capillary bridge is formed, connecting the nozzle and the droplet. As the drop falls, the liquid filament becomes progressively thinner, to the point in which gravity becomes unimportant (low Bond number) and the breakup is only driven by capillary action. At this stage, the thinning dynamics is determined by the balance between capillarity and fluid properties.\nLastly, the third configuration consists in a continuous jet exiting a nozzle at a velocity higher than the intrinsic capillary velocity \n(We > 1). As the fluid leaves the nozzle, capillary instabilities naturally emerge on the jet and the formed filaments progressively thin as they are being convected downstream with the flow, until eventually the jet breaks into separate droplets. The jetting-based configuration is generally less reproducible compared to the former two due to different experimental challenges, such as accurately controlling the sinusoidal disturbance.\n\nForce balance and apparent extensional viscosity\nThe temporal evolution of the thinnest region is determined by a force balance in the fluid filament. A simplified approximate force balance can be written as\n\nwhere is the surface tension of the fluid, the strain rate at filament midpoint, the extensional viscosity, and the term in square brackets represents the non-Newtonian contribution to the total\nnormal stress difference. The stress balance shows that, if gravity and inertia can be neglected, the capillary pressure is counteracted by viscous extensional contribution and by non-Newtonian (elastic) contribution.\n\nDepending on the type of fluid, appropriate constitutive models have to be considered and to extract the relevant material functions.\nWithout any consideration on the nature of the tested fluid, it is possible to obtain a quantitative parameter, the apparent extensional viscosity directly from the force balance, among capillary pressure and viscous stresses alone. Assuming an initial cylindrical shape of the filament, the strain rate evolution is defined as\n\nThus, the apparent extensional viscosity is given by\n\nScaling laws\n\nThe behaviour of the fluid determines the relative importance of the viscous and elastic terms in resisting the capillary action. Combining the force balance with different constitutive models, several analytical solutions were derived to describe the thinning dynamics. These scaling laws can be used to identify fluid type and extract material properties.\n\nScaling law for visco-capillary thinning of Newtonian fluids\nIn absence of inertia (Ohnesorge number larger than 1) and gravitational effects, the thinning dynamics of a Newtonian fluid are governed purely by the balance between capillary pressure and viscous stresses. The visco-capillary thinning is described by the similarity solution derived by Papageorgiou, the midpoint diameter temporal evolution may be written as:\n\nAccording to the scaling law, a linear decay of the filament diameter in time and the filament breaking in the middle are the characteristic fingerprint of visco-capillary breakup. A linear regression of experimental data allows to extract the time-to-breakup and the capillary speed.\n\nScaling law for elasto-capillary thinning of elastic fluids\n\nFor non-Newtonian elastic fluids, such as polymer solutions, an elasto-capillary balance governs the breakup dynamics. Different constitutive models were used to model the elastic contribution (Oldroyd-B, FENE-P,...). Using an upper convected Maxwell constitutive model, the self-similar thinning process\nis described by an analytical solution of the form\n\nwhere is the initial diameter of the filament. A linear regression of experimental data allows to extract the elastic modulus of the polymer in the solution and the relaxation time. The scaling law expresses an exponential decay of the filament diameter in time\n\nThe different forms of the scaling law for viscoelastic fluids shows that their thinning behaviour is very distinct from that of Newtonian liquids. Even the presence of a small amount of flexible polymers can significantly alter the breakup dynamics. The elastic stresses generated by the presence of polymers rapidly increase as the filament diameter decreases. The liquid filament is then progressively stabilized by the growing stresses, and it assumes a uniform cylindrical shape, contrary to the case of visco-capillary thinning where the minimum diameter is localized at the filament midpoint.\n\nInstruments\n\nCaBER\n\nThe CaBER (Capillary Breakup Extensional Rheometer) is the only commercially available instrument based on capillary breakup. Based on the experimental work of Entov, Bazilevsky and co-workers, the CaBER was developed by McKinley and co-workers at MIT in collaboration with the Cambridge Polymer Group in the early 2000s. Currently, it is manufactured by Thermo Scientific with the commercial name HAAKE CaBER 1.\n\nThe CaBER experiments employ a liquid bridge configuration and can be thought as a quantitative version of a \"thumb & forefinger\" test.\nIn CaBER experiments, a small amount of sample is placed between two measurement plates, forming an initial cylindrical configuration. The plates are then rapidly separated over a short predefined distance: the imposed step strain generates an “hour-glass” shaped liquid bridge. The necked sample subsequently thins and eventually breaks under the action of capillary forces.\nDuring the surface-tension-driven thinning process, the evolution of the mid-filament diameter (Dmid(t)) is monitored via a laser micrometre.\n\nThe raw CaBER output (Dmid vs time curve) show different characteristic shapes depending on the tested liquid, and both quantitative and qualitative information can be extracted from it. The time-to-breakup is the most direct qualitative information that can be obtain. Although this parameter does not represent a property of the fluid itself, it is certainly useful to quantify the processability of complex fluids.\nIn terms of quantitative parameters, rheological properties such as the shear viscosity and the relaxation time can be obtained by fitting the diameter evolution data with the appropriate scaling laws. The second quantitative information that can be extracted is the apparent extensional viscosity.\n\nDespite the great potential of the CaBER, this technique also presents a number of experimental challenges, mainly related to the susceptibility to solvent evaporation and the creation of a statically-unstable bridge of very low visco-elastic fluids, for which the fluid filament often happens to break already during the stretch phase. Different modifications of the commercial instrument have been presented to overcome these issues. Amongst others: the use of surrounding media different than air and the Slow Retraction Method (SRM).\n\nOther techniques\n\nIn recent years a number of different techniques have been developed to characterize fluid with very low visco-elasticity, commonly not able to be tested in CaBER devices.\n The Cambridge Trimaster a fluid is symmetrically stretched to form an unstable liquid bridge. This instrument is similar to the CaBER, but the higher imposed stretch velocity of 150 mm/s prevents sample breakup during the stretching step in case of low visco-elastic sample.\n The ROJER (Rayleigh Ohnesorge Jetting Extensional Rheometer) is a jetting-based rheometer, developed on the basis of earlier works of Schümmer and Tebel and Christanti and Walker. This device exploits the spontaneous capillary instabilities developing on a liquid jet issuing from a nozzle to evaluate very short relaxation times. A piezoelectric transducer is used to control the frequency and the amplitude of the imposed perturbation.\n The DoS (Dripping-onto-Substrate) technique allows to characterize the extensional response of a variety of complex fluids as well as accessing very short relaxation times not measurable in CaBER experiments. In DoS experiments, a volume of fluid is deposited on a substrate, so that an unstable liquid bridge is formed between the nozzle and the sessile drop.\nThe ADMiER (Acoustically-Driven Microfluidic Extensional Rheometer) involves subjecting a sessile droplet resting on a piezoelectric substrate to a rapid pulse of surface acoustic radiation. This elongates the droplet into a filament that then contacts an opposing surface to form a liquid bridge. At this point, the pulse is ceased and the unstable liquid bridge thins under capillary action, as in a conventional CaBER device. This chief advantage is that ADMiER allows the interrogation of tiny (1 microliter) samples of low-viscosity complex fluids.\n\nApplications\nThere are many processes and applications that involves free-surface flows and uniaxial extension of liquid filaments or jets. Using capillary breakup rheometry to quantify the dynamics of the extensional response provides an effective tool to control processing parameters as well as design complex fluids with required processability.\nA list of relevant applications and processes includes:\n Ink-jet printing\n Atomization\n Dispensing and dosing of complex fluids\n Electrospinning\n PSA\n Spray and curtain coating\n Fertilizer distribution\n\nSee also\nFluid thread breakup\nPlateau–Rayleigh instability\nRheometer\nVisco-elastic jets\nCapillary action\nCapillary\n\nReferences\n\nRheology\nNon-Newtonian fluids",
"Frank Black is the debut solo album by American alternative rock musician Frank Black. The album was recorded in 1992 and released on March 8, 1993 via 4AD and Elektra Records, after the breakup of Black's band the Pixies.\n\nThe album is similar in style, both musically and lyrically, to the Pixies' last album prior to their 1993 breakup, Trompe le Monde. Frank Black is characterized by a focus on UFOs and science fiction. Two singles from the album—\"Los Angeles\" and \"Hang On to Your Ego\"—were released in 1993; both reached the top ten of Billboards Modern Rock Tracks chart.\n\nRecording and production\nWhile the Pixies' 1991 album Trompe le Monde was being recorded, Black, known as Black Francis at the time, had discussions with the album's producer, Gil Norton, about a possible solo record. He told Norton he was keen to record again, even though he had no new material; as a result, the two decided on a covers album. However, by the time Francis visited a recording studio again in 1992, he had \"plenty of tunes and musical scraps\".\n\nHe collaborated with Eric Drew Feldman of Pere Ubu to record new material; they began by trimming down the number of covers to one, The Beach Boys' \"Hang On to Your Ego\". Feldman became the album's producer, and played keyboard and bass guitar on several songs, with former Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago on lead guitar. Francis recorded the album during the hiatus and breakup of the Pixies in late 1992 and early 1993. He then adopted the stage name \"Frank Black\" (inverting his old persona \"Black Francis\") and released the results as Frank Black in March 1993.\n\nThe song \"I Heard Ramona Sing\" is featured in the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, as well as its soundtrack.\n\nMusic\n\nFrank Black is characterized by a lyrical focus on UFOs and science fiction, although he explored other eclectic subjects, such as in \"I Heard Ramona Sing\", a song about the Ramones. The album is similar in style, both musically and lyrically, to the Pixies' albums Bossanova and Trompe le Monde. Feldman later said that the first record connected his solo career with Trompe le Monde, \"but at the same time it is an island, like nothing else he [Black] did\".\n\nTrack listing\n\nNotes\n\nPersonnel\n Frank Black – vocals, guitar\n Eric Drew Feldman – bass, keyboards, synthetics\n Nick Vincent – drums, percussion\n\nAdditional musicians\n Joey Santiago – additional guitar\n Dave Sardy – additional guitar\n Jeff Moris Tepper – additional guitar\n Bob Giusti – additional drums\n John Linnell – saxophone\n Kurt Hoffman – saxophone\n\nTechnical personnel\n Alistair Clay – engineer, mixing\n Efren Herrera – second engineer\n Matt Packuko – second engineer\n Sean Leonard – second engineer\n Wally Traugott – mastering\n Chris Bigg – design\n Vaughan Oliver – design\n Simon Larbalestier – artwork photography\n Michael Halsband – portrait photography\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n\nExternal links\n Lyrics and song notes at FrankBlack.net\n\n1993 debut albums\n4AD albums\nBlack Francis albums"
] |
[
"Men at Work",
"Two Hearts and break-up (1984-86)",
"What is Two Hearts?",
"Four tracks were released as singles, \"Everything I Need\" (May 1985), \"Man with Two Hearts\", \"Maria\" (August), and \"Hard Luck Story\" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (",
"Which single hit the charts?",
"I don't know.",
"When did the band break up?",
"Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album.",
"Is there additional information on the breakup?",
"By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians."
] |
C_fe2c25bf11cb417cb5ba0a277c739c09_1
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Why did Ham leave during the tour?
| 5 |
Why did Ham leave during the tour?
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Men at Work
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During 1984 the band took a break as members pursued other interests. Upon reconvening later that year, tensions during rehearsals between Hay and Speiser over songwriting and the band's management led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production. Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renee Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists. On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)--"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Down Under". Its founding member and frontman is Colin Hay, who performs on lead vocals and guitar. After playing as an acoustic duo with Ron Strykert during 1978–79, Hay formed the group with Strykert playing bass guitar and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, saxophone, and keyboards and John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching back to lead guitar. The group was managed by Russell Depeller, a friend of Hay, whom he met at La Trobe University. This line-up achieved national and international success during the early to mid 1980s.
In January 1983, they were the first Australian artists to have a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the United States Billboard charts: Business as Usual (released on 9 November 1981) and "Down Under" (1981), respectively. With the same works, they achieved the distinction of a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the Australian, New Zealand, and United Kingdom charts. Their second album Cargo (2 May 1983) was also No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in New Zealand, No. 3 in the US, and No. 8 in the UK. Their third album Two Hearts (3 April 1985) reached the top 20 in Australia and top 50 in the US.
They won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1983, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1994, and they have sold over 30 million albums worldwide. In May 2001, "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs and Business as Usual appeared in the book 100 Best Australian Albums (October 2010).
In 1984, Speiser and Rees were asked to leave the group, leaving Hay, Ham and Strykert. During the recording of the Two Hearts album, Strykert decided to leave. Soon after the release of Two Hearts, Ham left also, leaving Hay as the sole remaining member. From 1996 until 2002 Hay and Ham toured the world as Men at Work. On 19 April 2012, Ham was found dead at his home from an apparent heart attack.
In 2019, Hay revived the Men at Work moniker and began touring with the assistance of a backing band including none of the other original members.
History
Origins
The nucleus of Men at Work formed in Melbourne around June 1979 with Colin Hay on lead vocals and guitar, Ron Strykert on bass guitar, and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, sax and keyboards, and then John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching to lead guitar. Hay had emigrated to Australia in 1967 from Scotland with his family. In 1978, he had formed an acoustic duo with Strykert, which expanded by mid-1979 with the addition of Speiser. Around this time as a side project, keyboardist Greg Sneddon (ex-Alroy Band). a former bandmate of Jerry Speiser, together with Speiser, Hay and Strykert performed and recorded the music to 'Riff Raff", a low budget stage musical, upon which Sneddon had worked.
Hay asked Greg Ham to join the group, but Ham hesitated, as he was finishing his music degree. Ultimately, he decided to join the band in October 1979. John Rees, a friend of Jerry, joined soon after. The name Men At Work was thrown into the hat by Colin Hay, and was seconded by Ron Strykert, when a name was required to put on the blackboard outside The Cricketer's Arms Hotel, Richmond. The band built a "grass roots" reputation as a pub rock band. In 1980, the group issued their debut single, "Keypunch Operator" backed by "Down Under", with both tracks co-written by Hay and Strykert. It was "self-financed" and appeared on their own independent, M. A. W. label. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt the A-side was "a fast-paced country-styled rocker with a clean sound and quirky rhythm". Despite not appearing in the top 100 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, by the end of that year the group had "grown in stature to become the most in-demand and highly paid, unsigned band of the year".
International success - Business as Usual and Cargo (1981–1983)
Early in 1981 Men at Work signed with CBS Records, the Australian branch of CBS Records International, (which became Sony Music) on the recommendation of Peter Karpin, the label's A&R person. The group's first single with CBS Records in Australia "Who Can It Be Now?", was released in June 1981 which reached No. 2 and remained in the chart for 24 weeks. It had been produced by United States-based Peter McIan, who was also working on their debut album, Business as Usual.
McIan, together with the band worked on the arrangements for all the songs that appeared on Business As Usual. Their next single was a re-arranged and "popified" version of "Down Under". It appeared in October that year and reached No. 1 in November, where it remained for six weeks. Business as Usual was also released in October and went to No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart, spending a total of nine weeks at the top spot. The Canberra Times Garry Raffaele opined that it "generally stays at a high level, tight and jerky ... There is a delicacy about this music — and that is not a thing you can say about too many rock groups. The flute and reeds of Greg Ham do much to further that". McFarlane noted that "[a]side from the strength of the music, part of the album's appeal was its economy. The production sound was low-key, but clean and uncluttered. Indeed, the songs stood by themselves with little embellishment save for a bright, melodic, singalong quality".
By February the following year both "Down Under" and Business as Usual had reached No. 1 on the respective Official New Zealand Music Charts – the latter was the first Australian album to reach that peak in New Zealand. Despite its strong Australian and New Zealand showing, and having an American producer (McIan), Business as Usual was twice rejected by Columbia's US parent company. Thanks to the persistence of Russell Depeller and Karpin, the album was finally released in the US and the United Kingdom in April 1982 – six months after its Australian release. Their next single, "Be Good Johnny", was issued in Australia in April 1982 and reached No. 8 in Australia, and No. 3 in New Zealand.
Men at Work initially broke through to North American audiences in the western provinces of Canada with "Who Can It Be Now?" hitting the top 10 on radio stations in Winnipeg by May 1982. It peaked at No. 8 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles Chart in July. In August the group toured Canada and the US to promote the album and related singles, supporting Fleetwood Mac. The band became more popular on Canadian radio in the following months and also started receiving top 40 US airplay by August. In October "Who Can It Be Now?" reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while Canada was one single ahead with "Down Under" topping the Canadian charts that same month. In the following month Business as Usual began a 15-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
While "Who Can It Be Now?" was still in the top ten in the US, "Down Under" was finally released in that market. It entered the US charts at No. 79 and ten weeks later, it was No. 1. By January 1983 Men at Work had the top album and single in both the US and the UK – never previously achieved by an Australian act. "Be Good Johnny" received moderate airplay in the US; it reached the top 20 in Canada.
"Down Under" gained international media exposure in September 1983 through television coverage of the Australian challenge for the America's Cup yacht trophy in September 1983 when it was adopted as the theme song by the crew of the successful Australia II.
The band released their second album, Cargo, in April 1983, which also peaked at No. 1 – for two weeks – on the Australian charts. In New Zealand it reached No. 2. It had been finished in mid-1982 with McIan producing again, but was held back due to the success of their debut album on the international market, where Business as Usual was still riding high. Cargo appeared at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and No. 8 in the UK. The lead single, "Overkill", was issued in Australia ahead of the album in October 1982 and reached No. 6, it peaked at No. 3 in the US. "Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive" followed in March 1983 made it to No. 5 in Australia, and No. 28 in the US. "It's a Mistake" reached No. 6 in the US. The band toured the world extensively in 1983.
Two Hearts and break-up (1984–1986)
In 1984, long standing tensions between Hay and Speiser led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production.
Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renée Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists.
On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)—"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians.
Partial reunion and second break-up (1996–2002)
By mid-1996, after a ten-year absence, Hay and Ham reformed Men at Work to tour South America. They had enjoyed strong fan support there during their earlier career and demands for a reunion had persisted. The 1996 line up had Stephen Hadley on bass guitar and backing vocals (ex-The Black Sorrows, Paul Kelly Band); Simon Hosford on guitar and backing vocals (Colin Hay backing band); and John Watson on drums (The Black Sorrows). The tour culminated in a performance in São Paulo, which was recorded for the Brazilian release of a live album, Brazil '96, in 1997, which was co-produced by Hay and Ham for Sony Music. It was re-released worldwide in 1998 as Brazil with a bonus track, "The Longest Night", the first new studio track since Two Hearts.
In 1997 drummer Tony Floyd replaced Watson but by 1998 the lineup was Hay, Ham, James Ryan (guitar, backing vocals), Rick Grossman (of the Hoodoo Gurus) on bass and Peter Maslen (ex-Boom Crash Opera) on drums. In 1999 Ryan, Grossman and Maslen were out and Hosford and Floyd were back in, along with bassist Stuart Speed. Rodrigo Aravena was brought in on bass in 2000, along with Heta Moses on drums. Moses was replaced by Warren Trout in 2001 as Stephen Hadley returned on bass.
The band toured Australia, South America, Europe and the US from 1998 to 2000. Men at Work performed "Down Under" at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, alongside Paul Hogan of "Crocodile" Dundee (1986).
One of their European tours for mid-2000 was cancelled and the group had disbanded by 2002, although Hay and Ham periodically reunited Men at Work with guest musicians (including an appearance in February 2009, when they performed "Down Under" as a duo at the Australia Unites Victorian Bushfire Appeal Telethon).
Copyright lawsuit and the death of Greg Ham
In February 2010 Larrikin Music Publishing won a case against Hay and Strykert, their record label (Sony BMG Music Entertainment) and music publishing company (EMI Songs Australia) arising from the uncredited appropriation of "Kookaburra", originally written in 1932 by Marion Sinclair and for which Larrikin owned the publishing rights, as the flute line in the Men at Work song, "Down Under". Back in early 2009 the Australian music-themed TV quiz, Spicks and Specks, had posed a question which suggested that "Down Under" contained elements of "Kookaburra".
Larrikin, then headed by Norman Lurie, filed suit after Larrikin was sold to another company and had demanded between 40% and 60% of the previous six years of earnings from the song. In February 2010 the judge ruled that "Down Under" did contain a flute riff based on "Kookaburra" but stipulated that neither was it necessarily the hook nor a substantial part of the hit song (Hay and Strykert had written the track years before the flute riff was added by Ham). In July 2010 a judge ruled that Larrikin should be paid 5% of past (since 2002) and future profits. Ham took the verdict particularly hard, feeling responsible for having performed the flute riff at the centre of the lawsuit and worried that he would only be remembered for copying someone else's music, resulting in depression and anxiety. Ham's body was found in his Carlton North home on 19 April 2012 after he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 58.
Post 2012
In June 2019, Hay toured Europe with a group of Los Angeles-based session musicians under the name Men at Work, despite the band featuring no other original members of the band.
In 2021, Australian producer Christian 'Luude' Benson (from the Tasmanian tech house dance duo Choomba) remixed "Down Under" as a drum and bass track, which became popular online. Hay re-recorded the vocal for the track's official release, now credited to Luude featuring Colin Hay, with the record charting at number 32 on the UK Singles chart on 7 January 2022 and at number 48 in Australia (on the ARIA Top 50 Singles for the week of 10 January 2022).
Other projects
Hay maintained a solo career and played with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Strykert relocated to Hobart in 2009 from Los Angeles, and continued to play music and released his first solo album, Paradise, in September that year. He expressed resentment towards Hay, mainly over royalties. Ham remained musically active and played sax with the Melbourne-based group The Nudist Funk Orchestra until his death. Rees was a music teacher in Melbourne and also played the violin and bass guitar for the band Beggs 2 Differ. Speiser played drums for the band The Afterburner.
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Men at Work were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994.
|-
| ARIA Music Awards of 1994
| Men at Work
| ARIA Hall of Fame
|
Countdown Australian Music Awards
Countdown is an Australian pop music TV series that aired on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
|-
| rowspan="5" |1981
| "Down Under"
| Best Australian Single
|
|-
| Business as Usual
| Best Debut Album
|
|-
| "Who Can It Be Now?"
| Best Debut Single
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Best New Talent
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1982
| Colin Hay (Men At Work)
| Best Songwriter
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1983
| Cargo
| Best Australian Album
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
Grammy Awards
|-
| 1983
| Men at Work
| Best New Artist
|
Other awards
In August 1983 they were given a Crystal Globe Award for $100 million worth of record business by their US label. That same year in Canada they were awarded a Juno Award for "International LP of the Year". Men at Work have sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
On 28 May 2001 "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs. In October 2010, Business as Usual was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.
Members
Colin Hay has been the only constant member in all configurations.
Present
Colin Hay – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, bass (1978–1986, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; 2019–present)
Current touring members
Jimmy Branly – drums (2019–present)
San Miguel Perez – guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Yosmel Montejo – bass, backing vocals (2019–present)
Scheila Gonzalez – saxophone, flute, keyboards, backing vocals (2019–present)
Cecilia Noel – backing vocals (2019–present)
Former
Ron Strykert – lead guitar, bass, vocals (1978–1985)
Jerry Speiser – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1979–1984)
Greg Ham – keyboards, vocals, saxophone, harmonica, flute (1979–1985, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; died 2012)
John Rees – bass, backing vocals (1980–1984)
Former touring members
Jeremy Alsop – bass, backing vocals (1985–1986)
James Black – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Mark Kennedy – drums (1985)
Colin Bayley – guitar, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Chad Wackerman – drums, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Paul Williamson – saxophone, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Simon Hosford – guitar, backing vocals (1996–1998, 1999–2001)
Stephen Hadley – bass, backing vocals (1996–1998, 2001)
John Watson – drums (1996–1997)
Tony Floyd – drums (1997–1998, 1999–2000)
Rick Grossman – bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
James Ryan — guitar, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Peter Maslen – drums (1998–1999)
Stuart Speed — bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Rodrigo Aravena – bass, backing vocals (2000–2001)
Heta Moses – drums (2000–2001)
Warren Trout – drums (2001)
Discography
Business as Usual (1981)
Cargo (1983)
Two Hearts (1985)
See also
Artists achieving simultaneous US and UK number-one hits
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
APRA Award winners
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Australian new wave musical groups
Australian pop rock groups
Columbia Records artists
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1978
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups reestablished in 1996
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups reestablished in 2019
Musical groups from Melbourne
Reggae rock groups
Victoria (Australia) musical groups
Musical quintets
1978 establishments in Australia
| false |
[
"The 1931–32 season was West Ham's eighth season in the First Division since their promotion in season 1922–23. The club were managed by Syd King.\n\nSeason summary\n\nAs a warm-up to the season West Ham completed a three match unbeaten tour of Switzerland and began the season with their first ever win at Bolton's Burnden Park. This would be one of only 12 wins all season which saw poor form for the team. February saw the return of Syd Puddefoot to the club, after ten years away, but his seven appearances and no goals did nothing to stave off relegation. West Ham gained a single point from their last 10 games, finished 22nd and bottom and were relegated to the Second Division. Vic Watson was the top scorer with 25 goals in all competitions. He was also top scorer in the league with 23. Jimmy Ruffell made the most appearances; 41 in all competitions.\n\nRelegation for West Ham had a dramatic effect on the mental health of manager King. Suffering from delusions, these became chronic during the season and were a factor towards his sacking and death the following season.\n\nWest Ham made the fourth round of the FA Cup before being eliminated by Chelsea.\n\nFirst Division\n\nResults\nWest Ham United's score comes first\n\nLegend\n\nFootball League First Division\n\nFA Cup\n\nSquad\n\nReferences\n\nWest Ham United F.C. seasons\n1931 sports events in London\n1932 sports events in London\nWest Ham United",
"Ham and Petersham Cricket Club was established in 1815. In 2015 the cricket club celebrated its bicentenary.\n\nFoundation\nCricket was originally played on Ham Common by the Albion Club in 1815. During the 19th century the Albion Club became known as Ham Albion. By 1891 the club was referred to as Ham and Petersham Cricket Club and this name has been retained up until the present day.\n\nLocation\nThe home ground, Ham Common, is located in Ham which borders the village of Petersham. It is surrounded by some notable houses, the edge of Richmond Park, Cassel Hospital and two pubs, The Hand and Flower and The New Inn. At one end of the ground is a pond; legend has it that the only player ever to hit the ball in the pond, a distance of 170m, was Gary Sobers.\n\nThe clubhouse\nUp until the Second World War a tent was set up for the players to change in. Caricatures of Jack Hobbs and Fred Burgess (the first XI captain in 1913) were drawn on the side of the tent. In 1927 a clubhouse was erected on Ham Common but the club was soon forced to take it down by Ham Urban District Council as it is common land. In 1968 the committee raised funds to build a clubhouse adjacent to the Hand and Flower pub. In 2013, after another fundraising effort, a new clubhouse was built and was opened by England and Surrey cricketer Alec Stewart on 17 April 2013.\n\nFamous players\nSome famous cricketers have graced the field on Ham Common, including Shane Warne, Imran Khan, Gary Sobers, Tom Richardson, Jack Hobbs, Andy Sandham, Herbert Strudwick, Peter May, Alec Bedser and Bill Brockwell. Celebrity players have included Michael Parkinson, Roy Castle, Tim Theakston of Theakston Brewery and Tim Rice.\n\nGreat club players\nBill Brockwell, who played for England and Surrey in the 19th century, was probably the finest cricketer to regularly play for the club. He lived at Rajinda Cottage on Ham Common and was the vice-president of the club prior to World War I.\n\nThe best player of the 20th century was Richard Harrison, a quick bowler who batted at number 4. Harrison retired from cricket in 1999.\n\nScore books\nThe earliest surviving scorecard dates back to a match between Ham Albion and Twickenham Cricket Club that took place on Tuesday 13 July 1841. Ham Albion won by an innings and 87 runs. A scorecard from a match played against Brentford Cricket Club in 1855 also exists. The local newspaper, The Surrey Comet, recorded at the time that \"at the conclusion of the game the players partook of an excellent supper at The New Inn, which was supplied by Mr Adam Goddard in his usual style and reflected credit on the worthy host\".\n\nScore book archive\nHam and Petersham Cricket Club Archive – 1978 to 1985\n\nHam and Petersham Cricket Club Archive – 1986 to 2009\n\nClassic matches\n\nMackie's 9 and Claridge's 8\nOn 30 May 1982 J Mackie took 9 for 26 as Thames Ditton Old Boys achieved a total of 62. In reply Ham and Petersham could only manage 33, with J Mackie top scoring with 15 not out. The very next match, against Chertsey, J Mackie did not play. Ham and Petersham scored 198 and bowled Chertsey out for 14 with P Claridge taking 8 for 6.\n\nClarkie's Hundred\nOn 15 July 1984 the club's Chairman and opening batsman, Peter Clarke, scored a 100 not out. He would score over 500 runs that season.\n\nBobby Jordan 's debut\nOn 25 August 1985 Bobby Jordan made his debut for Ham and Petersham. With line and length swing bowling he took 7 wickets for 45 runs. On 3 September 2017, 32 years later, having been Chairman of Ham and Petersham for over a decade, Jordan played his last match, still bowling line and length swing and still taking wickets.\n\nYorkshire tour\nIn May 1979 the club went on its first tour to Yorkshire. This was arranged through former players and Yorkshire residents, Andrew Dallas and Tim Theakston. The Yorkshire Tour match was played against Theakston Brewery. In the 20 overs a side match Theakston Brewery 141 for 3 beat Ham and Petersham 95 all out In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic the club held a virtual Yorkshire Tour, complete with a virtual cricket match and virtual pub crawl. The tour has continued every year up until the present day.\n\nBicentennial year\nThe 2015 saw the club celebrate its 200th year. The anniversary was marked by six special celebrations.\n A cricket tour of India\n A cricket tour of Yorkshire\n A match against a celebrity Bunbury side, where Harry Judd and Nick Farr-Jones opened the batting for the opposition.\n A match against Surrey County Cricket Club legends\n A match at Lords\n A dinner dance at The Oval, with special guests Michael Parkinson, Simon Mann of Test Match Special and former England player and selector, Geoff Miller.\n\nClub Presidents\n 1897–1919 J.W Hacker\n 1920 A. Mackenzie Hay\n 1921–1924 Gerald Dumas\n 1925 Brigadier H. Champion\n 1926 Grey Jones\n 1927–1931 E.B. Raikes\n 1932–1935 Colonel C. Black\n 1936–1940 Lieutenant Colonel A. Bromhead\n 1955–1959 Major W. McGrath\n 1959–1967 Philip Carr\n 1968–1971 Horace Emery\n 1972–1978 Frank Vickery\n 1978–1998 Bill Peer\n 1998–present Simon Penniston\n\n1st XI Captains\n\nLeague Cricket\nSince the early 2000s, Ham and Petersham Cricket Club has played in the Surrey Cricket League. In 2017 Ham and Petersham Cricket Club switched to the Fuller's Brewery Surrey County League.\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n Philpot, Peter. A History of Ham and Petersham Cricket Club 1815–1985, 1985\n Twickenham Cricket Club 1833–1933: The First One Hundred Years, Twickenham: Walker and Co.,1933\n Club Cricket Conference Handbook, first edition, 1915\n\nExternal links\n Official website\n Surrey Cricket League\n Fuller's Brewery Surrey County League\n\n1815 establishments in England\nCricket clubs established in the 1810s\nEnglish club cricket teams\nHam, London\nOrganizations established in 1815\nPetersham, London\nSport in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames"
] |
[
"Men at Work",
"Two Hearts and break-up (1984-86)",
"What is Two Hearts?",
"Four tracks were released as singles, \"Everything I Need\" (May 1985), \"Man with Two Hearts\", \"Maria\" (August), and \"Hard Luck Story\" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (",
"Which single hit the charts?",
"I don't know.",
"When did the band break up?",
"Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album.",
"Is there additional information on the breakup?",
"By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians.",
"Why did Ham leave during the tour?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_fe2c25bf11cb417cb5ba0a277c739c09_1
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What album were they touring for at the time?
| 6 |
What album was Men at Work touring for at the time?
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Men at Work
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During 1984 the band took a break as members pursued other interests. Upon reconvening later that year, tensions during rehearsals between Hay and Speiser over songwriting and the band's management led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production. Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renee Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists. On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)--"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians. CANNOTANSWER
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Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985
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Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Down Under". Its founding member and frontman is Colin Hay, who performs on lead vocals and guitar. After playing as an acoustic duo with Ron Strykert during 1978–79, Hay formed the group with Strykert playing bass guitar and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, saxophone, and keyboards and John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching back to lead guitar. The group was managed by Russell Depeller, a friend of Hay, whom he met at La Trobe University. This line-up achieved national and international success during the early to mid 1980s.
In January 1983, they were the first Australian artists to have a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the United States Billboard charts: Business as Usual (released on 9 November 1981) and "Down Under" (1981), respectively. With the same works, they achieved the distinction of a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the Australian, New Zealand, and United Kingdom charts. Their second album Cargo (2 May 1983) was also No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in New Zealand, No. 3 in the US, and No. 8 in the UK. Their third album Two Hearts (3 April 1985) reached the top 20 in Australia and top 50 in the US.
They won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1983, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1994, and they have sold over 30 million albums worldwide. In May 2001, "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs and Business as Usual appeared in the book 100 Best Australian Albums (October 2010).
In 1984, Speiser and Rees were asked to leave the group, leaving Hay, Ham and Strykert. During the recording of the Two Hearts album, Strykert decided to leave. Soon after the release of Two Hearts, Ham left also, leaving Hay as the sole remaining member. From 1996 until 2002 Hay and Ham toured the world as Men at Work. On 19 April 2012, Ham was found dead at his home from an apparent heart attack.
In 2019, Hay revived the Men at Work moniker and began touring with the assistance of a backing band including none of the other original members.
History
Origins
The nucleus of Men at Work formed in Melbourne around June 1979 with Colin Hay on lead vocals and guitar, Ron Strykert on bass guitar, and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, sax and keyboards, and then John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching to lead guitar. Hay had emigrated to Australia in 1967 from Scotland with his family. In 1978, he had formed an acoustic duo with Strykert, which expanded by mid-1979 with the addition of Speiser. Around this time as a side project, keyboardist Greg Sneddon (ex-Alroy Band). a former bandmate of Jerry Speiser, together with Speiser, Hay and Strykert performed and recorded the music to 'Riff Raff", a low budget stage musical, upon which Sneddon had worked.
Hay asked Greg Ham to join the group, but Ham hesitated, as he was finishing his music degree. Ultimately, he decided to join the band in October 1979. John Rees, a friend of Jerry, joined soon after. The name Men At Work was thrown into the hat by Colin Hay, and was seconded by Ron Strykert, when a name was required to put on the blackboard outside The Cricketer's Arms Hotel, Richmond. The band built a "grass roots" reputation as a pub rock band. In 1980, the group issued their debut single, "Keypunch Operator" backed by "Down Under", with both tracks co-written by Hay and Strykert. It was "self-financed" and appeared on their own independent, M. A. W. label. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt the A-side was "a fast-paced country-styled rocker with a clean sound and quirky rhythm". Despite not appearing in the top 100 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, by the end of that year the group had "grown in stature to become the most in-demand and highly paid, unsigned band of the year".
International success - Business as Usual and Cargo (1981–1983)
Early in 1981 Men at Work signed with CBS Records, the Australian branch of CBS Records International, (which became Sony Music) on the recommendation of Peter Karpin, the label's A&R person. The group's first single with CBS Records in Australia "Who Can It Be Now?", was released in June 1981 which reached No. 2 and remained in the chart for 24 weeks. It had been produced by United States-based Peter McIan, who was also working on their debut album, Business as Usual.
McIan, together with the band worked on the arrangements for all the songs that appeared on Business As Usual. Their next single was a re-arranged and "popified" version of "Down Under". It appeared in October that year and reached No. 1 in November, where it remained for six weeks. Business as Usual was also released in October and went to No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart, spending a total of nine weeks at the top spot. The Canberra Times Garry Raffaele opined that it "generally stays at a high level, tight and jerky ... There is a delicacy about this music — and that is not a thing you can say about too many rock groups. The flute and reeds of Greg Ham do much to further that". McFarlane noted that "[a]side from the strength of the music, part of the album's appeal was its economy. The production sound was low-key, but clean and uncluttered. Indeed, the songs stood by themselves with little embellishment save for a bright, melodic, singalong quality".
By February the following year both "Down Under" and Business as Usual had reached No. 1 on the respective Official New Zealand Music Charts – the latter was the first Australian album to reach that peak in New Zealand. Despite its strong Australian and New Zealand showing, and having an American producer (McIan), Business as Usual was twice rejected by Columbia's US parent company. Thanks to the persistence of Russell Depeller and Karpin, the album was finally released in the US and the United Kingdom in April 1982 – six months after its Australian release. Their next single, "Be Good Johnny", was issued in Australia in April 1982 and reached No. 8 in Australia, and No. 3 in New Zealand.
Men at Work initially broke through to North American audiences in the western provinces of Canada with "Who Can It Be Now?" hitting the top 10 on radio stations in Winnipeg by May 1982. It peaked at No. 8 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles Chart in July. In August the group toured Canada and the US to promote the album and related singles, supporting Fleetwood Mac. The band became more popular on Canadian radio in the following months and also started receiving top 40 US airplay by August. In October "Who Can It Be Now?" reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while Canada was one single ahead with "Down Under" topping the Canadian charts that same month. In the following month Business as Usual began a 15-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
While "Who Can It Be Now?" was still in the top ten in the US, "Down Under" was finally released in that market. It entered the US charts at No. 79 and ten weeks later, it was No. 1. By January 1983 Men at Work had the top album and single in both the US and the UK – never previously achieved by an Australian act. "Be Good Johnny" received moderate airplay in the US; it reached the top 20 in Canada.
"Down Under" gained international media exposure in September 1983 through television coverage of the Australian challenge for the America's Cup yacht trophy in September 1983 when it was adopted as the theme song by the crew of the successful Australia II.
The band released their second album, Cargo, in April 1983, which also peaked at No. 1 – for two weeks – on the Australian charts. In New Zealand it reached No. 2. It had been finished in mid-1982 with McIan producing again, but was held back due to the success of their debut album on the international market, where Business as Usual was still riding high. Cargo appeared at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and No. 8 in the UK. The lead single, "Overkill", was issued in Australia ahead of the album in October 1982 and reached No. 6, it peaked at No. 3 in the US. "Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive" followed in March 1983 made it to No. 5 in Australia, and No. 28 in the US. "It's a Mistake" reached No. 6 in the US. The band toured the world extensively in 1983.
Two Hearts and break-up (1984–1986)
In 1984, long standing tensions between Hay and Speiser led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production.
Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renée Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists.
On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)—"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians.
Partial reunion and second break-up (1996–2002)
By mid-1996, after a ten-year absence, Hay and Ham reformed Men at Work to tour South America. They had enjoyed strong fan support there during their earlier career and demands for a reunion had persisted. The 1996 line up had Stephen Hadley on bass guitar and backing vocals (ex-The Black Sorrows, Paul Kelly Band); Simon Hosford on guitar and backing vocals (Colin Hay backing band); and John Watson on drums (The Black Sorrows). The tour culminated in a performance in São Paulo, which was recorded for the Brazilian release of a live album, Brazil '96, in 1997, which was co-produced by Hay and Ham for Sony Music. It was re-released worldwide in 1998 as Brazil with a bonus track, "The Longest Night", the first new studio track since Two Hearts.
In 1997 drummer Tony Floyd replaced Watson but by 1998 the lineup was Hay, Ham, James Ryan (guitar, backing vocals), Rick Grossman (of the Hoodoo Gurus) on bass and Peter Maslen (ex-Boom Crash Opera) on drums. In 1999 Ryan, Grossman and Maslen were out and Hosford and Floyd were back in, along with bassist Stuart Speed. Rodrigo Aravena was brought in on bass in 2000, along with Heta Moses on drums. Moses was replaced by Warren Trout in 2001 as Stephen Hadley returned on bass.
The band toured Australia, South America, Europe and the US from 1998 to 2000. Men at Work performed "Down Under" at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, alongside Paul Hogan of "Crocodile" Dundee (1986).
One of their European tours for mid-2000 was cancelled and the group had disbanded by 2002, although Hay and Ham periodically reunited Men at Work with guest musicians (including an appearance in February 2009, when they performed "Down Under" as a duo at the Australia Unites Victorian Bushfire Appeal Telethon).
Copyright lawsuit and the death of Greg Ham
In February 2010 Larrikin Music Publishing won a case against Hay and Strykert, their record label (Sony BMG Music Entertainment) and music publishing company (EMI Songs Australia) arising from the uncredited appropriation of "Kookaburra", originally written in 1932 by Marion Sinclair and for which Larrikin owned the publishing rights, as the flute line in the Men at Work song, "Down Under". Back in early 2009 the Australian music-themed TV quiz, Spicks and Specks, had posed a question which suggested that "Down Under" contained elements of "Kookaburra".
Larrikin, then headed by Norman Lurie, filed suit after Larrikin was sold to another company and had demanded between 40% and 60% of the previous six years of earnings from the song. In February 2010 the judge ruled that "Down Under" did contain a flute riff based on "Kookaburra" but stipulated that neither was it necessarily the hook nor a substantial part of the hit song (Hay and Strykert had written the track years before the flute riff was added by Ham). In July 2010 a judge ruled that Larrikin should be paid 5% of past (since 2002) and future profits. Ham took the verdict particularly hard, feeling responsible for having performed the flute riff at the centre of the lawsuit and worried that he would only be remembered for copying someone else's music, resulting in depression and anxiety. Ham's body was found in his Carlton North home on 19 April 2012 after he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 58.
Post 2012
In June 2019, Hay toured Europe with a group of Los Angeles-based session musicians under the name Men at Work, despite the band featuring no other original members of the band.
In 2021, Australian producer Christian 'Luude' Benson (from the Tasmanian tech house dance duo Choomba) remixed "Down Under" as a drum and bass track, which became popular online. Hay re-recorded the vocal for the track's official release, now credited to Luude featuring Colin Hay, with the record charting at number 32 on the UK Singles chart on 7 January 2022 and at number 48 in Australia (on the ARIA Top 50 Singles for the week of 10 January 2022).
Other projects
Hay maintained a solo career and played with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Strykert relocated to Hobart in 2009 from Los Angeles, and continued to play music and released his first solo album, Paradise, in September that year. He expressed resentment towards Hay, mainly over royalties. Ham remained musically active and played sax with the Melbourne-based group The Nudist Funk Orchestra until his death. Rees was a music teacher in Melbourne and also played the violin and bass guitar for the band Beggs 2 Differ. Speiser played drums for the band The Afterburner.
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Men at Work were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994.
|-
| ARIA Music Awards of 1994
| Men at Work
| ARIA Hall of Fame
|
Countdown Australian Music Awards
Countdown is an Australian pop music TV series that aired on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
|-
| rowspan="5" |1981
| "Down Under"
| Best Australian Single
|
|-
| Business as Usual
| Best Debut Album
|
|-
| "Who Can It Be Now?"
| Best Debut Single
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Best New Talent
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1982
| Colin Hay (Men At Work)
| Best Songwriter
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1983
| Cargo
| Best Australian Album
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
Grammy Awards
|-
| 1983
| Men at Work
| Best New Artist
|
Other awards
In August 1983 they were given a Crystal Globe Award for $100 million worth of record business by their US label. That same year in Canada they were awarded a Juno Award for "International LP of the Year". Men at Work have sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
On 28 May 2001 "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs. In October 2010, Business as Usual was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.
Members
Colin Hay has been the only constant member in all configurations.
Present
Colin Hay – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, bass (1978–1986, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; 2019–present)
Current touring members
Jimmy Branly – drums (2019–present)
San Miguel Perez – guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Yosmel Montejo – bass, backing vocals (2019–present)
Scheila Gonzalez – saxophone, flute, keyboards, backing vocals (2019–present)
Cecilia Noel – backing vocals (2019–present)
Former
Ron Strykert – lead guitar, bass, vocals (1978–1985)
Jerry Speiser – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1979–1984)
Greg Ham – keyboards, vocals, saxophone, harmonica, flute (1979–1985, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; died 2012)
John Rees – bass, backing vocals (1980–1984)
Former touring members
Jeremy Alsop – bass, backing vocals (1985–1986)
James Black – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Mark Kennedy – drums (1985)
Colin Bayley – guitar, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Chad Wackerman – drums, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Paul Williamson – saxophone, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Simon Hosford – guitar, backing vocals (1996–1998, 1999–2001)
Stephen Hadley – bass, backing vocals (1996–1998, 2001)
John Watson – drums (1996–1997)
Tony Floyd – drums (1997–1998, 1999–2000)
Rick Grossman – bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
James Ryan — guitar, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Peter Maslen – drums (1998–1999)
Stuart Speed — bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Rodrigo Aravena – bass, backing vocals (2000–2001)
Heta Moses – drums (2000–2001)
Warren Trout – drums (2001)
Discography
Business as Usual (1981)
Cargo (1983)
Two Hearts (1985)
See also
Artists achieving simultaneous US and UK number-one hits
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
APRA Award winners
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Australian new wave musical groups
Australian pop rock groups
Columbia Records artists
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1978
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups reestablished in 1996
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups reestablished in 2019
Musical groups from Melbourne
Reggae rock groups
Victoria (Australia) musical groups
Musical quintets
1978 establishments in Australia
| true |
[
"SoundRabbit is an American alternative rock band from just outside Boulder, CO. The band came together in 2007 and released their debut, This Room Becomes A Crowd, in November of that year. The genre spanning roots rock album gained enough traction for the band to begin touring in early 2008.\n\nWith the release of their first album, the band also implemented the Backstage. The subscription based project was a way for fans to access to the band's entire catalog of music (live and studio), videos, photos, blogs and other exclusive material. In turn the band would donate a percentage of its proceeds to various charities and causes. The model would encourage fans to be making more of a donation and difference rather than just purchasing a CD.\n\nIn 2009, the band released their second album Tree Trunk Airplanes, a rocking and moodier effort, and resumed a healthy touring schedule over the next two years. While touring the country, they shared the stage with the likes of Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, Keller Williams, The Avett Brothers, and local bluegrass boys Oakhurst, just to name a few.\n\nThe band traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia in April 2010 to begin the recording process for their third independent release. They spent ten days holed up in an old cabin (circa 1750), writing and recording what ultimately became a full-length album, Don't Forget To Remember. The first four singles were released in March 2012 - \"The Odds of Waking Up,\" \"Sister, Brother,\" \"Sand & Stone,\" and \"September.\"\n\nHistory \n2007-2008\nAfter forming in 2007, the band didn't waste any time building a buzz. In February 2008 they were awarded \"Best Pop/Rock Release By A New Band\" by the Mile High Music Store in Denver for their debut album. A month later they were touring out west centered around two big shows in Arizona. The first playing the Circle K Main Stage at the Tempe Music Festival in Tempe opening for Fergie of The Black Eyed Peas, My Chemical Romance, Cowboy Mouth and the Gin Blossoms. That same weekend they headlined a Habitat For Humanity benefit concert at Arizona State University.\n\nIn April 2008, they toured the Midwest and Northeast, playing shows from Des Moines to Cambridge where they headlined at the famed Middle East with indie band American Princes. Upon returning to Colorado, they were featured at a benefit concert for Colorado State University's Alternative Spring Break to close out their spring tour. By May, the band had already raised thousands of dollars for charities including the American Cancer Society, Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the National Kidney Foundation, the March of Dimes, Habitat For Humanity, and others, through their Backstage fan-supported charity program.\n\nSeptember became one of the bigger months for the band. They were invited to headline the \"Welcome Back\" concert for the University of Colorado, grabbed a spot for Colorado's Rock The Vote event and a main stage slot at the legendary Red Rocks Amphitheatre for the Monolith Festival with such acts as TV On The Radio, DeVotchKa, Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and The Avett Brothers.\n\nStyle\n\nActivism\n\nDiscography\n\nStudio albums\nThis Room Becomes A Crowd (2007)\nTree Trunk Airplanes (2009)\nDon't Forget To Remember (2012)\n\nLive albums\nSoundRabbit Duo Acoustic, Live in Boulder (2012)\n\nReferences \n\nAlternative rock groups from Colorado\nMusical groups established in 2007\n2007 establishments in Colorado",
"What Are We Waiting For? is the fifth studio album by For King & Country, an Australian Christian pop duo comprising brothers Luke Smallbone and Joel Smallbone, releasing via Word Entertainment on 11 March 2022. The album contains guest appearances by Dante Bowe, Sleeping at Last, Tori Kelly, and Kirk Franklin. The duo collaborated with Tedd T., Josh Kerr, Jeff Sojka, Federico Vindver, Benjamin Backus, and Seth Mosley in the production of the album.\n\nThe album was supported by the release of \"Relate\" and \"For God Is with Us\" as singles. \"Relate\" peaked at No. 1 on the US Hot Christian Songs chart. \"For God Is with Us\" peaked at No. 43 on the Hot Christian Songs chart. The album is also being promoted with the What Are We Waiting For? – The Tour, spanning cities across the United States.\n\nBackground\nOn 11 October 2021, For King & Contry announced that What Are We Waiting For? will be their upcoming album, slated for release on 11 March 2022, while also announcing their tour to promote the album. The album contains thirteen original tracks and marks their first full-length project of new music since Burn the Ships (2018). On 7 January 2022, For King & Country released the album tracklisting accompanying the album pre-order announcement, indicating that previously released singles \"Relate\" and \"For God Is with Us\" were included on the album, as well as their 2020 hit single \"Together\" alongside Tori Kelly and Kirk Franklin. Additional guest appearances on the album included Dante Bowe and Sleeping at Last.\n\nRelease and promotion\n\nSingles\n\"Relate\" was released on 6 August 2021 as the lead single from the album. The song peaked at No. 1 on the US Hot Christian Songs chart.\n\n\"For God Is with Us\" was released on 24 September 2021 as the second single from the album, as well as its accompanying music video. The song peaked at No. 36 on the US Hot Christian Songs chart.\n\nPromotional singles\nOn 7 January 2022, For King & Country launched the digital pre-order of the album, releasing \"Unsung Hero\" as the first promotional single from the album, accompanied with its music video. \"Unsung Hero\" peaked at No. 42 on the US Hot Christian Songs chart.\n\nFor King & Country released \"Love Me Like I Am\" as the second promotional single from the album on 18 February 2022, accompanied with its music video. \"Love Me Like I Am\" peaked at No. 38 on the US Hot Christian Songs chart.\n\nTouring\nOn 11 October 2021, For King & Country announced that they will be embarking on the What Are We Waiting For? – The Tour, in the spring of 2022. The duo will be joined by Dante Bowe on tour. The tour will span 33 dates across arenas in the United States, commencing at the Landers Center in Southaven, Mississippi, on 31 March 2022, and concluding at the FirstBank Amphitheatre in Franklin, Tennessee on 22 May 2022.\n\nTrack listing\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\n\n2022 albums\nFor King & Country (band) albums"
] |
[
"Men at Work",
"Two Hearts and break-up (1984-86)",
"What is Two Hearts?",
"Four tracks were released as singles, \"Everything I Need\" (May 1985), \"Man with Two Hearts\", \"Maria\" (August), and \"Hard Luck Story\" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (",
"Which single hit the charts?",
"I don't know.",
"When did the band break up?",
"Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album.",
"Is there additional information on the breakup?",
"By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians.",
"Why did Ham leave during the tour?",
"I don't know.",
"What album were they touring for at the time?",
"Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985"
] |
C_fe2c25bf11cb417cb5ba0a277c739c09_1
|
Who else was involved in the recording of Two Hearts?
| 7 |
Besides Ham and Strykert who else was involved in the recording of Two Hearts?
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Men at Work
|
During 1984 the band took a break as members pursued other interests. Upon reconvening later that year, tensions during rehearsals between Hay and Speiser over songwriting and the band's management led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production. Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renee Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists. On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)--"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians. CANNOTANSWER
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Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band).
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Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as "Who Can It Be Now?" and "Down Under". Its founding member and frontman is Colin Hay, who performs on lead vocals and guitar. After playing as an acoustic duo with Ron Strykert during 1978–79, Hay formed the group with Strykert playing bass guitar and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, saxophone, and keyboards and John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching back to lead guitar. The group was managed by Russell Depeller, a friend of Hay, whom he met at La Trobe University. This line-up achieved national and international success during the early to mid 1980s.
In January 1983, they were the first Australian artists to have a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the United States Billboard charts: Business as Usual (released on 9 November 1981) and "Down Under" (1981), respectively. With the same works, they achieved the distinction of a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the Australian, New Zealand, and United Kingdom charts. Their second album Cargo (2 May 1983) was also No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in New Zealand, No. 3 in the US, and No. 8 in the UK. Their third album Two Hearts (3 April 1985) reached the top 20 in Australia and top 50 in the US.
They won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1983, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1994, and they have sold over 30 million albums worldwide. In May 2001, "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs and Business as Usual appeared in the book 100 Best Australian Albums (October 2010).
In 1984, Speiser and Rees were asked to leave the group, leaving Hay, Ham and Strykert. During the recording of the Two Hearts album, Strykert decided to leave. Soon after the release of Two Hearts, Ham left also, leaving Hay as the sole remaining member. From 1996 until 2002 Hay and Ham toured the world as Men at Work. On 19 April 2012, Ham was found dead at his home from an apparent heart attack.
In 2019, Hay revived the Men at Work moniker and began touring with the assistance of a backing band including none of the other original members.
History
Origins
The nucleus of Men at Work formed in Melbourne around June 1979 with Colin Hay on lead vocals and guitar, Ron Strykert on bass guitar, and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, sax and keyboards, and then John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching to lead guitar. Hay had emigrated to Australia in 1967 from Scotland with his family. In 1978, he had formed an acoustic duo with Strykert, which expanded by mid-1979 with the addition of Speiser. Around this time as a side project, keyboardist Greg Sneddon (ex-Alroy Band). a former bandmate of Jerry Speiser, together with Speiser, Hay and Strykert performed and recorded the music to 'Riff Raff", a low budget stage musical, upon which Sneddon had worked.
Hay asked Greg Ham to join the group, but Ham hesitated, as he was finishing his music degree. Ultimately, he decided to join the band in October 1979. John Rees, a friend of Jerry, joined soon after. The name Men At Work was thrown into the hat by Colin Hay, and was seconded by Ron Strykert, when a name was required to put on the blackboard outside The Cricketer's Arms Hotel, Richmond. The band built a "grass roots" reputation as a pub rock band. In 1980, the group issued their debut single, "Keypunch Operator" backed by "Down Under", with both tracks co-written by Hay and Strykert. It was "self-financed" and appeared on their own independent, M. A. W. label. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt the A-side was "a fast-paced country-styled rocker with a clean sound and quirky rhythm". Despite not appearing in the top 100 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, by the end of that year the group had "grown in stature to become the most in-demand and highly paid, unsigned band of the year".
International success - Business as Usual and Cargo (1981–1983)
Early in 1981 Men at Work signed with CBS Records, the Australian branch of CBS Records International, (which became Sony Music) on the recommendation of Peter Karpin, the label's A&R person. The group's first single with CBS Records in Australia "Who Can It Be Now?", was released in June 1981 which reached No. 2 and remained in the chart for 24 weeks. It had been produced by United States-based Peter McIan, who was also working on their debut album, Business as Usual.
McIan, together with the band worked on the arrangements for all the songs that appeared on Business As Usual. Their next single was a re-arranged and "popified" version of "Down Under". It appeared in October that year and reached No. 1 in November, where it remained for six weeks. Business as Usual was also released in October and went to No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart, spending a total of nine weeks at the top spot. The Canberra Times Garry Raffaele opined that it "generally stays at a high level, tight and jerky ... There is a delicacy about this music — and that is not a thing you can say about too many rock groups. The flute and reeds of Greg Ham do much to further that". McFarlane noted that "[a]side from the strength of the music, part of the album's appeal was its economy. The production sound was low-key, but clean and uncluttered. Indeed, the songs stood by themselves with little embellishment save for a bright, melodic, singalong quality".
By February the following year both "Down Under" and Business as Usual had reached No. 1 on the respective Official New Zealand Music Charts – the latter was the first Australian album to reach that peak in New Zealand. Despite its strong Australian and New Zealand showing, and having an American producer (McIan), Business as Usual was twice rejected by Columbia's US parent company. Thanks to the persistence of Russell Depeller and Karpin, the album was finally released in the US and the United Kingdom in April 1982 – six months after its Australian release. Their next single, "Be Good Johnny", was issued in Australia in April 1982 and reached No. 8 in Australia, and No. 3 in New Zealand.
Men at Work initially broke through to North American audiences in the western provinces of Canada with "Who Can It Be Now?" hitting the top 10 on radio stations in Winnipeg by May 1982. It peaked at No. 8 on the Canadian RPM Top Singles Chart in July. In August the group toured Canada and the US to promote the album and related singles, supporting Fleetwood Mac. The band became more popular on Canadian radio in the following months and also started receiving top 40 US airplay by August. In October "Who Can It Be Now?" reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, while Canada was one single ahead with "Down Under" topping the Canadian charts that same month. In the following month Business as Usual began a 15-week run at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
While "Who Can It Be Now?" was still in the top ten in the US, "Down Under" was finally released in that market. It entered the US charts at No. 79 and ten weeks later, it was No. 1. By January 1983 Men at Work had the top album and single in both the US and the UK – never previously achieved by an Australian act. "Be Good Johnny" received moderate airplay in the US; it reached the top 20 in Canada.
"Down Under" gained international media exposure in September 1983 through television coverage of the Australian challenge for the America's Cup yacht trophy in September 1983 when it was adopted as the theme song by the crew of the successful Australia II.
The band released their second album, Cargo, in April 1983, which also peaked at No. 1 – for two weeks – on the Australian charts. In New Zealand it reached No. 2. It had been finished in mid-1982 with McIan producing again, but was held back due to the success of their debut album on the international market, where Business as Usual was still riding high. Cargo appeared at No. 3 on the Billboard 200, and No. 8 in the UK. The lead single, "Overkill", was issued in Australia ahead of the album in October 1982 and reached No. 6, it peaked at No. 3 in the US. "Dr. Heckyll & Mr. Jive" followed in March 1983 made it to No. 5 in Australia, and No. 28 in the US. "It's a Mistake" reached No. 6 in the US. The band toured the world extensively in 1983.
Two Hearts and break-up (1984–1986)
In 1984, long standing tensions between Hay and Speiser led to a split in the band. Both Rees and Speiser were told they were "not required", as Hay, Ham and Strykert used session musicians to record their third album, Two Hearts (23 April 1985). Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Two Hearts was produced by Hay and Ham. It was a critical and commercial failure compared to their previous albums and only peaked at No. 16 in Australia, and No. 50 on the US chart. Strykert had left during its production.
Four tracks were released as singles, "Everything I Need" (May 1985), "Man with Two Hearts", "Maria" (August), and "Hard Luck Story" (October); only the lead single charted in Australia (No. 37) and the US (No. 47). The album relied heavily on drum machines and synthesisers, and reduced the presence of Ham's saxophone, giving it a different feel compared to its predecessors. Hay and Ham hired new bandmates, to tour in support of Two Hearts, with Alsop and Kennedy joined by James Black on guitar and keyboards (Mondo Rock, The Black Sorrows). Soon after a third guitarist, Colin Bayley (Mi-Sex), was added and Kennedy was replaced on drums by Chad Wackerman (Frank Zappa). Australian singers Kate Ceberano and Renée Geyer had also worked on the album and performed live as guest vocalists.
On 13 July 1985 Men at Work performed three tracks for the Oz for Africa concert (part of the global Live Aid program)—"Maria", "Overkill", and an unreleased one, "The Longest Night". They were broadcast in Australia (on both Seven Network and Nine Network) and on MTV in the US. "Maria" and "Overkill" were also broadcast by American Broadcasting Company (ABC) during their Live Aid telecast. Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album. The final Men at Work performances during 1985 had jazz saxophonist Paul Williamson (The Black Sorrows), replacing Ham. By early 1986 the band was defunct and Hay started recording his first solo album, Looking for Jack (January 1987), which had Alsop and Wackerman as session musicians.
Partial reunion and second break-up (1996–2002)
By mid-1996, after a ten-year absence, Hay and Ham reformed Men at Work to tour South America. They had enjoyed strong fan support there during their earlier career and demands for a reunion had persisted. The 1996 line up had Stephen Hadley on bass guitar and backing vocals (ex-The Black Sorrows, Paul Kelly Band); Simon Hosford on guitar and backing vocals (Colin Hay backing band); and John Watson on drums (The Black Sorrows). The tour culminated in a performance in São Paulo, which was recorded for the Brazilian release of a live album, Brazil '96, in 1997, which was co-produced by Hay and Ham for Sony Music. It was re-released worldwide in 1998 as Brazil with a bonus track, "The Longest Night", the first new studio track since Two Hearts.
In 1997 drummer Tony Floyd replaced Watson but by 1998 the lineup was Hay, Ham, James Ryan (guitar, backing vocals), Rick Grossman (of the Hoodoo Gurus) on bass and Peter Maslen (ex-Boom Crash Opera) on drums. In 1999 Ryan, Grossman and Maslen were out and Hosford and Floyd were back in, along with bassist Stuart Speed. Rodrigo Aravena was brought in on bass in 2000, along with Heta Moses on drums. Moses was replaced by Warren Trout in 2001 as Stephen Hadley returned on bass.
The band toured Australia, South America, Europe and the US from 1998 to 2000. Men at Work performed "Down Under" at the closing ceremony of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, alongside Paul Hogan of "Crocodile" Dundee (1986).
One of their European tours for mid-2000 was cancelled and the group had disbanded by 2002, although Hay and Ham periodically reunited Men at Work with guest musicians (including an appearance in February 2009, when they performed "Down Under" as a duo at the Australia Unites Victorian Bushfire Appeal Telethon).
Copyright lawsuit and the death of Greg Ham
In February 2010 Larrikin Music Publishing won a case against Hay and Strykert, their record label (Sony BMG Music Entertainment) and music publishing company (EMI Songs Australia) arising from the uncredited appropriation of "Kookaburra", originally written in 1932 by Marion Sinclair and for which Larrikin owned the publishing rights, as the flute line in the Men at Work song, "Down Under". Back in early 2009 the Australian music-themed TV quiz, Spicks and Specks, had posed a question which suggested that "Down Under" contained elements of "Kookaburra".
Larrikin, then headed by Norman Lurie, filed suit after Larrikin was sold to another company and had demanded between 40% and 60% of the previous six years of earnings from the song. In February 2010 the judge ruled that "Down Under" did contain a flute riff based on "Kookaburra" but stipulated that neither was it necessarily the hook nor a substantial part of the hit song (Hay and Strykert had written the track years before the flute riff was added by Ham). In July 2010 a judge ruled that Larrikin should be paid 5% of past (since 2002) and future profits. Ham took the verdict particularly hard, feeling responsible for having performed the flute riff at the centre of the lawsuit and worried that he would only be remembered for copying someone else's music, resulting in depression and anxiety. Ham's body was found in his Carlton North home on 19 April 2012 after he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 58.
Post 2012
In June 2019, Hay toured Europe with a group of Los Angeles-based session musicians under the name Men at Work, despite the band featuring no other original members of the band.
In 2021, Australian producer Christian 'Luude' Benson (from the Tasmanian tech house dance duo Choomba) remixed "Down Under" as a drum and bass track, which became popular online. Hay re-recorded the vocal for the track's official release, now credited to Luude featuring Colin Hay, with the record charting at number 32 on the UK Singles chart on 7 January 2022 and at number 48 in Australia (on the ARIA Top 50 Singles for the week of 10 January 2022).
Other projects
Hay maintained a solo career and played with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band. Strykert relocated to Hobart in 2009 from Los Angeles, and continued to play music and released his first solo album, Paradise, in September that year. He expressed resentment towards Hay, mainly over royalties. Ham remained musically active and played sax with the Melbourne-based group The Nudist Funk Orchestra until his death. Rees was a music teacher in Melbourne and also played the violin and bass guitar for the band Beggs 2 Differ. Speiser played drums for the band The Afterburner.
Awards and nominations
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Men at Work were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994.
|-
| ARIA Music Awards of 1994
| Men at Work
| ARIA Hall of Fame
|
Countdown Australian Music Awards
Countdown is an Australian pop music TV series that aired on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.
|-
| rowspan="5" |1981
| "Down Under"
| Best Australian Single
|
|-
| Business as Usual
| Best Debut Album
|
|-
| "Who Can It Be Now?"
| Best Debut Single
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Best New Talent
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1982
| Colin Hay (Men At Work)
| Best Songwriter
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1983
| Cargo
| Best Australian Album
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Themselves
| Most Outstanding Achievement
|
|-
| Most Popular Group
|
|-
Grammy Awards
|-
| 1983
| Men at Work
| Best New Artist
|
Other awards
In August 1983 they were given a Crystal Globe Award for $100 million worth of record business by their US label. That same year in Canada they were awarded a Juno Award for "International LP of the Year". Men at Work have sold over 30 million albums worldwide.
On 28 May 2001 "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs. In October 2010, Business as Usual was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.
Members
Colin Hay has been the only constant member in all configurations.
Present
Colin Hay – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, bass (1978–1986, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; 2019–present)
Current touring members
Jimmy Branly – drums (2019–present)
San Miguel Perez – guitar, backing vocals (2019–present)
Yosmel Montejo – bass, backing vocals (2019–present)
Scheila Gonzalez – saxophone, flute, keyboards, backing vocals (2019–present)
Cecilia Noel – backing vocals (2019–present)
Former
Ron Strykert – lead guitar, bass, vocals (1978–1985)
Jerry Speiser – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1979–1984)
Greg Ham – keyboards, vocals, saxophone, harmonica, flute (1979–1985, 1996–2002; occasional performances until 2012; died 2012)
John Rees – bass, backing vocals (1980–1984)
Former touring members
Jeremy Alsop – bass, backing vocals (1985–1986)
James Black – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Mark Kennedy – drums (1985)
Colin Bayley – guitar, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Chad Wackerman – drums, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Paul Williamson – saxophone, keyboards, backing vocals (1985–1986)
Simon Hosford – guitar, backing vocals (1996–1998, 1999–2001)
Stephen Hadley – bass, backing vocals (1996–1998, 2001)
John Watson – drums (1996–1997)
Tony Floyd – drums (1997–1998, 1999–2000)
Rick Grossman – bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
James Ryan — guitar, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Peter Maslen – drums (1998–1999)
Stuart Speed — bass, backing vocals (1998–1999)
Rodrigo Aravena – bass, backing vocals (2000–2001)
Heta Moses – drums (2000–2001)
Warren Trout – drums (2001)
Discography
Business as Usual (1981)
Cargo (1983)
Two Hearts (1985)
See also
Artists achieving simultaneous US and UK number-one hits
References
General
Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
Specific
APRA Award winners
ARIA Award winners
ARIA Hall of Fame inductees
Australian new wave musical groups
Australian pop rock groups
Columbia Records artists
Epic Records artists
Grammy Award winners
Juno Award for International Album of the Year winners
Musical groups established in 1978
Musical groups disestablished in 1986
Musical groups reestablished in 1996
Musical groups disestablished in 2002
Musical groups reestablished in 2019
Musical groups from Melbourne
Reggae rock groups
Victoria (Australia) musical groups
Musical quintets
1978 establishments in Australia
| true |
[
"\"Two of Hearts\" is a song by American singer Stacey Q, first issued as an independent 12-inch dance club single by On the Spot Records, then picked up by Atlantic after achieving regional sales. Written by John Mitchell, the song was Stacey Q's biggest hit; its global sales success fueled the recording of her debut album Better Than Heaven (1986), which included the song. \n\nMusically, \"Two of Hearts\" is a hi-NRG song. It utilizes vocal sampling with the repetitive usage of the line \"I need you\" in its hook. The song's lyrics revolve around love and romance. \"Two of Hearts\" received positive reviews from music critics and was a commercial success around the globe. It entered the US Billboard Hot 100 in mid-July 1986, breaking into the top 40 in mid-August and peaking at number three during the autumn of that same year to become one of the highest-selling singles of 1986. \"Two of Hearts\" was ranked number 27 on VH1's \"100 Greatest One Hit Wonders of the '80s\", although follow-up single \"We Connect\" was a minor hit on the Hot 100 (peaking at #35). \n\nThe accompanying music video for \"Two of Hearts\" was directed by Peter Lippman. It depicts Stacey Q dancing in front of a white background in various outfits and performing at a nightclub. \"Two of Hearts\" has been covered by a number of artists and has appeared in feature films such as Nowhere, Little Nicky, Party Monster, and Hot Rod (where it was done to punchdance). It has also been featured as a ringtone in the 2020 TV series \"The Flight Attendant\". Stacey Q also performed the song on a season eight episode of The Facts Of Life.\n\nBackground and recording\nAfter the release of the album Playback (1983) with the band SSQ, Stacey Q began working with Jon St. James on her solo material. St. James brought her the song \"Two of Hearts,\" suggesting that she record it. At first, Stacey Q refused to record a song written by someone else, but later she changed her mind. The single was co-produced by St. James who owned the recording studio, William Walker, and nightclub deejay Jeff Fishman. The artist and producers promoted the single, especially to Latin music audiences in Los Angeles and Miami. The song was picked up by Atlantic Records to be released as the lead single from Q's debut studio album Better Than Heaven (1986). They recorded the album in three weeks while the song was climbing the charts.\n\nThe song was prominently featured in the Facts of Life episode \"Off-Broadway Baby\" in which Stacey Q appeared as the character Cinnamon, a teenage singer largely modeled on herself; the episode ends with her performing the song in a radio station's sound booth.\n\nCover versions and sampling\n Japanese singer Yōko Nagayama covered the song in Japanese in her 1986 album Venus.\n Vietnamese singer Ngoc Tuyet covered the song, but titled \"Đoi Tim Nong Say\" in the fall of 1986.\n British DJ and producer Jakatta sampled the spoken word section from 'Two of Hearts' in his 2001 single 'American Dreams'\n Kelly Osbourne's cover of the song appears as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of her 2005 album Sleeping in the Nothing.\n Brad Walsh released a version in 2006.\n Purple Crush released a version in 2007.\n In 2007, the Korean pop group Wonder Girls sampled \"Two of Hearts\" in their single \"Tell Me\", produced by JYP Entertainment.\n Norwegian singer Annie covered the song in 2008.\n Akina Nakamori covered the song in her 2017 cover album Cage.\n The “I need you” is parodied and covered in a Burger King commercial which sings “I need big king, I need two.”\n\nTrack listings\n\nUS 7-inch single (On the Spot Records)\n\"Two of Hearts\" (7\" Version) – 3:33\n\"Shy Girl\" – 3:43\n\nUS 12-inch single (On the Spot Records)\n\"Two of Hearts\" (European Mix) – 7:29\n\"Two of Hearts\" (Dance Mix) – 6:00\n\"Two of Hearts\" (Radio Edit) – 3:45\n\"Stacey's Dream (A Capella) – 2:35\n\nUS 7-inch single (Atlantic Records)\n\"Two of Hearts\" (Radio Edit) – 3:58\n\"Dancing Nowhere\" – 3:43\n\nUS 12-inch single (Atlantic Records)\n\"Two of Hearts\" (Vocal / European Dance Mix) – 6:00\n\"Two of Hearts\" (Instrumental) – 4:39\n\"Two of Hearts\" (Vocal / Radio Edit) – 3:58\n\"Stacey's Dream (A Capella) – 2:32\n\nCredits and personnel\n Stacey Q – vocals\n Jon St. James – production, keyboards\n Rich West – keyboards\n Skip Hahn – keyboards\n Karl Moet – drums\n Jeff C. Fishman – associate production\n William J. Walker – associate production\n Lester Cohen – photography\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n1986 singles\n1986 songs\nAtlantic Records singles\nRPM Top Singles number-one singles\nStacey Q songs",
"Stacey Q is the first extended play by American singer Stacey Q, released in 1985 by On the Spot Records. It was only released in cassette format limited to 500 copies. Produced by Jon St. James, the EP features an early version of her hit song \"Two of Hearts\", which would later peak at number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and become one of the highest-selling singles of 1986. Other songs on the EP include \"Dancing Nowhere,\" later featured, along with the updated version of \"Two of Hearts,\" on her debut album Better Than Heaven (1986) and \"Dancing in the Dark\", a cover version of Kim Wilde's song. \"Shy Girl\" was released as a single.\n\nBackground and recording\nAfter the release of the album Playback (1983) with the band SSQ, Swain began working with Jon St. James on her solo material. St. James brought the song \"Two of Hearts\" and wanted her to record it. The song was originally intended for Sue Gatlin who co-wrote it with John Mitchell and Tim Greene. At first, Swain refused to record a song written by someone else, but later she changed her mind and decided to record it. After being signed by Atlantic Records, \"Two of Hearts\" was included on her debut album Better Than Heaven (1986).\n\nTrack listing\n\nThe cassette features the same program on each side.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1985 debut EPs\nStacey Q albums"
] |
[
"Tony Orlando",
"Early life and career"
] |
C_4598c4492aef4f269f626d07006018e2_1
|
Where was Tony Orlando born?
| 1 |
Where was Tony Orlando born?
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Tony Orlando
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Tony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to songwrite in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2. New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn. CANNOTANSWER
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He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York.
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Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis (born April 3, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, music executive, radio personality and actor. He is best known for his work as part of Tony Orlando and Dawn as well as their 1970s recordings and television show. His career in the music industry has spanned over 60 years.
Orlando formed the doo-wop group The Five Gents in 1958 at the age of 14, with whom he recorded demos that got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner. At the age of 17, in 1961, Orlando released the song "Ding Dong" on the MILO record label. Kirshner hired him to write songs at 1650 Broadway, Manhattan as part New York's thriving Brill Building songwriting community, along with other songwriters Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who did not make it in the office until they later changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Orlando was also hired to sing on songwriter demos, and singles released with Orlando as a solo artist began to enter the charts in the US and the UK beginning in 1961 with "Halfway to Paradise" and "Bless You" when he was 16. Orlando continued as a solo artist and also became a producer himself, as well as a successful music executive in the late 1960s. He was hired by Clive Davis as the general manager of Columbia Records' publishing imprint, April-Blackwood Music in 1967, and by the late 1960s had been promoted to vice-president of Columbia/CBS Music.
In 1969, Orlando signed Barry Manilow to his first recording contract with Bell Records, co-writing with him and producing Manilow's earliest tracks. He also worked with other artists, such as The Yardbirds, James Taylor, Grateful Dead, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Laura Nyro. He recorded "Candida" as lead vocalist under the pseudonym "Dawn" in 1970, and when the song became an international number-one song, he began to use his name in the group becoming "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando" and then "Tony Orlando and Dawn". The group had 19 other top 40 tracks, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", the top-selling hit of 1973 and one of the biggest selling singles of all time. The group also had a hit variety program, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS from 1974 to 1976. They then broke up in 1978, after which he has performed as Tony Orlando.
In 1993 he opened the Tony Orlando Yellow Ribbon Music Theatre in Branson, Missouri. He ended his act there in 2013. He has since continued to perform many live shows as a headliner, mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Early life and career
Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis was born on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey, and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to write songs in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.
New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn.
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Orlando recorded the record "Candida", with backup singers including Toni Wine (who wrote the song) and Linda November. Concerned about a possible conflict of interest with his April-Blackwood duties, Orlando sang under the condition that his name not be associated with the project, so it was released under the simple name of "Dawn", the middle name of the daughter of Bell records executive Steve Wax.
"Candida" became a worldwide hit in 1970, reaching number one in five countries, and the top ten in many others, including number three in the United States. Dawn, with Wine and November again singing backup, recorded another song, "Knock Three Times", which itself became a #1 hit. Orlando then wanted to go on tour, and asked two other session singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson to join for the tour. Orlando then discovered that there were six touring groups using that name, so Dawn became "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando", which changed to Tony Orlando and Dawn in 1973.
The new group recorded more hits, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" (1973) and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" (1975), a cover of the Jerry Butler hit, "He Will Break Your Heart". With a successful recording career, Orlando then set his sights on television. As described in The San Francisco Chronicle, "Tony Orlando and Dawn burst out of television sets during the Ford administration, a sunny antidote to the dark cynicism that followed Watergate. He represented simple, traditional values, a conservative return to pure entertainment. He drew a happy face in the "O" of his autograph. It was not terribly cool, but America loved him." The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS became a hit, a summer replacement for the Sonny & Cher show, and ran for four seasons from 1974 to 1976. It welcomed the biggest names in show business each week as Orlando's guests, including his boyhood idols, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Lewis.
At the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, Orlando danced to the tune of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" with then First Lady Betty Ford. The media stated that it was to divert attention as Nancy Reagan entered the Kemper Arena convention hall. However, in Orlando's book Halfway to Paradise, he states that Mrs. Reagan was asked what her favorite song was, which happened to be "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", so it was chosen as her entrance song. Ronald Reagan unsuccessfully challenged Gerald Ford, for the presidential nomination that year but came back in 1980 to claim the presidency itself. Ray Barnhart, a Reagan co-manager from Texas, criticized Mrs. Ford for having "danced a jig" with Orlando. Barbara Staff, another Texas co-chairman, called Betty Ford's behavior "a low, cheap shot".
On October 12, 2015, with Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson present, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters honored Orlando with their Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award at a celebrity luncheon.
Late 1970s struggles and solo work
Along with the fame, Orlando had personal battles in the 1970s. He was briefly addicted to cocaine, and battled both obesity and depression. In 1977, due to the death of his sister, and the suicide of Orlando's close friend, comedian Freddie Prinze, Orlando had a breakdown, and retired from singing. He was briefly institutionalized, but returned to television with an NBC comeback special. From then, he continued as a solo artist, charting with two singles - the dance hit "Don't Let Go" in 1978 and "Sweets For My Sweet" in 1979. In the 1980s, he was a dominant force in Las Vegas, headlining various hotels with sold-out audiences.
Orlando continued primarily as a solo singer, performing on tour and regularly in Las Vegas and Branson, Missouri. He hosted the New York City portions of the MDA Labor Day Telethon on WWOR-TV since the 1980s but quit in 2011 in response to Jerry Lewis' firing from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He has won the Casino Entertainer of the Year Award, the Best All Around Entertainer - Las Vegas four times, and, prior to that, three times in Atlantic City, the Jukebox Artist of the Year Award from the Amusement and Music Owners Association of New York, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and has also been bestowed with The Bob Hope Award for excellence in entertainment from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in honor of his efforts on behalf of United States veterans. His work on behalf of American veterans led to his being named Honorary Chairman at the 40th Anniversary at the NAM-POW's Homecoming Celebration at the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library in 2014.
Orlando serves on the Board of Directors for the Eisenhower Foundation, as well as Honorary Chairman of Snowball Express, an organization that serves the children of fallen military heroes. He hosts the annual Congressional Medal of Honor dinner in Dallas, Texas. He has served as the Master of Ceremonies at the Secretary of Defense Freedom Awards at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
In 2020, Orlando began hosting a Saturday night oldies program for WABC Radio as the New York City station partially restored its music format.
Acting career
Orlando's first TV appearance was in 1976 on the series Chico and the Man as "Tomas Garcia".
Orlando starred in the 1981 TV movie 300 Miles For Stephanie, playing a police officer who promises to walk over 300 miles to a sanctuary in order to obtain God's help to cure Stephanie, his gravely ill daughter. Others in the cast included Edward James Olmos, Pepe Serna and Julie Carmen.
In May 1981, Orlando appeared on Broadway in the title role of Barnum, replacing Jim Dale, who was on a three-week vacation.
During the 1984–85 season of The Cosby Show (its first season), Orlando played Tony Castillo, who runs a community center. He had a cameo appearance as himself in the 2002 film Waking Up In Reno, in which he sang a version of "Knock Three Times".
In 2003, Orlando had a recurring role in the children's animated series Oswald, in which he did the voice of "Sammy Starfish".
Orlando appeared in an episode of MADtv doing a sketch involving a court case, where the defense sings to persuade the jury about their side. He sang for the prosecution, thereby persuading the judge to give the defense jail for life. In another television program, Orlando was featured in "Larry the Cable Guy's Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza". He appeared in That's My Boy as Steve Spirou, a Happy Madison production starring Adam Sandler in 2012.
Personal life
Orlando was introduced by Jerry Lee Lewis to his future wife, Elaine, who had previously dated Buddy Holly. Tony and Elaine married in 1965, and had one child, Jon; they divorced in 1984. Five years later, Orlando was engaged to Francine Amormino, whom he married in 1991. The couple remained married as of 2014; they have one child.
On February 27, 2013, his mother, Ruth Schroeder of Hollister, Missouri, died in Branson, Missouri of a diabetic stroke.
In 2002, he wrote a memoir, Halfway to Paradise. Tony and Francine Orlando live in Branson, Missouri, with their daughter, Jenny Rose. Orlando's son Jon Orlando, from his first marriage, was a comedian from 1993 to 2002. Jon lives in Las Vegas and is currently the host of The Action Junkeez Podcast as well as Wise Kracks Podcast with the legendary sports bettor Bill Krackenberger. It was announced on September 7, 2021 that Jon was hired as the CEO of MaximNFT.
Orlando was interviewed on The 700 Club explaining that he was raised Catholic and was "brought up with the Lord as my Savior"; but after a self-destructive period following his professional success with Dawn, he became a born-again Christian in 1978.
Discography
Albums
Bless You and 11 Other Great Hits (1961)
Make Believe (1969) (with 'Wind')
Before Dawn (1973)
Tony Orlando (1978)
I Got Rhythm (1979)
Livin' for the Music (1980)
Halfway to Paradise: The Complete Epic Masters 1961-1964 (2006)
Bless You (2014)
Solo singles
See also
List of Puerto Ricans
Tony Orlando and Dawn (TV series)
References
External links
Classicbands.com
1944 births
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American singers
American male musical theatre actors
American male pop singers
American male television actors
American people of Greek descent
American people of Puerto Rican descent
Television personalities from New York City
Bell Records artists
Living people
Male actors from Missouri
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from New York City
People from Branson, Missouri
People from Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
People from Union City, New Jersey
Singers from Missouri
Singers from New Jersey
Singers from New York City
Tony Orlando and Dawn members
20th-century American male singers
21st-century American male singers
| false |
[
"Candida is a 1970 album by Dawn, a studio session group including Tony Orlando, Toni Wine, and Linda November. Orlando was singing under the group name \"Dawn\" in order to avoid problems with his contract with his other label, CBS. However, after the success of the album tracks \"Candida\" and \"Knock Three Times\", he invited two other singers to become the real-life \"Dawn\", and then \"Tony Orlando and Dawn\" could tour in support of the songs.\n\nTrack listing\n\n2005 CD edition\n\nIn 2005, a 35th anniversary compilation was released featuring the original track listing plus nine bonus tracks. The Bonus Tracks are from the group's 1971 second album, \"Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando featuring What Are You Doing Sunday\" (Bell 6069), later reissued as \"Tony Orlando & Dawn II\" (Bell 1322) in 1974.\n\nProduction\nArranged by Norman Bergen\nProduced by Hank Medress, Phil & Mitch Margo and Jay Siegel\nEngineered by Billy Radice\n\nReferences\n\n1970 debut albums\nTony Orlando and Dawn albums\nBell Records albums\nRazor & Tie albums",
"Tony Orlando and Dawn is an American pop music group that was popular in the 1970s, composed of singer Tony Orlando and the backing vocal group Dawn (Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson). Their signature hits include \"Candida\", \"Knock Three Times\", \"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree\", \"Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose\", and \"He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)\".\n\nEarly history\nTony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on April 3, 1944. Orlando recorded through the 1960s with only moderate chart success. He had three Top 40 hits, two in 1961 and another in 1969 as the lead singer for the studio group Wind. While recording through the 1960s, he also became a producer and a successful music executive with Columbia Records and April/Blackwood music.\n\nWhile working as a music executive, Orlando received \"Candida,\" a song other producers and singers had turned down. Originally, Orlando could not lend his name to the song, as he was working for April-Blackwood and recording under his name would be a professional conflict of interest. After producer Hank Medress insisted Orlando dub his voice over the male vocals on the original track, Bell Records released the single as being performed by the band \"Dawn\" to protect Orlando's position.\n\nThe background singers on the track were Cynthia Weil, Linda November, Jay Siegel, and Toni Wine, who co-wrote the song. Phil Margo played drums on the original session, and the arranger was Norman Bergen. After the single hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 (No.1 on the Cashbox Top 100), Orlando wanted to perform again. The ensemble recorded the 1970 album Candida, which included the namesake song and the No. 1 hit song \"Knock Three Times\".\n\nBell Records was desperate to have a real-life act to promote Dawn's records. Orlando asked former Motown/Stax backing vocalists Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson, whom he had hired to work as background vocalists while producing Barry Manilow in the late 1960s, to become Dawn. The threesome then went on the road in 1971, on the success of \"Candida\" and \"Knock Three Times\". After a tour of Europe, Hopkins and Vincent assumed background vocal duties in the studio, first recording on the late 1971 album Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando. The first single with their voices in the background was \"Runaway/Happy Together\" in 1972.\n\nThe group (now billed as 'Dawn featuring Tony Orlando') released another single in 1973, and it became their next No. 1 single — \"Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree.\" In terms of sales, this single was the most successful in the group's career, starting a string of eleven consecutive Hot 100 appearances by the group.\n\nOn The Carol Burnett Show in 1975, Harvey Korman, Carol Burnett, and Vicki Lawrence did a spoof of Tony Orlando and Dawn, as Tony Tallahassee and Dusk, singing \"Wrap Your Jammies Round the Old White Pine\". At the end of the number, they were kicked off the stage by the real Tony Orlando and Dawn. Earlier, Lawrence's \"The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia\" had immediately preceded Dawn's \"Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree\" at the top position of the Hot 100 in April 1973.\n\nPeriod of group's variety show \n\nThe group's next single, \"Say, Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose\" (from their concept album Dawn's New Ragtime Follies), went to No. 3 on the Hot 100, followed by Top 40 hits \"Who's In The Strawberry Patch With Sally\" (the first single with recording credit \"Tony Orlando & Dawn\") (No. 27), \"Steppin' Out (Gonna Boogie Tonight)\" (No.7), and, with some disco influence, Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter's \"Look in My Eyes Pretty Woman\" (from the trio's 1974 album Prime Time) (No.11).\n\nCBS gave the group a television variety show (entitled Tony Orlando and Dawn) from the summer of 1974, after The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour ended its run, until December 1976. The show was in the same vein as its predecessor (with sketches featuring sarcastic back-and-forth banter between Orlando, Hopkins and Vincent, similar to the sarcastic dialogue between Sonny and Cher) and became a Top 20 hit.\n\nWith a new record label (Elektra), the group continued their string of hit singles during the show's run, hitting #1 on both the Hot 100 and the adult contemporary charts with \"He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)\" (a reworking of Jerry Butler's \"He Will Break Your Heart\"), from the album of the same name, and \"Mornin' Beautiful\" (#14). In 1975 \"You're All I Need to Get By\", followed in 1976 by \"Cupid\", both from their final original album To Be with You, became the group's last two Top 40 singles on the Hot 100. \"Sing\" reached No. 7 on the Adult Contemporary Chart in 1977. The group went their separate ways later that year and would have only one more single, 1991's \"With Ev'ry Yellow Ribbon (That's Why We Tie 'Em)\".\n\nLater career\nThey re-formed in 1988 for a five-week tour that wound up lasting into 1993, with Pamela Vincent stepping in whenever Hopkins was fulfilling her acting/television obligations.\n\nOrlando is still a popular appearance performer on tour regularly with the Lefty Brothers and Toni Wine. Hopkins made a very successful acting career for herself in series such as Bosom Buddies, Gimme a Break, Family Matters, Half and Half, and Are We There Yet. The Vincent Sisters continue a prolific career as session singers. A DVD compilation from the variety series was released in 2005 along with the group's catalog of albums on CD. Tony Orlando & Dawn released A Christmas Reunion that same year. Publicity events for those releases marked the first time Hopkins, and both Vincent Sisters appeared onstage together. Toni Wine also participated in those shows. The group was inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2008.\n\nTony Orlando and Dawn occasionally reunites for television and benefit performances. In 2009, Joyce Vincent joined Scherrie Payne and Lynda Laurence's Former Ladies of the Supremes' group. She continues to tour and perform to audiences all over the world. Tony Orlando, Telma Hopkins, and Joyce Vincent reunited again in 2015 for the sold-out \"Tony Orlando and Dawn: To Be with You Again\" tour and appeared at Chiller Theatre in Parsippany, NJ, and again for a successful Christmas tour in late-2018.\n\nDiscography\n\n Candida (1970)\n Dawn Featuring Tony Orlando (1971)\n Tuneweaving (1973)\n Dawn's New Ragtime Follies (1973)\n Prime Time (1974)\n He Don't Love You (Like I Love You) (1975)\n Skybird (1975)\n To Be With You (1976)\n Christmas Reunion (2005)\n\nSee also \n Tony Orlando and Dawn (TV series)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Tony Orlando Official Site\n \n\n1974 American television series debuts\n1976 American television series endings\nAmerican pop music groups\n1970s American variety television series\nBell Records artists\nArista Records artists\nElektra Records artists\nMusical groups disestablished in 1977\nMusical groups established in 1970"
] |
[
"Tony Orlando",
"Early life and career",
"Where was Tony Orlando born?",
"He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York."
] |
C_4598c4492aef4f269f626d07006018e2_1
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Where did he live later?
| 2 |
Where did Tony Orlando live later?
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Tony Orlando
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Tony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to songwrite in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2. New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn. CANNOTANSWER
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In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
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Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis (born April 3, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, music executive, radio personality and actor. He is best known for his work as part of Tony Orlando and Dawn as well as their 1970s recordings and television show. His career in the music industry has spanned over 60 years.
Orlando formed the doo-wop group The Five Gents in 1958 at the age of 14, with whom he recorded demos that got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner. At the age of 17, in 1961, Orlando released the song "Ding Dong" on the MILO record label. Kirshner hired him to write songs at 1650 Broadway, Manhattan as part New York's thriving Brill Building songwriting community, along with other songwriters Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who did not make it in the office until they later changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Orlando was also hired to sing on songwriter demos, and singles released with Orlando as a solo artist began to enter the charts in the US and the UK beginning in 1961 with "Halfway to Paradise" and "Bless You" when he was 16. Orlando continued as a solo artist and also became a producer himself, as well as a successful music executive in the late 1960s. He was hired by Clive Davis as the general manager of Columbia Records' publishing imprint, April-Blackwood Music in 1967, and by the late 1960s had been promoted to vice-president of Columbia/CBS Music.
In 1969, Orlando signed Barry Manilow to his first recording contract with Bell Records, co-writing with him and producing Manilow's earliest tracks. He also worked with other artists, such as The Yardbirds, James Taylor, Grateful Dead, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Laura Nyro. He recorded "Candida" as lead vocalist under the pseudonym "Dawn" in 1970, and when the song became an international number-one song, he began to use his name in the group becoming "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando" and then "Tony Orlando and Dawn". The group had 19 other top 40 tracks, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", the top-selling hit of 1973 and one of the biggest selling singles of all time. The group also had a hit variety program, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS from 1974 to 1976. They then broke up in 1978, after which he has performed as Tony Orlando.
In 1993 he opened the Tony Orlando Yellow Ribbon Music Theatre in Branson, Missouri. He ended his act there in 2013. He has since continued to perform many live shows as a headliner, mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Early life and career
Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis was born on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey, and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to write songs in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.
New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn.
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Orlando recorded the record "Candida", with backup singers including Toni Wine (who wrote the song) and Linda November. Concerned about a possible conflict of interest with his April-Blackwood duties, Orlando sang under the condition that his name not be associated with the project, so it was released under the simple name of "Dawn", the middle name of the daughter of Bell records executive Steve Wax.
"Candida" became a worldwide hit in 1970, reaching number one in five countries, and the top ten in many others, including number three in the United States. Dawn, with Wine and November again singing backup, recorded another song, "Knock Three Times", which itself became a #1 hit. Orlando then wanted to go on tour, and asked two other session singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson to join for the tour. Orlando then discovered that there were six touring groups using that name, so Dawn became "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando", which changed to Tony Orlando and Dawn in 1973.
The new group recorded more hits, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" (1973) and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" (1975), a cover of the Jerry Butler hit, "He Will Break Your Heart". With a successful recording career, Orlando then set his sights on television. As described in The San Francisco Chronicle, "Tony Orlando and Dawn burst out of television sets during the Ford administration, a sunny antidote to the dark cynicism that followed Watergate. He represented simple, traditional values, a conservative return to pure entertainment. He drew a happy face in the "O" of his autograph. It was not terribly cool, but America loved him." The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS became a hit, a summer replacement for the Sonny & Cher show, and ran for four seasons from 1974 to 1976. It welcomed the biggest names in show business each week as Orlando's guests, including his boyhood idols, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Lewis.
At the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, Orlando danced to the tune of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" with then First Lady Betty Ford. The media stated that it was to divert attention as Nancy Reagan entered the Kemper Arena convention hall. However, in Orlando's book Halfway to Paradise, he states that Mrs. Reagan was asked what her favorite song was, which happened to be "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", so it was chosen as her entrance song. Ronald Reagan unsuccessfully challenged Gerald Ford, for the presidential nomination that year but came back in 1980 to claim the presidency itself. Ray Barnhart, a Reagan co-manager from Texas, criticized Mrs. Ford for having "danced a jig" with Orlando. Barbara Staff, another Texas co-chairman, called Betty Ford's behavior "a low, cheap shot".
On October 12, 2015, with Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson present, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters honored Orlando with their Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award at a celebrity luncheon.
Late 1970s struggles and solo work
Along with the fame, Orlando had personal battles in the 1970s. He was briefly addicted to cocaine, and battled both obesity and depression. In 1977, due to the death of his sister, and the suicide of Orlando's close friend, comedian Freddie Prinze, Orlando had a breakdown, and retired from singing. He was briefly institutionalized, but returned to television with an NBC comeback special. From then, he continued as a solo artist, charting with two singles - the dance hit "Don't Let Go" in 1978 and "Sweets For My Sweet" in 1979. In the 1980s, he was a dominant force in Las Vegas, headlining various hotels with sold-out audiences.
Orlando continued primarily as a solo singer, performing on tour and regularly in Las Vegas and Branson, Missouri. He hosted the New York City portions of the MDA Labor Day Telethon on WWOR-TV since the 1980s but quit in 2011 in response to Jerry Lewis' firing from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He has won the Casino Entertainer of the Year Award, the Best All Around Entertainer - Las Vegas four times, and, prior to that, three times in Atlantic City, the Jukebox Artist of the Year Award from the Amusement and Music Owners Association of New York, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and has also been bestowed with The Bob Hope Award for excellence in entertainment from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in honor of his efforts on behalf of United States veterans. His work on behalf of American veterans led to his being named Honorary Chairman at the 40th Anniversary at the NAM-POW's Homecoming Celebration at the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library in 2014.
Orlando serves on the Board of Directors for the Eisenhower Foundation, as well as Honorary Chairman of Snowball Express, an organization that serves the children of fallen military heroes. He hosts the annual Congressional Medal of Honor dinner in Dallas, Texas. He has served as the Master of Ceremonies at the Secretary of Defense Freedom Awards at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
In 2020, Orlando began hosting a Saturday night oldies program for WABC Radio as the New York City station partially restored its music format.
Acting career
Orlando's first TV appearance was in 1976 on the series Chico and the Man as "Tomas Garcia".
Orlando starred in the 1981 TV movie 300 Miles For Stephanie, playing a police officer who promises to walk over 300 miles to a sanctuary in order to obtain God's help to cure Stephanie, his gravely ill daughter. Others in the cast included Edward James Olmos, Pepe Serna and Julie Carmen.
In May 1981, Orlando appeared on Broadway in the title role of Barnum, replacing Jim Dale, who was on a three-week vacation.
During the 1984–85 season of The Cosby Show (its first season), Orlando played Tony Castillo, who runs a community center. He had a cameo appearance as himself in the 2002 film Waking Up In Reno, in which he sang a version of "Knock Three Times".
In 2003, Orlando had a recurring role in the children's animated series Oswald, in which he did the voice of "Sammy Starfish".
Orlando appeared in an episode of MADtv doing a sketch involving a court case, where the defense sings to persuade the jury about their side. He sang for the prosecution, thereby persuading the judge to give the defense jail for life. In another television program, Orlando was featured in "Larry the Cable Guy's Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza". He appeared in That's My Boy as Steve Spirou, a Happy Madison production starring Adam Sandler in 2012.
Personal life
Orlando was introduced by Jerry Lee Lewis to his future wife, Elaine, who had previously dated Buddy Holly. Tony and Elaine married in 1965, and had one child, Jon; they divorced in 1984. Five years later, Orlando was engaged to Francine Amormino, whom he married in 1991. The couple remained married as of 2014; they have one child.
On February 27, 2013, his mother, Ruth Schroeder of Hollister, Missouri, died in Branson, Missouri of a diabetic stroke.
In 2002, he wrote a memoir, Halfway to Paradise. Tony and Francine Orlando live in Branson, Missouri, with their daughter, Jenny Rose. Orlando's son Jon Orlando, from his first marriage, was a comedian from 1993 to 2002. Jon lives in Las Vegas and is currently the host of The Action Junkeez Podcast as well as Wise Kracks Podcast with the legendary sports bettor Bill Krackenberger. It was announced on September 7, 2021 that Jon was hired as the CEO of MaximNFT.
Orlando was interviewed on The 700 Club explaining that he was raised Catholic and was "brought up with the Lord as my Savior"; but after a self-destructive period following his professional success with Dawn, he became a born-again Christian in 1978.
Discography
Albums
Bless You and 11 Other Great Hits (1961)
Make Believe (1969) (with 'Wind')
Before Dawn (1973)
Tony Orlando (1978)
I Got Rhythm (1979)
Livin' for the Music (1980)
Halfway to Paradise: The Complete Epic Masters 1961-1964 (2006)
Bless You (2014)
Solo singles
See also
List of Puerto Ricans
Tony Orlando and Dawn (TV series)
References
External links
Classicbands.com
1944 births
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American singers
American male musical theatre actors
American male pop singers
American male television actors
American people of Greek descent
American people of Puerto Rican descent
Television personalities from New York City
Bell Records artists
Living people
Male actors from Missouri
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from New York City
People from Branson, Missouri
People from Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
People from Union City, New Jersey
Singers from Missouri
Singers from New Jersey
Singers from New York City
Tony Orlando and Dawn members
20th-century American male singers
21st-century American male singers
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[
"Mark Rios (born 1987 in Barcelona; professionally known as Mr. Dripping) is a Spanish artist and fashion designer. His works have been exhibited in Barcelona, Madrid, Florence, New York, Miami, and Los Angeles.\n\nEducation\nMark grew up in Barcelona, Spain where he studied art at the Frederic Mistral school and later enrolled in the ESDi School of Design where he directed his career towards fashion designing.\n\nCareer\nHe started his career with his own brand of clothing and bags that he was selling in multi-brand stores around the country. In 2015, he took the art using dripping method as a career. Dripping is a technique originally developed by Max Ernst in Germany and later used by American artist, Jackson Pollock. In the following year he moved to New York City and did his first show at PHD Dream Hotel featuring Kygo and a brand collaboration with Black Pyramid.\n\nHis works have been recognized by Chris Brown, Neymar Jr, Major Lazer, Nyjah Huston, Sara Sampaio, Cindy Kimberly, Nieves Álvarez, Sergio Agüero, Karim Benzema, Antonio Banderas, Thomas Pieters, Dsquared, Tom Cruise, Sebastián Yatra, Xavi Hernandez etc.\n\nIn December 2017, he exhibited his works in Miami and did a live performance with Major Lazer in the week of Art Basel.\n\nExhibitions\n NH Collection hotel (exhibition)\n El Principal De L’eixample (live)\n NH Collection Hotel (exhibition)\n El Principal de L’eixample (live show)\n Espai BM (exhibition)\n Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II (exhibition and show)\n Axel Hotels (exhibition and show)\n Estrella Damm (event)\n Nuba Lounge (exhibition and show)\n Barcelona Design Gallery (representation)\n 080 Barcelona (fashion week shows for brands) Moto GP Monster Grand Prix (live show)\n Formula 1 circuit Catalunya (exhibition and live show) MACBA (private event live show)\n Olivia Valere Marbella (live show)\n Barcelona Football team stadium (live show)\n Black pyramid Brand (live show) Barcelona, Spain\n Miquel Suay Brand (live show)\n One night in Beijing (exhibition and live show)\n Catalina Island (exhibition)\n The Mondrian Hotel (live show)\n Universal Gallery (exhibition)\n ME Hotel in Dubai (residency exhibition)\n Hotel At Six (exhibition)\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\n1987 births\nSpanish artists\nArtists from Barcelona\nPeople from Barcelona\nSpanish fashion designers\n20th-century Spanish artists\nUniversity Ramon Llull alumni",
"Where Quality Is Job #1 is a double-7\" EP by the punk rock band Propagandhi, released by Recess Records in 1994. It contains ten early demo and live recordings. The sound quality and packaging are consciously poor, featuring hand-written etched designs instead of labels as well as a confusing error and doodle-filled liner note sheet with reference to songs that did not appear on the EP while omitting songs that did.\n\nTrack listing\n7\" #1\n\nSide F\n \"Die for the Flag\" – 4:01\n (guitar solo, song unknown) – 1:01\n\nSide U\n \"Degrassi Jr. High Dropouts\" 0:04\n \"Bent\" – 2:30\n \"Greenest Eyes (live)\" – 1:03\n \"Who Will Help Me Bake This Bread? (live)\" – 2:39\n\n7\" #2\n\nSide C\n \"Kill Bill Harcus\" – 1:12\n \"Support Gun Control...Kill a Hunter\" – 1:48\n \"Hidden Curriculum\" – 1:04\n\nSide K Off\n \"Gov't Cartoons (live)\" – 3:43\n \"Leg-Hold Trap (live)\" – 2:58\n\nMiscellanea\nRather than label the sides as A, B, C, and D, Propagandhi chose \"F\", \"U\", \"C\", and \"K Off\".\nThe later compilation album, Where Quantity is Job #1, is a reference to this early release.\nDespite having similar titles and artwork, only \"Leg-Hold Trap,\" \"Gov't Cartoons,\" Bent,\" and \"Hidden Curriculum\" were included on Where Quantity is Job #1 as were the songs \"White, Proud And Stupid\" and \"Fine Day\" which were listed on the liner note insert sheet but did not appear on this EP.\nThere is a five-second snippet of \"Degrassi Jr. High Dropouts\" at the beginning of Side \"U.\" The song appears in its entirety on Where Quantity is Job #1.\n\"Greenest Eyes\" is an early version and first part of the song \"Showdown (G.E./P.)\" on How to Clean Everything.\n\"Kill Bill Harcus\" is an early version of the song \"The Only Good Fascist is a Very Dead Fascist\" on Less Talk, More Rock.\n\n1994 EPs\nPropagandhi albums"
] |
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"Tony Orlando",
"Early life and career",
"Where was Tony Orlando born?",
"He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York.",
"Where did he live later?",
"In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey."
] |
C_4598c4492aef4f269f626d07006018e2_1
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Who was his father?
| 3 |
Who was Tony Orlando's father?
|
Tony Orlando
|
Tony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to songwrite in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2. New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn. CANNOTANSWER
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the son of a Greek father
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Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis (born April 3, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, music executive, radio personality and actor. He is best known for his work as part of Tony Orlando and Dawn as well as their 1970s recordings and television show. His career in the music industry has spanned over 60 years.
Orlando formed the doo-wop group The Five Gents in 1958 at the age of 14, with whom he recorded demos that got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner. At the age of 17, in 1961, Orlando released the song "Ding Dong" on the MILO record label. Kirshner hired him to write songs at 1650 Broadway, Manhattan as part New York's thriving Brill Building songwriting community, along with other songwriters Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who did not make it in the office until they later changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Orlando was also hired to sing on songwriter demos, and singles released with Orlando as a solo artist began to enter the charts in the US and the UK beginning in 1961 with "Halfway to Paradise" and "Bless You" when he was 16. Orlando continued as a solo artist and also became a producer himself, as well as a successful music executive in the late 1960s. He was hired by Clive Davis as the general manager of Columbia Records' publishing imprint, April-Blackwood Music in 1967, and by the late 1960s had been promoted to vice-president of Columbia/CBS Music.
In 1969, Orlando signed Barry Manilow to his first recording contract with Bell Records, co-writing with him and producing Manilow's earliest tracks. He also worked with other artists, such as The Yardbirds, James Taylor, Grateful Dead, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Laura Nyro. He recorded "Candida" as lead vocalist under the pseudonym "Dawn" in 1970, and when the song became an international number-one song, he began to use his name in the group becoming "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando" and then "Tony Orlando and Dawn". The group had 19 other top 40 tracks, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", the top-selling hit of 1973 and one of the biggest selling singles of all time. The group also had a hit variety program, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS from 1974 to 1976. They then broke up in 1978, after which he has performed as Tony Orlando.
In 1993 he opened the Tony Orlando Yellow Ribbon Music Theatre in Branson, Missouri. He ended his act there in 2013. He has since continued to perform many live shows as a headliner, mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Early life and career
Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis was born on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey, and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to write songs in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.
New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn.
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Orlando recorded the record "Candida", with backup singers including Toni Wine (who wrote the song) and Linda November. Concerned about a possible conflict of interest with his April-Blackwood duties, Orlando sang under the condition that his name not be associated with the project, so it was released under the simple name of "Dawn", the middle name of the daughter of Bell records executive Steve Wax.
"Candida" became a worldwide hit in 1970, reaching number one in five countries, and the top ten in many others, including number three in the United States. Dawn, with Wine and November again singing backup, recorded another song, "Knock Three Times", which itself became a #1 hit. Orlando then wanted to go on tour, and asked two other session singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson to join for the tour. Orlando then discovered that there were six touring groups using that name, so Dawn became "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando", which changed to Tony Orlando and Dawn in 1973.
The new group recorded more hits, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" (1973) and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" (1975), a cover of the Jerry Butler hit, "He Will Break Your Heart". With a successful recording career, Orlando then set his sights on television. As described in The San Francisco Chronicle, "Tony Orlando and Dawn burst out of television sets during the Ford administration, a sunny antidote to the dark cynicism that followed Watergate. He represented simple, traditional values, a conservative return to pure entertainment. He drew a happy face in the "O" of his autograph. It was not terribly cool, but America loved him." The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS became a hit, a summer replacement for the Sonny & Cher show, and ran for four seasons from 1974 to 1976. It welcomed the biggest names in show business each week as Orlando's guests, including his boyhood idols, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Lewis.
At the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, Orlando danced to the tune of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" with then First Lady Betty Ford. The media stated that it was to divert attention as Nancy Reagan entered the Kemper Arena convention hall. However, in Orlando's book Halfway to Paradise, he states that Mrs. Reagan was asked what her favorite song was, which happened to be "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", so it was chosen as her entrance song. Ronald Reagan unsuccessfully challenged Gerald Ford, for the presidential nomination that year but came back in 1980 to claim the presidency itself. Ray Barnhart, a Reagan co-manager from Texas, criticized Mrs. Ford for having "danced a jig" with Orlando. Barbara Staff, another Texas co-chairman, called Betty Ford's behavior "a low, cheap shot".
On October 12, 2015, with Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson present, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters honored Orlando with their Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award at a celebrity luncheon.
Late 1970s struggles and solo work
Along with the fame, Orlando had personal battles in the 1970s. He was briefly addicted to cocaine, and battled both obesity and depression. In 1977, due to the death of his sister, and the suicide of Orlando's close friend, comedian Freddie Prinze, Orlando had a breakdown, and retired from singing. He was briefly institutionalized, but returned to television with an NBC comeback special. From then, he continued as a solo artist, charting with two singles - the dance hit "Don't Let Go" in 1978 and "Sweets For My Sweet" in 1979. In the 1980s, he was a dominant force in Las Vegas, headlining various hotels with sold-out audiences.
Orlando continued primarily as a solo singer, performing on tour and regularly in Las Vegas and Branson, Missouri. He hosted the New York City portions of the MDA Labor Day Telethon on WWOR-TV since the 1980s but quit in 2011 in response to Jerry Lewis' firing from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He has won the Casino Entertainer of the Year Award, the Best All Around Entertainer - Las Vegas four times, and, prior to that, three times in Atlantic City, the Jukebox Artist of the Year Award from the Amusement and Music Owners Association of New York, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and has also been bestowed with The Bob Hope Award for excellence in entertainment from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in honor of his efforts on behalf of United States veterans. His work on behalf of American veterans led to his being named Honorary Chairman at the 40th Anniversary at the NAM-POW's Homecoming Celebration at the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library in 2014.
Orlando serves on the Board of Directors for the Eisenhower Foundation, as well as Honorary Chairman of Snowball Express, an organization that serves the children of fallen military heroes. He hosts the annual Congressional Medal of Honor dinner in Dallas, Texas. He has served as the Master of Ceremonies at the Secretary of Defense Freedom Awards at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
In 2020, Orlando began hosting a Saturday night oldies program for WABC Radio as the New York City station partially restored its music format.
Acting career
Orlando's first TV appearance was in 1976 on the series Chico and the Man as "Tomas Garcia".
Orlando starred in the 1981 TV movie 300 Miles For Stephanie, playing a police officer who promises to walk over 300 miles to a sanctuary in order to obtain God's help to cure Stephanie, his gravely ill daughter. Others in the cast included Edward James Olmos, Pepe Serna and Julie Carmen.
In May 1981, Orlando appeared on Broadway in the title role of Barnum, replacing Jim Dale, who was on a three-week vacation.
During the 1984–85 season of The Cosby Show (its first season), Orlando played Tony Castillo, who runs a community center. He had a cameo appearance as himself in the 2002 film Waking Up In Reno, in which he sang a version of "Knock Three Times".
In 2003, Orlando had a recurring role in the children's animated series Oswald, in which he did the voice of "Sammy Starfish".
Orlando appeared in an episode of MADtv doing a sketch involving a court case, where the defense sings to persuade the jury about their side. He sang for the prosecution, thereby persuading the judge to give the defense jail for life. In another television program, Orlando was featured in "Larry the Cable Guy's Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza". He appeared in That's My Boy as Steve Spirou, a Happy Madison production starring Adam Sandler in 2012.
Personal life
Orlando was introduced by Jerry Lee Lewis to his future wife, Elaine, who had previously dated Buddy Holly. Tony and Elaine married in 1965, and had one child, Jon; they divorced in 1984. Five years later, Orlando was engaged to Francine Amormino, whom he married in 1991. The couple remained married as of 2014; they have one child.
On February 27, 2013, his mother, Ruth Schroeder of Hollister, Missouri, died in Branson, Missouri of a diabetic stroke.
In 2002, he wrote a memoir, Halfway to Paradise. Tony and Francine Orlando live in Branson, Missouri, with their daughter, Jenny Rose. Orlando's son Jon Orlando, from his first marriage, was a comedian from 1993 to 2002. Jon lives in Las Vegas and is currently the host of The Action Junkeez Podcast as well as Wise Kracks Podcast with the legendary sports bettor Bill Krackenberger. It was announced on September 7, 2021 that Jon was hired as the CEO of MaximNFT.
Orlando was interviewed on The 700 Club explaining that he was raised Catholic and was "brought up with the Lord as my Savior"; but after a self-destructive period following his professional success with Dawn, he became a born-again Christian in 1978.
Discography
Albums
Bless You and 11 Other Great Hits (1961)
Make Believe (1969) (with 'Wind')
Before Dawn (1973)
Tony Orlando (1978)
I Got Rhythm (1979)
Livin' for the Music (1980)
Halfway to Paradise: The Complete Epic Masters 1961-1964 (2006)
Bless You (2014)
Solo singles
See also
List of Puerto Ricans
Tony Orlando and Dawn (TV series)
References
External links
Classicbands.com
1944 births
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American singers
American male musical theatre actors
American male pop singers
American male television actors
American people of Greek descent
American people of Puerto Rican descent
Television personalities from New York City
Bell Records artists
Living people
Male actors from Missouri
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from New York City
People from Branson, Missouri
People from Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
People from Union City, New Jersey
Singers from Missouri
Singers from New Jersey
Singers from New York City
Tony Orlando and Dawn members
20th-century American male singers
21st-century American male singers
| true |
[
"Glayton M. Modise (13 August 1940–9 February 2016) was the leader of one of Africa's mega churches, the International Pentecostal Holiness Church. Glayton was the only son of Frederick Samuel Modise (1914–1998) who founded the IPHC in 1962. After his father's death in 1998, Glayton took over the church until his death on 9 February 2016. Modise also was Co-consecrator of International Minister A. Louise Bonaparte of USA into the Office of Bishop.\n\nEarly life\nModise was born in Soweto, South Africa and initially was under the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) where his father was a minister. After his father received his calling in 1962 to start preaching the Gospel, Modise was one of the people who oversaw some of the smaller branches and the growth of the church. After his father died in 1998, the church grew exponentially.\n\nBeliefs\nModise claimed to have seen a vision from God, who instructed him to purchase a hill in Cape Town, South Africa and rename the hill Mount Zion. The hill, which was known as Blaauwberg Hill, was purchased for R100 million and was renamed Mount Zion. Glayton also continued his father's legacy of having a bursary scheme; the bursary scheme was known as FS Modise bursary scheme but was later renamed to FS Modise MG bursary scheme.\n\nReferences\n\n1940 births\n2016 deaths",
"Thihathura II of Ava (; February 1474 – 4 March 1501) was the joint-king of Ava who co-reigned with his father Minkhaung II for 15 years. When he was just six, his father ascended to the Ava throne and he was made heir-apparent. In 1485, the 11-year-old was made a co-regent. He lived in the same palace with his father, and displayed a white umbrella as a symbol of sovereignty. He co-ruled with his father for 15 years but died a month earlier than his father. Minkhaung, who faced numerous rebellions throughout his reign, made his son joint-king because he wanted to retain loyalty of his son. Minkhaung outlived his son, died in March 1501 and was succeeded by his younger son Shwenankyawshin (Narapati II).\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\n \n \n \n\nBurmese monarchs\nAva dynasty\n1474 births\n1501 deaths\n15th-century Burmese monarchs"
] |
[
"Tony Orlando",
"Early life and career",
"Where was Tony Orlando born?",
"He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York.",
"Where did he live later?",
"In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.",
"Who was his father?",
"the son of a Greek father"
] |
C_4598c4492aef4f269f626d07006018e2_1
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Who was his mother?
| 4 |
Who was Tony Orlando's mother?
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Tony Orlando
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Tony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to songwrite in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2. New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn. CANNOTANSWER
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Puerto Rican mother.
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Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis (born April 3, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, music executive, radio personality and actor. He is best known for his work as part of Tony Orlando and Dawn as well as their 1970s recordings and television show. His career in the music industry has spanned over 60 years.
Orlando formed the doo-wop group The Five Gents in 1958 at the age of 14, with whom he recorded demos that got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner. At the age of 17, in 1961, Orlando released the song "Ding Dong" on the MILO record label. Kirshner hired him to write songs at 1650 Broadway, Manhattan as part New York's thriving Brill Building songwriting community, along with other songwriters Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who did not make it in the office until they later changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Orlando was also hired to sing on songwriter demos, and singles released with Orlando as a solo artist began to enter the charts in the US and the UK beginning in 1961 with "Halfway to Paradise" and "Bless You" when he was 16. Orlando continued as a solo artist and also became a producer himself, as well as a successful music executive in the late 1960s. He was hired by Clive Davis as the general manager of Columbia Records' publishing imprint, April-Blackwood Music in 1967, and by the late 1960s had been promoted to vice-president of Columbia/CBS Music.
In 1969, Orlando signed Barry Manilow to his first recording contract with Bell Records, co-writing with him and producing Manilow's earliest tracks. He also worked with other artists, such as The Yardbirds, James Taylor, Grateful Dead, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Laura Nyro. He recorded "Candida" as lead vocalist under the pseudonym "Dawn" in 1970, and when the song became an international number-one song, he began to use his name in the group becoming "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando" and then "Tony Orlando and Dawn". The group had 19 other top 40 tracks, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", the top-selling hit of 1973 and one of the biggest selling singles of all time. The group also had a hit variety program, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS from 1974 to 1976. They then broke up in 1978, after which he has performed as Tony Orlando.
In 1993 he opened the Tony Orlando Yellow Ribbon Music Theatre in Branson, Missouri. He ended his act there in 2013. He has since continued to perform many live shows as a headliner, mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Early life and career
Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis was born on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey, and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to write songs in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.
New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn.
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Orlando recorded the record "Candida", with backup singers including Toni Wine (who wrote the song) and Linda November. Concerned about a possible conflict of interest with his April-Blackwood duties, Orlando sang under the condition that his name not be associated with the project, so it was released under the simple name of "Dawn", the middle name of the daughter of Bell records executive Steve Wax.
"Candida" became a worldwide hit in 1970, reaching number one in five countries, and the top ten in many others, including number three in the United States. Dawn, with Wine and November again singing backup, recorded another song, "Knock Three Times", which itself became a #1 hit. Orlando then wanted to go on tour, and asked two other session singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson to join for the tour. Orlando then discovered that there were six touring groups using that name, so Dawn became "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando", which changed to Tony Orlando and Dawn in 1973.
The new group recorded more hits, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" (1973) and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" (1975), a cover of the Jerry Butler hit, "He Will Break Your Heart". With a successful recording career, Orlando then set his sights on television. As described in The San Francisco Chronicle, "Tony Orlando and Dawn burst out of television sets during the Ford administration, a sunny antidote to the dark cynicism that followed Watergate. He represented simple, traditional values, a conservative return to pure entertainment. He drew a happy face in the "O" of his autograph. It was not terribly cool, but America loved him." The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS became a hit, a summer replacement for the Sonny & Cher show, and ran for four seasons from 1974 to 1976. It welcomed the biggest names in show business each week as Orlando's guests, including his boyhood idols, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Lewis.
At the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, Orlando danced to the tune of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" with then First Lady Betty Ford. The media stated that it was to divert attention as Nancy Reagan entered the Kemper Arena convention hall. However, in Orlando's book Halfway to Paradise, he states that Mrs. Reagan was asked what her favorite song was, which happened to be "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", so it was chosen as her entrance song. Ronald Reagan unsuccessfully challenged Gerald Ford, for the presidential nomination that year but came back in 1980 to claim the presidency itself. Ray Barnhart, a Reagan co-manager from Texas, criticized Mrs. Ford for having "danced a jig" with Orlando. Barbara Staff, another Texas co-chairman, called Betty Ford's behavior "a low, cheap shot".
On October 12, 2015, with Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson present, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters honored Orlando with their Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award at a celebrity luncheon.
Late 1970s struggles and solo work
Along with the fame, Orlando had personal battles in the 1970s. He was briefly addicted to cocaine, and battled both obesity and depression. In 1977, due to the death of his sister, and the suicide of Orlando's close friend, comedian Freddie Prinze, Orlando had a breakdown, and retired from singing. He was briefly institutionalized, but returned to television with an NBC comeback special. From then, he continued as a solo artist, charting with two singles - the dance hit "Don't Let Go" in 1978 and "Sweets For My Sweet" in 1979. In the 1980s, he was a dominant force in Las Vegas, headlining various hotels with sold-out audiences.
Orlando continued primarily as a solo singer, performing on tour and regularly in Las Vegas and Branson, Missouri. He hosted the New York City portions of the MDA Labor Day Telethon on WWOR-TV since the 1980s but quit in 2011 in response to Jerry Lewis' firing from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He has won the Casino Entertainer of the Year Award, the Best All Around Entertainer - Las Vegas four times, and, prior to that, three times in Atlantic City, the Jukebox Artist of the Year Award from the Amusement and Music Owners Association of New York, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and has also been bestowed with The Bob Hope Award for excellence in entertainment from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in honor of his efforts on behalf of United States veterans. His work on behalf of American veterans led to his being named Honorary Chairman at the 40th Anniversary at the NAM-POW's Homecoming Celebration at the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library in 2014.
Orlando serves on the Board of Directors for the Eisenhower Foundation, as well as Honorary Chairman of Snowball Express, an organization that serves the children of fallen military heroes. He hosts the annual Congressional Medal of Honor dinner in Dallas, Texas. He has served as the Master of Ceremonies at the Secretary of Defense Freedom Awards at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
In 2020, Orlando began hosting a Saturday night oldies program for WABC Radio as the New York City station partially restored its music format.
Acting career
Orlando's first TV appearance was in 1976 on the series Chico and the Man as "Tomas Garcia".
Orlando starred in the 1981 TV movie 300 Miles For Stephanie, playing a police officer who promises to walk over 300 miles to a sanctuary in order to obtain God's help to cure Stephanie, his gravely ill daughter. Others in the cast included Edward James Olmos, Pepe Serna and Julie Carmen.
In May 1981, Orlando appeared on Broadway in the title role of Barnum, replacing Jim Dale, who was on a three-week vacation.
During the 1984–85 season of The Cosby Show (its first season), Orlando played Tony Castillo, who runs a community center. He had a cameo appearance as himself in the 2002 film Waking Up In Reno, in which he sang a version of "Knock Three Times".
In 2003, Orlando had a recurring role in the children's animated series Oswald, in which he did the voice of "Sammy Starfish".
Orlando appeared in an episode of MADtv doing a sketch involving a court case, where the defense sings to persuade the jury about their side. He sang for the prosecution, thereby persuading the judge to give the defense jail for life. In another television program, Orlando was featured in "Larry the Cable Guy's Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza". He appeared in That's My Boy as Steve Spirou, a Happy Madison production starring Adam Sandler in 2012.
Personal life
Orlando was introduced by Jerry Lee Lewis to his future wife, Elaine, who had previously dated Buddy Holly. Tony and Elaine married in 1965, and had one child, Jon; they divorced in 1984. Five years later, Orlando was engaged to Francine Amormino, whom he married in 1991. The couple remained married as of 2014; they have one child.
On February 27, 2013, his mother, Ruth Schroeder of Hollister, Missouri, died in Branson, Missouri of a diabetic stroke.
In 2002, he wrote a memoir, Halfway to Paradise. Tony and Francine Orlando live in Branson, Missouri, with their daughter, Jenny Rose. Orlando's son Jon Orlando, from his first marriage, was a comedian from 1993 to 2002. Jon lives in Las Vegas and is currently the host of The Action Junkeez Podcast as well as Wise Kracks Podcast with the legendary sports bettor Bill Krackenberger. It was announced on September 7, 2021 that Jon was hired as the CEO of MaximNFT.
Orlando was interviewed on The 700 Club explaining that he was raised Catholic and was "brought up with the Lord as my Savior"; but after a self-destructive period following his professional success with Dawn, he became a born-again Christian in 1978.
Discography
Albums
Bless You and 11 Other Great Hits (1961)
Make Believe (1969) (with 'Wind')
Before Dawn (1973)
Tony Orlando (1978)
I Got Rhythm (1979)
Livin' for the Music (1980)
Halfway to Paradise: The Complete Epic Masters 1961-1964 (2006)
Bless You (2014)
Solo singles
See also
List of Puerto Ricans
Tony Orlando and Dawn (TV series)
References
External links
Classicbands.com
1944 births
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American singers
American male musical theatre actors
American male pop singers
American male television actors
American people of Greek descent
American people of Puerto Rican descent
Television personalities from New York City
Bell Records artists
Living people
Male actors from Missouri
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from New York City
People from Branson, Missouri
People from Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
People from Union City, New Jersey
Singers from Missouri
Singers from New Jersey
Singers from New York City
Tony Orlando and Dawn members
20th-century American male singers
21st-century American male singers
| true |
[
"Kamaanya Kadduwamala was Kabaka of the Kingdom of Buganda from 1814 until 1832. He was the twenty-eighth (28th) Kabaka of Buganda.\n\nClaim to the throne\nHe was the eldest son of Kabaka Semakookiro Wasajja Nabbunga, Kabaka of Buganda, who reigned between 1797 and 1814. His mother was Abakyala Nansikombi Ndwadd'ewazibwa, the Kaddulubaale, of the Nseenene (Grasshopper) Clan. She was his father's first wife. His father married at least fifteen wives. He ascended to the throne upon the death of his father in 1814, assuming the name of Kamaanya. He established his capital at Nsujjumpolu.\n\nMarried life\nLike his father, Kabaka Kamaanya had many wives. He is recorded to have married at least thirty eight (38) wives:\n\n Baakuyiira, daughter of Lule, of the Ngonge clan\n Basiima Mukooki, daughter of Kateesigwa, of the Nkima clan\n Gwowemukira\n Kayaga, daughter of Kiwaalabye, of the Kkobe clan\n Kisirisa, daughter of Walusimbi, of the Ffumbe clan\n Naabakyaala Saamanya, the Kaddulubaale, daughter of Walusimbi, of the Ffumbe clan. She was killed on the orders of her husband.\n Ky'osiby'omunyolo, daughter of Jjumba, of the Nkima clan\n Kyot'owadde, daughter of Kiyaga, of the Mamba clan\n Kyowol'otudde, daughter of Lutalo, of the Ndiga clan\n Lubadde, daughter of Majanja, of the Ngeye clan\n Mpozaaki, daughter of Kateesigwa, of the Nkima clan\n Mubyuwo?, daughter of Nakatanza, of the Lugave clan\n Muteezi, daughter of Nakato, of the Mbogo clan\n Mukwaano, daughter of Mugema, of the Nkima clan\n Nambi, daughter of Lutaaya, of the Ngonge clan\n Naabakyaala Nabikuku, the Kabejja, daughter of Jjumba, of the Nkima clan\n Nabirumbi, daughter of Kisuule of Busoga, of the Ngabi (Reedbuck) clan\n Nabiswaazi, daughter of Jjumba, of the Nkima clan\n Nabyonga, daughter of Mwamba?, of the Lugave clan\n Nabbowa, daughter of Kafumbirwango, of the Lugave clan\n Nakaddu, daughter of Kamyuuka, of the Kkobe clan\n Nakanyike, daughter of Senfuma, of the Mamba clan\n Nakkazi Kannyange, daughter of Ssambwa Katenda, of the Mamba clan\n Nakkazi, daughter of Lutalo, of the Mamba clan\n Nakku, daughter of Walusimbi, of the Ffumbe clan\n Nakyekoledde, daughter of Gabunga, of the Mamba clan\n Nalumansi, daughter of Walusimbi, of the Ffumbe clan\n Namale, daughter of Kiwalabye, of the Kkobe clan\n Namukasa, daughter of Nankere, of the Mamba clan\n Namawuba, daughter of Sempala, of the Ffumbe clan\n Nambi Tebasaanidde, daughter of Mugula, of the Mamba clan\n Namwenyagira, daughter of Kamyuuka, of the Kkobe clan\n Nannozi, daughter of Gomottoka, of the Nvubu clan\n Nankanja, daughter of Terwewalwa, of the Nvubu clan\n Nzaalambi, daughter of Natiigo, of the Lugave clan\n Siribatwaalira, of the Nkima clan\n Tebeemalizibwa, daughter of Mwamba?, of the Lugave clan\n Nanteza\n\nIssue\nHe is recorded to have fathered sixty one (61) sons and several daughters. His son Suuna II, executed fifty eight (58) of his brothers during his reign. The children of Kabaka Kamaanya included:\n\n Prince (Omulangira) Kiggala I, whose mother was Baakuyiira\n Prince (Omulangira) Nakibinge Bawuunyakangu, whose mother was Saamanya. He was killed by being burned alive, on the orders of his father at Busonyi, Busujju County.\n Prince (Omulangira) Kimera, whose mother was Gwowemukira\n Prince (Omulangira) Ndawula, whose mother was Gwowemukira\n Prince (Omulangira) Lule, whose mother was Gwowemukira\n Prince (Omulangira) Kiggala II, whose mother was Gwowemukira\n Prince (Omulangira) Kitereera, whose mother was Gwowemukira\n Princess (Omumbejja) Babirye, whose mother was Kayaga. Twin with Princess Nakato\n Princess (Omumbejja) Nakato, whose mother was Kayaga. Twin with Princess Nakato\n Prince (Omulangira) Kaggwa, whose mother was Kisirisa\n Prince (Omulangira) Bagunyeenyamangu, whose mother was Saamanya\n Prince (Omulangira) Mbajjwe, whose mother was Ky'osiby'omunyolo).\n Prince (Omulangira) Bamweyana, whose mother was Kyootowadde\n Prince (Omulangira) Twaayise, whose mother was Mpozaaki\n Prince (Omulangira) Kyomubi, whose mother was Mukwaano\n Prince (Omulangira) Luwedde, whose mother was Nabiswaazi\n Prince (Omulangira) Kimera, whose mother was Nabbowa\n Prince (Omulangira) Lumansi, whose mother was Nakaddu\n Prince (Omulangira) Tebandeke, whose mother was Nakanyike\n Prince (Omulangira) Suuna Kalema Kansinjo, who succeeded as Kabaka Suuna II Kalema Kansinjo Mukaabya Ssekkyungwa Muteesa I Sewankambo Walugembe Mig'ekyaamye Lukeberwa Kyetutumula Magulunnyondo Lubambula Omutanda Sseggwanga, whose mother was Nakkazi Kannyange\n Prince (Omulangira) Wasajja, whose mother was Nakkazi. He escaped the slaughter of the princes by his brother, Suuna II.\n Prince (Omulangira) Ndawula, whose mother was Nakyekoledde\n Prince (Omulangira) Mutebi, whose mother was Nakyekoledde\n Prince (Omulangira) Mugogo, whose mother was Kyotowadde. He too, escaped the slaughter of the princes by his brother, Suuna II.\n Prince (Omulangira) Kigoye, whose mother was Namale\n Princess (Omumbejja) Ndagire I, whose mother was Namukasa\n Prince (Omulangira) Waswa, whose mother was Nambi Tebasaanidde. Twin with Babirye.\n Princess (Omumbejja) Babirye, whose mother was Nambi Tebasaanidde. Twin with Babirye\n Prince (Omulangira) Kajumba, whose mother was Nambi Tebasaanidde\n Princess (Omumbejja) Ndagire II, whose mother was Nannozi\n Prince (Omulangira) Kizza, whose mother was Nzaalambi\n Princess (Omumbejja) Tajuba, whose mother was Lubadde. She died after 1927.\n Princess (Omumbejja) Nassolo, whose mother Mubyuwo?\n Princess (Omumbejja) Nambi, whose mother was Muteezi\n Princess (Omumbejja) Nakayenga, whose mother was Kyowol'otudde\n Princess (Omumbejja) Namayanja, whose mother was Lubadde\n Princess (Omumbejja) Nabaloga, whose mother was Mpozaaki\n Princess (Omumbejja) Kagere, whose mother was Mubyuwo\n Princess (Omumbejja) Mwannyin'empologoma Nassolo, whose mother was Nabikuku\n Princess (Omumbejja) Nalumansi, whose mother was Nabirumbi\n Princess (Omumbejja) Nakku, whose mother was Nabyonga\n Princess (Omumbejja) Nakalema, whose mother was Nalumansi\n Princess (Omumbejja) Nakangu, whose mother was Nambi\n Princess (Omumbejja) Namika, whose mother was Nakaddu\n Princess (Omumbejja) Nakabiri, whose mother was Namwenyagira\n Princess (Omumbejja) Katalina Nabisubi Mpalikitenda Nakayenga, whose mother was Siribatwaalira. She was born around 1814. She died on 27 January 1907.\n Princess (Omumbejja) Lwantale, whose mother was Siribatwaalira. She was the Naalinnya to Kabaka Suuna II. She died in March 1881.\n Princess (Omumbejja) Nagaddya, whose mother was Tebeemalizibwa\n Princess (Omumbejja) Nassuuna Kyetenga, whose mother was Nankanja\n\nHis reign\nKabaka Kamaanya continued the wars of conquest against the Kingdom's neighbors which led to an expansion of the territory of the Buganda Kingdom. He conquered the ssaza, Buweekula, from Bunyoro and annexed it to Buganda.\n\nThe final years\nKabaka Kamaanya died at Lutengo in 1832. He was buried at Kasengejje, Busiro.\n\nQuotes\nIt is claimed that Kamanya’s original name was Kanakulya Mukasa. But because he was such a tyrant, his contemporaries began to refer to a person of uncontrollable temper with a persecution mania (and indirectly to the king) as a kamanya.\n MM Semakula Kiwanuka, A History of Buganda, 1971\n\nSuccession table\n\nSee also\n Kabaka of Buganda\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nList of the Kings of Buganda\n\nKabakas of Buganda\n19th-century monarchs in Africa\n1832 deaths\nYear of birth unknown",
"Mutebi I was Kabaka of the Kingdom of Buganda between 1674 and 1680. He was the fifteenth (15th) Kabaka of Buganda.\n\nClaim to the throne\nHe was the son of Kabaka Kateregga Kamegere, Kabaka of Buganda, who reigned between 1644 and 1674. His mother was Namutebi of the Mamba clan, the eighth (8th) wife of his father. He ascended the throne following the death of his father in 1674. He established his capital at Muguluka.\n\nMarried Life\nHe married five (5) wives:\n Nabitalo, daughter of Walusimbi, of the Ffumbe clan\n Nabukalu, daughter of Ndugwa, of the Lugave clan\n Naluyima, daughter of Nakatanza, of the Lugave clan\n Namawuba, daughter of Natiigo, of the Lugave clan\n Nampiima, daughter of Kibale, of the Mpeewo clan.\n\nIssue\nHe fathered seven (7) sons:\n Prince (Omulangira) Lukenge, whose mother was Nabitalo\n Kabaka Tebandeke Mujambula, Kabaka of Buganda, who reigned between 1704 and 1724, whose mother was Nabukalu\n Prince (Omulangira) Mpiima, whose mother was Nampiima\n Prince (Omulangira) Kayima, whose mother was Naluyima\n Prince (Omulangira) Mawuba, whose mother was Namawuba\n Prince (Omulangira) Mukama, whose mother was Namawuba\n Prince (Omulangira) Matumbwe, whose mother was Namawuba\n\nThe final years\nHe died at Mbalwa and was buried there. Other credible sources put his burial place at Kongojje, Busiro.\n\nSuccession table\n\nSee also\n Kabaka of Buganda\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nList of the Kings of Buganda\n\nKabakas of Buganda\n17th-century African people\n1680 deaths"
] |
[
"Tony Orlando",
"Early life and career",
"Where was Tony Orlando born?",
"He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York.",
"Where did he live later?",
"In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.",
"Who was his father?",
"the son of a Greek father",
"Who was his mother?",
"Puerto Rican mother."
] |
C_4598c4492aef4f269f626d07006018e2_1
|
Where did he attend school?
| 5 |
Where did Tony Orlando attend school?
|
Tony Orlando
|
Tony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to songwrite in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2. New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis (born April 3, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, music executive, radio personality and actor. He is best known for his work as part of Tony Orlando and Dawn as well as their 1970s recordings and television show. His career in the music industry has spanned over 60 years.
Orlando formed the doo-wop group The Five Gents in 1958 at the age of 14, with whom he recorded demos that got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner. At the age of 17, in 1961, Orlando released the song "Ding Dong" on the MILO record label. Kirshner hired him to write songs at 1650 Broadway, Manhattan as part New York's thriving Brill Building songwriting community, along with other songwriters Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who did not make it in the office until they later changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Orlando was also hired to sing on songwriter demos, and singles released with Orlando as a solo artist began to enter the charts in the US and the UK beginning in 1961 with "Halfway to Paradise" and "Bless You" when he was 16. Orlando continued as a solo artist and also became a producer himself, as well as a successful music executive in the late 1960s. He was hired by Clive Davis as the general manager of Columbia Records' publishing imprint, April-Blackwood Music in 1967, and by the late 1960s had been promoted to vice-president of Columbia/CBS Music.
In 1969, Orlando signed Barry Manilow to his first recording contract with Bell Records, co-writing with him and producing Manilow's earliest tracks. He also worked with other artists, such as The Yardbirds, James Taylor, Grateful Dead, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Laura Nyro. He recorded "Candida" as lead vocalist under the pseudonym "Dawn" in 1970, and when the song became an international number-one song, he began to use his name in the group becoming "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando" and then "Tony Orlando and Dawn". The group had 19 other top 40 tracks, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", the top-selling hit of 1973 and one of the biggest selling singles of all time. The group also had a hit variety program, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS from 1974 to 1976. They then broke up in 1978, after which he has performed as Tony Orlando.
In 1993 he opened the Tony Orlando Yellow Ribbon Music Theatre in Branson, Missouri. He ended his act there in 2013. He has since continued to perform many live shows as a headliner, mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Early life and career
Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis was born on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey, and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to write songs in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.
New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn.
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Orlando recorded the record "Candida", with backup singers including Toni Wine (who wrote the song) and Linda November. Concerned about a possible conflict of interest with his April-Blackwood duties, Orlando sang under the condition that his name not be associated with the project, so it was released under the simple name of "Dawn", the middle name of the daughter of Bell records executive Steve Wax.
"Candida" became a worldwide hit in 1970, reaching number one in five countries, and the top ten in many others, including number three in the United States. Dawn, with Wine and November again singing backup, recorded another song, "Knock Three Times", which itself became a #1 hit. Orlando then wanted to go on tour, and asked two other session singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson to join for the tour. Orlando then discovered that there were six touring groups using that name, so Dawn became "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando", which changed to Tony Orlando and Dawn in 1973.
The new group recorded more hits, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" (1973) and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" (1975), a cover of the Jerry Butler hit, "He Will Break Your Heart". With a successful recording career, Orlando then set his sights on television. As described in The San Francisco Chronicle, "Tony Orlando and Dawn burst out of television sets during the Ford administration, a sunny antidote to the dark cynicism that followed Watergate. He represented simple, traditional values, a conservative return to pure entertainment. He drew a happy face in the "O" of his autograph. It was not terribly cool, but America loved him." The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS became a hit, a summer replacement for the Sonny & Cher show, and ran for four seasons from 1974 to 1976. It welcomed the biggest names in show business each week as Orlando's guests, including his boyhood idols, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Lewis.
At the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, Orlando danced to the tune of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" with then First Lady Betty Ford. The media stated that it was to divert attention as Nancy Reagan entered the Kemper Arena convention hall. However, in Orlando's book Halfway to Paradise, he states that Mrs. Reagan was asked what her favorite song was, which happened to be "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", so it was chosen as her entrance song. Ronald Reagan unsuccessfully challenged Gerald Ford, for the presidential nomination that year but came back in 1980 to claim the presidency itself. Ray Barnhart, a Reagan co-manager from Texas, criticized Mrs. Ford for having "danced a jig" with Orlando. Barbara Staff, another Texas co-chairman, called Betty Ford's behavior "a low, cheap shot".
On October 12, 2015, with Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson present, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters honored Orlando with their Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award at a celebrity luncheon.
Late 1970s struggles and solo work
Along with the fame, Orlando had personal battles in the 1970s. He was briefly addicted to cocaine, and battled both obesity and depression. In 1977, due to the death of his sister, and the suicide of Orlando's close friend, comedian Freddie Prinze, Orlando had a breakdown, and retired from singing. He was briefly institutionalized, but returned to television with an NBC comeback special. From then, he continued as a solo artist, charting with two singles - the dance hit "Don't Let Go" in 1978 and "Sweets For My Sweet" in 1979. In the 1980s, he was a dominant force in Las Vegas, headlining various hotels with sold-out audiences.
Orlando continued primarily as a solo singer, performing on tour and regularly in Las Vegas and Branson, Missouri. He hosted the New York City portions of the MDA Labor Day Telethon on WWOR-TV since the 1980s but quit in 2011 in response to Jerry Lewis' firing from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He has won the Casino Entertainer of the Year Award, the Best All Around Entertainer - Las Vegas four times, and, prior to that, three times in Atlantic City, the Jukebox Artist of the Year Award from the Amusement and Music Owners Association of New York, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and has also been bestowed with The Bob Hope Award for excellence in entertainment from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in honor of his efforts on behalf of United States veterans. His work on behalf of American veterans led to his being named Honorary Chairman at the 40th Anniversary at the NAM-POW's Homecoming Celebration at the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library in 2014.
Orlando serves on the Board of Directors for the Eisenhower Foundation, as well as Honorary Chairman of Snowball Express, an organization that serves the children of fallen military heroes. He hosts the annual Congressional Medal of Honor dinner in Dallas, Texas. He has served as the Master of Ceremonies at the Secretary of Defense Freedom Awards at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
In 2020, Orlando began hosting a Saturday night oldies program for WABC Radio as the New York City station partially restored its music format.
Acting career
Orlando's first TV appearance was in 1976 on the series Chico and the Man as "Tomas Garcia".
Orlando starred in the 1981 TV movie 300 Miles For Stephanie, playing a police officer who promises to walk over 300 miles to a sanctuary in order to obtain God's help to cure Stephanie, his gravely ill daughter. Others in the cast included Edward James Olmos, Pepe Serna and Julie Carmen.
In May 1981, Orlando appeared on Broadway in the title role of Barnum, replacing Jim Dale, who was on a three-week vacation.
During the 1984–85 season of The Cosby Show (its first season), Orlando played Tony Castillo, who runs a community center. He had a cameo appearance as himself in the 2002 film Waking Up In Reno, in which he sang a version of "Knock Three Times".
In 2003, Orlando had a recurring role in the children's animated series Oswald, in which he did the voice of "Sammy Starfish".
Orlando appeared in an episode of MADtv doing a sketch involving a court case, where the defense sings to persuade the jury about their side. He sang for the prosecution, thereby persuading the judge to give the defense jail for life. In another television program, Orlando was featured in "Larry the Cable Guy's Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza". He appeared in That's My Boy as Steve Spirou, a Happy Madison production starring Adam Sandler in 2012.
Personal life
Orlando was introduced by Jerry Lee Lewis to his future wife, Elaine, who had previously dated Buddy Holly. Tony and Elaine married in 1965, and had one child, Jon; they divorced in 1984. Five years later, Orlando was engaged to Francine Amormino, whom he married in 1991. The couple remained married as of 2014; they have one child.
On February 27, 2013, his mother, Ruth Schroeder of Hollister, Missouri, died in Branson, Missouri of a diabetic stroke.
In 2002, he wrote a memoir, Halfway to Paradise. Tony and Francine Orlando live in Branson, Missouri, with their daughter, Jenny Rose. Orlando's son Jon Orlando, from his first marriage, was a comedian from 1993 to 2002. Jon lives in Las Vegas and is currently the host of The Action Junkeez Podcast as well as Wise Kracks Podcast with the legendary sports bettor Bill Krackenberger. It was announced on September 7, 2021 that Jon was hired as the CEO of MaximNFT.
Orlando was interviewed on The 700 Club explaining that he was raised Catholic and was "brought up with the Lord as my Savior"; but after a self-destructive period following his professional success with Dawn, he became a born-again Christian in 1978.
Discography
Albums
Bless You and 11 Other Great Hits (1961)
Make Believe (1969) (with 'Wind')
Before Dawn (1973)
Tony Orlando (1978)
I Got Rhythm (1979)
Livin' for the Music (1980)
Halfway to Paradise: The Complete Epic Masters 1961-1964 (2006)
Bless You (2014)
Solo singles
See also
List of Puerto Ricans
Tony Orlando and Dawn (TV series)
References
External links
Classicbands.com
1944 births
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American singers
American male musical theatre actors
American male pop singers
American male television actors
American people of Greek descent
American people of Puerto Rican descent
Television personalities from New York City
Bell Records artists
Living people
Male actors from Missouri
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from New York City
People from Branson, Missouri
People from Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
People from Union City, New Jersey
Singers from Missouri
Singers from New Jersey
Singers from New York City
Tony Orlando and Dawn members
20th-century American male singers
21st-century American male singers
| false |
[
"Ben Ivery Wilson (born March 9, 1939) is a former professional American football fullback in the National Football League.\n\nHigh school\nWilson attended Aldine Carver High School where he played football and was also the state champ in the shot put. While at Carver, he was a Jones scholar who was offered an academic scholarship to attend the University of Cincinnati, but he wanted to play football. Although he was an exceptional football player, he did not receive a scholarship offer from any white college in Texas because of segregation.\n\nCollege career\nThe superintendent of Wilson's high school had contacts at USC and Wilson received a scholarship to attend USC. While at USC, Wilson became the starting fullback and team captain of USC's 1962 national championship team.\n\nProfessional career\nWilson played running back for five seasons in the NFL. He was traded from the Los Angeles Rams to the Green Bay Packers prior to the 1967 season. Wilson started at fullback in Super Bowl II for Green Bay and led both teams in rushing with 62 yards in 17 carries. Late in the game he lost a contact lens on the sidelines after being tackled, and missed the rest of the game.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n NFL.com player page\n\n1939 births\nLiving people\nAmerican football running backs\nGreen Bay Packers players\nLos Angeles Rams players\nUSC Trojans football players\nPlayers of American football from Houston",
"Indiana has some of the most segregated schools in the United States. Despite laws demanding school integration since 1949, a 2017 study by the UCLA Civil Rights Project and Indiana University found that Indiana still has significant segregation in its classrooms.\n\nThe average black student in Indiana is likely to attend a school where 68% of the students are non-white. The average white student is likely to attend a school where 81% of the students are white.\n\nHistory\nIndiana became a state in 1816. In 1843 the Legislature stated that the public schools were only for white children between the ages of 5 and 21, and as a result, Quakers and communities of free Black people founded schools like Union Literary Institute for Black students to attend. In 1869, the legislature authorized separate but equal public schools for black children. In 1877, the legislature revised the law to allow black attendance at a white school if a black school was not nearby. Home rule for municipalities meant that application was uneven. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) legitimized separate but equal as policy. During the 1920's, Indiana became a major base for the Ku Klux Klan further pushing Black residents away from school districts that had a majority white population. Prominent examples of segregated high schools in Indiana in the early 20th Century were Crispus Attucks High School in Indianapolis (opened in 1927) and Theodore Roosevelt High School in Gary (accredited in 1930). In 1946, the Gary School Board issued a non-discriminatory policy. Because neighborhoods had different demographic characteristics, the schools there remained effectively segregated. In 1949, the state adopted language that was unambiguously in favor of integration. It was the last of the northern (non-Confederate) states to do so.\n\nAfter Brown v. Board of Education, the state still needed a legal push. Bell v. School City of Gary (1963) was the first. Three years later came Copeland v. South Bend Community School Corporation (1967). Three years after that came Banks v. Muncie Community Schools (1970). National policy came the next year in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education (1971), which relied on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.\n\nIn the 1970s, the federal answer was court-ordered busing. In Indianapolis, busing began in 1981. The bussing requirements in Indiana however were uneven, they did not require white children to be bussed out Black schools making Black children and parents face most of the consequences of the bussing program. Busing in Indianapolis ended in 2016.\n\nDemographics\nHoosiers describe themselves as being more white than much of the rest of the country. In the 2010 Census, 84.4% reported being white, compared with 73.8 for the nation as a whole.\n\nIndiana had never been a big slave state. The 1840 Census reported three slaves and 11,262 “free colored” persons out of a population of 685,866. By 1850, no slaves were reported. That is not to say that the state was welcoming to blacks. The 1851 state constitution said, \"No Negro or mulatto shall come into or settle in the State, after the adoption of this Constitution.” In the early 20th century, mechanization of agriculture in the South stimulated immigration of blacks to large cities like Indianapolis. Migration accelerated in World War II, slowing only in the 1970s. Simultaneously, whites began to move out of the downtown areas to suburbs. \n\nLatinos were a small portion of Indiana's population prior to 1970. In any case the Census did not reliably track Latinos before the 1970 Census. The 2000 Census described 3.5% of Indiana's population as Latino. In the next decade, the state's Latino population grew at twice the national rate. In 2010, the state was 6.0% Latino. They have settled more-or-less evenly distributed across the state.\n\nSchool demographics\nThe demographics of schools in Indiana reflect the composition of the communities in which they are located. The average white student in Indiana is likely to attend a school where 81% of the students are white. The average black student is likely to attend a school where 68% of the students are non-white.\n\nStudies\nSince 1996, the relative segregation of classrooms across the United States has been studied by the Civil Rights Project at Harvard until 2007 and subsequently at the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. In 2017, the Project cooperated to with Indiana University to study the conditions in the state.\n\nA 2012 UCLA study showed that Indiana had the sixth most segregated classrooms in America.\n\nSchool vouchers\nIndiana has one of the largest school voucher programs in the United States. Critics contend that vouchers contribute to school segregation. Analysis of two recent studies on vouchers garner mixed support for contributing to segregation; however, both contend that black recipients who had been in a majority-black public school used school vouchers to attend a majority-black private school.\n\nReferences \n\nEducation in Indiana\nAfrican-American history of Indiana\nSchool segregation in the United States"
] |
[
"Tony Orlando",
"Early life and career",
"Where was Tony Orlando born?",
"He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York.",
"Where did he live later?",
"In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.",
"Who was his father?",
"the son of a Greek father",
"Who was his mother?",
"Puerto Rican mother.",
"Where did he attend school?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_4598c4492aef4f269f626d07006018e2_1
|
Who were his influences?
| 6 |
Who were Tony Orlando's influences?
|
Tony Orlando
|
Tony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to songwrite in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2. New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn. CANNOTANSWER
|
CANNOTANSWER
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Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis (born April 3, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, music executive, radio personality and actor. He is best known for his work as part of Tony Orlando and Dawn as well as their 1970s recordings and television show. His career in the music industry has spanned over 60 years.
Orlando formed the doo-wop group The Five Gents in 1958 at the age of 14, with whom he recorded demos that got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner. At the age of 17, in 1961, Orlando released the song "Ding Dong" on the MILO record label. Kirshner hired him to write songs at 1650 Broadway, Manhattan as part New York's thriving Brill Building songwriting community, along with other songwriters Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who did not make it in the office until they later changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Orlando was also hired to sing on songwriter demos, and singles released with Orlando as a solo artist began to enter the charts in the US and the UK beginning in 1961 with "Halfway to Paradise" and "Bless You" when he was 16. Orlando continued as a solo artist and also became a producer himself, as well as a successful music executive in the late 1960s. He was hired by Clive Davis as the general manager of Columbia Records' publishing imprint, April-Blackwood Music in 1967, and by the late 1960s had been promoted to vice-president of Columbia/CBS Music.
In 1969, Orlando signed Barry Manilow to his first recording contract with Bell Records, co-writing with him and producing Manilow's earliest tracks. He also worked with other artists, such as The Yardbirds, James Taylor, Grateful Dead, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Laura Nyro. He recorded "Candida" as lead vocalist under the pseudonym "Dawn" in 1970, and when the song became an international number-one song, he began to use his name in the group becoming "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando" and then "Tony Orlando and Dawn". The group had 19 other top 40 tracks, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", the top-selling hit of 1973 and one of the biggest selling singles of all time. The group also had a hit variety program, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS from 1974 to 1976. They then broke up in 1978, after which he has performed as Tony Orlando.
In 1993 he opened the Tony Orlando Yellow Ribbon Music Theatre in Branson, Missouri. He ended his act there in 2013. He has since continued to perform many live shows as a headliner, mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Early life and career
Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis was born on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey, and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to write songs in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.
New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn.
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Orlando recorded the record "Candida", with backup singers including Toni Wine (who wrote the song) and Linda November. Concerned about a possible conflict of interest with his April-Blackwood duties, Orlando sang under the condition that his name not be associated with the project, so it was released under the simple name of "Dawn", the middle name of the daughter of Bell records executive Steve Wax.
"Candida" became a worldwide hit in 1970, reaching number one in five countries, and the top ten in many others, including number three in the United States. Dawn, with Wine and November again singing backup, recorded another song, "Knock Three Times", which itself became a #1 hit. Orlando then wanted to go on tour, and asked two other session singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson to join for the tour. Orlando then discovered that there were six touring groups using that name, so Dawn became "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando", which changed to Tony Orlando and Dawn in 1973.
The new group recorded more hits, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" (1973) and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" (1975), a cover of the Jerry Butler hit, "He Will Break Your Heart". With a successful recording career, Orlando then set his sights on television. As described in The San Francisco Chronicle, "Tony Orlando and Dawn burst out of television sets during the Ford administration, a sunny antidote to the dark cynicism that followed Watergate. He represented simple, traditional values, a conservative return to pure entertainment. He drew a happy face in the "O" of his autograph. It was not terribly cool, but America loved him." The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS became a hit, a summer replacement for the Sonny & Cher show, and ran for four seasons from 1974 to 1976. It welcomed the biggest names in show business each week as Orlando's guests, including his boyhood idols, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Lewis.
At the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, Orlando danced to the tune of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" with then First Lady Betty Ford. The media stated that it was to divert attention as Nancy Reagan entered the Kemper Arena convention hall. However, in Orlando's book Halfway to Paradise, he states that Mrs. Reagan was asked what her favorite song was, which happened to be "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", so it was chosen as her entrance song. Ronald Reagan unsuccessfully challenged Gerald Ford, for the presidential nomination that year but came back in 1980 to claim the presidency itself. Ray Barnhart, a Reagan co-manager from Texas, criticized Mrs. Ford for having "danced a jig" with Orlando. Barbara Staff, another Texas co-chairman, called Betty Ford's behavior "a low, cheap shot".
On October 12, 2015, with Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson present, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters honored Orlando with their Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award at a celebrity luncheon.
Late 1970s struggles and solo work
Along with the fame, Orlando had personal battles in the 1970s. He was briefly addicted to cocaine, and battled both obesity and depression. In 1977, due to the death of his sister, and the suicide of Orlando's close friend, comedian Freddie Prinze, Orlando had a breakdown, and retired from singing. He was briefly institutionalized, but returned to television with an NBC comeback special. From then, he continued as a solo artist, charting with two singles - the dance hit "Don't Let Go" in 1978 and "Sweets For My Sweet" in 1979. In the 1980s, he was a dominant force in Las Vegas, headlining various hotels with sold-out audiences.
Orlando continued primarily as a solo singer, performing on tour and regularly in Las Vegas and Branson, Missouri. He hosted the New York City portions of the MDA Labor Day Telethon on WWOR-TV since the 1980s but quit in 2011 in response to Jerry Lewis' firing from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He has won the Casino Entertainer of the Year Award, the Best All Around Entertainer - Las Vegas four times, and, prior to that, three times in Atlantic City, the Jukebox Artist of the Year Award from the Amusement and Music Owners Association of New York, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and has also been bestowed with The Bob Hope Award for excellence in entertainment from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in honor of his efforts on behalf of United States veterans. His work on behalf of American veterans led to his being named Honorary Chairman at the 40th Anniversary at the NAM-POW's Homecoming Celebration at the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library in 2014.
Orlando serves on the Board of Directors for the Eisenhower Foundation, as well as Honorary Chairman of Snowball Express, an organization that serves the children of fallen military heroes. He hosts the annual Congressional Medal of Honor dinner in Dallas, Texas. He has served as the Master of Ceremonies at the Secretary of Defense Freedom Awards at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
In 2020, Orlando began hosting a Saturday night oldies program for WABC Radio as the New York City station partially restored its music format.
Acting career
Orlando's first TV appearance was in 1976 on the series Chico and the Man as "Tomas Garcia".
Orlando starred in the 1981 TV movie 300 Miles For Stephanie, playing a police officer who promises to walk over 300 miles to a sanctuary in order to obtain God's help to cure Stephanie, his gravely ill daughter. Others in the cast included Edward James Olmos, Pepe Serna and Julie Carmen.
In May 1981, Orlando appeared on Broadway in the title role of Barnum, replacing Jim Dale, who was on a three-week vacation.
During the 1984–85 season of The Cosby Show (its first season), Orlando played Tony Castillo, who runs a community center. He had a cameo appearance as himself in the 2002 film Waking Up In Reno, in which he sang a version of "Knock Three Times".
In 2003, Orlando had a recurring role in the children's animated series Oswald, in which he did the voice of "Sammy Starfish".
Orlando appeared in an episode of MADtv doing a sketch involving a court case, where the defense sings to persuade the jury about their side. He sang for the prosecution, thereby persuading the judge to give the defense jail for life. In another television program, Orlando was featured in "Larry the Cable Guy's Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza". He appeared in That's My Boy as Steve Spirou, a Happy Madison production starring Adam Sandler in 2012.
Personal life
Orlando was introduced by Jerry Lee Lewis to his future wife, Elaine, who had previously dated Buddy Holly. Tony and Elaine married in 1965, and had one child, Jon; they divorced in 1984. Five years later, Orlando was engaged to Francine Amormino, whom he married in 1991. The couple remained married as of 2014; they have one child.
On February 27, 2013, his mother, Ruth Schroeder of Hollister, Missouri, died in Branson, Missouri of a diabetic stroke.
In 2002, he wrote a memoir, Halfway to Paradise. Tony and Francine Orlando live in Branson, Missouri, with their daughter, Jenny Rose. Orlando's son Jon Orlando, from his first marriage, was a comedian from 1993 to 2002. Jon lives in Las Vegas and is currently the host of The Action Junkeez Podcast as well as Wise Kracks Podcast with the legendary sports bettor Bill Krackenberger. It was announced on September 7, 2021 that Jon was hired as the CEO of MaximNFT.
Orlando was interviewed on The 700 Club explaining that he was raised Catholic and was "brought up with the Lord as my Savior"; but after a self-destructive period following his professional success with Dawn, he became a born-again Christian in 1978.
Discography
Albums
Bless You and 11 Other Great Hits (1961)
Make Believe (1969) (with 'Wind')
Before Dawn (1973)
Tony Orlando (1978)
I Got Rhythm (1979)
Livin' for the Music (1980)
Halfway to Paradise: The Complete Epic Masters 1961-1964 (2006)
Bless You (2014)
Solo singles
See also
List of Puerto Ricans
Tony Orlando and Dawn (TV series)
References
External links
Classicbands.com
1944 births
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American singers
American male musical theatre actors
American male pop singers
American male television actors
American people of Greek descent
American people of Puerto Rican descent
Television personalities from New York City
Bell Records artists
Living people
Male actors from Missouri
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from New York City
People from Branson, Missouri
People from Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
People from Union City, New Jersey
Singers from Missouri
Singers from New Jersey
Singers from New York City
Tony Orlando and Dawn members
20th-century American male singers
21st-century American male singers
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"Uzi (pronounced as \"Uji\") is a popular Japanese hip-hop artist. He has released four major albums, most recently his “Natural 9” album released in March 2008. Uzi is one of the rappers to incorporate more overt elements of Japanese culture into his music and videos, specifically aspects referring to the samurai (to which he claims direct ancestry). He is a great example of an artist who maintains the localization of hip-hop music through his dependence on the incorporation of Japanese themes into his work. Such non-Americanization of his hip-hop music has been met with varying opinions; some view this as disrespectful of the origins of hip-hop culture, while there are those who appreciate Uzi’s apparent embracing of Japanese culture.\n\nJapanese musical influences\nMuch of Uzi's musical influences correspond with his national identity as a corollary of the fact that \"Japanese have long perceived themselves, and been perceived by others as one homogeneous group, racially, ethnically, and culturally identical\". As such, a number of his influences [even regarding hip-hop specifically] are Japanese artists. Some songs and their artists which Uzi lists as musical influences include: KNOCK OUT feat. ZEEBRA 2002 produced by INOVADER 新日本プロレスエンディングテーマ, ひとり酒 DRINKING BY MYSELF 2003 produced by SUB ZERO, 開放軍 III feat. 神, KENTA 5 RUS, MASARU, 565, AKTION, DOB-ROC 2006 produced by LUCHA a.k.a. Kut.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Uzi music video from YouTube\n\nJapanese hip hop\nJapanese hip hop musicians\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"Nikola Đorđević (in Cyrillic Serbian: Никола Ђорђевић) was a Serbian architect who lived and worked at the beginning of the 19th century. His work is characteristic of the architectural tradition of that time, between traditional contributions and openings with Western influences.\n\nWorks\n\nHis two best-known works are the Konak of Prince Miloš Obrenović in Belgrade, in the Topčider district, built between 1831 and 1833 2 and the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul in Topčider, built between 1832 and 1834, which mixes influences traditional and references to western architecture (classical and baroque).These two works are respectively classified on the list of exceptional monuments and on the list of protected monuments of the Republic of Serbia.\n\nThese two buildings were produced in collaboration with the architect Janja Mihailović.\n\nReferences \n\n Translated and adapted from French Wikipedia: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_%C4%90or%C4%91evi%C4%87\n\nArchitects from Belgrade\n19th-century Serbian people"
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"Tony Orlando",
"Early life and career",
"Where was Tony Orlando born?",
"He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York.",
"Where did he live later?",
"In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.",
"Who was his father?",
"the son of a Greek father",
"Who was his mother?",
"Puerto Rican mother.",
"Where did he attend school?",
"I don't know.",
"Who were his influences?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_4598c4492aef4f269f626d07006018e2_1
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What did he do in his early career?
| 7 |
What did Tony Orlando do in his early career?
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Tony Orlando
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Tony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to songwrite in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2. New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn. CANNOTANSWER
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Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15,
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Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis (born April 3, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, music executive, radio personality and actor. He is best known for his work as part of Tony Orlando and Dawn as well as their 1970s recordings and television show. His career in the music industry has spanned over 60 years.
Orlando formed the doo-wop group The Five Gents in 1958 at the age of 14, with whom he recorded demos that got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner. At the age of 17, in 1961, Orlando released the song "Ding Dong" on the MILO record label. Kirshner hired him to write songs at 1650 Broadway, Manhattan as part New York's thriving Brill Building songwriting community, along with other songwriters Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who did not make it in the office until they later changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Orlando was also hired to sing on songwriter demos, and singles released with Orlando as a solo artist began to enter the charts in the US and the UK beginning in 1961 with "Halfway to Paradise" and "Bless You" when he was 16. Orlando continued as a solo artist and also became a producer himself, as well as a successful music executive in the late 1960s. He was hired by Clive Davis as the general manager of Columbia Records' publishing imprint, April-Blackwood Music in 1967, and by the late 1960s had been promoted to vice-president of Columbia/CBS Music.
In 1969, Orlando signed Barry Manilow to his first recording contract with Bell Records, co-writing with him and producing Manilow's earliest tracks. He also worked with other artists, such as The Yardbirds, James Taylor, Grateful Dead, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Laura Nyro. He recorded "Candida" as lead vocalist under the pseudonym "Dawn" in 1970, and when the song became an international number-one song, he began to use his name in the group becoming "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando" and then "Tony Orlando and Dawn". The group had 19 other top 40 tracks, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", the top-selling hit of 1973 and one of the biggest selling singles of all time. The group also had a hit variety program, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS from 1974 to 1976. They then broke up in 1978, after which he has performed as Tony Orlando.
In 1993 he opened the Tony Orlando Yellow Ribbon Music Theatre in Branson, Missouri. He ended his act there in 2013. He has since continued to perform many live shows as a headliner, mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Early life and career
Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis was born on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey, and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to write songs in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.
New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn.
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Orlando recorded the record "Candida", with backup singers including Toni Wine (who wrote the song) and Linda November. Concerned about a possible conflict of interest with his April-Blackwood duties, Orlando sang under the condition that his name not be associated with the project, so it was released under the simple name of "Dawn", the middle name of the daughter of Bell records executive Steve Wax.
"Candida" became a worldwide hit in 1970, reaching number one in five countries, and the top ten in many others, including number three in the United States. Dawn, with Wine and November again singing backup, recorded another song, "Knock Three Times", which itself became a #1 hit. Orlando then wanted to go on tour, and asked two other session singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson to join for the tour. Orlando then discovered that there were six touring groups using that name, so Dawn became "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando", which changed to Tony Orlando and Dawn in 1973.
The new group recorded more hits, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" (1973) and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" (1975), a cover of the Jerry Butler hit, "He Will Break Your Heart". With a successful recording career, Orlando then set his sights on television. As described in The San Francisco Chronicle, "Tony Orlando and Dawn burst out of television sets during the Ford administration, a sunny antidote to the dark cynicism that followed Watergate. He represented simple, traditional values, a conservative return to pure entertainment. He drew a happy face in the "O" of his autograph. It was not terribly cool, but America loved him." The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS became a hit, a summer replacement for the Sonny & Cher show, and ran for four seasons from 1974 to 1976. It welcomed the biggest names in show business each week as Orlando's guests, including his boyhood idols, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Lewis.
At the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, Orlando danced to the tune of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" with then First Lady Betty Ford. The media stated that it was to divert attention as Nancy Reagan entered the Kemper Arena convention hall. However, in Orlando's book Halfway to Paradise, he states that Mrs. Reagan was asked what her favorite song was, which happened to be "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", so it was chosen as her entrance song. Ronald Reagan unsuccessfully challenged Gerald Ford, for the presidential nomination that year but came back in 1980 to claim the presidency itself. Ray Barnhart, a Reagan co-manager from Texas, criticized Mrs. Ford for having "danced a jig" with Orlando. Barbara Staff, another Texas co-chairman, called Betty Ford's behavior "a low, cheap shot".
On October 12, 2015, with Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson present, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters honored Orlando with their Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award at a celebrity luncheon.
Late 1970s struggles and solo work
Along with the fame, Orlando had personal battles in the 1970s. He was briefly addicted to cocaine, and battled both obesity and depression. In 1977, due to the death of his sister, and the suicide of Orlando's close friend, comedian Freddie Prinze, Orlando had a breakdown, and retired from singing. He was briefly institutionalized, but returned to television with an NBC comeback special. From then, he continued as a solo artist, charting with two singles - the dance hit "Don't Let Go" in 1978 and "Sweets For My Sweet" in 1979. In the 1980s, he was a dominant force in Las Vegas, headlining various hotels with sold-out audiences.
Orlando continued primarily as a solo singer, performing on tour and regularly in Las Vegas and Branson, Missouri. He hosted the New York City portions of the MDA Labor Day Telethon on WWOR-TV since the 1980s but quit in 2011 in response to Jerry Lewis' firing from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He has won the Casino Entertainer of the Year Award, the Best All Around Entertainer - Las Vegas four times, and, prior to that, three times in Atlantic City, the Jukebox Artist of the Year Award from the Amusement and Music Owners Association of New York, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and has also been bestowed with The Bob Hope Award for excellence in entertainment from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in honor of his efforts on behalf of United States veterans. His work on behalf of American veterans led to his being named Honorary Chairman at the 40th Anniversary at the NAM-POW's Homecoming Celebration at the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library in 2014.
Orlando serves on the Board of Directors for the Eisenhower Foundation, as well as Honorary Chairman of Snowball Express, an organization that serves the children of fallen military heroes. He hosts the annual Congressional Medal of Honor dinner in Dallas, Texas. He has served as the Master of Ceremonies at the Secretary of Defense Freedom Awards at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
In 2020, Orlando began hosting a Saturday night oldies program for WABC Radio as the New York City station partially restored its music format.
Acting career
Orlando's first TV appearance was in 1976 on the series Chico and the Man as "Tomas Garcia".
Orlando starred in the 1981 TV movie 300 Miles For Stephanie, playing a police officer who promises to walk over 300 miles to a sanctuary in order to obtain God's help to cure Stephanie, his gravely ill daughter. Others in the cast included Edward James Olmos, Pepe Serna and Julie Carmen.
In May 1981, Orlando appeared on Broadway in the title role of Barnum, replacing Jim Dale, who was on a three-week vacation.
During the 1984–85 season of The Cosby Show (its first season), Orlando played Tony Castillo, who runs a community center. He had a cameo appearance as himself in the 2002 film Waking Up In Reno, in which he sang a version of "Knock Three Times".
In 2003, Orlando had a recurring role in the children's animated series Oswald, in which he did the voice of "Sammy Starfish".
Orlando appeared in an episode of MADtv doing a sketch involving a court case, where the defense sings to persuade the jury about their side. He sang for the prosecution, thereby persuading the judge to give the defense jail for life. In another television program, Orlando was featured in "Larry the Cable Guy's Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza". He appeared in That's My Boy as Steve Spirou, a Happy Madison production starring Adam Sandler in 2012.
Personal life
Orlando was introduced by Jerry Lee Lewis to his future wife, Elaine, who had previously dated Buddy Holly. Tony and Elaine married in 1965, and had one child, Jon; they divorced in 1984. Five years later, Orlando was engaged to Francine Amormino, whom he married in 1991. The couple remained married as of 2014; they have one child.
On February 27, 2013, his mother, Ruth Schroeder of Hollister, Missouri, died in Branson, Missouri of a diabetic stroke.
In 2002, he wrote a memoir, Halfway to Paradise. Tony and Francine Orlando live in Branson, Missouri, with their daughter, Jenny Rose. Orlando's son Jon Orlando, from his first marriage, was a comedian from 1993 to 2002. Jon lives in Las Vegas and is currently the host of The Action Junkeez Podcast as well as Wise Kracks Podcast with the legendary sports bettor Bill Krackenberger. It was announced on September 7, 2021 that Jon was hired as the CEO of MaximNFT.
Orlando was interviewed on The 700 Club explaining that he was raised Catholic and was "brought up with the Lord as my Savior"; but after a self-destructive period following his professional success with Dawn, he became a born-again Christian in 1978.
Discography
Albums
Bless You and 11 Other Great Hits (1961)
Make Believe (1969) (with 'Wind')
Before Dawn (1973)
Tony Orlando (1978)
I Got Rhythm (1979)
Livin' for the Music (1980)
Halfway to Paradise: The Complete Epic Masters 1961-1964 (2006)
Bless You (2014)
Solo singles
See also
List of Puerto Ricans
Tony Orlando and Dawn (TV series)
References
External links
Classicbands.com
1944 births
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American singers
American male musical theatre actors
American male pop singers
American male television actors
American people of Greek descent
American people of Puerto Rican descent
Television personalities from New York City
Bell Records artists
Living people
Male actors from Missouri
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from New York City
People from Branson, Missouri
People from Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
People from Union City, New Jersey
Singers from Missouri
Singers from New Jersey
Singers from New York City
Tony Orlando and Dawn members
20th-century American male singers
21st-century American male singers
| true |
[
"Ben Fransham is a New Zealand actor known for his role as Petyr in the 2014 comedy What We Do in the Shadows.\n\nEarly life and education\nFransham graduated from the New Zealand School of Dance in Wellington with a third-year scholarship diploma in 1991, and then won entry to The London Contemporary Dance School, but did not attend.\n\nCareer\n\nIn 1992, Fransham began freelance work, performing in Paul Jenden's Dance South, and touring the country with Footnote Dance Company.\n\nHe made his dramatic role debut as Rudy in Jacqueline Coats' stage production of Bent, which won a 1997 Chapmann Tripp Theatre Award for Most Original Production of the Year. Since then, he has performed in musical theatre, dramatic plays, vaudeville, puppetry, and sketch comedy shows, with increasing work in film and television.\n\nFransham performed in several episodes of Legend of the Seeker (2008–2010), in various featured roles of horrifying creatures. The actor has worked across multiple disciplines, including stunt performance, (e.g., with Terry Notary, in The Hobbit film trilogy, as a goblin, and with the stunt team as various orcs, goblins, humans, and elves).\n\nIn 2014, Fransham played the role of a vampire in the film What We Do in the Shadows and in 2015, he appeared in three episodes of Ash vs Evil Dead.\n\nSelected filmography\n\nFilm\n\nTelevision\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nNew Zealand male film actors",
"Matt Bish (born 15 May 1975), also known as Matthew Bishanga, is a Ugandan filmmaker and the Creative Director at Bish Films. He directed the first Ugawood feature film, Battle of the Souls, in 2007.\n\nPersonal life and education\nThe first of four children born to Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Bishanga, Bish obtained his early education in Uganda. There, as a boy, he grew to love film, attending the cinema but also being exposed to many movies at home with his family on his father's home video system. He credits his parents with inspiring his film career. After his primary education, he attended Makerere University in Kampala, where he studied Architecture, before moving to the Netherlands in 1998 and studying Digital Filmmaking at the SAE Institute in Amsterdam.\n\nCareer\nIn 2005, Bish returned to Uganda to start an audiovisual production company \"Bish Films Ltd\" with his younger brother Roger Mugisha. At first limited to music videos, it soon branched out into films. Bish worked on his first feature film in 2006. Battle of the Souls is the first feature film in Uganda.\n\nBish Films produces TV commercials and documentaries, as well as films and music videos as they did when they first began. He believes Ugandan films that try to maintain quality should not be categorised as kina-Uganda (like ki-Nigeria) but rather Nile Films, Ugawood or something else.\n\n\"A critic is someone who can't do what you do the way you do it...\" - Matt Bish\n\nFilmography\n\n Short films\n\n Documentaries\n\nReferences\n\n1975 births\nLiving people\nUgandan film directors\nUgandan film producers\nPlace of birth missing (living people)\nUgandan screenwriters"
] |
[
"Tony Orlando",
"Early life and career",
"Where was Tony Orlando born?",
"He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York.",
"Where did he live later?",
"In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.",
"Who was his father?",
"the son of a Greek father",
"Who was his mother?",
"Puerto Rican mother.",
"Where did he attend school?",
"I don't know.",
"Who were his influences?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he do in his early career?",
"Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15,"
] |
C_4598c4492aef4f269f626d07006018e2_1
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Did he release any albums with The Five Gents?
| 8 |
Did Tony Orlando release any albums with The Five Gents?
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Tony Orlando
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Tony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to songwrite in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2. New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn. CANNOTANSWER
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with whom he recorded demo tapes.
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Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis (born April 3, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, music executive, radio personality and actor. He is best known for his work as part of Tony Orlando and Dawn as well as their 1970s recordings and television show. His career in the music industry has spanned over 60 years.
Orlando formed the doo-wop group The Five Gents in 1958 at the age of 14, with whom he recorded demos that got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner. At the age of 17, in 1961, Orlando released the song "Ding Dong" on the MILO record label. Kirshner hired him to write songs at 1650 Broadway, Manhattan as part New York's thriving Brill Building songwriting community, along with other songwriters Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who did not make it in the office until they later changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Orlando was also hired to sing on songwriter demos, and singles released with Orlando as a solo artist began to enter the charts in the US and the UK beginning in 1961 with "Halfway to Paradise" and "Bless You" when he was 16. Orlando continued as a solo artist and also became a producer himself, as well as a successful music executive in the late 1960s. He was hired by Clive Davis as the general manager of Columbia Records' publishing imprint, April-Blackwood Music in 1967, and by the late 1960s had been promoted to vice-president of Columbia/CBS Music.
In 1969, Orlando signed Barry Manilow to his first recording contract with Bell Records, co-writing with him and producing Manilow's earliest tracks. He also worked with other artists, such as The Yardbirds, James Taylor, Grateful Dead, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Laura Nyro. He recorded "Candida" as lead vocalist under the pseudonym "Dawn" in 1970, and when the song became an international number-one song, he began to use his name in the group becoming "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando" and then "Tony Orlando and Dawn". The group had 19 other top 40 tracks, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", the top-selling hit of 1973 and one of the biggest selling singles of all time. The group also had a hit variety program, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS from 1974 to 1976. They then broke up in 1978, after which he has performed as Tony Orlando.
In 1993 he opened the Tony Orlando Yellow Ribbon Music Theatre in Branson, Missouri. He ended his act there in 2013. He has since continued to perform many live shows as a headliner, mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Early life and career
Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis was born on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey, and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to write songs in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.
New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn.
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Orlando recorded the record "Candida", with backup singers including Toni Wine (who wrote the song) and Linda November. Concerned about a possible conflict of interest with his April-Blackwood duties, Orlando sang under the condition that his name not be associated with the project, so it was released under the simple name of "Dawn", the middle name of the daughter of Bell records executive Steve Wax.
"Candida" became a worldwide hit in 1970, reaching number one in five countries, and the top ten in many others, including number three in the United States. Dawn, with Wine and November again singing backup, recorded another song, "Knock Three Times", which itself became a #1 hit. Orlando then wanted to go on tour, and asked two other session singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson to join for the tour. Orlando then discovered that there were six touring groups using that name, so Dawn became "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando", which changed to Tony Orlando and Dawn in 1973.
The new group recorded more hits, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" (1973) and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" (1975), a cover of the Jerry Butler hit, "He Will Break Your Heart". With a successful recording career, Orlando then set his sights on television. As described in The San Francisco Chronicle, "Tony Orlando and Dawn burst out of television sets during the Ford administration, a sunny antidote to the dark cynicism that followed Watergate. He represented simple, traditional values, a conservative return to pure entertainment. He drew a happy face in the "O" of his autograph. It was not terribly cool, but America loved him." The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS became a hit, a summer replacement for the Sonny & Cher show, and ran for four seasons from 1974 to 1976. It welcomed the biggest names in show business each week as Orlando's guests, including his boyhood idols, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Lewis.
At the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, Orlando danced to the tune of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" with then First Lady Betty Ford. The media stated that it was to divert attention as Nancy Reagan entered the Kemper Arena convention hall. However, in Orlando's book Halfway to Paradise, he states that Mrs. Reagan was asked what her favorite song was, which happened to be "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", so it was chosen as her entrance song. Ronald Reagan unsuccessfully challenged Gerald Ford, for the presidential nomination that year but came back in 1980 to claim the presidency itself. Ray Barnhart, a Reagan co-manager from Texas, criticized Mrs. Ford for having "danced a jig" with Orlando. Barbara Staff, another Texas co-chairman, called Betty Ford's behavior "a low, cheap shot".
On October 12, 2015, with Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson present, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters honored Orlando with their Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award at a celebrity luncheon.
Late 1970s struggles and solo work
Along with the fame, Orlando had personal battles in the 1970s. He was briefly addicted to cocaine, and battled both obesity and depression. In 1977, due to the death of his sister, and the suicide of Orlando's close friend, comedian Freddie Prinze, Orlando had a breakdown, and retired from singing. He was briefly institutionalized, but returned to television with an NBC comeback special. From then, he continued as a solo artist, charting with two singles - the dance hit "Don't Let Go" in 1978 and "Sweets For My Sweet" in 1979. In the 1980s, he was a dominant force in Las Vegas, headlining various hotels with sold-out audiences.
Orlando continued primarily as a solo singer, performing on tour and regularly in Las Vegas and Branson, Missouri. He hosted the New York City portions of the MDA Labor Day Telethon on WWOR-TV since the 1980s but quit in 2011 in response to Jerry Lewis' firing from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He has won the Casino Entertainer of the Year Award, the Best All Around Entertainer - Las Vegas four times, and, prior to that, three times in Atlantic City, the Jukebox Artist of the Year Award from the Amusement and Music Owners Association of New York, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and has also been bestowed with The Bob Hope Award for excellence in entertainment from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in honor of his efforts on behalf of United States veterans. His work on behalf of American veterans led to his being named Honorary Chairman at the 40th Anniversary at the NAM-POW's Homecoming Celebration at the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library in 2014.
Orlando serves on the Board of Directors for the Eisenhower Foundation, as well as Honorary Chairman of Snowball Express, an organization that serves the children of fallen military heroes. He hosts the annual Congressional Medal of Honor dinner in Dallas, Texas. He has served as the Master of Ceremonies at the Secretary of Defense Freedom Awards at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
In 2020, Orlando began hosting a Saturday night oldies program for WABC Radio as the New York City station partially restored its music format.
Acting career
Orlando's first TV appearance was in 1976 on the series Chico and the Man as "Tomas Garcia".
Orlando starred in the 1981 TV movie 300 Miles For Stephanie, playing a police officer who promises to walk over 300 miles to a sanctuary in order to obtain God's help to cure Stephanie, his gravely ill daughter. Others in the cast included Edward James Olmos, Pepe Serna and Julie Carmen.
In May 1981, Orlando appeared on Broadway in the title role of Barnum, replacing Jim Dale, who was on a three-week vacation.
During the 1984–85 season of The Cosby Show (its first season), Orlando played Tony Castillo, who runs a community center. He had a cameo appearance as himself in the 2002 film Waking Up In Reno, in which he sang a version of "Knock Three Times".
In 2003, Orlando had a recurring role in the children's animated series Oswald, in which he did the voice of "Sammy Starfish".
Orlando appeared in an episode of MADtv doing a sketch involving a court case, where the defense sings to persuade the jury about their side. He sang for the prosecution, thereby persuading the judge to give the defense jail for life. In another television program, Orlando was featured in "Larry the Cable Guy's Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza". He appeared in That's My Boy as Steve Spirou, a Happy Madison production starring Adam Sandler in 2012.
Personal life
Orlando was introduced by Jerry Lee Lewis to his future wife, Elaine, who had previously dated Buddy Holly. Tony and Elaine married in 1965, and had one child, Jon; they divorced in 1984. Five years later, Orlando was engaged to Francine Amormino, whom he married in 1991. The couple remained married as of 2014; they have one child.
On February 27, 2013, his mother, Ruth Schroeder of Hollister, Missouri, died in Branson, Missouri of a diabetic stroke.
In 2002, he wrote a memoir, Halfway to Paradise. Tony and Francine Orlando live in Branson, Missouri, with their daughter, Jenny Rose. Orlando's son Jon Orlando, from his first marriage, was a comedian from 1993 to 2002. Jon lives in Las Vegas and is currently the host of The Action Junkeez Podcast as well as Wise Kracks Podcast with the legendary sports bettor Bill Krackenberger. It was announced on September 7, 2021 that Jon was hired as the CEO of MaximNFT.
Orlando was interviewed on The 700 Club explaining that he was raised Catholic and was "brought up with the Lord as my Savior"; but after a self-destructive period following his professional success with Dawn, he became a born-again Christian in 1978.
Discography
Albums
Bless You and 11 Other Great Hits (1961)
Make Believe (1969) (with 'Wind')
Before Dawn (1973)
Tony Orlando (1978)
I Got Rhythm (1979)
Livin' for the Music (1980)
Halfway to Paradise: The Complete Epic Masters 1961-1964 (2006)
Bless You (2014)
Solo singles
See also
List of Puerto Ricans
Tony Orlando and Dawn (TV series)
References
External links
Classicbands.com
1944 births
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American singers
American male musical theatre actors
American male pop singers
American male television actors
American people of Greek descent
American people of Puerto Rican descent
Television personalities from New York City
Bell Records artists
Living people
Male actors from Missouri
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from New York City
People from Branson, Missouri
People from Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
People from Union City, New Jersey
Singers from Missouri
Singers from New Jersey
Singers from New York City
Tony Orlando and Dawn members
20th-century American male singers
21st-century American male singers
| true |
[
"The Gents Place is an ultra-premium and membership-based men's grooming and lifestyle club launched in Frisco, Texas, in 2008. The combination barbershop, spa and salon offers services including haircuts, coloring, shaves, hand and foot repairs and shoe shine services.\n\nHistory\nThe Gents Place was founded by Benjamin Davis in 2008, with the opening of the first location in the Dallas suburb of Frisco, Texas. Davis also founded GentsDeals.com, a men's buying club, and digital marketing company Male Advertising Network. Davis has stated that the idea for The Gents Place came to him because he disliked getting his hair cut and wanted to improve upon the experience. To start, he focused on building, training and retaining a staff with high standards, and used a social media campaign to sign up over 5,000 clients. In 2011, Davis purchased an existing men's salon in Leawood, Kansas, turning it into a second Gents Place location. A third location was opened in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas in 2012. By that time, men's grooming was the fastest growing segment of the beauty industry. As of July 2019, there are eight Texas locations, one in Kansas, one in Bentonville, two in Chicago, and one in Las Vegas.\n\nIn March 2016, The Gents Place received an undisclosed investment from Elevated Brands, a holding company established by San Antonio-based massage therapy company Massage Heights, to help expand The Gents Place to a nationwide franchise brand. As of July 2019, The Gents Place has 13 locations.\n\nIn May 2016, Hall of Fame NFL running back Emmitt Smith became co-owner of The Gents Place, alongside the company's founder and president, Ben Davis. Smith has been a member and has worked with the company since it was founded. After observing its potential to meet the growing need for men's luxury grooming, he decided to make an investment in the company, to assist with franchise growth and brand awareness. That month, Davis announced a national franchise program, with plans to open 150 franchise locations in the next five years, in addition to several more corporate-owned stores. In September 2016, The Gents Place announced that they would be expanding to Houston, developing up to 10 clubs in the area.\n\nServices and culture\nThe Gents Place provides hair services, hot towel shaves, waxing, shoe shines and hand and foot repairs, and features complimentary bars and cigar-smoking patios. Interior features include dark wood paneling, leather barber chairs, big lounge chairs and a red felt pool table in at least one of its locations. The atmosphere is comparable to a country club or high-end steakhouse. The company offers monthly and yearly memberships with various service packages. As of July 2016, The Gents Place has 2,300 members.\n\nAccolades\nThe Gents Place was named #1 Barber on the WFAA Dallas A-List in 2009. Haute Living called it one of the top five barbershops in Dallas, and it has been featured in Men's Health as one of the Manliest Barbershops in America. In 2014, Esquire magazine said it offers one of the most luxurious shaves in America. In December 2015, The Gents Place was named one of three winners of the OnDeck Barbara Corcoran Seal of Approval contest. The company received a $10,000 cash prize, and Davis met with Shark Tank investor Barbara Corcoran in New York.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official Website\n\nCompanies based in Dallas\nPrivately held companies based in Texas\nAmerican companies established in 2008\n2008 establishments in Texas\nBeauty salons\nBarbers\nSpas",
"The Gents are an English mod revival band from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, active in the 1980s and reunited occasionally from 2010, significant and notable for their lower end UK chart history from 1985 to 1987.\n\nCareer\nThe group began as a cover band, playing songs originally recorded by The Who, The Kinks, The Jam, The Lambrettas and Madness, along with original material and other contemporary covers. They attracted attention after winning a competition hosted by EMI, the prize of which was studio time at Abbey Road Studios. The result was their debut single, the double-a-sided \"The Faker\"/\"Le Pink Pantser\" in 1981 although not recorded at Abbey Road as they decided to decline the one-single deal which was the prize in favour of recording it themselves back at home in the north. The single was not a commercial success and as the vinyl record was of a limited run copies have sold for up to £100.\n\nThe band developed a live following in the UK, playing up to five times a week in working men's clubs in the North and North-East of England. They were particularly appreciated at mod events, including the 100 Club on Oxford Street and also on the 1980s scooterist scene. They released a number of singles which appeared on independent charts in New Musical Express and Melody Maker, but their biggest commercial success, a cover of The Easybeats' \"Friday On My Mind\" was the only one to reach the top 100 in the UK singles chart.\n\nThe Gents were active from 1980 to February 1989, having released nine 7\" singles (three with accompanying 12\" versions), two vinyl albums and one cassette-only sampler album. They have also appeared on several multi-artist compilation albums over the years. In 1981 the band won a \"Battle of the Bands\" type competition called the EMI Tetley Supergroup competition, culminating in a final at the Compton Arms in Leeds and resulting in a prize of recording time at Abbey Road Studios in London and a one-single deal with EMI. In the mid-1980s they became involved with the nationwide mod scene through Mark Johnson's The Phoenix Society of London and played at many mod events at this time, plus undertook a national tour known as the \"New Direction National Tour\", from May to June 1985 and named after their single release of that time. The Gents also played at the Mod-Aid all-day Band Aid charity event at Walthamstow Town Hall on 15.12.85 and were featured on the double vinyl LP recording of that event. They later disavowed Mark Johnson. \n\nFrom 2010, Detour Records commenced a programme of reissuing the group's albums on the CD format as they had only ever been released on vinyl and cassette at the time of the band's recording career and this led to the band briefly reforming to play a selection of local concerts in South Yorkshire as a three-piece, without founding keyboard player Steve Kendell.\n\nOn 13 April 2018, the band played a sold-out concert billed as their final ever, at Birdwell Venue in Barnsley, to launch the final instalment of their CD release schedule, a singles' album in the form of a CD/DVD box set entitled The Rise and Fall of the Gents and also the release of a new 7\" vinyl release entitled \"The Unfinished Business EP\", both released on Detour Records. This concert also marked the return of the previously absent founding keyboard player Steve Kendell to the lineup.\n\nDiscography\n\n7\" Singles\n \"The Faker b/w Pink Pantser\" – 1981 POSH001\n \"Schooldays b/w True Stories\" – 1982 KOS6886\n \"The Gent b/w Revenge/Over Me\" – 1982 MEGA1.\n \"Revenge b/w Girl\" – 1983 POSH007.\n \"Shout! b/w The Faker\" – 1985 G-7.\n \"New Direction b/w You are the Sun\" – 1985. GN8.\n \"Stay with Me b/w In the Heat of the Sun\" – 1985. GN9.\n \"Give it to Me b/w At the Dance Part 1\" – 1986. GN11.\n \"Friday on my Mind b/w Have a Good Time\" – 1986. GN12.\n \"The Unfinished Business EP\" – 2018. DR098.\n \"The Faker b/w Pink Pantser\" - 2020. DR120PD (Picture disc reissue of debut single).\n\n12\" singles\n \"Stay with Me b/w Tomorrow Never Comes (remix)/Don't Turn Away (remix)\" – 1985. GN9(T).\n \"Give it to Me b/w At the Dance Part 1/At the Dance Part 2/The More You Get/The Gents' Drunken Party\" – 1986. GN11(T).\n \"Friday on my Mind b/w Have a Good Time/Dogshit Blues\" – 1986. GN12(T).\n\nLPs\n \"This Way to the Gents – cassette-only sampler album\" – 1981 \n \"How it all Began\" – 1985, GG77. \n \"Waiting to be Seen\" – 1987 PSM10\n\nCDs\nAll are reissues of original albums and artwork, plus bonus material in order to eventually put all Gents' historical recorded and released material onto the digital format.\n \"How it all Began\" – (Detour) 2012\n \"Waiting to be Seen\" (Detour) 2013\n \"This Way to the Gents\" – (Detour) 2014\n \"The Rise and Fall of the Gents\" – (Detour) 2018\n\nCompilations\n Rock-On : Compilation LP of finalists from the EMI/Joshua Tetley 1981 Supergroup Competition 1981. Includes \"The Faker\".\n 5-4-3-2-1 Go! The Countdown Compilation : Compilation LP of mid-1980s mod revival bands. Includes \"The Faker\".\n Dedicated - the Mod Live Aid All-Dayer : Live album of mid-1980s mod revival bands live at Walthamstow Town Hall on 15.12.85. Includes \"Act Now\" and \"At the Dance Parts 1&2\".\n Unicorn One - Beyond Tomorrow : 1987 compilation lp on Unicorn Records. Includes \"Denaby Dogshit Blues\".\n Unicorn Two - Modern Times : 1987 compilation lp on Unicorn Records. Includes \"A Man One Day\".\n Millions Like Us : The Story of the Mod Revival 1977–1989 (Cherry Red) 2014. Includes \"The Faker\".\n Eddie Piller Presents the Mod Revival : Compilation vinyl 2-LP and 4-CD of mod revival bands curated by DJ Eddie Piller. Includes \"The Faker\" on the CD version of the album only.\n\nChart placings\n\nReferences\n\nBritish mod revival groups\nEnglish new wave musical groups\nEnglish rock music groups\nPeople from Doncaster"
] |
[
"Tony Orlando",
"Early life and career",
"Where was Tony Orlando born?",
"He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York.",
"Where did he live later?",
"In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.",
"Who was his father?",
"the son of a Greek father",
"Who was his mother?",
"Puerto Rican mother.",
"Where did he attend school?",
"I don't know.",
"Who were his influences?",
"I don't know.",
"What did he do in his early career?",
"Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15,",
"Did he release any albums with The Five Gents?",
"with whom he recorded demo tapes."
] |
C_4598c4492aef4f269f626d07006018e2_1
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What songs were on the tapes?
| 9 |
What songs were sung on the tapes?
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Tony Orlando
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Tony Orlando was born Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey. Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to songwrite in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air - Live at the BBC Volume 2. New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis (born April 3, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, music executive, radio personality and actor. He is best known for his work as part of Tony Orlando and Dawn as well as their 1970s recordings and television show. His career in the music industry has spanned over 60 years.
Orlando formed the doo-wop group The Five Gents in 1958 at the age of 14, with whom he recorded demos that got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner. At the age of 17, in 1961, Orlando released the song "Ding Dong" on the MILO record label. Kirshner hired him to write songs at 1650 Broadway, Manhattan as part New York's thriving Brill Building songwriting community, along with other songwriters Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Cynthia Weil, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who did not make it in the office until they later changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Orlando was also hired to sing on songwriter demos, and singles released with Orlando as a solo artist began to enter the charts in the US and the UK beginning in 1961 with "Halfway to Paradise" and "Bless You" when he was 16. Orlando continued as a solo artist and also became a producer himself, as well as a successful music executive in the late 1960s. He was hired by Clive Davis as the general manager of Columbia Records' publishing imprint, April-Blackwood Music in 1967, and by the late 1960s had been promoted to vice-president of Columbia/CBS Music.
In 1969, Orlando signed Barry Manilow to his first recording contract with Bell Records, co-writing with him and producing Manilow's earliest tracks. He also worked with other artists, such as The Yardbirds, James Taylor, Grateful Dead, Blood Sweat and Tears, and Laura Nyro. He recorded "Candida" as lead vocalist under the pseudonym "Dawn" in 1970, and when the song became an international number-one song, he began to use his name in the group becoming "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando" and then "Tony Orlando and Dawn". The group had 19 other top 40 tracks, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree", the top-selling hit of 1973 and one of the biggest selling singles of all time. The group also had a hit variety program, The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS from 1974 to 1976. They then broke up in 1978, after which he has performed as Tony Orlando.
In 1993 he opened the Tony Orlando Yellow Ribbon Music Theatre in Branson, Missouri. He ended his act there in 2013. He has since continued to perform many live shows as a headliner, mostly in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Early life and career
Michael Anthony Orlando Cassavitis was born on April 3, 1944, the son of a Greek father and a Puerto Rican mother. He spent his earliest years in Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan, New York. In his teenage years, the family moved to Union City, New Jersey, and later Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey.
Orlando's musical career started with The Five Gents, a doo-wop group he formed in 1959 at age 15, with whom he recorded demo tapes. He got the attention of music publisher and producer Don Kirshner, who hired him to write songs in an office across from New York's Brill Building, along with Carole King, Neil Sedaka, Toni Wine, Barry Mann, Bobby Darin, Connie Francis, and Tom and Jerry, who didn't make it in the office until they changed their name to Simon and Garfunkel. Kirshner also hired Orlando to record songwriter demos as a solo artist, and his first success came at the age of 16 when he charted in the US and UK with the hits "Bless You" and "Halfway To Paradise." He also appeared at the Brooklyn Paramount Theater with DJ Murray the K. Orlando also had four records that "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100: "Chills" in 1962, "Shirley" and "I'll Be There" in 1963, and "I Was A Boy (When You Needed A Man)" as by Billy Shields in April 1969. Gerry Goffin and Jack Keller wrote a doo-wop version of Stephen Foster's song "Beautiful Dreamer" for Orlando. Released as a single in 1962, the song was picked up by the Beatles who included it in their set lists on the Beatles Winter 1963 Helen Shapiro Tour; a recorded version was released on their 2013 album On Air – Live at the BBC Volume 2.
New Colony Six recorded an Orlando composition, "I'm Just Waitin' (Anticipatin' For Her To Show Up)", which charted locally in Chicago and "Bubbled Under" the Hot 100 in July 1967. That year, Clive Davis hired Orlando as general manager of Columbia Records publishing subsidiary April-Blackwood Music. By the late 1960s, Orlando had worked his way up to vice president of a larger publishing company, CBS Music, where he signed, co-wrote with and produced Barry Manilow (under the name "Featherbed") and worked with James Taylor, the Grateful Dead, Laura Nyro and other artists. In the summer of 1969 he recorded with the studio group Wind and had a #28 hit that year with "Make Believe" on producer Bo Gentry's Life Records. Orlando was experiencing success, primarily as a music executive, and Davis pretended not to notice when Orlando accepted a $3,000 advance and sang lead vocals on a song called "Candida" as a favor for two producer friends. If the record failed, Orlando didn't want it to affect his reputation, so he used a pseudonym: Dawn.
Tony Orlando and Dawn
Orlando recorded the record "Candida", with backup singers including Toni Wine (who wrote the song) and Linda November. Concerned about a possible conflict of interest with his April-Blackwood duties, Orlando sang under the condition that his name not be associated with the project, so it was released under the simple name of "Dawn", the middle name of the daughter of Bell records executive Steve Wax.
"Candida" became a worldwide hit in 1970, reaching number one in five countries, and the top ten in many others, including number three in the United States. Dawn, with Wine and November again singing backup, recorded another song, "Knock Three Times", which itself became a #1 hit. Orlando then wanted to go on tour, and asked two other session singers, Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson to join for the tour. Orlando then discovered that there were six touring groups using that name, so Dawn became "Dawn featuring Tony Orlando", which changed to Tony Orlando and Dawn in 1973.
The new group recorded more hits, including "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree" (1973) and "He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)" (1975), a cover of the Jerry Butler hit, "He Will Break Your Heart". With a successful recording career, Orlando then set his sights on television. As described in The San Francisco Chronicle, "Tony Orlando and Dawn burst out of television sets during the Ford administration, a sunny antidote to the dark cynicism that followed Watergate. He represented simple, traditional values, a conservative return to pure entertainment. He drew a happy face in the "O" of his autograph. It was not terribly cool, but America loved him." The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show on CBS became a hit, a summer replacement for the Sonny & Cher show, and ran for four seasons from 1974 to 1976. It welcomed the biggest names in show business each week as Orlando's guests, including his boyhood idols, Jackie Gleason and Jerry Lewis.
At the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri, Orlando danced to the tune of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon" with then First Lady Betty Ford. The media stated that it was to divert attention as Nancy Reagan entered the Kemper Arena convention hall. However, in Orlando's book Halfway to Paradise, he states that Mrs. Reagan was asked what her favorite song was, which happened to be "Tie a Yellow Ribbon", so it was chosen as her entrance song. Ronald Reagan unsuccessfully challenged Gerald Ford, for the presidential nomination that year but came back in 1980 to claim the presidency itself. Ray Barnhart, a Reagan co-manager from Texas, criticized Mrs. Ford for having "danced a jig" with Orlando. Barbara Staff, another Texas co-chairman, called Betty Ford's behavior "a low, cheap shot".
On October 12, 2015, with Telma Hopkins and Joyce Vincent Wilson present, Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters honored Orlando with their Art Gilmore Career Achievement Award at a celebrity luncheon.
Late 1970s struggles and solo work
Along with the fame, Orlando had personal battles in the 1970s. He was briefly addicted to cocaine, and battled both obesity and depression. In 1977, due to the death of his sister, and the suicide of Orlando's close friend, comedian Freddie Prinze, Orlando had a breakdown, and retired from singing. He was briefly institutionalized, but returned to television with an NBC comeback special. From then, he continued as a solo artist, charting with two singles - the dance hit "Don't Let Go" in 1978 and "Sweets For My Sweet" in 1979. In the 1980s, he was a dominant force in Las Vegas, headlining various hotels with sold-out audiences.
Orlando continued primarily as a solo singer, performing on tour and regularly in Las Vegas and Branson, Missouri. He hosted the New York City portions of the MDA Labor Day Telethon on WWOR-TV since the 1980s but quit in 2011 in response to Jerry Lewis' firing from the Muscular Dystrophy Association. He has won the Casino Entertainer of the Year Award, the Best All Around Entertainer - Las Vegas four times, and, prior to that, three times in Atlantic City, the Jukebox Artist of the Year Award from the Amusement and Music Owners Association of New York, The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, and has also been bestowed with The Bob Hope Award for excellence in entertainment from the Congressional Medal of Honor Society in honor of his efforts on behalf of United States veterans. His work on behalf of American veterans led to his being named Honorary Chairman at the 40th Anniversary at the NAM-POW's Homecoming Celebration at the Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library in 2014.
Orlando serves on the Board of Directors for the Eisenhower Foundation, as well as Honorary Chairman of Snowball Express, an organization that serves the children of fallen military heroes. He hosts the annual Congressional Medal of Honor dinner in Dallas, Texas. He has served as the Master of Ceremonies at the Secretary of Defense Freedom Awards at the Pentagon in Washington, DC.
In 2020, Orlando began hosting a Saturday night oldies program for WABC Radio as the New York City station partially restored its music format.
Acting career
Orlando's first TV appearance was in 1976 on the series Chico and the Man as "Tomas Garcia".
Orlando starred in the 1981 TV movie 300 Miles For Stephanie, playing a police officer who promises to walk over 300 miles to a sanctuary in order to obtain God's help to cure Stephanie, his gravely ill daughter. Others in the cast included Edward James Olmos, Pepe Serna and Julie Carmen.
In May 1981, Orlando appeared on Broadway in the title role of Barnum, replacing Jim Dale, who was on a three-week vacation.
During the 1984–85 season of The Cosby Show (its first season), Orlando played Tony Castillo, who runs a community center. He had a cameo appearance as himself in the 2002 film Waking Up In Reno, in which he sang a version of "Knock Three Times".
In 2003, Orlando had a recurring role in the children's animated series Oswald, in which he did the voice of "Sammy Starfish".
Orlando appeared in an episode of MADtv doing a sketch involving a court case, where the defense sings to persuade the jury about their side. He sang for the prosecution, thereby persuading the judge to give the defense jail for life. In another television program, Orlando was featured in "Larry the Cable Guy's Star Studded Christmas Extravaganza". He appeared in That's My Boy as Steve Spirou, a Happy Madison production starring Adam Sandler in 2012.
Personal life
Orlando was introduced by Jerry Lee Lewis to his future wife, Elaine, who had previously dated Buddy Holly. Tony and Elaine married in 1965, and had one child, Jon; they divorced in 1984. Five years later, Orlando was engaged to Francine Amormino, whom he married in 1991. The couple remained married as of 2014; they have one child.
On February 27, 2013, his mother, Ruth Schroeder of Hollister, Missouri, died in Branson, Missouri of a diabetic stroke.
In 2002, he wrote a memoir, Halfway to Paradise. Tony and Francine Orlando live in Branson, Missouri, with their daughter, Jenny Rose. Orlando's son Jon Orlando, from his first marriage, was a comedian from 1993 to 2002. Jon lives in Las Vegas and is currently the host of The Action Junkeez Podcast as well as Wise Kracks Podcast with the legendary sports bettor Bill Krackenberger. It was announced on September 7, 2021 that Jon was hired as the CEO of MaximNFT.
Orlando was interviewed on The 700 Club explaining that he was raised Catholic and was "brought up with the Lord as my Savior"; but after a self-destructive period following his professional success with Dawn, he became a born-again Christian in 1978.
Discography
Albums
Bless You and 11 Other Great Hits (1961)
Make Believe (1969) (with 'Wind')
Before Dawn (1973)
Tony Orlando (1978)
I Got Rhythm (1979)
Livin' for the Music (1980)
Halfway to Paradise: The Complete Epic Masters 1961-1964 (2006)
Bless You (2014)
Solo singles
See also
List of Puerto Ricans
Tony Orlando and Dawn (TV series)
References
External links
Classicbands.com
1944 births
20th-century American male actors
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American singers
American male musical theatre actors
American male pop singers
American male television actors
American people of Greek descent
American people of Puerto Rican descent
Television personalities from New York City
Bell Records artists
Living people
Male actors from Missouri
Male actors from New Jersey
Male actors from New York City
People from Branson, Missouri
People from Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
People from Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan
People from Union City, New Jersey
Singers from Missouri
Singers from New Jersey
Singers from New York City
Tony Orlando and Dawn members
20th-century American male singers
21st-century American male singers
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[
"The Basement Tapes is a collection of over 100 songs recorded by Bob Dylan and his then-backing group, the Band, in the summer of 1967 in West Saugerties, New York, just outside Woodstock. Recording sessions began in a den known as \"The Red Room\" in Dylan's home, before moving to an improvised recording studio in the basement of a house known as Big Pink, where Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson lived. Roughly half the songs recorded on The Basement Tapes were covers of traditional folk and blues ballads, rock songs, and country music, and half were original compositions by Dylan.\n\nFourteen basement tape songs appeared in 1968 on a demo privately circulated by Dylan's publishing company, Dwarf Music. Public awareness of the basement recordings increased with the release of the first bootleg, Great White Wonder, in 1969. In 1975 CBS officially released The Basement Tapes, but only sixteen of the twenty-four songs were recorded by Dylan and the Band in Woodstock in 1967. The other eight tracks were recordings by the Band from different times. Subsequently, more and more basement recordings have been unearthed and illicitly released, culminating in the release of a five-CD bootleg set in 1990, The Genuine Basement Tapes, containing 108 tracks. Two songs, \"I Shall Be Released\" and \"Santa-Fe\" were officially released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991 in 1991. \"I'm Not There\" was released on the soundtrack album accompanying the biographical film about Dylan, directed by Todd Haynes, named after the song. \"Minstrel Boy\" was released in 2013 on The Bootleg Series Vol. 10: Another Self Portrait (1969–1971). The songs of the Basement Tapes have been catalogued by Greil Marcus in his book Invisible Republic, and by Sid Griffin in his critical study Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, the Band, and the Basement Tapes.\n\nOn November 4, 2014, Columbia/Legacy issued The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete, an official 6-CD box set containing 138 tracks which comprise all of Dylan's basement recordings, including 30 never-bootlegged tracks.\n\nBelow is an alphabetical list of songs from these recording sessions. This list does not include songs that feature only the members of the Band.\n\nSongs\n\nFootnotes\n\nSources\n Barker, Derek. Bob Dylan: The Songs He Didn't Write: Bob Dylan Under the Influence (New Malden: Chrome Dreams 2008). \n Griffin, Sid. Million Dollar Bash: Bob Dylan, the Band, and the Basement Tapes (London: Jawbone, 2007). \n Heylin, Clinton. The Recording Sessions [1960–1994] (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995). \n Marcus, Greil, with Michael Simmons. The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 – Another Self Portrait (1969–1971) CD booklet (2013).\n Marcus, Greil. Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes (New York: Henry Holt, 1997) later re-published as:\n Marcus, Greil. The Old, Weird America (New York: St Martin's Press, 2001) \n Sounes, Howard, Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, Grove Press, 2001.\n\nSee also \n The Basement Tapes (1975 album)\n The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete\n List of Basement Tapes songs (1975)\n\nExternal links\n Bob Dylan 1967 session pages at Olof Björner's website.\n\n Basement Tapes\nLists of songs\nThe Band songs\n1970s-related lists",
"Tapes 'n Tapes is an indie rock band from Minneapolis, Minnesota.\n\nHistory\nFormed in the winter of 2003 at Carleton College, the band has released four albums. First came the self-released Tapes 'n Tapes EP in 2004, followed by the full-length release, The Loon, on Ibid Records in 2005. The band signed to XL Recordings and re-released The Loon on July 25, 2006. In October 2007 the band announced finishing recording of their second album, titled Walk It Off. Walk It Off was recorded by producer David Fridmann in his Tarbox Road Studio in Cassadaga, New York. The album was released April 8, 2008. The band's most recent album, Outside, was released on January 11, 2011.\n\nTapes singer Josh Grier says their first album was recorded \"...in the winter time at a cabin in the Wisconsin woods with no running water or toilet paper. It was a lot fun to do it on our own and get a little crazy, but it was also frustrating since we didn't really know entirely what we were doing\"\n\nTapes 'n Tapes gained popularity after a series of write-ups on music blogs, first on EAR FARM then on sites such as Music For Robots and Gorilla vs. Bear, leading some to cite them as the most recognizable examples of a \"blog band\" . However, it wasn't until The Loon received a favorable review from Pitchfork Media, including a \"best new music\" commendation, that the band started to find success. Tapes 'n Tapes have been compared to such alternative bands as Pixies and Pavement, or the recent alt-pop phenomenon Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. After release of their self-titled EP, the band played with more well-known acts such as The Futureheads, The Streets, Metric, Calvin Johnson, and I Am the World Trade Center. The band made its American television debut on the Late Show with David Letterman on July 25, 2006, performing the song \"Insistor.\" In 2006 the band did a Take-Away Show video session shot by Vincent Moon. They also performed at the Siren Music Festival in July of that same year. Tapes 'n Tapes performed at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in April 2007, along with bands such as Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Björk.\n\nTapes 'n Tapes' musical style varies in tempo and in influence, ranging from fast-paced polka renditions to the slower, more blues-influenced songs. The publication Music Week described the band's song \"Insistor\" as \"Part country, part rock...possess[ing] an emotional urgency that rivals Arcade Fire. This is promising stuff.\"\n\nJosh Grier has written several untitled songs for the band's next album, which was originally to be recorded in June 2007 and released in the fall of 2007, Grier told Billboard.com. During their set at the 2007 Lollapalooza festival, the band played six songs titled, according to the setlist posted on the festival's website, \"Demon Apple\", \"Blunt\", \"Icedbergs\", \"Headshock\", \"Le Ruse\" and \"Hang Them All\". The song \"Icedbergs\" was previously featured on the band's debut EP.\n\nTapes 'n Tapes were featured in a 2007 sketch on the MTV comedy program Human Giant. Aziz Ansari's character, a psychotic \"Indie Marketing Guru\" named Clell Tickle, pushes bloggers to feature MP3s of the band on their blogs. At one point he says, \"I've decided that if you don't post that Tapes 'n Tapes MP3, I'm going to come back here tomorrow and give you a Colombian necktie.\"\n\nWhile not on the official soundtrack, the song \"Insistor\" by Tapes 'n Tapes is featured in a scene in the movie Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.\n\n\"Hang Them All\" appears on Minnesota Public Radio station KCMP 89.3 The Current's \"Live Current Volume 4\". The album is available to contributors to MPR.\n\nThe band has been honored with a star on the outside mural of the Minneapolis nightclub First Avenue, recognizing performers that have played sold-out shows or have otherwise demonstrated a major contribution to the culture at the iconic venue. Receiving a star \"might be the most prestigious public honor an artist can receive in Minneapolis,\" according to journalist Steve Marsh.\n\nDiscography\n\nAlbums\n\nEPs\nTapes 'n Tapes – (2004) Ibid Records\n\nSingles\n\nNotes\n\nBand members\nThe band has four members, each of whom is named after a word in the band's name; two members of the band share the same word for their name. The band members are:\nJosh Grier (Tapes 1) – guitar, vocals\nJeremy Hanson (Tapes 2) – drums\nMatt Kretzman ('n) – keyboards, multi-instruments\nErik Appelwick ('n) – bass guitar\n\nIn April 2006, producer Erik Appelwick replaced previous bassist Shawn Neary. Drummer Jeremy Hanson replaced original Tapes drummer Karl Schweitz in 2005 while still a senior in high school.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nTapes 'n Tapes official website\nTapes 'n Tapes Live Review\nTapes 'N Tapes Hit the Pavement with Exclaim! magazine\nTapes 'n Tapes interview at musicOMH.com\nPitchfork Media's review of The Loon\nInterview with Josh Grier and Ashley Marie Sansotta with REAX Music Magazine\n[ Tapes 'N Tapes] bio from Allmusic\nTapes 'n Tapes perform a new song, \"SWM,\" on Radio Happy Hour\na journal by Josh Grier on the recording of Outside from InDigest\n\nIndie rock musical groups from Minnesota\nMusical groups established in 2003\nXL Recordings artists"
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[
"Bill Clinton",
"Early life and career"
] |
C_b683706c6b674cf081a007960267a41c_1
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Where did Bill Clinton begin his career?
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Where did Bill Clinton begin his career?
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Bill Clinton
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Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas. He was the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr. (1918-1946), a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy (later Virginia Kelley: 1923-1994). His parents had married on September 4, 1943, but this union later proved to be bigamous, as Blythe was still married to his third wife. Soon after Bill was born, Virginia traveled to New Orleans to study nursing. She left her son in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the southern United States was racially segregated, Clinton's grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races. In 1950, Bill's mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr., who owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950. Although he immediately assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Clinton turned 15 that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather. Clinton said that he remembered his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half-brother, Roger Clinton Jr., to the point where he intervened multiple times with the threat of violence to protect them. In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School, where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician. Clinton was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone, winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section. He briefly considered dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life: Clinton began an interest in law at Hot Springs High, when he took up the challenge to argue the defense of the ancient Roman Senator Catiline in a mock trial in his Latin class. After a vigorous defense that made use of his "budding rhetorical and political skills", he told the Latin teacher Elizabeth Buck that it "made him realize that someday he would study law". Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life, both occurring in 1963, that contributed to his decision to become a public figure. One was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy. The other was watching Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 I Have a Dream speech on TV, which impressed him enough that he later memorized it. CANNOTANSWER
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Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life, both occurring in 1963, that contributed to his decision to become a public figure.
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William Jefferson Clinton (; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992, and as attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton became known as a New Democrat, as many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy. He is the husband of Hillary Clinton, who was a senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and the Democratic nominee for president in the 2016 presidential election.
Clinton was born and raised in Arkansas and attended Georgetown University. He received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at University College, Oxford, and he later graduated from Yale Law School. He met Hillary Rodham at Yale; they married in 1975. After graduating from law school, Clinton returned to Arkansas and won election as state attorney general, followed by two non-consecutive terms as Arkansas governor. As governor, he overhauled the state's education system and served as chairman of the National Governors Association. Clinton was elected president in the 1992 presidential election, defeating incumbent Republican president George H. W. Bush and independent businessman Ross Perot. At 46 years old, he became the third-youngest president of the United States.
Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, but failed to pass his plan for national health care reform. In the 1994 elections, the Republican Party won unified control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. In spite of the electoral successes of Republicans, Clinton won reelection in 1996 with a landslide victory. Starting in the mid 1990s, Clinton began an ideological evolution as he became much more conservative in his domestic policy advocating for welfare reform and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, as well as financial and telecommunication deregulation measures. He also appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court. During the last three years of Clinton's presidency, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus—the first such surplus since 1969. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U.S. military intervention in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, signed the Dayton Peace agreement, signed the Iraq Liberation Act in opposition to Saddam Hussein, participated in the Oslo I Accord and Camp David Summit to advance the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, and assisted the Northern Ireland peace process.
Clinton's second term would be dominated by the Monica Lewinsky scandal which began in 1996, when he began a sexual affair with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In January 1998, news of the sexual relationship made tabloid headlines. The scandal escalated throughout the year, culminating on December 19 when Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives, becoming the second U.S. president to be impeached after Andrew Johnson. The two impeachment articles that the House passed were based on him using the powers of the presidency to obstruct the investigation and that he lied under oath. The following year saw the impeachment trial begin in the Senate, but Clinton was acquitted on both charges as the Senate failed to cast 67 votes against him, the conviction threshold.
Clinton left office with the highest end-of-term approval rating of any U.S. president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. His presidency has been ranked among the upper tier in historical rankings of U.S. presidents. However, his personal conduct and allegations of sexual assault against him have made him the subject of substantial scrutiny. Since leaving office, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. Clinton created the Clinton Foundation to address international causes such as the prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming. In 2009, he was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Clinton and George W. Bush formed the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. He has remained active in Democratic Party politics, campaigning for his wife's 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns.
Early life and career
Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas. He is the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr., a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy (later Virginia Kelley). His parents had married on September 4, 1943, but this union later proved to be bigamous, as Blythe was still married to his third wife. Virginia traveled to New Orleans to study nursing soon after Bill was born, leaving him in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the southern United States was racially segregated, Clinton's grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races. In 1950, Bill's mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr., who co-owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950.
Although he immediately assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Clinton turned 15 that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward him. Clinton has described his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half-brother, Roger Clinton Jr. He threatened his stepfather with violence multiple times to protect them.
In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School, where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician. Clinton was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone, winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section. He briefly considered dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life:
Clinton began an interest in law at Hot Springs High, when he took up the challenge to argue the defense of the ancient Roman senator Catiline in a mock trial in his Latin class. After a vigorous defense that made use of his "budding rhetorical and political skills", he told the Latin teacher Elizabeth Buck it "made him realize that someday he would study law".
Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life, both occurring in 1963, that contributed to his decision to become a public figure. One was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy. The other was watching Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech on TV, which impressed him so much that he later memorized it.
College and law school years
Georgetown University
With the aid of scholarships, Clinton attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree in 1968. Georgetown was the only school where Clinton applied.
In 1964 and 1965, Clinton won elections for class president. From 1964 to 1967, he was an intern and then a clerk in the office of Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. While in college, he became a brother of service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Clinton was also a member of the Order of DeMolay, a youth group affiliated with Freemasonry, but he never became a Freemason. He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band fraternity.
Oxford
Upon graduating from Georgetown in 1968, Clinton won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford, where he initially read for a B.Phil. in philosophy, politics, and economics but transferred to a B.Litt. in politics and, ultimately, a B.Phil. in politics. Clinton did not expect to return for the second year because of the draft and so he switched programs; this type of activity was common among other Rhodes Scholars from his cohort. He had received an offer to study at Yale Law School, Yale University, and so he left early to return to the United States and did not receive a degree from Oxford.
During his time at Oxford, Clinton befriended fellow American Rhodes Scholar Frank Aller. In 1969, Aller received a draft letter that mandated deployment to the Vietnam War. Aller's 1971 suicide had an influential impact on Clinton. British writer and feminist Sara Maitland said of Clinton, "I remember Bill and Frank Aller taking me to a pub in Walton Street in the summer term of 1969 and talking to me about the Vietnam War. I knew nothing about it, and when Frank began to describe the napalming of civilians I began to cry. Bill said that feeling bad wasn't good enough. That was the first time I encountered the idea that liberal sensitivities weren't enough and you had to do something about such things". Clinton was a member of the Oxford University Basketball Club and also played for Oxford University's rugby union team.
While Clinton was president in 1994, he received an honorary degree and a fellowship from the University of Oxford, specifically for being "a doughty and tireless champion of the cause of world peace", having "a powerful collaborator in his wife," and for winning "general applause for his achievement of resolving the gridlock that prevented an agreed budget".
Vietnam War opposition and draft controversy
During the Vietnam War, Clinton received educational draft deferments while he was in England in 1968 and 1969. While at Oxford, he participated in Vietnam War protests and organized a Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam event in October 1969. He was planning to attend law school in the U.S. and knew he might lose his deferment. Clinton tried unsuccessfully to obtain positions in the National Guard and the Air Force officer candidate school, and he then made arrangements to join the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program at the University of Arkansas.
He subsequently decided not to join the ROTC, saying in a letter to the officer in charge of the program that he opposed the war, but did not think it was honorable to use ROTC, National Guard, or Reserve service to avoid serving in Vietnam. He further stated that because he opposed the war, he would not volunteer to serve in uniform, but would subject himself to the draft, and would serve if selected only as a way "to maintain my political viability within the system". Clinton registered for the draft and received a high number (311), meaning that those whose birthdays had been drawn as numbers1 to 310 would be drafted before him, making it unlikely he would be called up. (In fact, the highest number drafted was 195.)
Colonel Eugene Holmes, the Army officer who had been involved with Clinton's ROTC application, suspected that Clinton attempted to manipulate the situation to avoid the draft and avoid serving in uniform. He issued a notarized statement during the 1992 presidential campaign:
During the 1992 campaign, it was revealed that Clinton's uncle had attempted to secure him a position in the Navy Reserve, which would have prevented him from being deployed to Vietnam. This effort was unsuccessful and Clinton said in 1992 that he had been unaware of it until then. Although legal, Clinton's actions with respect to the draft and deciding whether to serve in the military were criticized during his first presidential campaign by conservatives and some Vietnam veterans, some of whom charged that he had used Fulbright's influence to avoid military service. Clinton's 1992 campaign manager, James Carville, successfully argued that Clinton's letter in which he declined to join the ROTC should be made public, insisting that voters, many of whom had also opposed the Vietnam War, would understand and appreciate his position.
Law school
After Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1973. In 1971, he met his future wife, Hillary Rodham, in the Yale Law Library; she was a class year ahead of him. They began dating and were soon inseparable. After only about a month, Clinton postponed his summer plans to be a coordinator for the George McGovern campaign for the 1972 United States presidential election in order to move in with her in California. The couple continued living together in New Haven when they returned to law school.
Clinton eventually moved to Texas with Rodham in 1972 to take a job leading McGovern's effort there. He spent considerable time in Dallas, at the campaign's local headquarters on Lemmon Avenue, where he had an office. Clinton worked with future two-term mayor of Dallas Ron Kirk, future governor of Texas Ann Richards, and then unknown television director and filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
Governor of Arkansas (1979–1981, 1983–1992)
After graduating from Yale Law School, Clinton returned to Arkansas and became a law professor at the University of Arkansas. In 1974, he ran for the House of Representatives. Running in the conservative 3rd district against incumbent Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt, Clinton's campaign was bolstered by the anti-Republican and anti-incumbent mood resulting from the Watergate scandal. Hammerschmidt, who had received 77 percent of the vote in 1972, defeated Clinton by only a 52 percent to 48 percent margin. In 1976, Clinton ran for Arkansas attorney general. With only minor opposition in the primary and no opposition at all in the general election, Clinton was elected.
In 1978, Clinton entered the Arkansas gubernatorial primary. At just 31 years old, he was one of the youngest gubernatorial candidates in the state's history. Clinton was elected Governor of Arkansas in 1978, having defeated the Republican candidate Lynn Lowe, a farmer from Texarkana. Clinton was only 32 years old when he took office, the youngest governor in the country at the time and the second youngest governor in the history of Arkansas. Due to his youthful appearance, Clinton was often called the "Boy Governor". He worked on educational reform and directed the maintenance of Arkansas's roads, with wife Hillary leading a successful committee on urban health care reform. However, his term included an unpopular motor vehicle tax and citizens' anger over the escape of Cuban refugees (from the Mariel boatlift) detained in Fort Chaffee in 1980. Monroe Schwarzlose, of Kingsland in Cleveland County, polled 31 percent of the vote against Clinton in the Democratic gubernatorial primary of 1980. Some suggested Schwarzlose's unexpected voter turnout foreshadowed Clinton's defeat by Republican challenger Frank D. White in the general election that year. As Clinton once joked, he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history.
Clinton joined friend Bruce Lindsey's Little Rock law firm of Wright, Lindsey and Jennings. In 1982, he was elected governor a second time and kept the office for ten years. Effective with the 1986 election, Arkansas had changed its gubernatorial term of office from two to four years. During his term, he helped transform Arkansas's economy and improved the state's educational system. For senior citizens, he removed the sales tax from medications and increased the home property-tax exemption. He became a leading figure among the New Democrats, a group of Democrats who advocated welfare reform, smaller government, and other policies not supported by liberals. Formally organized as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the New Democrats argued that in light of President Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in 1984, the Democratic Party needed to adopt a more centrist political stance in order to succeed at the national level. Clinton delivered the Democratic response to Reagan's 1985 State of the Union Address and served as chair of the National Governors Association from 1986 to 1987, bringing him to an audience beyond Arkansas.
In the early 1980s, Clinton made reform of the Arkansas education system a top priority of his gubernatorial administration. The Arkansas Education Standards Committee was chaired by Clinton's wife Hillary, who was also an attorney as well as the chair of the Legal Services Corporation. The committee transformed Arkansas's education system. Proposed reforms included more spending for schools (supported by a sales-tax increase), better opportunities for gifted children, vocational education, higher teachers' salaries, more course variety, and compulsory teacher competency exams. The reforms passed in September 1983 after Clinton called a special legislative session—the longest in Arkansas history. Many have considered this the greatest achievement of the Clinton governorship. He defeated four Republican candidates for governor: Lowe (1978), White (1982 and 1986), Jonesboro businessmen Woody Freeman (1984), and Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock (1990).
Also in the 1980s, the Clintons' personal and business affairs included transactions that became the basis of the Whitewater controversy investigation, which later dogged his presidential administration. After extensive investigation over several years, no indictments were made against the Clintons related to the years in Arkansas.
According to some sources, Clinton was a death penalty opponent in his early years, but he eventually switched positions. However he might have felt previously, by 1992, Clinton was insisting that Democrats "should no longer feel guilty about protecting the innocent". During Clinton's final term as governor, Arkansas performed its first executions since 1964 (the death penalty had been reinstated in 1976). As Governor, he oversaw the first four executions carried out by the state of Arkansas since the death penalty was reinstated there in 1976: one by electric chair and three by lethal injection. To draw attention to his stance on capital punishment, Clinton flew home to Arkansas mid-campaign in 1992, in order to affirm in person that the controversial execution of Ricky Ray Rector, would go forward as scheduled.
1988 Democratic presidential primaries
In 1987, the media speculated that Clinton would enter the presidential race after incumbent New York governor Mario Cuomo declined to run and Democratic front-runner Gary Hart withdrew owing to revelations of multiple marital infidelities. Clinton decided to remain as Arkansas governor (following consideration for the potential candidacy of Hillary for governor, initially favored—but ultimately vetoed—by the First Lady). For the nomination, Clinton endorsed Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. He gave the nationally televised opening night address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, but his speech, which was 33 minutes long and twice the length it was expected to be, was criticized for being too long and poorly delivered. Clinton presented himself both as a moderate and as a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, and he headed the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991.
Presidential campaigns
1992
In the first primary contest, the Iowa Caucus, Clinton finished a distant third to Iowa senator Tom Harkin. During the campaign for the New Hampshire primary, reports surfaced that Clinton had engaged in an extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers. Clinton fell far behind former Massachusetts senator Paul Tsongas in the New Hampshire polls. Following Super Bowl XXVI, Clinton and his wife Hillary went on 60 Minutes to rebuff the charges. Their television appearance was a calculated risk, but Clinton regained several delegates. He finished second to Tsongas in the New Hampshire primary, but after trailing badly in the polls and coming within single digits of winning, the media viewed it as a victory. News outlets labeled him "The Comeback Kid" for earning a firm second-place finish.
Winning the big prizes of Florida and Texas and many of the Southern primaries on Super Tuesday gave Clinton a sizable delegate lead. However, former California governor Jerry Brown was scoring victories and Clinton had yet to win a significant contest outside his native South. With no major Southern state remaining, Clinton targeted New York, which had many delegates. He scored a resounding victory in New York City, shedding his image as a regional candidate. Having been transformed into the consensus candidate, he secured the Democratic Party nomination, finishing with a victory in Jerry Brown's home state of California.
During the campaign, questions of conflict of interest regarding state business and the politically powerful Rose Law Firm, at which Hillary Rodham Clinton was a partner, arose. Clinton argued the questions were moot because all transactions with the state had been deducted before determining Hillary's firm pay. Further concern arose when Bill Clinton announced that, with Hillary, voters would be getting two presidents "for the price of one".
Clinton was still the governor of Arkansas while campaigning for U.S. president, and he returned to his home state to see that Ricky Ray Rector would be executed. After killing a police officer and a civilian, Rector shot himself in the head, leading to what his lawyers said was a state where he could still talk but did not understand the idea of death. According to both Arkansas state law and Federal law, a seriously mentally impaired inmate cannot be executed. The courts disagreed with the allegation of grave mental impairment and allowed the execution. Clinton's return to Arkansas for the execution was framed in an article for The New York Times as a possible political move to counter "soft on crime" accusations.
Bush's approval ratings were around 80 percent during the Gulf War, and he was described as unbeatable. When Bush compromised with Democrats to try to lower Federal deficits, he reneged on his promise not to raise taxes, which hurt his approval rating. Clinton repeatedly condemned Bush for making a promise he failed to keep. By election time, the economy was souring and Bush saw his approval rating plummet to just slightly over 40 percent. Finally, conservatives were previously united by anti-communism, but with the end of the Cold War, the party lacked a uniting issue. When Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson addressed Christian themes at the Republican National Convention—with Bush criticizing Democrats for omitting God from their platform—many moderates were alienated. Clinton then pointed to his moderate, "New Democrat" record as governor of Arkansas, though some on the more liberal side of the party remained suspicious. Many Democrats who had supported Ronald Reagan and Bush in previous elections switched their support to Clinton. Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore, toured the country during the final weeks of the campaign, shoring up support and pledging a "new beginning".
On March 26, 1992, during a Democratic fund raiser of the presidential campaign, Robert Rafsky confronted then Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas and asked what he was going to do about AIDS, to which Clinton replied, "I feel your pain." The televised exchange led to AIDS becoming an issue in the 1992 presidential election. On April 4, then candidate Clinton met with members of ACT UP and other leading AIDS advocates to discuss his AIDS agenda and agreed to make a major AIDS policy speech, to have people with HIV speak to the Democratic Convention, and to sign onto the AIDS United Action five point plan.
Clinton won the 1992 presidential election (370 electoral votes) against Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush (168 electoral votes) and billionaire populist Ross Perot (zero electoral votes), who ran as an independent on a platform that focused on domestic issues. Bush's steep decline in public approval was a significant part of Clinton's success. Clinton's victory in the election ended twelve years of Republican rule of the White House and twenty of the previous twenty-four years. The election gave Democrats full control of the United States Congress, the first time one party controlled both the executive and legislative branches since Democrats held the 96th United States Congress during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.
According to Seymour Martin Lipset, the 1992 election had several unique characteristics. Voters felt that economic conditions were worse than they actually were, which harmed Bush. A rare event was the presence of a strong third-party candidate. Liberals launched a backlash against 12 years of a conservative White House. The chief factor was Clinton's uniting his party, and winning over a number of heterogeneous groups.
1996
In the 1996 presidential election, Clinton was re-elected, receiving 49.2 percent of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole (40.7 percent of the popular vote) and Reform candidate Ross Perot (8.4 percent of the popular vote). Clinton received 379 of the Electoral College votes, with Dole receiving 159 electoral votes. With his victory, he became the first Democrat to win two consecutive presidential elections since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Presidency (1993–2001)
Clinton's "third way" of moderate liberalism built up the nation's fiscal health and put the nation on a firm footing abroad amid globalization and the development of anti-American terrorist organizations.
During his presidency, Clinton advocated for a wide variety of legislation and programs, most of which were enacted into law or implemented by the executive branch. His policies, particularly the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance. His policy of fiscal conservatism helped to reduce deficits on budgetary matters. Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history.
The Congressional Budget Office reported budget surpluses of $69 billion in 1998, $126 billion in 1999, and $236 billion in 2000, during the last three years of Clinton's presidency. Over the years of the recorded surplus, the gross national debt rose each year. At the end of the fiscal year (September 30) for each of the years a surplus was recorded, The U.S. treasury reported a gross debt of $5.413 trillion in 1997, $5.526 trillion in 1998, $5.656 trillion in 1999, and $5.674 trillion in 2000. Over the same period, the Office of Management and Budget reported an end of year (December 31) gross debt of $5.369 trillion in 1997, $5.478 trillion in 1998, $5.606 in 1999, and $5.629 trillion in 2000. At the end of his presidency, the Clintons moved to 15 Old House Lane in Chappaqua, New York, in order to satisfy a residency requirement for his wife to win election as a U.S. Senator from New York.
First term (1993–1997)
Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd president of the United States on January 20, 1993. Clinton was physically exhausted at the time, and had an inexperienced staff. His high levels of public support dropped in the first few weeks, as he made a series of mistakes. His first choice for attorney general had not paid her taxes on babysitters and was forced to withdraw. The second appointee also withdrew for the same reason. Clinton had repeatedly promised to encourage gays in the military service, despite what he knew to be the strong opposition of the military leadership. He tried anyway, and was publicly opposed by the top generals, and forced by Congress to a compromise position of "Don't ask, don't tell" whereby gays could serve if and only if they kept it secret. He devised a $16 billion stimulus package primarily to aid inner-city programs desired by liberals, but it was defeated by a Republican filibuster in the Senate. His popularity at the 100 day mark of his term was the lowest of any president at that point.
Public opinion did support one liberal program, and Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition. This action had bipartisan support, and was popular with the public.
Two days after taking office, on January 22, 1993—the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade—Clinton reversed restrictions on domestic and international family planning programs that had been imposed by Reagan and Bush. Clinton said abortion should be kept "safe, legal, and rare"—a slogan that had been suggested by political scientist Samuel L. Popkin and first used by Clinton in December 1991, while campaigning. During the eight years of the Clinton administration, the abortion rate declined by 18 percent.
On February 15, 1993, Clinton made his first address to the nation, announcing his plan to raise taxes to close a budget deficit. Two days later, in a nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, Clinton unveiled his economic plan. The plan focused on reducing the deficit rather than on cutting taxes for the middle class, which had been high on his campaign agenda. Clinton's advisers pressured him to raise taxes, based on the theory that a smaller federal budget deficit would reduce bond interest rates.
President Clinton's attorney general Janet Reno authorized the FBI's use of armored vehicles to deploy tear gas into the buildings of the Branch Davidian community near Waco, Texas, in hopes of ending a 51 day siege. During the operation on April 19, 1993, the buildings caught fire and 75 of the residents died, including 24 children. The raid had originally been planned by the Bush administration; Clinton had played no role.
On May 19, 1993, Clinton fired seven employees of the White House Travel Office. This caused the White House travel office controversy even though the travel office staff served at the pleasure of the president and could be dismissed without cause. The White House responded to the controversy by claiming that the firings were done in response to financial improprieties that had been revealed by a brief FBI investigation. Critics contended that the firings had been done to allow friends of the Clintons to take over the travel business and the involvement of the FBI was unwarranted.
In August, Clinton signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which passed Congress without a Republican vote. It cut taxes for 15million low-income families, made tax cuts available to 90 percent of small businesses, and raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2 percent of taxpayers. Additionally, it mandated that the budget be balanced over many years through the implementation of spending restraints.
On September 22, 1993, Clinton made a major speech to Congress regarding a health care reform plan; the program aimed at achieving universal coverage through a national health care plan. This was one of the most prominent items on Clinton's legislative agenda and resulted from a task force headed by Hillary Clinton. The plan was well received in political circles, but it was eventually doomed by well-organized lobby opposition from conservatives, the American Medical Association, and the health insurance industry. However, Clinton biographer John F. Harris said the program failed because of a lack of coordination within the White House. Despite the Democratic majority in Congress, the effort to create a national health care system ultimately died when compromise legislation by George J. Mitchell failed to gain a majority of support in August 1994. The failure of the bill was the first major legislative defeat of the Clinton administration.
In November 1993, David Hale—the source of criminal allegations against Bill Clinton in the Whitewater controversy—alleged that while governor of Arkansas, Clinton pressured Hale to provide an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, the Clintons' partner in the Whitewater land deal. A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation resulted in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project, but the Clintons themselves were never charged, and Clinton maintains his and his wife's innocence in the affair.
On November 30, 1993, Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill, which mandated federal background checks on people who purchase firearms in the United States. The law also imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases, until the NICS system was implemented in 1998. He also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, a subsidy for low-income workers.
In December of the same year, allegations by Arkansas state troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry were first reported by David Brock in The American Spectator. In the affair later known as "Troopergate", the officers alleged that they had arranged sexual liaisons for Clinton back when he was governor of Arkansas. The story mentioned a woman named Paula, a reference to Paula Jones. Brock later apologized to Clinton, saying the article was politically motivated "bad journalism", and that "the troopers were greedy and had slimy motives".
That month, Clinton implemented a Department of Defense directive known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", which allowed gay men and women to serve in the armed services provided they kept their sexual preferences a secret. The Act forbade the military from inquiring about an individual's sexual orientation. The policy was developed as a compromise after Clinton's proposal to allow gays to serve openly in the military met staunch opposition from prominent Congressional Republicans and Democrats, including senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Sam Nunn (D-GA). According to David Mixner, Clinton's support for the compromise led to a heated dispute with Vice President Al Gore, who felt that "the President should lift the ban ... even though [his executive order] was sure to be overridden by the Congress". Some gay-rights advocates criticized Clinton for not going far enough and accused him of making his campaign promise to get votes and contributions. Their position was that Clinton should have integrated the military by executive order, noting that President Harry S. Truman used executive order to racially desegregate the armed forces. Clinton's defenders argued that an executive order might have prompted the Senate to write the exclusion of gays into law, potentially making it harder to integrate the military in the future. Later in his presidency, in 1999, Clinton criticized the way the policy was implemented, saying he did not think any serious person could say it was not "out of whack". The policy remained controversial, and was finally repealed in 2011, removing open sexual orientation as a reason for dismissal from the armed forces.
On January 1, 1994, Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law. Throughout his first year in office, Clinton consistently supported ratification of the treaty by the U.S. Senate. Clinton and most of his allies in the Democratic Leadership Committee strongly supported free trade measures; there remained, however, strong disagreement within the party. Opposition came chiefly from anti-trade Republicans, protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot. The bill passed the house with 234 votes against 200 opposed (132 Republicans and 102 Democrats voting in favor; 156 Democrats, 43 Republicans, and one independent against). The treaty was then ratified by the Senate and signed into law by the president.
The Omnibus Crime Bill, which Clinton signed into law in September 1994, made many changes to U.S. crime and law enforcement legislation including the expansion of the death penalty to include crimes not resulting in death, such as running a large-scale drug enterprise. During Clinton's re-election campaign he said, "My 1994 crime bill expanded the death penalty for drug kingpins, murderers of federal law enforcement officers, and nearly 60 additional categories of violent felons." It also included a subsection of assault weapons ban for a ten-year period.
On October 21, 1994, the Clinton administration launched the first official White House website, whitehouse.gov. The site was followed with three more versions, resulting in the final edition launched in 2000. The White House website was part of a wider movement of the Clinton administration toward web-based communication. According to Robert Longley, "Clinton and Gore were responsible for pressing almost all federal agencies, the U.S. court system and the U.S. military onto the Internet, thus opening up America's government to more of America's citizens than ever before. On July 17, 1996, Clinton issued Executive Order 13011—Federal Information Technology, ordering the heads of all federal agencies to utilize information technology fully to make the information of the agency easily accessible to the public."
After two years of Democratic Party control, the Democrats lost control of Congress to the Republicans in the mid-term elections in 1994, for the first time in forty years.
A speech delivered by President Bill Clinton at the December 6, 1995 White House Conference on HIV/AIDS projected that a cure for AIDS and a vaccine to prevent further infection would be developed. The President focused on his administration's accomplishments and efforts related to the epidemic, including an accelerated drug-approval process. He also condemned homophobia and discrimination against people with HIV. Clinton announced three new initiatives: creating a special working group to coordinate AIDS research throughout the Federal government; convening public health experts to develop an action plan that integrates HIV prevention with substance abuse prevention; and launching a new effort by the Department of Justice to ensure that health care facilities provide equal access to people with HIV and AIDS.
The White House FBI files controversy of June 1996 arose concerning improper access by the White House to FBI security-clearance documents. Craig Livingstone, head of the White House Office of Personnel Security, improperly requested, and received from the FBI, background report files without asking permission of the subject individuals; many of these were employees of former Republican administrations. In March 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray determined there was no credible evidence of any crime. Ray's report further stated, "there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official was involved" in seeking the files.
On September 21, 1996, Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage for federal purposes as the legal union of one man and one woman; the legislation allowed individual states to refuse to recognize gay marriages that were performed in other states. Paul Yandura, speaking for the White House gay and lesbian liaison office, said Clinton's signing DOMA "was a political decision that they made at the time of a re-election". In defense of his actions, Clinton has said that DOMA was intended to "head off an attempt to send a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to the states", a possibility he described as highly likely in the context of a "very reactionary Congress". Administration spokesman Richard Socarides said, "the alternatives we knew were going to be far worse, and it was time to move on and get the president re-elected." Clinton himself said DOMA was something "which the Republicans put on the ballot to try to get the base vote for Bush up, I think it's obvious that something had to be done to try to keep the Republican Congress from presenting that". Others were more critical. The veteran gay rights and gay marriage activist Evan Wolfson has called these claims "historic revisionism". In a July 2, 2011, editorial The New York Times opined, "The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted in 1996 as an election-year wedge issue, signed by President Bill Clinton in one of his worst policy moments." Ultimately, in United States v. Windsor, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down DOMA in June 2013.
Despite DOMA, Clinton was the first president to select openly gay persons for administrative positions, and he is generally credited as being the first president to publicly champion gay rights. During his presidency, Clinton issued two substantially controversial executive orders on behalf of gay rights, the first lifting the ban on security clearances for LGBT federal employees and the second outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal civilian workforce. Under Clinton's leadership, federal funding for HIV/AIDS research, prevention and treatment more than doubled. Clinton also pushed for passing hate crimes laws for gays and for the private sector Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which, buoyed by his lobbying, failed to pass the Senate by a single vote in 1996. Advocacy for these issues, paired with the politically unpopular nature of the gay rights movement at the time, led to enthusiastic support for Clinton's election and reelection by the Human Rights Campaign. Clinton came out for gay marriage in July 2009 and urged the Supreme Court to overturn DOMA in 2013. He was later honored by GLAAD for his prior pro-gay stances and his reversal on DOMA.
The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy was an alleged effort by China to influence the domestic policies of the United States, before and during the Clinton administration, and involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself. Despite the evidence, the Chinese government denied all accusations.
As part of a 1996 initiative to curb illegal immigration, Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) on September 30, 1996. Appointed by Clinton, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended reducing legal immigration from about 800,000 people a year to about 550,000.
Ken Gormley, author of The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr, reveals in his book that Clinton narrowly escaped possible assassination in the Philippines in November 1996. During his visit to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Manila, while he was on his way to meet with a senior member of the Philippine government, Clinton was saved from danger minutes before his motorcade was scheduled to drive over a bridge charged with a timed improvised explosive device (IED). According to officials, the IED was large enough to "blow up the entire presidential motorcade". Details of the plot were revealed to Gormley by Lewis C. Merletti, former member of the presidential protection detail and Director of the Secret Service. Intelligence officers intercepted a radio transmission indicating there was a wedding cake under a bridge. This alerted Merletti and others as Clinton's motorcade was scheduled to drive over a major bridge in downtown Manila. Once more, the word "wedding" was the code name used by a terrorist group for a past assassination attempt. Merletti wanted to reroute the motorcade, but the alternate route would add forty-five minutes to the drive time. Clinton was very angry, as he was already late for the meeting, but following the advice of the secret service possibly saved his life. Two other bombs had been discovered in Manila earlier in the week so the threat level that day was high. Security personnel at the Manila International Airport uncovered several grenades and a timing device in a travel bag. Officials also discovered a bomb near a major U.S. naval base. The president was scheduled to visit both these locations later in the week. An intense investigation took place into the events in Manila and it was discovered that the group behind the bridge bomb was a Saudi terrorist group in Afghanistan known as al-Qaeda and the plot was masterminded by Osama bin Laden. Until recently, this thwarted assassination attempt was never made public and remained top secret. Only top members of the U.S. intelligence community were aware of these events.
Second term (1997–2001)
In the January 1997, State of the Union address, Clinton proposed a new initiative to provide health coverage to up to five million children. Senators Ted Kennedy—a Democrat—and Orrin Hatch—a Republican—teamed up with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her staff in 1997, and succeeded in passing legislation forming the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the largest (successful) health care reform in the years of the Clinton Presidency. That year, Hillary Clinton shepherded through Congress the Adoption and Safe Families Act and two years later she succeeded in helping pass the Foster Care Independence Act. Bill Clinton negotiated the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 by the Republican Congress. In October 1997, he announced he was getting hearing aids, due to hearing loss attributed to his age, and his time spent as a musician in his youth. In 1999, he signed into law the Financial Services Modernization Act also known as the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, which repealed the part of the Glass–Steagall Act that had prohibited a bank from offering a full range of investment, commercial banking, and insurance services since its enactment in 1933.
Impeachment and acquittal
After a House inquiry, Clinton was impeached on December 19, 1998, by the House of Representatives. The House voted 228–206 to impeach him for perjury to a grand jury and voted 221–212 to impeach him for obstruction of justice. Clinton was only the second U.S. president (after Andrew Johnson) to be impeached. Impeachment proceedings were based on allegations that Clinton had illegally lied about and covered up his relationship with 22-year-old White House (and later Department of Defense) employee Monica Lewinsky. After the Starr Report was submitted to the House providing what it termed "substantial and credible information that President Clinton Committed Acts that May Constitute Grounds for an Impeachment", the House began impeachment hearings against Clinton before the mid-term elections. To hold impeachment proceedings, the Republican leadership called a lame-duck session in December 1998.
While the House Judiciary Committee hearings ended in a straight party-line vote, there was lively debate on the House floor. The two charges passed in the House (largely with Republican support, but with a handful of Democratic votes as well) were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony before a grand jury that had been convened to investigate perjury he may have committed in his sworn deposition during Jones v. Clinton, Paula Jones's sexual harassment lawsuit. The obstruction charge was based on his actions to conceal his relationship with Lewinsky before and after that deposition.
The Senate later acquitted Clinton of both charges. The Senate refused to meet to hold an impeachment trial before the end of the old term, so the trial was held over until the next Congress. Clinton was represented by Washington law firm Williams & Connolly. The Senate finished a twenty-one-day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote of 55 not guilty/45 guilty on the perjury charge and 50 not guilty/50 guilty on the obstruction of justice charge. Both votes fell short of the constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an officeholder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty, and only a handful of Republicans voting not guilty.
On January 19, 2001, Clinton's law license was suspended for five years after he acknowledged to an Arkansas circuit court that he had engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice in the Jones case.
Pardons and commutations
Clinton issued 141 pardons and 36 commutations on his last day in office on January 20, 2001. Controversy surrounded Marc Rich and allegations that Hillary Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, accepted payments in return for influencing the president's decision-making regarding the pardons. Federal prosecutor Mary Jo White was appointed to investigate the pardon of Rich. She was later replaced by then-Republican James Comey. The investigation found no wrongdoing on Clinton's part. Clinton also pardoned 4 defendants in the Whitewater Scandal, Chris Wade, Susan McDougal, Stephen Smith, and Robert W. Palmer, all of whom had ties to Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. Former Clinton HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, was also among Clinton's pardons.
Campaign finance controversies
In February 1997 it was discovered upon documents being released by the Clinton Administration that 938 people had stayed at the White House and that 821 of them had made donations to the Democratic Party and got the opportunity to stay in the Lincoln bedroom as a result of the donations. Some donors included Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Jane Fonda, and Judy Collins. Top donors also got golf games and morning jogs with Clinton as a result of the contributions. Janet Reno was called on to investigate the matter by Trent Lott, but she refused.
In 1996, it was found that several Chinese foreigners made contributions to Clinton's reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee with the backing of the People's Republic of China. Some of them also attempted to donate to Clinton's defense fund. This violated United States law forbidding non-American citizens from making campaign contributions. Clinton and Al Gore also allegedly met with the foreign donors. A Republican investigation led by Fred Thompson found that Clinton was targeted by the Chinese government. However, Democratic senators Joe Lieberman and John Glenn said that the evidence showed that China only targeted congressional elections and not presidential elections.
Military and foreign affairs
Somalia
The Battle of Mogadishu occurred in Somalia in 1993. During the operation, two U.S. helicopters were shot down by rocket-propelled grenade attacks to their tail rotors, trapping soldiers behind enemy lines. This resulted in an urban battle that killed 18 American soldiers, wounded 73 others, and one was taken prisoner. There were many more Somali casualties. Some of the American bodies were dragged through the streets—a spectacle broadcast on television news programs. In response, U.S. forces were withdrawn from Somalia and later conflicts were approached with fewer soldiers on the ground.
Rwanda
In April 1994, genocide broke out in Rwanda. Intelligence reports indicate that Clinton was aware a "final solution to eliminate all Tutsis" was underway, long before the administration publicly used the word "genocide". Fearing a reprisal of the events in Somalia the previous year, Clinton chose not to intervene. Clinton has called his failure to intervene one of his main foreign policy failings, saying "I don't think we could have ended the violence, but I think we could have cut it down. And I regret it."
Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 1995, U.S. and NATO aircraft bombed Bosnian Serb targets to halt attacks on U.N. safe zones and pressure them into a peace accord that would end the Bosnian war. Clinton deployed U.S. peacekeepers to Bosnia in late 1995, to uphold the subsequent Dayton Agreement.
Irish peace talks
In 1992, before his presidency, Clinton proposed sending a peace envoy to Northern Ireland, but this was dropped to avoid tensions with the British government. In November 1995, in a ceasefire during the Troubles, Clinton became the first president to visit Northern Ireland, examining both of the two divided communities of Belfast. Despite unionist criticism, Clinton used this as a way to negotiate an end to the violent conflict with London, Dublin, the paramilitaries and the other groups. Clinton went on to play a key role in the peace talks, which produced the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Iran
In February 1996, the Clinton administration agreed to pay Iran US$131.8million (equivalent to $ million in ) in settlement to discontinue a case brought by Iran in 1989 against the U.S. in the International Court of Justice after the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 by the U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser.
Osama bin Laden
Capturing Osama bin Laden had been an objective of the U.S. government during the presidency of Bill Clinton (and continued to be until bin Laden's death in 2011). Despite claims by Mansoor Ijaz and Sudanese officials that the Sudanese government had offered to arrest and extradite bin Laden, and that U.S. authorities rejected each offer, the 9/11 Commission Report stated that "we have not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim".
In response to a 1996 State Department warning about bin Laden and the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa by al-Qaeda (which killed 224 people, including 12 Americans), Clinton ordered several military missions to capture or kill bin Laden, all of which were unsuccessful. In August 1998, Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan, targeting the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan, which was suspected of assisting bin Laden in making chemical weapons, and bin Laden's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
Kosovo
In the midst of a brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in the province of Kosovo by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Clinton authorized the use of U.S. Armed Forces in a NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, named Operation Allied Force. The stated reasoning behind the intervention was to stop the ethnic cleansing (and what the Clinton administration labeled genocide) of Albanians by Yugoslav anti-guerilla military units. General Wesley Clark was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and oversaw the mission. With United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, the bombing campaign ended on June 10, 1999. The resolution placed Kosovo under UN administration and authorized a peacekeeping force to be deployed to the region. NATO announced its soldiers all survived combat, though two died in an Apache helicopter crash. Journalists in the popular press criticized genocide statements by the Clinton administration as false and greatly exaggerated. Prior to the bombing campaign on March 24, 1999, common estimates showed that the number of civilians killed in the over year long conflict in Kosovo had approximately been 1,800, of which were primarily Albanians but also Serbs and that there was no evidence of genocide or ethnic cleansing. In a post-war inquiry, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe noted "the patterns of the expulsions and the vast increase in lootings, killings, rape, kidnappings and pillage once the NATO air war began on March 24". In 2001, the U.N.-supervised Supreme Court of Kosovo ruled that genocide (the intent to destroy a people) did not take place, but recognized "a systematic campaign of terror, including murders, rapes, arsons and severe maltreatments" with the intention being the forceful departure of the Albanian population. The term "ethnic cleansing" was used as an alternative to "genocide" to denote not just ethnically motivated murder but also displacement, though critics charge there is little difference. Slobodan Milošević, the president of Yugoslavia at the time of the atrocities, was eventually brought to trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague on charges including crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the war. He died in 2006, before the completion of the trial.
Iraq
In Clinton's 1998 State of the Union Address, he warned Congress that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was building an arsenal of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 on October 31, 1998, which instituted a policy of "regime change" against Iraq, though it explicitly stated it did not provide for direct intervention on the part of American military forces. The administration then launched a four-day bombing campaign named Operation Desert Fox, lasting from December 16 to 19, 1998. At the end of this operation Clinton announced that "So long as Saddam remains in power, he will remain a threat to his people, his region, and the world. With our allies, we must pursue a strategy to contain him and to constrain his weapons of mass destruction program, while working toward the day Iraq has a government willing to live at peace with its people and with its neighbors." American and British aircraft in the Iraq no-fly zones attacked hostile Iraqi air defenses 166 times in 1999 and 78 times in 2000.
China
On October 10, 2000, Clinton signed into law the U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000, which granted permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) trade status to China. The president asserted that free trade would gradually open China to democratic reform.
Relations were damaged briefly by the American bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in May 1999. Clinton apologized for the bombing, stating it was accidental.
The U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000 granted China permanent normal trade relations (NTR) status (previously called most favoured nation (MFN)) when China becomes a full member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), ending annual review and approval of NTR. The Act was signed into law on October 10, 2000, by Clinton. President Clinton in 2000 pushed Congress to approve the U.S.-China trade agreement and China's accession to the WTO, saying that more trade with China would advance America's economic interests: "Economically, this agreement is the equivalent of a one-way street. It requires China to open its markets—with a fifth of the world's population, potentially the biggest markets in the world—to both our products and services in unprecedented new ways," said Clinton.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
After initial successes such as the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s, which also led to the Israel–Jordan peace treaty in 1994 and the Wye River Memorandum in October 1998, Clinton attempted an effort to end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He brought Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David for the Camp David Summit in July 2000, which lasted 14 days. Following the failures of the peace talks, Clinton said Arafat had "missed the opportunity" to facilitate a "just and lasting peace". In his autobiography, Clinton blames Arafat for the collapse of the summit. Following another attempt in December 2000 at Bolling Air Force Base, in which the president offered the Clinton Parameters, the situation broke down completely after the end of the Taba Summit and with the start of the Second Intifada.
Judicial appointments
Clinton appointed two justices to the Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993 and Stephen Breyer in 1994. Both justices went on to serve until the 2020s, leaving a lasting judicial legacy for President Clinton.
Clinton was the first president in history to appoint more women and minority judges than white male judges to the federal courts. In his eight years in office, 11.6% of Clinton's court of appeals nominees and 17.4% of his district court nominees were black; 32.8% of his court of appeals nominees and 28.5% of his district court nominees were women.
Public opinion
Throughout Clinton's first term, his job approval rating fluctuated in the 40s and 50s. In his second term, his rating consistently ranged from the high-50s to the high-60s. After his impeachment proceedings in 1998 and 1999, Clinton's rating reached its highest point. According to a CBS News/New York Times poll, Clinton left office with an approval rating of 68 percent, which matched those of Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era. Clinton's average Gallup poll approval rating for his last quarter in office was 61%, the highest final quarter rating any president has received for fifty years. Forty-seven percent of the respondents identified themselves as being Clinton supporters.
As he was leaving office, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll revealed that 45 percent of Americans said they would miss him; 55 percent thought he "would have something worthwhile to contribute and should remain active in public life"; 68 percent thought he would be remembered more for his "involvement in personal scandal" than for "his accomplishments"; and 58 percent answered "No" to the question "Do you generally think Bill Clinton is honest and trustworthy?" The same percentage said he would be remembered as either "outstanding" or "above average" as a president, while 22 percent said he would be remembered as "below average" or "poor". ABC News characterized public consensus on Clinton as, "You can't trust him, he's got weak morals and ethics—and he's done a heck of a good job."
In May 2006, a CNN poll comparing Clinton's job performance with that of his successor, George W. Bush, found that a strong majority of respondents said Clinton outperformed Bush in six different areas questioned. Gallup polls in 2007 and 2011 showed that Clinton was regarded by 13 percent of Americans as the greatest president in U.S. history.
In 2014, 18 percent of respondents in a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll of American voters regarded Clinton as the best president since World War II, making him the third most popular among postwar presidents, behind John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. The same poll showed that just 3% of American voters regarded Clinton as the worst president since World War II.
A 2015 poll by The Washington Post asked 162 scholars of the American Political Science Association to rank all the U.S. presidents in order of greatness. According to their findings, Clinton ranked eighth overall, with a rating of 70 percent.
Public image
Clinton was the first baby boomer president. Authors Martin Walker and Bob Woodward stated that Clinton's innovative use of sound bite-ready dialogue, personal charisma, and public perception-oriented campaigning were a major factor in his high public approval ratings. When Clinton played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, he was described by some religious conservatives as "the MTV president". Opponents sometimes referred to him as "Slick Willie", a nickname which was first applied to him in 1980 by Pine Bluff Commercial journalist Paul Greenberg; Greenberg believed that Clinton was abandoning the progressive policies of previous Arkansas Governors such as Winthrop Rockefeller, Dale Bumpers and David Pryor. The claim "Slick Willie" would last throughout his presidency. His folksy manner led him to be nicknamed Bubba, especially in the South. Since 2000, he has frequently been referred to as "The Big Dog" or "Big Dog". His prominent role in campaigning for President Obama during the 2012 presidential election and his widely publicized speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, where he officially nominated Obama and criticized Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Republican policies in detail, earned him the nickname "Explainer-in-Chief".
Clinton drew strong support from the African American community and insisted that the improvement of race relations would be a major theme of his presidency. In 1998, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison called Clinton "the first Black president", saying, "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas". Morrison noted that Clinton's sex life was scrutinized more than his career accomplishments, and she compared this to the stereotyping and double standards that, she said, blacks typically endure. Many viewed this comparison as unfair and disparaging both to Clinton and to the African-American community at large. Clinton, a Baptist, has been open about his faith.
Sexual assault and misconduct allegations
Several women have publicly accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct, including rape, harassment, and sexual assault. Additionally, some commentators have characterized Clinton's sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky as predatory or non-consensual, despite the fact that Lewinsky called the relationship consensual at the time. These allegations have been revisited and lent more credence in 2018, in light of the #MeToo movement, with many commentators and Democratic leaders now saying Clinton should have been compelled to resign after the Lewinsky affair.
In 1994, Paula Jones initiated a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton, claiming he had made unwanted advances towards her in 1991; Clinton denied the allegations. In April 1998, the case was initially dismissed by Judge Susan Webber Wright on the grounds that it lacked legal merit. Jones appealed Webber Wright's ruling, and her suit gained traction following Clinton's admission to having an affair with Monica Lewinsky in August 1998. In 1998, lawyers for Paula Jones released court documents that alleged a pattern of sexual harassment by Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas. Robert S. Bennett, Clinton's main lawyer for the case, called the filing "a pack of lies" and "an organized campaign to smear the President of the United States" funded by Clinton's political enemies. Clinton later agreed to an out-of-court settlement and paid Jones $850,000. Bennett said the president made the settlement only so he could end the lawsuit for good and move on with his life. During the deposition for the Jones lawsuit, which was held at the White House, Clinton denied having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky—a denial that became the basis for an impeachment charge of perjury.
In 1998, Kathleen Willey alleged that Clinton had groped her in a hallway in 1993. An independent counsel determined Willey gave "false information" to the FBI, inconsistent with sworn testimony related to the Jones allegation. On March 19, 1998, Julie Hiatt Steele, a friend of Willey, released an affidavit, accusing the former White House aide of asking her to lie to corroborate Ms. Willey's account of being sexually groped by Clinton in the Oval Office. An attempt by Kenneth Starr to prosecute Steele for making false statements and obstructing justice ended in a mistrial and Starr declined to seek a retrial after Steele sought an investigation against the former Independent Counsel for prosecutorial misconduct. Linda Tripp's grand jury testimony also differed from Willey's claims regarding inappropriate sexual advances.
Also in 1998, Juanita Broaddrick alleged that Clinton had raped her in the spring of 1978, although she said she did not remember the exact date. To support her charge, Broaddrick notes that she told multiple witnesses in 1978 she had been raped by Clinton, something these witnesses also state in interviews to the press. Broaddrick had earlier filed an affidavit denying any "unwelcome sexual advances" and later repeated the denial in a sworn deposition. In a 1998 NBC interview wherein she detailed the alleged rape, Broaddrick said she had denied (under oath) being raped only to avoid testifying about the ordeal publicly.
The Lewinsky scandal has had an enduring impact on Clinton's legacy, beyond his impeachment in 1998. In the wake of the #MeToo movement (which shed light on the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace), various commentators and Democratic political leaders, as well as Lewinsky herself, have revisited their view that the Lewinsky affair was consensual, and instead characterized it as an abuse of power or harassment, in light of the power differential between a president and a 22-year old intern. In 2018, Clinton was asked in several interviews about whether he should have resigned, and he said he had made the right decision in not resigning. During the 2018 Congressional elections, The New York Times alleged that having no Democratic candidate for office asking Clinton to campaign with them was a change that attributed to the revised understanding of the Lewinsky scandal. However, former DNC interim chair Donna Brazile previously urged Clinton in November 2017 to campaign during the 2018 midterm elections, in spite of New York U.S. senator Kirsten Gillibrand's recent criticism of the Lewinsky scandal.
Alleged affairs
Clinton admitted to having extramarital affairs with singer Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky. Actress Elizabeth Gracen, Miss Arkansa winner Sally Perdue, and Dolly Kyle Browning all claimed that they had affairs with Clinton during his time as governor of Arkansas. Browning would later sue Clinton, Bruce Lindsey, Robert S. Bennett, and Jane Mayer alleging they engaged in a conspiracy to attempt to block her from publishing a book loosely based on her relationship with Clinton and tried to defame him. However Browning's lawsuit was dismissed.
Post-presidency (2001–present)
Bill Clinton has continued to be active in public life since leaving office in 2001, giving speeches, fundraising, and founding charitable organizations, and has spoken in prime time at every Democratic National Convention.
Activities until 2008 campaign
In 2002, Clinton warned that pre-emptive military action against Iraq would have unwelcome consequences, and later claimed to have opposed the Iraq War from the start (though some dispute this). In 2005, Clinton criticized the Bush administration for its handling of emissions control, while speaking at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Montreal.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, was dedicated in 2004. Clinton released a best-selling autobiography, My Life, in 2004. In 2007, he released Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, which also became a New York Times Best Seller and garnered positive reviews.
In the aftermath of the 2004 Asian tsunami, U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan appointed Clinton to head a relief effort. After Hurricane Katrina, Clinton joined with fellow former president George H. W. Bush to establish the Bush-Clinton Tsunami Fund in January 2005, and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund in October of that year. As part of the tsunami effort, these two ex-presidents appeared in a Super Bowl XXXIX pre-game show, and traveled to the affected areas. They also spoke together at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin in April 2007.
Based on his philanthropic worldview, Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address issues of global importance. This foundation includes the Clinton Foundation HIV and AIDS Initiative (CHAI), which strives to combat that disease, and has worked with the Australian government toward that end. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), begun by the Clinton Foundation in 2005, attempts to address world problems such as global public health, poverty alleviation and religious and ethnic conflict. In 2005, Clinton announced through his foundation an agreement with manufacturers to stop selling sugary drinks in schools. Clinton's foundation joined with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group in 2006 to improve cooperation among those cities, and he met with foreign leaders to promote this initiative. The foundation has received donations from many governments all over the world, including Asia and the Middle East. In 2008, Foundation director Inder Singh announced deals to reduce the price of anti-malaria drugs by 30 percent in developing nations. Clinton also spoke in favor of California Proposition 87 on alternative energy, which was voted down.
In the early 2000s, Clinton took flights on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet in connection with Clinton Foundation work. Years later, Epstein was convicted on sex trafficking charges. Clinton's office released a statement in 2019 saying, "President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York. In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took four trips on Jeffrey Epstein's airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation. Staff, supporters of the Foundation, and his Secret Service detail traveled on every leg of every trip. [...] He's not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade."
2008 presidential election
During the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, Clinton vigorously advocated on behalf of his wife, Hillary. Through speaking engagements and fundraisers, he was able to raise $10 million toward her campaign. Some worried that as an ex-president, he was too active on the trail, too negative to Clinton rival Barack Obama, and alienating his supporters at home and abroad. Many were especially critical of him following his remarks in the South Carolina primary, which Obama won. Later in the 2008 primaries, there was some infighting between Bill and Hillary's staffs, especially in Pennsylvania. Considering Bill's remarks, many thought he could not rally Hillary supporters behind Obama after Obama won the primary. Such remarks lead to apprehension that the party would be split to the detriment of Obama's election. Fears were allayed August 27, 2008, when Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, saying all his experience as president assures him that Obama is "ready to lead". After Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was over, Bill Clinton continued to raise funds to help pay off her campaign debt.
After the 2008 election
In 2009, Clinton travelled to North Korea on behalf of two American journalists imprisoned there. Euna Lee and Laura Ling had been imprisoned for illegally entering the country from China. Jimmy Carter had made a similar visit in 1994. After Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim issued a pardon.
Since then, Clinton has been assigned many other diplomatic missions. He was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti in 2009 following a series of hurricanes which caused $1 billion in damages. Clinton organized a conference with the Inter-American Development Bank, where a new industrial park was discussed in an effort to "build back better". In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, U.S. president Barack Obama announced that Clinton and George W. Bush would coordinate efforts to raise funds for Haiti's recovery. Funds began pouring into Haiti, which led to funding becoming available for Caracol Industrial Park in a part of the country unaffected by the earthquake. While Hillary Clinton was in South Korea, she and Cheryl Mills worked to convince SAE-A, a large apparel subcontractor, to invest in Haiti despite the company's deep concerns about plans to raise the minimum wage. In the summer of 2010, the South Korean company signed a contract at the U.S. State Department, ensuring that the new industrial park would have a key tenant. In 2010, Clinton announced support of, and delivered the keynote address for, the inauguration of NTR, Ireland's first environmental foundation. At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Clinton gave a widely praised speech nominating Barack Obama.
2016 presidential election and after
During the 2016 presidential election, Clinton again encouraged voters to support Hillary, and made appearances speaking on the campaign trail. In a series of tweets, then-President-elect Donald Trump criticized his ability to get people out to vote. Clinton served as a member of the electoral college for the state of New York. He voted for the Democratic ticket consisting of his wife Hillary and her running-mate Tim Kaine.
On September 7, 2017, Clinton partnered with former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama to work with One America Appeal to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma in the Gulf Coast and Texas communities.
In 2020, Clinton again served as a member of the United States Electoral College from New York, casting his vote for the successful Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Post-presidential health concerns
In September 2004, Clinton underwent quadruple bypass surgery. In March 2005, he again underwent surgery, this time for a partially collapsed lung. On February 11, 2010, he was rushed to New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital in Manhattan after complaining of chest pains, and he had two coronary stents implanted in his heart. After this procedure, Clinton adopted a plant-based whole foods (vegan) diet, which had been recommended by doctors Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn. However, he has since incorporated fish and lean proteins at the suggestion of Dr. Mark Hyman, a proponent of the pseudoscientific ethos of functional medicine. As a result, he is no longer a strict vegan.
In October 2021, Clinton was treated for sepsis at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center.
Wealth
The Clintons incurred several million dollars in legal bills during his presidency, which were paid off four years after he left office. Bill and Hillary Clinton have each earned millions of dollars from book publishing. In 2016, Forbes reported Bill and Hillary Clinton made about $240million in the 15years from January 2001, to December 2015, (mostly from paid speeches, business consulting and book-writing). Also in 2016, CNN reported the Clintons combined to receive more than $153million in paid speeches from 2001 until spring 2015. In May 2015, The Hill reported that Bill and Hillary Clinton have made more than $25million in speaking fees since the start of 2014, and that Hillary Clinton also made $5million or more from her book, Hard Choices, during the same time period. In July 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported that at the end of 2012, the Clintons were worth between $5million and $25.5million, and that in 2012 (the last year they were required to disclose the information) the Clintons made between $16 and $17million, mostly from speaking fees earned by the former president. Clinton earned more than $104million from paid speeches between 2001 and 2012. In June 2014, ABC News and The Washington Post reported that Bill Clinton has made more than $100million giving paid speeches since leaving public office, and in 2008, The New York Times reported that the Clintons' income tax returns show they made $109million in the eight years from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2007, including almost $92million from his speaking and book-writing.
Bill Clinton has given dozens of paid speeches each year since leaving office in 2001, mostly to corporations and philanthropic groups in North America and Europe; he often earned $100,000 to $300,000 per speech. Russian investment bank with ties to the Kremlin paid Clinton $500,000 for a speech in Moscow. Hillary Clinton said she and Bill came out of the White House financially "broke" and in debt, especially due to large legal fees incurred during their years in the White House. "We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea's education." She added, "Bill has worked really hard ... we had to pay off all our debts ... he had to make double the money because of, obviously, taxes; and then pay off the debts, and get us houses, and take care of family members."
Personal life
At the age of 10, he was baptized at Park Place Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas and remained a member of a Baptist church. In 2007, with Jimmy Carter, he founded the New Baptist Covenant Baptist organization.
On October 11, 1975, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, he married Hillary Rodham, whom he met while studying at Yale University. They had Chelsea Clinton, their only child, on February 27, 1980. He is the maternal grandfather to Chelsea's three children.
Honors and recognition
Various colleges and universities have awarded Clinton honorary degrees, including Doctorate of Law degrees and Doctor of Humane Letters degrees. He received an honorary degree from Georgetown University, his alma mater, and was the commencement speaker in 1980. He is an honorary fellow of University College, Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar, although he did not complete his studies there. Schools have been named for Clinton, and statues have been built to pay him homage. U.S. states where he has been honored include Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and New York. He was presented with the Medal for Distinguished Public Service by Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 2001. The Clinton Presidential Center was opened in Little Rock, Arkansas, in his honor on December 5, 2001.
He has been honored in various other ways, in countries that include the Czech Republic, Papua New Guinea, Germany, and Kosovo. The Republic of Kosovo, in gratitude for his help during the Kosovo War, renamed a major street in the capital city of Pristina as Bill Clinton Boulevard and added a monumental Clinton statue.
Clinton was selected as Time "Man of the Year" in 1992, and again in 1998, along with Ken Starr. From a poll conducted of the American people in December 1999, Clinton was among eighteen included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th century. In 2001, Clinton received the NAACP's President's Award. He has also been honored with a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, a J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding, a TED Prize (named for the confluence of technology, entertainment and design), and was named as an Honorary GLAAD Media Award recipient for his work as an advocate for the LGBT community.
In 2011, President Michel Martelly of Haiti awarded Clinton with the National Order of Honour and Merit to the rank of Grand Cross "for his various initiatives in Haiti and especially his high contribution to the reconstruction of the country after the earthquake of January 12, 2010". Clinton declared at the ceremony that "in the United States of America, I really don't believe former American presidents need awards anymore, but I am very honored by this one, I love Haiti, and I believe in its promise".
U.S. president Barack Obama awarded Clinton the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 20, 2013.
Electoral history
Authored books
Recordings
Bill Clinton is one of the narrators on Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf, a 2003 recording of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf performed by the Russian National Orchestra, on Pentatone, together with Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren. This garnered Clinton the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.
The audiobook edition of his autobiography, My Life, read by Clinton himself, won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album as well as the Audie Award as the Audiobook of the Year.
Clinton has two more Grammy nominations for his audiobooks: Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World in 2007 and Back to Work in 2012.
See also
Clinton family
Clinton School of Public Service
Efforts to impeach Bill Clinton
Gun control policy of the Clinton Administration
List of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
References
Notes
Citations
Further reading
Primary sources
Clinton, Bill. (with Al Gore). Science in the National Interest. Washington, D.C.: The White House, August 1994.
--- (with Al Gore). The Climate Change Action Plan. Washington, D.C.: The White House, October 1993.
Taylor Branch The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President. (2009) Simon & Schuster.
Official Congressional Record Impeachment Set: ... Containing the Procedures for Implementing the Articles of Impeachment and the Proceedings of the Impeachment Trial of President William Jefferson Clinton. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 1999.
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, William J. Clinton. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 1994–2002.
S. Daniel Abraham Peace Is Possible, foreword by Bill Clinton
Popular books
Peter Baker The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton (2000)
James Bovard Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (2000)
Joe Conason and Gene Lyons The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton (2003)
Elizabeth Drew On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994)
David Gergen Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership. (2000)
Nigel Hamilton Bill Clinton: An American Journey (2003)
Christopher Hitchens No One Left to Lie to: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton (1999)
Michael Isikoff Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story (1999)
Mark Katz Clinton and Me: A Real-Life Political Comedy (2004)
David Maraniss The Clinton Enigma: A Four and a Half Minute Speech Reveals This President's Entire Life (1998)
Dick Morris with Eileen McGann Because He Could (2004)
Richard A. Posner An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton (1999)
Mark J. Rozell The Clinton Scandal and the Future of American Government (2000)
Timperlake, Edward, and William C. Triplett II Year of the Rat: How Bill Clinton Compromised U.S. Security for Chinese Cash. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 1998.
Michael Waldman POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words That Defined the Clinton Presidency (2000)
Ivory Tower Publishing Company. Achievements of the Clinton Administration: the Complete Legislative and Executive. (1995)
Scholarly studies
Campbell, Colin, and Bert A. Rockman, eds. The Clinton Legacy (Chatham House Pub, 2000)
Cohen; Jeffrey E. "The Polls: Change and Stability in Public Assessments of Personal Traits, Bill Clinton, 1993–99" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 31, 2001
Cronin, Thomas E. and Michael A. Genovese; "President Clinton and Character Questions" Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 28, 1998
Davis; John. "The Evolution of American Grand Strategy and the War on Terrorism: Clinton and Bush Perspectives" White House Studies, Vol. 3, 2003
Dumbrell, John. "Was there a Clinton doctrine? President Clinton's foreign policy reconsidered". Diplomacy and Statecraft 13.2 (2002): 43–56.
Edwards; George C. "Bill Clinton and His Crisis of Governance" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Fisher; Patrick. "Clinton's Greatest Legislative Achievement? the Success of the 1993 Budget Reconciliation Bill" White House Studies, Vol. 1, 2001
Glad; Betty. "Evaluating Presidential Character" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Halberstam, David. War in a time of peace: Bush, Clinton, and the generals (Simon and Schuster, 2001). online
Harris, John F. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House (2006). online
Head, Simon. The Clinton System (January 30, 2016), The New York Review of Books
Hyland, William G. Clinton's World: Remaking American Foreign Policy (1999)
Jewett, Aubrey W. and Marc D. Turetzky; "Stability and Change in President Clinton's Foreign Policy Beliefs, 1993–96" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Laham, Nicholas, A Lost Cause: Bill Clinton's Campaign for National Health Insurance (1996)
Lanoue, David J. and Craig F. Emmert; "Voting in the Glare of the Spotlight: Representatives' Votes on the Impeachment of President Clinton" Polity, Vol. 32, 1999
Levy, Peter B. Encyclopedia of the Clinton presidency (Greenwood, 2002) online
Maurer; Paul J. "Media Feeding Frenzies: Press Behavior during Two Clinton Scandals" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999
Nesmith, Bruce F., and Paul J. Quirk, "Triangulation: Position and Leadership in Clinton’s Domestic Policy." in 42: Inside the Presidency of Bill Clinton edited by Michael Nelson at al. (Cornell UP, 2016) pp. 46–76.
Nie; Martin A. "'It's the Environment, Stupid!': Clinton and the Environment" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997 in JSTOR
O'Connor; Brendon. "Policies, Principles, and Polls: Bill Clinton's Third Way Welfare Politics 1992–1996" The Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 48, 2002
Palmer, David. "'What Might Have Been'--Bill Clinton and American Political Power." Australasian Journal of American Studies (2005): 38–58. online
Renshon; Stanley A. The Clinton Presidency: Campaigning, Governing, and the Psychology of Leadership Westview Press, 1995
Renshon; Stanley A. "The Polls: The Public's Response to the Clinton Scandals, Part 1: Inconsistent Theories, Contradictory Evidence" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32, 2002
Romano, Flavio. Clinton and Blair: the political economy of the third way (Routledge, 2007)
Rushefsky, Mark E. and Kant Patel. Politics, Power & Policy Making: The Case of Health Care Reform in the 1990s (1998)
Schantz, Harvey L. Politics in an Era of Divided Government: Elections and Governance in the Second Clinton Administration (2001)
Troy, Gill. The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s (2015)
Walt, Stephen M. "Two Cheers for Clinton's Foreign Policy" Foreign Affairs 79#2 (2000), pp. 63–79 online.
Warshaw, Shirley Anne. The Clinton Years (Infobase Publishing, 2009)
White, Mark, ed. The Presidency of Bill Clinton: The Legacy of a New Domestic and Foreign Policy (I.B.Tauris, 2012)
External links
Official
Presidential Library & Museum
Clinton Foundation
White House biography
Archived White House website
Interviews, speeches, and statements
Full audio of a number of Clinton speeches Miller Center of Public Affairs
Oral History Interview with Bill Clinton from Oral Histories of the American South, June 1974
"The Wanderer", a profile from The New Yorker, September 2006
Media coverage
Other
Extensive essays on Bill Clinton and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
"Life Portrait of Bill Clinton", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, December 20, 1999
Clinton an American Experience documentary
1992 election episode in CNN's Race for the White House
1946 births
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[
"Larry Raymond Nichols (July 29, 1950 – September 27, 2020) was an American political commentator known for his accusations against Bill Clinton. He was one of the creators of the 1994 film The Clinton Chronicles.\n\nEarly life \nNichols grew up in Conway, Arkansas, where he was a star high school football player. He then made a living writing advertising jingles and also played as a guitarist in local rock bands.\n\nCareer\n\nArkansas Development Finance Authority \nNichols was hired by Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton in 1988 as marketing director for the Arkansas Development Finance Authority. In 1988, the Associated Press reported he placed 642 long-distance calls at state expense on behalf of the Contras in Nicaragua, either to Nicaragua or to U.S. politicians backing them. At first, Nichols claimed the calls were related to the finance authority. However, when that story did not hold up, Clinton fired him.\n\nLawsuit against Clinton \nNichols filed a lawsuit against Clinton for improper dismissal. As part of this, during Clinton's 1990 gubernatorial reelection campaign, Nichols claimed the governor was using state funds to conduct affairs with five different women.\n\nHis charges did not get much attention at the time, but when Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, achieved national prominence with the Bill Clinton presidential campaign, 1992, Nichols came to the forefront of those proclaiming knowledge of local Clinton misdeeds. A January 23, 1992, article in Star Magazine about him named five women, including beauty contest winners Elizabeth Gracen and Lencola Sullivan, and Arkansas state employee Gennifer Flowers. Flowers alleged a prolonged affair with Bill Clinton and played tapes of telephone conversations she had with him, leading to an early crisis in the Clinton campaign, and an appearance on January 26 on 60 Minutes with Steve Kroft.\n\nThe night before, January 25, 1992, Nichols announced he was dropping his lawsuit against Clinton. He said, \"It is time to call the fight I have with Bill Clinton over. ... I set out to destroy him for what I believed happened to me.\"\n\nMedia figure \nThroughout Clinton's presidency, Nichols was a frequent guest on conservative talk radio and promulgated various conspiracy theories about Clinton. These included tales about alleged goings on at Mena Airport in western Arkansas. The New York Times characterized Nichols as one of the \"Clinton crazies\". In a 1997 interview, Nichols said, \"They may just kill me. You'll read one day that I got drunk and ran into a moving bridge. Or Larry Nichols got depressed over everything and blew his head off.\"\n\nIn 2013 Nichols claimed a career as a hit-man, stating on The Pete Santilli Show that he had murdered people, on command, for the Clintons. But he said in 2015 that he had been taking painkillers when he made the 2013 remark and he did not mean it.\n\nNichols again received media attention in context of the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign. In early 2015, Nichols said that despite not liking Hillary Clinton, he might support her candidacy because he believed she was tough enough to combat Islamic terrorism.\n\nReferences \n\nYear of birth uncertain\nPeople from Conway, Arkansas\nJingle writers\nMusicians from Arkansas\n1950 births\nAmerican conspiracy theorists\n2020 deaths",
"The following is a timeline of the presidency of Bill Clinton, from January 1, 2000 to January 20, 2001.\n\nJanuary \nJanuary 27 – President Clinton delivers his final State of the Union Address before a joint session of Congress.\nJanuary 29 – President Clinton delivers remarks to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.\n\nFebruary\n\nMarch\n\nApril\n\nMay\n\nJune\n\nJuly\n\nAugust\n\nSeptember \n\nSeptember 26 - President Clinton delivers remarks in Georgetown University law school. Clinton talks about the role of government, the spreading of democracy, voting irregularities in Serbia, trade with China, and the inter connectivity of different countries.\n\nOctober\n\nNovember \n November 7 – The 2000 United States presidential election takes place. However, a projected winner of the election is still yet to be declared on election night.\n November 7 – The Republican Party retains their majority in the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate while the Democratic Party briefly controlling the Senate.\n\nDecember \n December 13 – The Republican Party presidential nominee George W. Bush becomes president-elect following the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore.\n December 19 – President Clinton meets with President-elect George W. Bush at the Oval Office to discuss the transition of power between the presidents.\n\nJanuary 2001 \n January 3 – The 107th United States Congress convenes with the Republican Party retains their majority in the House of Representatives while the Democratic Party briefly controlling the Senate until January 20.\n January 3 – First Lady Hillary Clinton is sworn in as United States Senator from New York.\n January 18 – President Clinton delivers his farewell address in the Oval Office.\n January 20 – President Clinton completes his two terms in office and leaves the White House for the final time as Commander-in-chief. \n January 20 – George W. Bush is inaugurated as the 43rd president of the United States, at noon EST. Bill Clinton returns to Chappaqua to begin his post-presidency.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Miller Center Clinton Presidential Timeline\n\nPresidency of Bill Clinton\nPresidency of Bill Clinton\n2000\n\nSee also \n\n Timeline of the Bill Clinton presidency, for an index of the Clinton presidency timeline articles"
] |
[
"Bill Clinton",
"Early life and career",
"Where did Bill Clinton begin his career?",
"Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life, both occurring in 1963, that contributed to his decision to become a public figure."
] |
C_b683706c6b674cf081a007960267a41c_1
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Where did Bill Clinton meet Hillary?
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Where did Bill Clinton meet Hillary?
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Bill Clinton
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Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas. He was the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr. (1918-1946), a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy (later Virginia Kelley: 1923-1994). His parents had married on September 4, 1943, but this union later proved to be bigamous, as Blythe was still married to his third wife. Soon after Bill was born, Virginia traveled to New Orleans to study nursing. She left her son in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the southern United States was racially segregated, Clinton's grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races. In 1950, Bill's mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr., who owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950. Although he immediately assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Clinton turned 15 that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather. Clinton said that he remembered his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half-brother, Roger Clinton Jr., to the point where he intervened multiple times with the threat of violence to protect them. In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School, where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician. Clinton was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone, winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section. He briefly considered dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life: Clinton began an interest in law at Hot Springs High, when he took up the challenge to argue the defense of the ancient Roman Senator Catiline in a mock trial in his Latin class. After a vigorous defense that made use of his "budding rhetorical and political skills", he told the Latin teacher Elizabeth Buck that it "made him realize that someday he would study law". Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life, both occurring in 1963, that contributed to his decision to become a public figure. One was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy. The other was watching Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 I Have a Dream speech on TV, which impressed him enough that he later memorized it. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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William Jefferson Clinton (; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992, and as attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton became known as a New Democrat, as many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy. He is the husband of Hillary Clinton, who was a senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and the Democratic nominee for president in the 2016 presidential election.
Clinton was born and raised in Arkansas and attended Georgetown University. He received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at University College, Oxford, and he later graduated from Yale Law School. He met Hillary Rodham at Yale; they married in 1975. After graduating from law school, Clinton returned to Arkansas and won election as state attorney general, followed by two non-consecutive terms as Arkansas governor. As governor, he overhauled the state's education system and served as chairman of the National Governors Association. Clinton was elected president in the 1992 presidential election, defeating incumbent Republican president George H. W. Bush and independent businessman Ross Perot. At 46 years old, he became the third-youngest president of the United States.
Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, but failed to pass his plan for national health care reform. In the 1994 elections, the Republican Party won unified control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. In spite of the electoral successes of Republicans, Clinton won reelection in 1996 with a landslide victory. Starting in the mid 1990s, Clinton began an ideological evolution as he became much more conservative in his domestic policy advocating for welfare reform and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, as well as financial and telecommunication deregulation measures. He also appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court. During the last three years of Clinton's presidency, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus—the first such surplus since 1969. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U.S. military intervention in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, signed the Dayton Peace agreement, signed the Iraq Liberation Act in opposition to Saddam Hussein, participated in the Oslo I Accord and Camp David Summit to advance the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, and assisted the Northern Ireland peace process.
Clinton's second term would be dominated by the Monica Lewinsky scandal which began in 1996, when he began a sexual affair with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In January 1998, news of the sexual relationship made tabloid headlines. The scandal escalated throughout the year, culminating on December 19 when Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives, becoming the second U.S. president to be impeached after Andrew Johnson. The two impeachment articles that the House passed were based on him using the powers of the presidency to obstruct the investigation and that he lied under oath. The following year saw the impeachment trial begin in the Senate, but Clinton was acquitted on both charges as the Senate failed to cast 67 votes against him, the conviction threshold.
Clinton left office with the highest end-of-term approval rating of any U.S. president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. His presidency has been ranked among the upper tier in historical rankings of U.S. presidents. However, his personal conduct and allegations of sexual assault against him have made him the subject of substantial scrutiny. Since leaving office, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. Clinton created the Clinton Foundation to address international causes such as the prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming. In 2009, he was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Clinton and George W. Bush formed the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. He has remained active in Democratic Party politics, campaigning for his wife's 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns.
Early life and career
Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas. He is the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr., a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy (later Virginia Kelley). His parents had married on September 4, 1943, but this union later proved to be bigamous, as Blythe was still married to his third wife. Virginia traveled to New Orleans to study nursing soon after Bill was born, leaving him in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the southern United States was racially segregated, Clinton's grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races. In 1950, Bill's mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr., who co-owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950.
Although he immediately assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Clinton turned 15 that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward him. Clinton has described his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half-brother, Roger Clinton Jr. He threatened his stepfather with violence multiple times to protect them.
In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School, where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician. Clinton was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone, winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section. He briefly considered dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life:
Clinton began an interest in law at Hot Springs High, when he took up the challenge to argue the defense of the ancient Roman senator Catiline in a mock trial in his Latin class. After a vigorous defense that made use of his "budding rhetorical and political skills", he told the Latin teacher Elizabeth Buck it "made him realize that someday he would study law".
Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life, both occurring in 1963, that contributed to his decision to become a public figure. One was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy. The other was watching Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech on TV, which impressed him so much that he later memorized it.
College and law school years
Georgetown University
With the aid of scholarships, Clinton attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree in 1968. Georgetown was the only school where Clinton applied.
In 1964 and 1965, Clinton won elections for class president. From 1964 to 1967, he was an intern and then a clerk in the office of Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. While in college, he became a brother of service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Clinton was also a member of the Order of DeMolay, a youth group affiliated with Freemasonry, but he never became a Freemason. He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band fraternity.
Oxford
Upon graduating from Georgetown in 1968, Clinton won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford, where he initially read for a B.Phil. in philosophy, politics, and economics but transferred to a B.Litt. in politics and, ultimately, a B.Phil. in politics. Clinton did not expect to return for the second year because of the draft and so he switched programs; this type of activity was common among other Rhodes Scholars from his cohort. He had received an offer to study at Yale Law School, Yale University, and so he left early to return to the United States and did not receive a degree from Oxford.
During his time at Oxford, Clinton befriended fellow American Rhodes Scholar Frank Aller. In 1969, Aller received a draft letter that mandated deployment to the Vietnam War. Aller's 1971 suicide had an influential impact on Clinton. British writer and feminist Sara Maitland said of Clinton, "I remember Bill and Frank Aller taking me to a pub in Walton Street in the summer term of 1969 and talking to me about the Vietnam War. I knew nothing about it, and when Frank began to describe the napalming of civilians I began to cry. Bill said that feeling bad wasn't good enough. That was the first time I encountered the idea that liberal sensitivities weren't enough and you had to do something about such things". Clinton was a member of the Oxford University Basketball Club and also played for Oxford University's rugby union team.
While Clinton was president in 1994, he received an honorary degree and a fellowship from the University of Oxford, specifically for being "a doughty and tireless champion of the cause of world peace", having "a powerful collaborator in his wife," and for winning "general applause for his achievement of resolving the gridlock that prevented an agreed budget".
Vietnam War opposition and draft controversy
During the Vietnam War, Clinton received educational draft deferments while he was in England in 1968 and 1969. While at Oxford, he participated in Vietnam War protests and organized a Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam event in October 1969. He was planning to attend law school in the U.S. and knew he might lose his deferment. Clinton tried unsuccessfully to obtain positions in the National Guard and the Air Force officer candidate school, and he then made arrangements to join the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program at the University of Arkansas.
He subsequently decided not to join the ROTC, saying in a letter to the officer in charge of the program that he opposed the war, but did not think it was honorable to use ROTC, National Guard, or Reserve service to avoid serving in Vietnam. He further stated that because he opposed the war, he would not volunteer to serve in uniform, but would subject himself to the draft, and would serve if selected only as a way "to maintain my political viability within the system". Clinton registered for the draft and received a high number (311), meaning that those whose birthdays had been drawn as numbers1 to 310 would be drafted before him, making it unlikely he would be called up. (In fact, the highest number drafted was 195.)
Colonel Eugene Holmes, the Army officer who had been involved with Clinton's ROTC application, suspected that Clinton attempted to manipulate the situation to avoid the draft and avoid serving in uniform. He issued a notarized statement during the 1992 presidential campaign:
During the 1992 campaign, it was revealed that Clinton's uncle had attempted to secure him a position in the Navy Reserve, which would have prevented him from being deployed to Vietnam. This effort was unsuccessful and Clinton said in 1992 that he had been unaware of it until then. Although legal, Clinton's actions with respect to the draft and deciding whether to serve in the military were criticized during his first presidential campaign by conservatives and some Vietnam veterans, some of whom charged that he had used Fulbright's influence to avoid military service. Clinton's 1992 campaign manager, James Carville, successfully argued that Clinton's letter in which he declined to join the ROTC should be made public, insisting that voters, many of whom had also opposed the Vietnam War, would understand and appreciate his position.
Law school
After Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1973. In 1971, he met his future wife, Hillary Rodham, in the Yale Law Library; she was a class year ahead of him. They began dating and were soon inseparable. After only about a month, Clinton postponed his summer plans to be a coordinator for the George McGovern campaign for the 1972 United States presidential election in order to move in with her in California. The couple continued living together in New Haven when they returned to law school.
Clinton eventually moved to Texas with Rodham in 1972 to take a job leading McGovern's effort there. He spent considerable time in Dallas, at the campaign's local headquarters on Lemmon Avenue, where he had an office. Clinton worked with future two-term mayor of Dallas Ron Kirk, future governor of Texas Ann Richards, and then unknown television director and filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
Governor of Arkansas (1979–1981, 1983–1992)
After graduating from Yale Law School, Clinton returned to Arkansas and became a law professor at the University of Arkansas. In 1974, he ran for the House of Representatives. Running in the conservative 3rd district against incumbent Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt, Clinton's campaign was bolstered by the anti-Republican and anti-incumbent mood resulting from the Watergate scandal. Hammerschmidt, who had received 77 percent of the vote in 1972, defeated Clinton by only a 52 percent to 48 percent margin. In 1976, Clinton ran for Arkansas attorney general. With only minor opposition in the primary and no opposition at all in the general election, Clinton was elected.
In 1978, Clinton entered the Arkansas gubernatorial primary. At just 31 years old, he was one of the youngest gubernatorial candidates in the state's history. Clinton was elected Governor of Arkansas in 1978, having defeated the Republican candidate Lynn Lowe, a farmer from Texarkana. Clinton was only 32 years old when he took office, the youngest governor in the country at the time and the second youngest governor in the history of Arkansas. Due to his youthful appearance, Clinton was often called the "Boy Governor". He worked on educational reform and directed the maintenance of Arkansas's roads, with wife Hillary leading a successful committee on urban health care reform. However, his term included an unpopular motor vehicle tax and citizens' anger over the escape of Cuban refugees (from the Mariel boatlift) detained in Fort Chaffee in 1980. Monroe Schwarzlose, of Kingsland in Cleveland County, polled 31 percent of the vote against Clinton in the Democratic gubernatorial primary of 1980. Some suggested Schwarzlose's unexpected voter turnout foreshadowed Clinton's defeat by Republican challenger Frank D. White in the general election that year. As Clinton once joked, he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history.
Clinton joined friend Bruce Lindsey's Little Rock law firm of Wright, Lindsey and Jennings. In 1982, he was elected governor a second time and kept the office for ten years. Effective with the 1986 election, Arkansas had changed its gubernatorial term of office from two to four years. During his term, he helped transform Arkansas's economy and improved the state's educational system. For senior citizens, he removed the sales tax from medications and increased the home property-tax exemption. He became a leading figure among the New Democrats, a group of Democrats who advocated welfare reform, smaller government, and other policies not supported by liberals. Formally organized as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the New Democrats argued that in light of President Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in 1984, the Democratic Party needed to adopt a more centrist political stance in order to succeed at the national level. Clinton delivered the Democratic response to Reagan's 1985 State of the Union Address and served as chair of the National Governors Association from 1986 to 1987, bringing him to an audience beyond Arkansas.
In the early 1980s, Clinton made reform of the Arkansas education system a top priority of his gubernatorial administration. The Arkansas Education Standards Committee was chaired by Clinton's wife Hillary, who was also an attorney as well as the chair of the Legal Services Corporation. The committee transformed Arkansas's education system. Proposed reforms included more spending for schools (supported by a sales-tax increase), better opportunities for gifted children, vocational education, higher teachers' salaries, more course variety, and compulsory teacher competency exams. The reforms passed in September 1983 after Clinton called a special legislative session—the longest in Arkansas history. Many have considered this the greatest achievement of the Clinton governorship. He defeated four Republican candidates for governor: Lowe (1978), White (1982 and 1986), Jonesboro businessmen Woody Freeman (1984), and Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock (1990).
Also in the 1980s, the Clintons' personal and business affairs included transactions that became the basis of the Whitewater controversy investigation, which later dogged his presidential administration. After extensive investigation over several years, no indictments were made against the Clintons related to the years in Arkansas.
According to some sources, Clinton was a death penalty opponent in his early years, but he eventually switched positions. However he might have felt previously, by 1992, Clinton was insisting that Democrats "should no longer feel guilty about protecting the innocent". During Clinton's final term as governor, Arkansas performed its first executions since 1964 (the death penalty had been reinstated in 1976). As Governor, he oversaw the first four executions carried out by the state of Arkansas since the death penalty was reinstated there in 1976: one by electric chair and three by lethal injection. To draw attention to his stance on capital punishment, Clinton flew home to Arkansas mid-campaign in 1992, in order to affirm in person that the controversial execution of Ricky Ray Rector, would go forward as scheduled.
1988 Democratic presidential primaries
In 1987, the media speculated that Clinton would enter the presidential race after incumbent New York governor Mario Cuomo declined to run and Democratic front-runner Gary Hart withdrew owing to revelations of multiple marital infidelities. Clinton decided to remain as Arkansas governor (following consideration for the potential candidacy of Hillary for governor, initially favored—but ultimately vetoed—by the First Lady). For the nomination, Clinton endorsed Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. He gave the nationally televised opening night address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, but his speech, which was 33 minutes long and twice the length it was expected to be, was criticized for being too long and poorly delivered. Clinton presented himself both as a moderate and as a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, and he headed the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991.
Presidential campaigns
1992
In the first primary contest, the Iowa Caucus, Clinton finished a distant third to Iowa senator Tom Harkin. During the campaign for the New Hampshire primary, reports surfaced that Clinton had engaged in an extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers. Clinton fell far behind former Massachusetts senator Paul Tsongas in the New Hampshire polls. Following Super Bowl XXVI, Clinton and his wife Hillary went on 60 Minutes to rebuff the charges. Their television appearance was a calculated risk, but Clinton regained several delegates. He finished second to Tsongas in the New Hampshire primary, but after trailing badly in the polls and coming within single digits of winning, the media viewed it as a victory. News outlets labeled him "The Comeback Kid" for earning a firm second-place finish.
Winning the big prizes of Florida and Texas and many of the Southern primaries on Super Tuesday gave Clinton a sizable delegate lead. However, former California governor Jerry Brown was scoring victories and Clinton had yet to win a significant contest outside his native South. With no major Southern state remaining, Clinton targeted New York, which had many delegates. He scored a resounding victory in New York City, shedding his image as a regional candidate. Having been transformed into the consensus candidate, he secured the Democratic Party nomination, finishing with a victory in Jerry Brown's home state of California.
During the campaign, questions of conflict of interest regarding state business and the politically powerful Rose Law Firm, at which Hillary Rodham Clinton was a partner, arose. Clinton argued the questions were moot because all transactions with the state had been deducted before determining Hillary's firm pay. Further concern arose when Bill Clinton announced that, with Hillary, voters would be getting two presidents "for the price of one".
Clinton was still the governor of Arkansas while campaigning for U.S. president, and he returned to his home state to see that Ricky Ray Rector would be executed. After killing a police officer and a civilian, Rector shot himself in the head, leading to what his lawyers said was a state where he could still talk but did not understand the idea of death. According to both Arkansas state law and Federal law, a seriously mentally impaired inmate cannot be executed. The courts disagreed with the allegation of grave mental impairment and allowed the execution. Clinton's return to Arkansas for the execution was framed in an article for The New York Times as a possible political move to counter "soft on crime" accusations.
Bush's approval ratings were around 80 percent during the Gulf War, and he was described as unbeatable. When Bush compromised with Democrats to try to lower Federal deficits, he reneged on his promise not to raise taxes, which hurt his approval rating. Clinton repeatedly condemned Bush for making a promise he failed to keep. By election time, the economy was souring and Bush saw his approval rating plummet to just slightly over 40 percent. Finally, conservatives were previously united by anti-communism, but with the end of the Cold War, the party lacked a uniting issue. When Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson addressed Christian themes at the Republican National Convention—with Bush criticizing Democrats for omitting God from their platform—many moderates were alienated. Clinton then pointed to his moderate, "New Democrat" record as governor of Arkansas, though some on the more liberal side of the party remained suspicious. Many Democrats who had supported Ronald Reagan and Bush in previous elections switched their support to Clinton. Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore, toured the country during the final weeks of the campaign, shoring up support and pledging a "new beginning".
On March 26, 1992, during a Democratic fund raiser of the presidential campaign, Robert Rafsky confronted then Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas and asked what he was going to do about AIDS, to which Clinton replied, "I feel your pain." The televised exchange led to AIDS becoming an issue in the 1992 presidential election. On April 4, then candidate Clinton met with members of ACT UP and other leading AIDS advocates to discuss his AIDS agenda and agreed to make a major AIDS policy speech, to have people with HIV speak to the Democratic Convention, and to sign onto the AIDS United Action five point plan.
Clinton won the 1992 presidential election (370 electoral votes) against Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush (168 electoral votes) and billionaire populist Ross Perot (zero electoral votes), who ran as an independent on a platform that focused on domestic issues. Bush's steep decline in public approval was a significant part of Clinton's success. Clinton's victory in the election ended twelve years of Republican rule of the White House and twenty of the previous twenty-four years. The election gave Democrats full control of the United States Congress, the first time one party controlled both the executive and legislative branches since Democrats held the 96th United States Congress during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.
According to Seymour Martin Lipset, the 1992 election had several unique characteristics. Voters felt that economic conditions were worse than they actually were, which harmed Bush. A rare event was the presence of a strong third-party candidate. Liberals launched a backlash against 12 years of a conservative White House. The chief factor was Clinton's uniting his party, and winning over a number of heterogeneous groups.
1996
In the 1996 presidential election, Clinton was re-elected, receiving 49.2 percent of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole (40.7 percent of the popular vote) and Reform candidate Ross Perot (8.4 percent of the popular vote). Clinton received 379 of the Electoral College votes, with Dole receiving 159 electoral votes. With his victory, he became the first Democrat to win two consecutive presidential elections since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Presidency (1993–2001)
Clinton's "third way" of moderate liberalism built up the nation's fiscal health and put the nation on a firm footing abroad amid globalization and the development of anti-American terrorist organizations.
During his presidency, Clinton advocated for a wide variety of legislation and programs, most of which were enacted into law or implemented by the executive branch. His policies, particularly the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance. His policy of fiscal conservatism helped to reduce deficits on budgetary matters. Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history.
The Congressional Budget Office reported budget surpluses of $69 billion in 1998, $126 billion in 1999, and $236 billion in 2000, during the last three years of Clinton's presidency. Over the years of the recorded surplus, the gross national debt rose each year. At the end of the fiscal year (September 30) for each of the years a surplus was recorded, The U.S. treasury reported a gross debt of $5.413 trillion in 1997, $5.526 trillion in 1998, $5.656 trillion in 1999, and $5.674 trillion in 2000. Over the same period, the Office of Management and Budget reported an end of year (December 31) gross debt of $5.369 trillion in 1997, $5.478 trillion in 1998, $5.606 in 1999, and $5.629 trillion in 2000. At the end of his presidency, the Clintons moved to 15 Old House Lane in Chappaqua, New York, in order to satisfy a residency requirement for his wife to win election as a U.S. Senator from New York.
First term (1993–1997)
Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd president of the United States on January 20, 1993. Clinton was physically exhausted at the time, and had an inexperienced staff. His high levels of public support dropped in the first few weeks, as he made a series of mistakes. His first choice for attorney general had not paid her taxes on babysitters and was forced to withdraw. The second appointee also withdrew for the same reason. Clinton had repeatedly promised to encourage gays in the military service, despite what he knew to be the strong opposition of the military leadership. He tried anyway, and was publicly opposed by the top generals, and forced by Congress to a compromise position of "Don't ask, don't tell" whereby gays could serve if and only if they kept it secret. He devised a $16 billion stimulus package primarily to aid inner-city programs desired by liberals, but it was defeated by a Republican filibuster in the Senate. His popularity at the 100 day mark of his term was the lowest of any president at that point.
Public opinion did support one liberal program, and Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition. This action had bipartisan support, and was popular with the public.
Two days after taking office, on January 22, 1993—the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade—Clinton reversed restrictions on domestic and international family planning programs that had been imposed by Reagan and Bush. Clinton said abortion should be kept "safe, legal, and rare"—a slogan that had been suggested by political scientist Samuel L. Popkin and first used by Clinton in December 1991, while campaigning. During the eight years of the Clinton administration, the abortion rate declined by 18 percent.
On February 15, 1993, Clinton made his first address to the nation, announcing his plan to raise taxes to close a budget deficit. Two days later, in a nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, Clinton unveiled his economic plan. The plan focused on reducing the deficit rather than on cutting taxes for the middle class, which had been high on his campaign agenda. Clinton's advisers pressured him to raise taxes, based on the theory that a smaller federal budget deficit would reduce bond interest rates.
President Clinton's attorney general Janet Reno authorized the FBI's use of armored vehicles to deploy tear gas into the buildings of the Branch Davidian community near Waco, Texas, in hopes of ending a 51 day siege. During the operation on April 19, 1993, the buildings caught fire and 75 of the residents died, including 24 children. The raid had originally been planned by the Bush administration; Clinton had played no role.
On May 19, 1993, Clinton fired seven employees of the White House Travel Office. This caused the White House travel office controversy even though the travel office staff served at the pleasure of the president and could be dismissed without cause. The White House responded to the controversy by claiming that the firings were done in response to financial improprieties that had been revealed by a brief FBI investigation. Critics contended that the firings had been done to allow friends of the Clintons to take over the travel business and the involvement of the FBI was unwarranted.
In August, Clinton signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which passed Congress without a Republican vote. It cut taxes for 15million low-income families, made tax cuts available to 90 percent of small businesses, and raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2 percent of taxpayers. Additionally, it mandated that the budget be balanced over many years through the implementation of spending restraints.
On September 22, 1993, Clinton made a major speech to Congress regarding a health care reform plan; the program aimed at achieving universal coverage through a national health care plan. This was one of the most prominent items on Clinton's legislative agenda and resulted from a task force headed by Hillary Clinton. The plan was well received in political circles, but it was eventually doomed by well-organized lobby opposition from conservatives, the American Medical Association, and the health insurance industry. However, Clinton biographer John F. Harris said the program failed because of a lack of coordination within the White House. Despite the Democratic majority in Congress, the effort to create a national health care system ultimately died when compromise legislation by George J. Mitchell failed to gain a majority of support in August 1994. The failure of the bill was the first major legislative defeat of the Clinton administration.
In November 1993, David Hale—the source of criminal allegations against Bill Clinton in the Whitewater controversy—alleged that while governor of Arkansas, Clinton pressured Hale to provide an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, the Clintons' partner in the Whitewater land deal. A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation resulted in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project, but the Clintons themselves were never charged, and Clinton maintains his and his wife's innocence in the affair.
On November 30, 1993, Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill, which mandated federal background checks on people who purchase firearms in the United States. The law also imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases, until the NICS system was implemented in 1998. He also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, a subsidy for low-income workers.
In December of the same year, allegations by Arkansas state troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry were first reported by David Brock in The American Spectator. In the affair later known as "Troopergate", the officers alleged that they had arranged sexual liaisons for Clinton back when he was governor of Arkansas. The story mentioned a woman named Paula, a reference to Paula Jones. Brock later apologized to Clinton, saying the article was politically motivated "bad journalism", and that "the troopers were greedy and had slimy motives".
That month, Clinton implemented a Department of Defense directive known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", which allowed gay men and women to serve in the armed services provided they kept their sexual preferences a secret. The Act forbade the military from inquiring about an individual's sexual orientation. The policy was developed as a compromise after Clinton's proposal to allow gays to serve openly in the military met staunch opposition from prominent Congressional Republicans and Democrats, including senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Sam Nunn (D-GA). According to David Mixner, Clinton's support for the compromise led to a heated dispute with Vice President Al Gore, who felt that "the President should lift the ban ... even though [his executive order] was sure to be overridden by the Congress". Some gay-rights advocates criticized Clinton for not going far enough and accused him of making his campaign promise to get votes and contributions. Their position was that Clinton should have integrated the military by executive order, noting that President Harry S. Truman used executive order to racially desegregate the armed forces. Clinton's defenders argued that an executive order might have prompted the Senate to write the exclusion of gays into law, potentially making it harder to integrate the military in the future. Later in his presidency, in 1999, Clinton criticized the way the policy was implemented, saying he did not think any serious person could say it was not "out of whack". The policy remained controversial, and was finally repealed in 2011, removing open sexual orientation as a reason for dismissal from the armed forces.
On January 1, 1994, Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law. Throughout his first year in office, Clinton consistently supported ratification of the treaty by the U.S. Senate. Clinton and most of his allies in the Democratic Leadership Committee strongly supported free trade measures; there remained, however, strong disagreement within the party. Opposition came chiefly from anti-trade Republicans, protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot. The bill passed the house with 234 votes against 200 opposed (132 Republicans and 102 Democrats voting in favor; 156 Democrats, 43 Republicans, and one independent against). The treaty was then ratified by the Senate and signed into law by the president.
The Omnibus Crime Bill, which Clinton signed into law in September 1994, made many changes to U.S. crime and law enforcement legislation including the expansion of the death penalty to include crimes not resulting in death, such as running a large-scale drug enterprise. During Clinton's re-election campaign he said, "My 1994 crime bill expanded the death penalty for drug kingpins, murderers of federal law enforcement officers, and nearly 60 additional categories of violent felons." It also included a subsection of assault weapons ban for a ten-year period.
On October 21, 1994, the Clinton administration launched the first official White House website, whitehouse.gov. The site was followed with three more versions, resulting in the final edition launched in 2000. The White House website was part of a wider movement of the Clinton administration toward web-based communication. According to Robert Longley, "Clinton and Gore were responsible for pressing almost all federal agencies, the U.S. court system and the U.S. military onto the Internet, thus opening up America's government to more of America's citizens than ever before. On July 17, 1996, Clinton issued Executive Order 13011—Federal Information Technology, ordering the heads of all federal agencies to utilize information technology fully to make the information of the agency easily accessible to the public."
After two years of Democratic Party control, the Democrats lost control of Congress to the Republicans in the mid-term elections in 1994, for the first time in forty years.
A speech delivered by President Bill Clinton at the December 6, 1995 White House Conference on HIV/AIDS projected that a cure for AIDS and a vaccine to prevent further infection would be developed. The President focused on his administration's accomplishments and efforts related to the epidemic, including an accelerated drug-approval process. He also condemned homophobia and discrimination against people with HIV. Clinton announced three new initiatives: creating a special working group to coordinate AIDS research throughout the Federal government; convening public health experts to develop an action plan that integrates HIV prevention with substance abuse prevention; and launching a new effort by the Department of Justice to ensure that health care facilities provide equal access to people with HIV and AIDS.
The White House FBI files controversy of June 1996 arose concerning improper access by the White House to FBI security-clearance documents. Craig Livingstone, head of the White House Office of Personnel Security, improperly requested, and received from the FBI, background report files without asking permission of the subject individuals; many of these were employees of former Republican administrations. In March 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray determined there was no credible evidence of any crime. Ray's report further stated, "there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official was involved" in seeking the files.
On September 21, 1996, Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage for federal purposes as the legal union of one man and one woman; the legislation allowed individual states to refuse to recognize gay marriages that were performed in other states. Paul Yandura, speaking for the White House gay and lesbian liaison office, said Clinton's signing DOMA "was a political decision that they made at the time of a re-election". In defense of his actions, Clinton has said that DOMA was intended to "head off an attempt to send a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to the states", a possibility he described as highly likely in the context of a "very reactionary Congress". Administration spokesman Richard Socarides said, "the alternatives we knew were going to be far worse, and it was time to move on and get the president re-elected." Clinton himself said DOMA was something "which the Republicans put on the ballot to try to get the base vote for Bush up, I think it's obvious that something had to be done to try to keep the Republican Congress from presenting that". Others were more critical. The veteran gay rights and gay marriage activist Evan Wolfson has called these claims "historic revisionism". In a July 2, 2011, editorial The New York Times opined, "The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted in 1996 as an election-year wedge issue, signed by President Bill Clinton in one of his worst policy moments." Ultimately, in United States v. Windsor, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down DOMA in June 2013.
Despite DOMA, Clinton was the first president to select openly gay persons for administrative positions, and he is generally credited as being the first president to publicly champion gay rights. During his presidency, Clinton issued two substantially controversial executive orders on behalf of gay rights, the first lifting the ban on security clearances for LGBT federal employees and the second outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal civilian workforce. Under Clinton's leadership, federal funding for HIV/AIDS research, prevention and treatment more than doubled. Clinton also pushed for passing hate crimes laws for gays and for the private sector Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which, buoyed by his lobbying, failed to pass the Senate by a single vote in 1996. Advocacy for these issues, paired with the politically unpopular nature of the gay rights movement at the time, led to enthusiastic support for Clinton's election and reelection by the Human Rights Campaign. Clinton came out for gay marriage in July 2009 and urged the Supreme Court to overturn DOMA in 2013. He was later honored by GLAAD for his prior pro-gay stances and his reversal on DOMA.
The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy was an alleged effort by China to influence the domestic policies of the United States, before and during the Clinton administration, and involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself. Despite the evidence, the Chinese government denied all accusations.
As part of a 1996 initiative to curb illegal immigration, Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) on September 30, 1996. Appointed by Clinton, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended reducing legal immigration from about 800,000 people a year to about 550,000.
Ken Gormley, author of The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr, reveals in his book that Clinton narrowly escaped possible assassination in the Philippines in November 1996. During his visit to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Manila, while he was on his way to meet with a senior member of the Philippine government, Clinton was saved from danger minutes before his motorcade was scheduled to drive over a bridge charged with a timed improvised explosive device (IED). According to officials, the IED was large enough to "blow up the entire presidential motorcade". Details of the plot were revealed to Gormley by Lewis C. Merletti, former member of the presidential protection detail and Director of the Secret Service. Intelligence officers intercepted a radio transmission indicating there was a wedding cake under a bridge. This alerted Merletti and others as Clinton's motorcade was scheduled to drive over a major bridge in downtown Manila. Once more, the word "wedding" was the code name used by a terrorist group for a past assassination attempt. Merletti wanted to reroute the motorcade, but the alternate route would add forty-five minutes to the drive time. Clinton was very angry, as he was already late for the meeting, but following the advice of the secret service possibly saved his life. Two other bombs had been discovered in Manila earlier in the week so the threat level that day was high. Security personnel at the Manila International Airport uncovered several grenades and a timing device in a travel bag. Officials also discovered a bomb near a major U.S. naval base. The president was scheduled to visit both these locations later in the week. An intense investigation took place into the events in Manila and it was discovered that the group behind the bridge bomb was a Saudi terrorist group in Afghanistan known as al-Qaeda and the plot was masterminded by Osama bin Laden. Until recently, this thwarted assassination attempt was never made public and remained top secret. Only top members of the U.S. intelligence community were aware of these events.
Second term (1997–2001)
In the January 1997, State of the Union address, Clinton proposed a new initiative to provide health coverage to up to five million children. Senators Ted Kennedy—a Democrat—and Orrin Hatch—a Republican—teamed up with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her staff in 1997, and succeeded in passing legislation forming the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the largest (successful) health care reform in the years of the Clinton Presidency. That year, Hillary Clinton shepherded through Congress the Adoption and Safe Families Act and two years later she succeeded in helping pass the Foster Care Independence Act. Bill Clinton negotiated the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 by the Republican Congress. In October 1997, he announced he was getting hearing aids, due to hearing loss attributed to his age, and his time spent as a musician in his youth. In 1999, he signed into law the Financial Services Modernization Act also known as the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, which repealed the part of the Glass–Steagall Act that had prohibited a bank from offering a full range of investment, commercial banking, and insurance services since its enactment in 1933.
Impeachment and acquittal
After a House inquiry, Clinton was impeached on December 19, 1998, by the House of Representatives. The House voted 228–206 to impeach him for perjury to a grand jury and voted 221–212 to impeach him for obstruction of justice. Clinton was only the second U.S. president (after Andrew Johnson) to be impeached. Impeachment proceedings were based on allegations that Clinton had illegally lied about and covered up his relationship with 22-year-old White House (and later Department of Defense) employee Monica Lewinsky. After the Starr Report was submitted to the House providing what it termed "substantial and credible information that President Clinton Committed Acts that May Constitute Grounds for an Impeachment", the House began impeachment hearings against Clinton before the mid-term elections. To hold impeachment proceedings, the Republican leadership called a lame-duck session in December 1998.
While the House Judiciary Committee hearings ended in a straight party-line vote, there was lively debate on the House floor. The two charges passed in the House (largely with Republican support, but with a handful of Democratic votes as well) were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony before a grand jury that had been convened to investigate perjury he may have committed in his sworn deposition during Jones v. Clinton, Paula Jones's sexual harassment lawsuit. The obstruction charge was based on his actions to conceal his relationship with Lewinsky before and after that deposition.
The Senate later acquitted Clinton of both charges. The Senate refused to meet to hold an impeachment trial before the end of the old term, so the trial was held over until the next Congress. Clinton was represented by Washington law firm Williams & Connolly. The Senate finished a twenty-one-day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote of 55 not guilty/45 guilty on the perjury charge and 50 not guilty/50 guilty on the obstruction of justice charge. Both votes fell short of the constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an officeholder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty, and only a handful of Republicans voting not guilty.
On January 19, 2001, Clinton's law license was suspended for five years after he acknowledged to an Arkansas circuit court that he had engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice in the Jones case.
Pardons and commutations
Clinton issued 141 pardons and 36 commutations on his last day in office on January 20, 2001. Controversy surrounded Marc Rich and allegations that Hillary Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, accepted payments in return for influencing the president's decision-making regarding the pardons. Federal prosecutor Mary Jo White was appointed to investigate the pardon of Rich. She was later replaced by then-Republican James Comey. The investigation found no wrongdoing on Clinton's part. Clinton also pardoned 4 defendants in the Whitewater Scandal, Chris Wade, Susan McDougal, Stephen Smith, and Robert W. Palmer, all of whom had ties to Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. Former Clinton HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, was also among Clinton's pardons.
Campaign finance controversies
In February 1997 it was discovered upon documents being released by the Clinton Administration that 938 people had stayed at the White House and that 821 of them had made donations to the Democratic Party and got the opportunity to stay in the Lincoln bedroom as a result of the donations. Some donors included Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Jane Fonda, and Judy Collins. Top donors also got golf games and morning jogs with Clinton as a result of the contributions. Janet Reno was called on to investigate the matter by Trent Lott, but she refused.
In 1996, it was found that several Chinese foreigners made contributions to Clinton's reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee with the backing of the People's Republic of China. Some of them also attempted to donate to Clinton's defense fund. This violated United States law forbidding non-American citizens from making campaign contributions. Clinton and Al Gore also allegedly met with the foreign donors. A Republican investigation led by Fred Thompson found that Clinton was targeted by the Chinese government. However, Democratic senators Joe Lieberman and John Glenn said that the evidence showed that China only targeted congressional elections and not presidential elections.
Military and foreign affairs
Somalia
The Battle of Mogadishu occurred in Somalia in 1993. During the operation, two U.S. helicopters were shot down by rocket-propelled grenade attacks to their tail rotors, trapping soldiers behind enemy lines. This resulted in an urban battle that killed 18 American soldiers, wounded 73 others, and one was taken prisoner. There were many more Somali casualties. Some of the American bodies were dragged through the streets—a spectacle broadcast on television news programs. In response, U.S. forces were withdrawn from Somalia and later conflicts were approached with fewer soldiers on the ground.
Rwanda
In April 1994, genocide broke out in Rwanda. Intelligence reports indicate that Clinton was aware a "final solution to eliminate all Tutsis" was underway, long before the administration publicly used the word "genocide". Fearing a reprisal of the events in Somalia the previous year, Clinton chose not to intervene. Clinton has called his failure to intervene one of his main foreign policy failings, saying "I don't think we could have ended the violence, but I think we could have cut it down. And I regret it."
Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 1995, U.S. and NATO aircraft bombed Bosnian Serb targets to halt attacks on U.N. safe zones and pressure them into a peace accord that would end the Bosnian war. Clinton deployed U.S. peacekeepers to Bosnia in late 1995, to uphold the subsequent Dayton Agreement.
Irish peace talks
In 1992, before his presidency, Clinton proposed sending a peace envoy to Northern Ireland, but this was dropped to avoid tensions with the British government. In November 1995, in a ceasefire during the Troubles, Clinton became the first president to visit Northern Ireland, examining both of the two divided communities of Belfast. Despite unionist criticism, Clinton used this as a way to negotiate an end to the violent conflict with London, Dublin, the paramilitaries and the other groups. Clinton went on to play a key role in the peace talks, which produced the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Iran
In February 1996, the Clinton administration agreed to pay Iran US$131.8million (equivalent to $ million in ) in settlement to discontinue a case brought by Iran in 1989 against the U.S. in the International Court of Justice after the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 by the U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser.
Osama bin Laden
Capturing Osama bin Laden had been an objective of the U.S. government during the presidency of Bill Clinton (and continued to be until bin Laden's death in 2011). Despite claims by Mansoor Ijaz and Sudanese officials that the Sudanese government had offered to arrest and extradite bin Laden, and that U.S. authorities rejected each offer, the 9/11 Commission Report stated that "we have not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim".
In response to a 1996 State Department warning about bin Laden and the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa by al-Qaeda (which killed 224 people, including 12 Americans), Clinton ordered several military missions to capture or kill bin Laden, all of which were unsuccessful. In August 1998, Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan, targeting the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan, which was suspected of assisting bin Laden in making chemical weapons, and bin Laden's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
Kosovo
In the midst of a brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in the province of Kosovo by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Clinton authorized the use of U.S. Armed Forces in a NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, named Operation Allied Force. The stated reasoning behind the intervention was to stop the ethnic cleansing (and what the Clinton administration labeled genocide) of Albanians by Yugoslav anti-guerilla military units. General Wesley Clark was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and oversaw the mission. With United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, the bombing campaign ended on June 10, 1999. The resolution placed Kosovo under UN administration and authorized a peacekeeping force to be deployed to the region. NATO announced its soldiers all survived combat, though two died in an Apache helicopter crash. Journalists in the popular press criticized genocide statements by the Clinton administration as false and greatly exaggerated. Prior to the bombing campaign on March 24, 1999, common estimates showed that the number of civilians killed in the over year long conflict in Kosovo had approximately been 1,800, of which were primarily Albanians but also Serbs and that there was no evidence of genocide or ethnic cleansing. In a post-war inquiry, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe noted "the patterns of the expulsions and the vast increase in lootings, killings, rape, kidnappings and pillage once the NATO air war began on March 24". In 2001, the U.N.-supervised Supreme Court of Kosovo ruled that genocide (the intent to destroy a people) did not take place, but recognized "a systematic campaign of terror, including murders, rapes, arsons and severe maltreatments" with the intention being the forceful departure of the Albanian population. The term "ethnic cleansing" was used as an alternative to "genocide" to denote not just ethnically motivated murder but also displacement, though critics charge there is little difference. Slobodan Milošević, the president of Yugoslavia at the time of the atrocities, was eventually brought to trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague on charges including crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the war. He died in 2006, before the completion of the trial.
Iraq
In Clinton's 1998 State of the Union Address, he warned Congress that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was building an arsenal of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 on October 31, 1998, which instituted a policy of "regime change" against Iraq, though it explicitly stated it did not provide for direct intervention on the part of American military forces. The administration then launched a four-day bombing campaign named Operation Desert Fox, lasting from December 16 to 19, 1998. At the end of this operation Clinton announced that "So long as Saddam remains in power, he will remain a threat to his people, his region, and the world. With our allies, we must pursue a strategy to contain him and to constrain his weapons of mass destruction program, while working toward the day Iraq has a government willing to live at peace with its people and with its neighbors." American and British aircraft in the Iraq no-fly zones attacked hostile Iraqi air defenses 166 times in 1999 and 78 times in 2000.
China
On October 10, 2000, Clinton signed into law the U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000, which granted permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) trade status to China. The president asserted that free trade would gradually open China to democratic reform.
Relations were damaged briefly by the American bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in May 1999. Clinton apologized for the bombing, stating it was accidental.
The U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000 granted China permanent normal trade relations (NTR) status (previously called most favoured nation (MFN)) when China becomes a full member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), ending annual review and approval of NTR. The Act was signed into law on October 10, 2000, by Clinton. President Clinton in 2000 pushed Congress to approve the U.S.-China trade agreement and China's accession to the WTO, saying that more trade with China would advance America's economic interests: "Economically, this agreement is the equivalent of a one-way street. It requires China to open its markets—with a fifth of the world's population, potentially the biggest markets in the world—to both our products and services in unprecedented new ways," said Clinton.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
After initial successes such as the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s, which also led to the Israel–Jordan peace treaty in 1994 and the Wye River Memorandum in October 1998, Clinton attempted an effort to end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He brought Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David for the Camp David Summit in July 2000, which lasted 14 days. Following the failures of the peace talks, Clinton said Arafat had "missed the opportunity" to facilitate a "just and lasting peace". In his autobiography, Clinton blames Arafat for the collapse of the summit. Following another attempt in December 2000 at Bolling Air Force Base, in which the president offered the Clinton Parameters, the situation broke down completely after the end of the Taba Summit and with the start of the Second Intifada.
Judicial appointments
Clinton appointed two justices to the Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993 and Stephen Breyer in 1994. Both justices went on to serve until the 2020s, leaving a lasting judicial legacy for President Clinton.
Clinton was the first president in history to appoint more women and minority judges than white male judges to the federal courts. In his eight years in office, 11.6% of Clinton's court of appeals nominees and 17.4% of his district court nominees were black; 32.8% of his court of appeals nominees and 28.5% of his district court nominees were women.
Public opinion
Throughout Clinton's first term, his job approval rating fluctuated in the 40s and 50s. In his second term, his rating consistently ranged from the high-50s to the high-60s. After his impeachment proceedings in 1998 and 1999, Clinton's rating reached its highest point. According to a CBS News/New York Times poll, Clinton left office with an approval rating of 68 percent, which matched those of Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era. Clinton's average Gallup poll approval rating for his last quarter in office was 61%, the highest final quarter rating any president has received for fifty years. Forty-seven percent of the respondents identified themselves as being Clinton supporters.
As he was leaving office, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll revealed that 45 percent of Americans said they would miss him; 55 percent thought he "would have something worthwhile to contribute and should remain active in public life"; 68 percent thought he would be remembered more for his "involvement in personal scandal" than for "his accomplishments"; and 58 percent answered "No" to the question "Do you generally think Bill Clinton is honest and trustworthy?" The same percentage said he would be remembered as either "outstanding" or "above average" as a president, while 22 percent said he would be remembered as "below average" or "poor". ABC News characterized public consensus on Clinton as, "You can't trust him, he's got weak morals and ethics—and he's done a heck of a good job."
In May 2006, a CNN poll comparing Clinton's job performance with that of his successor, George W. Bush, found that a strong majority of respondents said Clinton outperformed Bush in six different areas questioned. Gallup polls in 2007 and 2011 showed that Clinton was regarded by 13 percent of Americans as the greatest president in U.S. history.
In 2014, 18 percent of respondents in a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll of American voters regarded Clinton as the best president since World War II, making him the third most popular among postwar presidents, behind John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. The same poll showed that just 3% of American voters regarded Clinton as the worst president since World War II.
A 2015 poll by The Washington Post asked 162 scholars of the American Political Science Association to rank all the U.S. presidents in order of greatness. According to their findings, Clinton ranked eighth overall, with a rating of 70 percent.
Public image
Clinton was the first baby boomer president. Authors Martin Walker and Bob Woodward stated that Clinton's innovative use of sound bite-ready dialogue, personal charisma, and public perception-oriented campaigning were a major factor in his high public approval ratings. When Clinton played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, he was described by some religious conservatives as "the MTV president". Opponents sometimes referred to him as "Slick Willie", a nickname which was first applied to him in 1980 by Pine Bluff Commercial journalist Paul Greenberg; Greenberg believed that Clinton was abandoning the progressive policies of previous Arkansas Governors such as Winthrop Rockefeller, Dale Bumpers and David Pryor. The claim "Slick Willie" would last throughout his presidency. His folksy manner led him to be nicknamed Bubba, especially in the South. Since 2000, he has frequently been referred to as "The Big Dog" or "Big Dog". His prominent role in campaigning for President Obama during the 2012 presidential election and his widely publicized speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, where he officially nominated Obama and criticized Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Republican policies in detail, earned him the nickname "Explainer-in-Chief".
Clinton drew strong support from the African American community and insisted that the improvement of race relations would be a major theme of his presidency. In 1998, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison called Clinton "the first Black president", saying, "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas". Morrison noted that Clinton's sex life was scrutinized more than his career accomplishments, and she compared this to the stereotyping and double standards that, she said, blacks typically endure. Many viewed this comparison as unfair and disparaging both to Clinton and to the African-American community at large. Clinton, a Baptist, has been open about his faith.
Sexual assault and misconduct allegations
Several women have publicly accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct, including rape, harassment, and sexual assault. Additionally, some commentators have characterized Clinton's sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky as predatory or non-consensual, despite the fact that Lewinsky called the relationship consensual at the time. These allegations have been revisited and lent more credence in 2018, in light of the #MeToo movement, with many commentators and Democratic leaders now saying Clinton should have been compelled to resign after the Lewinsky affair.
In 1994, Paula Jones initiated a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton, claiming he had made unwanted advances towards her in 1991; Clinton denied the allegations. In April 1998, the case was initially dismissed by Judge Susan Webber Wright on the grounds that it lacked legal merit. Jones appealed Webber Wright's ruling, and her suit gained traction following Clinton's admission to having an affair with Monica Lewinsky in August 1998. In 1998, lawyers for Paula Jones released court documents that alleged a pattern of sexual harassment by Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas. Robert S. Bennett, Clinton's main lawyer for the case, called the filing "a pack of lies" and "an organized campaign to smear the President of the United States" funded by Clinton's political enemies. Clinton later agreed to an out-of-court settlement and paid Jones $850,000. Bennett said the president made the settlement only so he could end the lawsuit for good and move on with his life. During the deposition for the Jones lawsuit, which was held at the White House, Clinton denied having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky—a denial that became the basis for an impeachment charge of perjury.
In 1998, Kathleen Willey alleged that Clinton had groped her in a hallway in 1993. An independent counsel determined Willey gave "false information" to the FBI, inconsistent with sworn testimony related to the Jones allegation. On March 19, 1998, Julie Hiatt Steele, a friend of Willey, released an affidavit, accusing the former White House aide of asking her to lie to corroborate Ms. Willey's account of being sexually groped by Clinton in the Oval Office. An attempt by Kenneth Starr to prosecute Steele for making false statements and obstructing justice ended in a mistrial and Starr declined to seek a retrial after Steele sought an investigation against the former Independent Counsel for prosecutorial misconduct. Linda Tripp's grand jury testimony also differed from Willey's claims regarding inappropriate sexual advances.
Also in 1998, Juanita Broaddrick alleged that Clinton had raped her in the spring of 1978, although she said she did not remember the exact date. To support her charge, Broaddrick notes that she told multiple witnesses in 1978 she had been raped by Clinton, something these witnesses also state in interviews to the press. Broaddrick had earlier filed an affidavit denying any "unwelcome sexual advances" and later repeated the denial in a sworn deposition. In a 1998 NBC interview wherein she detailed the alleged rape, Broaddrick said she had denied (under oath) being raped only to avoid testifying about the ordeal publicly.
The Lewinsky scandal has had an enduring impact on Clinton's legacy, beyond his impeachment in 1998. In the wake of the #MeToo movement (which shed light on the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace), various commentators and Democratic political leaders, as well as Lewinsky herself, have revisited their view that the Lewinsky affair was consensual, and instead characterized it as an abuse of power or harassment, in light of the power differential between a president and a 22-year old intern. In 2018, Clinton was asked in several interviews about whether he should have resigned, and he said he had made the right decision in not resigning. During the 2018 Congressional elections, The New York Times alleged that having no Democratic candidate for office asking Clinton to campaign with them was a change that attributed to the revised understanding of the Lewinsky scandal. However, former DNC interim chair Donna Brazile previously urged Clinton in November 2017 to campaign during the 2018 midterm elections, in spite of New York U.S. senator Kirsten Gillibrand's recent criticism of the Lewinsky scandal.
Alleged affairs
Clinton admitted to having extramarital affairs with singer Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky. Actress Elizabeth Gracen, Miss Arkansa winner Sally Perdue, and Dolly Kyle Browning all claimed that they had affairs with Clinton during his time as governor of Arkansas. Browning would later sue Clinton, Bruce Lindsey, Robert S. Bennett, and Jane Mayer alleging they engaged in a conspiracy to attempt to block her from publishing a book loosely based on her relationship with Clinton and tried to defame him. However Browning's lawsuit was dismissed.
Post-presidency (2001–present)
Bill Clinton has continued to be active in public life since leaving office in 2001, giving speeches, fundraising, and founding charitable organizations, and has spoken in prime time at every Democratic National Convention.
Activities until 2008 campaign
In 2002, Clinton warned that pre-emptive military action against Iraq would have unwelcome consequences, and later claimed to have opposed the Iraq War from the start (though some dispute this). In 2005, Clinton criticized the Bush administration for its handling of emissions control, while speaking at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Montreal.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, was dedicated in 2004. Clinton released a best-selling autobiography, My Life, in 2004. In 2007, he released Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, which also became a New York Times Best Seller and garnered positive reviews.
In the aftermath of the 2004 Asian tsunami, U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan appointed Clinton to head a relief effort. After Hurricane Katrina, Clinton joined with fellow former president George H. W. Bush to establish the Bush-Clinton Tsunami Fund in January 2005, and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund in October of that year. As part of the tsunami effort, these two ex-presidents appeared in a Super Bowl XXXIX pre-game show, and traveled to the affected areas. They also spoke together at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin in April 2007.
Based on his philanthropic worldview, Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address issues of global importance. This foundation includes the Clinton Foundation HIV and AIDS Initiative (CHAI), which strives to combat that disease, and has worked with the Australian government toward that end. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), begun by the Clinton Foundation in 2005, attempts to address world problems such as global public health, poverty alleviation and religious and ethnic conflict. In 2005, Clinton announced through his foundation an agreement with manufacturers to stop selling sugary drinks in schools. Clinton's foundation joined with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group in 2006 to improve cooperation among those cities, and he met with foreign leaders to promote this initiative. The foundation has received donations from many governments all over the world, including Asia and the Middle East. In 2008, Foundation director Inder Singh announced deals to reduce the price of anti-malaria drugs by 30 percent in developing nations. Clinton also spoke in favor of California Proposition 87 on alternative energy, which was voted down.
In the early 2000s, Clinton took flights on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet in connection with Clinton Foundation work. Years later, Epstein was convicted on sex trafficking charges. Clinton's office released a statement in 2019 saying, "President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York. In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took four trips on Jeffrey Epstein's airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation. Staff, supporters of the Foundation, and his Secret Service detail traveled on every leg of every trip. [...] He's not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade."
2008 presidential election
During the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, Clinton vigorously advocated on behalf of his wife, Hillary. Through speaking engagements and fundraisers, he was able to raise $10 million toward her campaign. Some worried that as an ex-president, he was too active on the trail, too negative to Clinton rival Barack Obama, and alienating his supporters at home and abroad. Many were especially critical of him following his remarks in the South Carolina primary, which Obama won. Later in the 2008 primaries, there was some infighting between Bill and Hillary's staffs, especially in Pennsylvania. Considering Bill's remarks, many thought he could not rally Hillary supporters behind Obama after Obama won the primary. Such remarks lead to apprehension that the party would be split to the detriment of Obama's election. Fears were allayed August 27, 2008, when Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, saying all his experience as president assures him that Obama is "ready to lead". After Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was over, Bill Clinton continued to raise funds to help pay off her campaign debt.
After the 2008 election
In 2009, Clinton travelled to North Korea on behalf of two American journalists imprisoned there. Euna Lee and Laura Ling had been imprisoned for illegally entering the country from China. Jimmy Carter had made a similar visit in 1994. After Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim issued a pardon.
Since then, Clinton has been assigned many other diplomatic missions. He was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti in 2009 following a series of hurricanes which caused $1 billion in damages. Clinton organized a conference with the Inter-American Development Bank, where a new industrial park was discussed in an effort to "build back better". In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, U.S. president Barack Obama announced that Clinton and George W. Bush would coordinate efforts to raise funds for Haiti's recovery. Funds began pouring into Haiti, which led to funding becoming available for Caracol Industrial Park in a part of the country unaffected by the earthquake. While Hillary Clinton was in South Korea, she and Cheryl Mills worked to convince SAE-A, a large apparel subcontractor, to invest in Haiti despite the company's deep concerns about plans to raise the minimum wage. In the summer of 2010, the South Korean company signed a contract at the U.S. State Department, ensuring that the new industrial park would have a key tenant. In 2010, Clinton announced support of, and delivered the keynote address for, the inauguration of NTR, Ireland's first environmental foundation. At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Clinton gave a widely praised speech nominating Barack Obama.
2016 presidential election and after
During the 2016 presidential election, Clinton again encouraged voters to support Hillary, and made appearances speaking on the campaign trail. In a series of tweets, then-President-elect Donald Trump criticized his ability to get people out to vote. Clinton served as a member of the electoral college for the state of New York. He voted for the Democratic ticket consisting of his wife Hillary and her running-mate Tim Kaine.
On September 7, 2017, Clinton partnered with former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama to work with One America Appeal to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma in the Gulf Coast and Texas communities.
In 2020, Clinton again served as a member of the United States Electoral College from New York, casting his vote for the successful Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Post-presidential health concerns
In September 2004, Clinton underwent quadruple bypass surgery. In March 2005, he again underwent surgery, this time for a partially collapsed lung. On February 11, 2010, he was rushed to New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital in Manhattan after complaining of chest pains, and he had two coronary stents implanted in his heart. After this procedure, Clinton adopted a plant-based whole foods (vegan) diet, which had been recommended by doctors Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn. However, he has since incorporated fish and lean proteins at the suggestion of Dr. Mark Hyman, a proponent of the pseudoscientific ethos of functional medicine. As a result, he is no longer a strict vegan.
In October 2021, Clinton was treated for sepsis at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center.
Wealth
The Clintons incurred several million dollars in legal bills during his presidency, which were paid off four years after he left office. Bill and Hillary Clinton have each earned millions of dollars from book publishing. In 2016, Forbes reported Bill and Hillary Clinton made about $240million in the 15years from January 2001, to December 2015, (mostly from paid speeches, business consulting and book-writing). Also in 2016, CNN reported the Clintons combined to receive more than $153million in paid speeches from 2001 until spring 2015. In May 2015, The Hill reported that Bill and Hillary Clinton have made more than $25million in speaking fees since the start of 2014, and that Hillary Clinton also made $5million or more from her book, Hard Choices, during the same time period. In July 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported that at the end of 2012, the Clintons were worth between $5million and $25.5million, and that in 2012 (the last year they were required to disclose the information) the Clintons made between $16 and $17million, mostly from speaking fees earned by the former president. Clinton earned more than $104million from paid speeches between 2001 and 2012. In June 2014, ABC News and The Washington Post reported that Bill Clinton has made more than $100million giving paid speeches since leaving public office, and in 2008, The New York Times reported that the Clintons' income tax returns show they made $109million in the eight years from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2007, including almost $92million from his speaking and book-writing.
Bill Clinton has given dozens of paid speeches each year since leaving office in 2001, mostly to corporations and philanthropic groups in North America and Europe; he often earned $100,000 to $300,000 per speech. Russian investment bank with ties to the Kremlin paid Clinton $500,000 for a speech in Moscow. Hillary Clinton said she and Bill came out of the White House financially "broke" and in debt, especially due to large legal fees incurred during their years in the White House. "We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea's education." She added, "Bill has worked really hard ... we had to pay off all our debts ... he had to make double the money because of, obviously, taxes; and then pay off the debts, and get us houses, and take care of family members."
Personal life
At the age of 10, he was baptized at Park Place Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas and remained a member of a Baptist church. In 2007, with Jimmy Carter, he founded the New Baptist Covenant Baptist organization.
On October 11, 1975, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, he married Hillary Rodham, whom he met while studying at Yale University. They had Chelsea Clinton, their only child, on February 27, 1980. He is the maternal grandfather to Chelsea's three children.
Honors and recognition
Various colleges and universities have awarded Clinton honorary degrees, including Doctorate of Law degrees and Doctor of Humane Letters degrees. He received an honorary degree from Georgetown University, his alma mater, and was the commencement speaker in 1980. He is an honorary fellow of University College, Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar, although he did not complete his studies there. Schools have been named for Clinton, and statues have been built to pay him homage. U.S. states where he has been honored include Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and New York. He was presented with the Medal for Distinguished Public Service by Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 2001. The Clinton Presidential Center was opened in Little Rock, Arkansas, in his honor on December 5, 2001.
He has been honored in various other ways, in countries that include the Czech Republic, Papua New Guinea, Germany, and Kosovo. The Republic of Kosovo, in gratitude for his help during the Kosovo War, renamed a major street in the capital city of Pristina as Bill Clinton Boulevard and added a monumental Clinton statue.
Clinton was selected as Time "Man of the Year" in 1992, and again in 1998, along with Ken Starr. From a poll conducted of the American people in December 1999, Clinton was among eighteen included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th century. In 2001, Clinton received the NAACP's President's Award. He has also been honored with a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, a J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding, a TED Prize (named for the confluence of technology, entertainment and design), and was named as an Honorary GLAAD Media Award recipient for his work as an advocate for the LGBT community.
In 2011, President Michel Martelly of Haiti awarded Clinton with the National Order of Honour and Merit to the rank of Grand Cross "for his various initiatives in Haiti and especially his high contribution to the reconstruction of the country after the earthquake of January 12, 2010". Clinton declared at the ceremony that "in the United States of America, I really don't believe former American presidents need awards anymore, but I am very honored by this one, I love Haiti, and I believe in its promise".
U.S. president Barack Obama awarded Clinton the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 20, 2013.
Electoral history
Authored books
Recordings
Bill Clinton is one of the narrators on Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf, a 2003 recording of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf performed by the Russian National Orchestra, on Pentatone, together with Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren. This garnered Clinton the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.
The audiobook edition of his autobiography, My Life, read by Clinton himself, won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album as well as the Audie Award as the Audiobook of the Year.
Clinton has two more Grammy nominations for his audiobooks: Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World in 2007 and Back to Work in 2012.
See also
Clinton family
Clinton School of Public Service
Efforts to impeach Bill Clinton
Gun control policy of the Clinton Administration
List of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
References
Notes
Citations
Further reading
Primary sources
Clinton, Bill. (with Al Gore). Science in the National Interest. Washington, D.C.: The White House, August 1994.
--- (with Al Gore). The Climate Change Action Plan. Washington, D.C.: The White House, October 1993.
Taylor Branch The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President. (2009) Simon & Schuster.
Official Congressional Record Impeachment Set: ... Containing the Procedures for Implementing the Articles of Impeachment and the Proceedings of the Impeachment Trial of President William Jefferson Clinton. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 1999.
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, William J. Clinton. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 1994–2002.
S. Daniel Abraham Peace Is Possible, foreword by Bill Clinton
Popular books
Peter Baker The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton (2000)
James Bovard Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (2000)
Joe Conason and Gene Lyons The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton (2003)
Elizabeth Drew On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994)
David Gergen Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership. (2000)
Nigel Hamilton Bill Clinton: An American Journey (2003)
Christopher Hitchens No One Left to Lie to: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton (1999)
Michael Isikoff Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story (1999)
Mark Katz Clinton and Me: A Real-Life Political Comedy (2004)
David Maraniss The Clinton Enigma: A Four and a Half Minute Speech Reveals This President's Entire Life (1998)
Dick Morris with Eileen McGann Because He Could (2004)
Richard A. Posner An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton (1999)
Mark J. Rozell The Clinton Scandal and the Future of American Government (2000)
Timperlake, Edward, and William C. Triplett II Year of the Rat: How Bill Clinton Compromised U.S. Security for Chinese Cash. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 1998.
Michael Waldman POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words That Defined the Clinton Presidency (2000)
Ivory Tower Publishing Company. Achievements of the Clinton Administration: the Complete Legislative and Executive. (1995)
Scholarly studies
Campbell, Colin, and Bert A. Rockman, eds. The Clinton Legacy (Chatham House Pub, 2000)
Cohen; Jeffrey E. "The Polls: Change and Stability in Public Assessments of Personal Traits, Bill Clinton, 1993–99" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 31, 2001
Cronin, Thomas E. and Michael A. Genovese; "President Clinton and Character Questions" Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 28, 1998
Davis; John. "The Evolution of American Grand Strategy and the War on Terrorism: Clinton and Bush Perspectives" White House Studies, Vol. 3, 2003
Dumbrell, John. "Was there a Clinton doctrine? President Clinton's foreign policy reconsidered". Diplomacy and Statecraft 13.2 (2002): 43–56.
Edwards; George C. "Bill Clinton and His Crisis of Governance" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Fisher; Patrick. "Clinton's Greatest Legislative Achievement? the Success of the 1993 Budget Reconciliation Bill" White House Studies, Vol. 1, 2001
Glad; Betty. "Evaluating Presidential Character" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Halberstam, David. War in a time of peace: Bush, Clinton, and the generals (Simon and Schuster, 2001). online
Harris, John F. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House (2006). online
Head, Simon. The Clinton System (January 30, 2016), The New York Review of Books
Hyland, William G. Clinton's World: Remaking American Foreign Policy (1999)
Jewett, Aubrey W. and Marc D. Turetzky; "Stability and Change in President Clinton's Foreign Policy Beliefs, 1993–96" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Laham, Nicholas, A Lost Cause: Bill Clinton's Campaign for National Health Insurance (1996)
Lanoue, David J. and Craig F. Emmert; "Voting in the Glare of the Spotlight: Representatives' Votes on the Impeachment of President Clinton" Polity, Vol. 32, 1999
Levy, Peter B. Encyclopedia of the Clinton presidency (Greenwood, 2002) online
Maurer; Paul J. "Media Feeding Frenzies: Press Behavior during Two Clinton Scandals" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999
Nesmith, Bruce F., and Paul J. Quirk, "Triangulation: Position and Leadership in Clinton’s Domestic Policy." in 42: Inside the Presidency of Bill Clinton edited by Michael Nelson at al. (Cornell UP, 2016) pp. 46–76.
Nie; Martin A. "'It's the Environment, Stupid!': Clinton and the Environment" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997 in JSTOR
O'Connor; Brendon. "Policies, Principles, and Polls: Bill Clinton's Third Way Welfare Politics 1992–1996" The Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 48, 2002
Palmer, David. "'What Might Have Been'--Bill Clinton and American Political Power." Australasian Journal of American Studies (2005): 38–58. online
Renshon; Stanley A. The Clinton Presidency: Campaigning, Governing, and the Psychology of Leadership Westview Press, 1995
Renshon; Stanley A. "The Polls: The Public's Response to the Clinton Scandals, Part 1: Inconsistent Theories, Contradictory Evidence" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32, 2002
Romano, Flavio. Clinton and Blair: the political economy of the third way (Routledge, 2007)
Rushefsky, Mark E. and Kant Patel. Politics, Power & Policy Making: The Case of Health Care Reform in the 1990s (1998)
Schantz, Harvey L. Politics in an Era of Divided Government: Elections and Governance in the Second Clinton Administration (2001)
Troy, Gill. The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s (2015)
Walt, Stephen M. "Two Cheers for Clinton's Foreign Policy" Foreign Affairs 79#2 (2000), pp. 63–79 online.
Warshaw, Shirley Anne. The Clinton Years (Infobase Publishing, 2009)
White, Mark, ed. The Presidency of Bill Clinton: The Legacy of a New Domestic and Foreign Policy (I.B.Tauris, 2012)
External links
Official
Presidential Library & Museum
Clinton Foundation
White House biography
Archived White House website
Interviews, speeches, and statements
Full audio of a number of Clinton speeches Miller Center of Public Affairs
Oral History Interview with Bill Clinton from Oral Histories of the American South, June 1974
"The Wanderer", a profile from The New Yorker, September 2006
Media coverage
Other
Extensive essays on Bill Clinton and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
"Life Portrait of Bill Clinton", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, December 20, 1999
Clinton an American Experience documentary
1992 election episode in CNN's Race for the White House
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"The sketch comedy television show Saturday Night Live (SNL) has for almost three decades aired a number of sketches parodying Hillary Clinton, from her time as First Lady, and during both her presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2016.\n\nA total of nine different performers have played Hillary Clinton on SNL. The array of SNL cast members portraying Clinton has included Jan Hooks, Janeane Garofalo, Vanessa Bayer, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, and Kate McKinnon. Guest stars playing Clinton have included Drew Barrymore and Rachel Dratch. One sketch even featured Miley Cyrus in a guest appearance as Clinton, rapping: \"What's up y'all? I'm like Hillary Clinton, and I wanna be president one day.\"\n\nHistory \n\nJan Hooks was the first to portray Hillary Clinton, and after Hooks left the show in 1991, she returned later to make several subsequent guest appearances as Hillary, with Phil Hartman as Hillary's husband Bill Clinton. One of the earliest Jan Hooks sketches, which aired in May 1993, features her interpretation of Hillary eager to be a \"co-president\" with Bill, now the newly elected president. Hooks' Hillary tells her husband about her big plans for his health care bill, and gets into a fistfight with Senator Bob Dole.\n\nBeginning with the 1994 season, Janeane Garofalo played Hillary as First Lady, with Michael McKean portraying president Clinton.\n\nAna Gasteyer played Hillary during the Lewinsky scandal of the late 1990s, as well as during her run for the U.S. Senate in New York, with Darrell Hammond playing the role of her husband. In one Gasteyer sketch, set in the Clintons' Chappaqua kitchen, with Hillary making an attempt to appear more personable for the cameras during her Senate campaign, she says, \"I can't wait to prepare some food dishes in this kitchen, such as salads and toast.\"\n\nSNL cast member Amy Poehler had the longest-running role as Clinton, playing the role regularly from 2003 to 2008 (and reprising it twice, in 2012 and 2015). During the 2008–09 season, the show aired several critically acclaimed sketches featuring Poehler as Clinton, and Tina Fey as Sarah Palin. Hillary Clinton first made an appearance on the show and faced off with Poehler as her doppelgänger.\n\nKate McKinnon has portrayed Clinton regularly since March 2015. Darrell Hammond has stated that he only agreed to reprise his role as Bill Clinton because McKinnon was so good in her role, calling her a \"virtuoso\".\n\nIn the 2014–2015 season, SNL began airing another series of Hillary Clinton sketches, on the occasion of Clinton's announcement of her candidacy for the 2016 presidential campaign, with Kate McKinnon now as Clinton. Former SNL cast member Darrell Hammond returned to reprise his portrayal of Bill Clinton in previous season skits.\n\nMcKinnon again portrayed Clinton on October 17, 2015, for SNLs rendering of the Democratic Primary Presidential debate which had aired on CNN on October 13.\n\nOn October 8, 2016, in episode 2 of season 42, Kate McKinnon played Hillary Clinton after her headquarters obtained news of Donald Trump talking about how he could grab women \"by the pussy\", something he did say in real life.\n\nSee also \n Saturday Night Live parodies of Joe Biden\n Saturday Night Live parodies of George H. W. Bush\n Saturday Night Live parodies of Bill Clinton\n Saturday Night Live parodies of Sarah Palin\n Saturday Night Live parodies of Donald Trump\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links \n Politicians Who've Appeared on SNL – AP\n\nCultural depictions of Hillary Clinton\n2008 United States presidential election in popular culture\n2016 United States presidential election in popular culture\nClinton, Hillary\nClinton, Hillary\nClinton, Hillary\nClinton, Hillary\nAmerican political satire",
"The Hunting of the President is a 2004 English language documentary film about Bill Clinton. Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton appear in archived footage. The film is based on the book The Hunting of the President: The Ten Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton, written by investigative journalists Joe Conason and Gene Lyons, and published by Thomas Dunne Books in 2000. Narrated by Morgan Freeman, the film premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival.\n\nThe book and movie explore Clinton friends Jim and Susan McDougal, former Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell, and Arkansas Governor Jim Guy Tucker. Interviewed for the book and movie, Susan McDougal discusses legal threats from the independent counsel to pressure her to implicate the Clintons in something illegal. She told the independent counsel the Clintons did nothing wrong, and the independent counsel said they had statements prepared and she simply had to agree with the pre-written claims.\n\nThe film was nominated for Best Documentary Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America.\n\nBook\nConason, Joe, and Lyons, Gene, The Hunting of the President, ©2000 Thomas Dunne Books. ()\n\nSee also\nArkansas Project\nTroopergate (Bill Clinton)\nWhitewater (controversy)\nVast Right-Wing Conspiracy\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n2004 films\nAmerican films\nEnglish-language films\nBooks about the Clinton administration\nDocumentary films about American politicians\nBooks about Bill Clinton\nFilms about Bill Clinton\nBooks about Hillary Clinton\nWorks about Hillary Clinton"
] |
[
"Bill Clinton",
"Early life and career",
"Where did Bill Clinton begin his career?",
"Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life, both occurring in 1963, that contributed to his decision to become a public figure.",
"Where did Bill Clinton meet Hillary?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_b683706c6b674cf081a007960267a41c_1
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What is significant about Bill's early life?
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What is significant about Bill's early life?
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Bill Clinton
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Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas. He was the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr. (1918-1946), a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy (later Virginia Kelley: 1923-1994). His parents had married on September 4, 1943, but this union later proved to be bigamous, as Blythe was still married to his third wife. Soon after Bill was born, Virginia traveled to New Orleans to study nursing. She left her son in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the southern United States was racially segregated, Clinton's grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races. In 1950, Bill's mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr., who owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950. Although he immediately assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Clinton turned 15 that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather. Clinton said that he remembered his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half-brother, Roger Clinton Jr., to the point where he intervened multiple times with the threat of violence to protect them. In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School, where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician. Clinton was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone, winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section. He briefly considered dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life: Clinton began an interest in law at Hot Springs High, when he took up the challenge to argue the defense of the ancient Roman Senator Catiline in a mock trial in his Latin class. After a vigorous defense that made use of his "budding rhetorical and political skills", he told the Latin teacher Elizabeth Buck that it "made him realize that someday he would study law". Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life, both occurring in 1963, that contributed to his decision to become a public figure. One was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy. The other was watching Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 I Have a Dream speech on TV, which impressed him enough that he later memorized it. CANNOTANSWER
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use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Clinton turned 15 that he formally adopted the surname Clinton
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William Jefferson Clinton (; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992, and as attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton became known as a New Democrat, as many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy. He is the husband of Hillary Clinton, who was a senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and the Democratic nominee for president in the 2016 presidential election.
Clinton was born and raised in Arkansas and attended Georgetown University. He received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at University College, Oxford, and he later graduated from Yale Law School. He met Hillary Rodham at Yale; they married in 1975. After graduating from law school, Clinton returned to Arkansas and won election as state attorney general, followed by two non-consecutive terms as Arkansas governor. As governor, he overhauled the state's education system and served as chairman of the National Governors Association. Clinton was elected president in the 1992 presidential election, defeating incumbent Republican president George H. W. Bush and independent businessman Ross Perot. At 46 years old, he became the third-youngest president of the United States.
Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, but failed to pass his plan for national health care reform. In the 1994 elections, the Republican Party won unified control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. In spite of the electoral successes of Republicans, Clinton won reelection in 1996 with a landslide victory. Starting in the mid 1990s, Clinton began an ideological evolution as he became much more conservative in his domestic policy advocating for welfare reform and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, as well as financial and telecommunication deregulation measures. He also appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court. During the last three years of Clinton's presidency, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus—the first such surplus since 1969. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U.S. military intervention in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, signed the Dayton Peace agreement, signed the Iraq Liberation Act in opposition to Saddam Hussein, participated in the Oslo I Accord and Camp David Summit to advance the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, and assisted the Northern Ireland peace process.
Clinton's second term would be dominated by the Monica Lewinsky scandal which began in 1996, when he began a sexual affair with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In January 1998, news of the sexual relationship made tabloid headlines. The scandal escalated throughout the year, culminating on December 19 when Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives, becoming the second U.S. president to be impeached after Andrew Johnson. The two impeachment articles that the House passed were based on him using the powers of the presidency to obstruct the investigation and that he lied under oath. The following year saw the impeachment trial begin in the Senate, but Clinton was acquitted on both charges as the Senate failed to cast 67 votes against him, the conviction threshold.
Clinton left office with the highest end-of-term approval rating of any U.S. president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. His presidency has been ranked among the upper tier in historical rankings of U.S. presidents. However, his personal conduct and allegations of sexual assault against him have made him the subject of substantial scrutiny. Since leaving office, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. Clinton created the Clinton Foundation to address international causes such as the prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming. In 2009, he was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Clinton and George W. Bush formed the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. He has remained active in Democratic Party politics, campaigning for his wife's 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns.
Early life and career
Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas. He is the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr., a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy (later Virginia Kelley). His parents had married on September 4, 1943, but this union later proved to be bigamous, as Blythe was still married to his third wife. Virginia traveled to New Orleans to study nursing soon after Bill was born, leaving him in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the southern United States was racially segregated, Clinton's grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races. In 1950, Bill's mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr., who co-owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950.
Although he immediately assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Clinton turned 15 that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward him. Clinton has described his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half-brother, Roger Clinton Jr. He threatened his stepfather with violence multiple times to protect them.
In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School, where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician. Clinton was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone, winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section. He briefly considered dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life:
Clinton began an interest in law at Hot Springs High, when he took up the challenge to argue the defense of the ancient Roman senator Catiline in a mock trial in his Latin class. After a vigorous defense that made use of his "budding rhetorical and political skills", he told the Latin teacher Elizabeth Buck it "made him realize that someday he would study law".
Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life, both occurring in 1963, that contributed to his decision to become a public figure. One was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy. The other was watching Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech on TV, which impressed him so much that he later memorized it.
College and law school years
Georgetown University
With the aid of scholarships, Clinton attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree in 1968. Georgetown was the only school where Clinton applied.
In 1964 and 1965, Clinton won elections for class president. From 1964 to 1967, he was an intern and then a clerk in the office of Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. While in college, he became a brother of service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Clinton was also a member of the Order of DeMolay, a youth group affiliated with Freemasonry, but he never became a Freemason. He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band fraternity.
Oxford
Upon graduating from Georgetown in 1968, Clinton won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford, where he initially read for a B.Phil. in philosophy, politics, and economics but transferred to a B.Litt. in politics and, ultimately, a B.Phil. in politics. Clinton did not expect to return for the second year because of the draft and so he switched programs; this type of activity was common among other Rhodes Scholars from his cohort. He had received an offer to study at Yale Law School, Yale University, and so he left early to return to the United States and did not receive a degree from Oxford.
During his time at Oxford, Clinton befriended fellow American Rhodes Scholar Frank Aller. In 1969, Aller received a draft letter that mandated deployment to the Vietnam War. Aller's 1971 suicide had an influential impact on Clinton. British writer and feminist Sara Maitland said of Clinton, "I remember Bill and Frank Aller taking me to a pub in Walton Street in the summer term of 1969 and talking to me about the Vietnam War. I knew nothing about it, and when Frank began to describe the napalming of civilians I began to cry. Bill said that feeling bad wasn't good enough. That was the first time I encountered the idea that liberal sensitivities weren't enough and you had to do something about such things". Clinton was a member of the Oxford University Basketball Club and also played for Oxford University's rugby union team.
While Clinton was president in 1994, he received an honorary degree and a fellowship from the University of Oxford, specifically for being "a doughty and tireless champion of the cause of world peace", having "a powerful collaborator in his wife," and for winning "general applause for his achievement of resolving the gridlock that prevented an agreed budget".
Vietnam War opposition and draft controversy
During the Vietnam War, Clinton received educational draft deferments while he was in England in 1968 and 1969. While at Oxford, he participated in Vietnam War protests and organized a Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam event in October 1969. He was planning to attend law school in the U.S. and knew he might lose his deferment. Clinton tried unsuccessfully to obtain positions in the National Guard and the Air Force officer candidate school, and he then made arrangements to join the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program at the University of Arkansas.
He subsequently decided not to join the ROTC, saying in a letter to the officer in charge of the program that he opposed the war, but did not think it was honorable to use ROTC, National Guard, or Reserve service to avoid serving in Vietnam. He further stated that because he opposed the war, he would not volunteer to serve in uniform, but would subject himself to the draft, and would serve if selected only as a way "to maintain my political viability within the system". Clinton registered for the draft and received a high number (311), meaning that those whose birthdays had been drawn as numbers1 to 310 would be drafted before him, making it unlikely he would be called up. (In fact, the highest number drafted was 195.)
Colonel Eugene Holmes, the Army officer who had been involved with Clinton's ROTC application, suspected that Clinton attempted to manipulate the situation to avoid the draft and avoid serving in uniform. He issued a notarized statement during the 1992 presidential campaign:
During the 1992 campaign, it was revealed that Clinton's uncle had attempted to secure him a position in the Navy Reserve, which would have prevented him from being deployed to Vietnam. This effort was unsuccessful and Clinton said in 1992 that he had been unaware of it until then. Although legal, Clinton's actions with respect to the draft and deciding whether to serve in the military were criticized during his first presidential campaign by conservatives and some Vietnam veterans, some of whom charged that he had used Fulbright's influence to avoid military service. Clinton's 1992 campaign manager, James Carville, successfully argued that Clinton's letter in which he declined to join the ROTC should be made public, insisting that voters, many of whom had also opposed the Vietnam War, would understand and appreciate his position.
Law school
After Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1973. In 1971, he met his future wife, Hillary Rodham, in the Yale Law Library; she was a class year ahead of him. They began dating and were soon inseparable. After only about a month, Clinton postponed his summer plans to be a coordinator for the George McGovern campaign for the 1972 United States presidential election in order to move in with her in California. The couple continued living together in New Haven when they returned to law school.
Clinton eventually moved to Texas with Rodham in 1972 to take a job leading McGovern's effort there. He spent considerable time in Dallas, at the campaign's local headquarters on Lemmon Avenue, where he had an office. Clinton worked with future two-term mayor of Dallas Ron Kirk, future governor of Texas Ann Richards, and then unknown television director and filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
Governor of Arkansas (1979–1981, 1983–1992)
After graduating from Yale Law School, Clinton returned to Arkansas and became a law professor at the University of Arkansas. In 1974, he ran for the House of Representatives. Running in the conservative 3rd district against incumbent Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt, Clinton's campaign was bolstered by the anti-Republican and anti-incumbent mood resulting from the Watergate scandal. Hammerschmidt, who had received 77 percent of the vote in 1972, defeated Clinton by only a 52 percent to 48 percent margin. In 1976, Clinton ran for Arkansas attorney general. With only minor opposition in the primary and no opposition at all in the general election, Clinton was elected.
In 1978, Clinton entered the Arkansas gubernatorial primary. At just 31 years old, he was one of the youngest gubernatorial candidates in the state's history. Clinton was elected Governor of Arkansas in 1978, having defeated the Republican candidate Lynn Lowe, a farmer from Texarkana. Clinton was only 32 years old when he took office, the youngest governor in the country at the time and the second youngest governor in the history of Arkansas. Due to his youthful appearance, Clinton was often called the "Boy Governor". He worked on educational reform and directed the maintenance of Arkansas's roads, with wife Hillary leading a successful committee on urban health care reform. However, his term included an unpopular motor vehicle tax and citizens' anger over the escape of Cuban refugees (from the Mariel boatlift) detained in Fort Chaffee in 1980. Monroe Schwarzlose, of Kingsland in Cleveland County, polled 31 percent of the vote against Clinton in the Democratic gubernatorial primary of 1980. Some suggested Schwarzlose's unexpected voter turnout foreshadowed Clinton's defeat by Republican challenger Frank D. White in the general election that year. As Clinton once joked, he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history.
Clinton joined friend Bruce Lindsey's Little Rock law firm of Wright, Lindsey and Jennings. In 1982, he was elected governor a second time and kept the office for ten years. Effective with the 1986 election, Arkansas had changed its gubernatorial term of office from two to four years. During his term, he helped transform Arkansas's economy and improved the state's educational system. For senior citizens, he removed the sales tax from medications and increased the home property-tax exemption. He became a leading figure among the New Democrats, a group of Democrats who advocated welfare reform, smaller government, and other policies not supported by liberals. Formally organized as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the New Democrats argued that in light of President Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in 1984, the Democratic Party needed to adopt a more centrist political stance in order to succeed at the national level. Clinton delivered the Democratic response to Reagan's 1985 State of the Union Address and served as chair of the National Governors Association from 1986 to 1987, bringing him to an audience beyond Arkansas.
In the early 1980s, Clinton made reform of the Arkansas education system a top priority of his gubernatorial administration. The Arkansas Education Standards Committee was chaired by Clinton's wife Hillary, who was also an attorney as well as the chair of the Legal Services Corporation. The committee transformed Arkansas's education system. Proposed reforms included more spending for schools (supported by a sales-tax increase), better opportunities for gifted children, vocational education, higher teachers' salaries, more course variety, and compulsory teacher competency exams. The reforms passed in September 1983 after Clinton called a special legislative session—the longest in Arkansas history. Many have considered this the greatest achievement of the Clinton governorship. He defeated four Republican candidates for governor: Lowe (1978), White (1982 and 1986), Jonesboro businessmen Woody Freeman (1984), and Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock (1990).
Also in the 1980s, the Clintons' personal and business affairs included transactions that became the basis of the Whitewater controversy investigation, which later dogged his presidential administration. After extensive investigation over several years, no indictments were made against the Clintons related to the years in Arkansas.
According to some sources, Clinton was a death penalty opponent in his early years, but he eventually switched positions. However he might have felt previously, by 1992, Clinton was insisting that Democrats "should no longer feel guilty about protecting the innocent". During Clinton's final term as governor, Arkansas performed its first executions since 1964 (the death penalty had been reinstated in 1976). As Governor, he oversaw the first four executions carried out by the state of Arkansas since the death penalty was reinstated there in 1976: one by electric chair and three by lethal injection. To draw attention to his stance on capital punishment, Clinton flew home to Arkansas mid-campaign in 1992, in order to affirm in person that the controversial execution of Ricky Ray Rector, would go forward as scheduled.
1988 Democratic presidential primaries
In 1987, the media speculated that Clinton would enter the presidential race after incumbent New York governor Mario Cuomo declined to run and Democratic front-runner Gary Hart withdrew owing to revelations of multiple marital infidelities. Clinton decided to remain as Arkansas governor (following consideration for the potential candidacy of Hillary for governor, initially favored—but ultimately vetoed—by the First Lady). For the nomination, Clinton endorsed Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. He gave the nationally televised opening night address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, but his speech, which was 33 minutes long and twice the length it was expected to be, was criticized for being too long and poorly delivered. Clinton presented himself both as a moderate and as a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, and he headed the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991.
Presidential campaigns
1992
In the first primary contest, the Iowa Caucus, Clinton finished a distant third to Iowa senator Tom Harkin. During the campaign for the New Hampshire primary, reports surfaced that Clinton had engaged in an extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers. Clinton fell far behind former Massachusetts senator Paul Tsongas in the New Hampshire polls. Following Super Bowl XXVI, Clinton and his wife Hillary went on 60 Minutes to rebuff the charges. Their television appearance was a calculated risk, but Clinton regained several delegates. He finished second to Tsongas in the New Hampshire primary, but after trailing badly in the polls and coming within single digits of winning, the media viewed it as a victory. News outlets labeled him "The Comeback Kid" for earning a firm second-place finish.
Winning the big prizes of Florida and Texas and many of the Southern primaries on Super Tuesday gave Clinton a sizable delegate lead. However, former California governor Jerry Brown was scoring victories and Clinton had yet to win a significant contest outside his native South. With no major Southern state remaining, Clinton targeted New York, which had many delegates. He scored a resounding victory in New York City, shedding his image as a regional candidate. Having been transformed into the consensus candidate, he secured the Democratic Party nomination, finishing with a victory in Jerry Brown's home state of California.
During the campaign, questions of conflict of interest regarding state business and the politically powerful Rose Law Firm, at which Hillary Rodham Clinton was a partner, arose. Clinton argued the questions were moot because all transactions with the state had been deducted before determining Hillary's firm pay. Further concern arose when Bill Clinton announced that, with Hillary, voters would be getting two presidents "for the price of one".
Clinton was still the governor of Arkansas while campaigning for U.S. president, and he returned to his home state to see that Ricky Ray Rector would be executed. After killing a police officer and a civilian, Rector shot himself in the head, leading to what his lawyers said was a state where he could still talk but did not understand the idea of death. According to both Arkansas state law and Federal law, a seriously mentally impaired inmate cannot be executed. The courts disagreed with the allegation of grave mental impairment and allowed the execution. Clinton's return to Arkansas for the execution was framed in an article for The New York Times as a possible political move to counter "soft on crime" accusations.
Bush's approval ratings were around 80 percent during the Gulf War, and he was described as unbeatable. When Bush compromised with Democrats to try to lower Federal deficits, he reneged on his promise not to raise taxes, which hurt his approval rating. Clinton repeatedly condemned Bush for making a promise he failed to keep. By election time, the economy was souring and Bush saw his approval rating plummet to just slightly over 40 percent. Finally, conservatives were previously united by anti-communism, but with the end of the Cold War, the party lacked a uniting issue. When Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson addressed Christian themes at the Republican National Convention—with Bush criticizing Democrats for omitting God from their platform—many moderates were alienated. Clinton then pointed to his moderate, "New Democrat" record as governor of Arkansas, though some on the more liberal side of the party remained suspicious. Many Democrats who had supported Ronald Reagan and Bush in previous elections switched their support to Clinton. Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore, toured the country during the final weeks of the campaign, shoring up support and pledging a "new beginning".
On March 26, 1992, during a Democratic fund raiser of the presidential campaign, Robert Rafsky confronted then Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas and asked what he was going to do about AIDS, to which Clinton replied, "I feel your pain." The televised exchange led to AIDS becoming an issue in the 1992 presidential election. On April 4, then candidate Clinton met with members of ACT UP and other leading AIDS advocates to discuss his AIDS agenda and agreed to make a major AIDS policy speech, to have people with HIV speak to the Democratic Convention, and to sign onto the AIDS United Action five point plan.
Clinton won the 1992 presidential election (370 electoral votes) against Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush (168 electoral votes) and billionaire populist Ross Perot (zero electoral votes), who ran as an independent on a platform that focused on domestic issues. Bush's steep decline in public approval was a significant part of Clinton's success. Clinton's victory in the election ended twelve years of Republican rule of the White House and twenty of the previous twenty-four years. The election gave Democrats full control of the United States Congress, the first time one party controlled both the executive and legislative branches since Democrats held the 96th United States Congress during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.
According to Seymour Martin Lipset, the 1992 election had several unique characteristics. Voters felt that economic conditions were worse than they actually were, which harmed Bush. A rare event was the presence of a strong third-party candidate. Liberals launched a backlash against 12 years of a conservative White House. The chief factor was Clinton's uniting his party, and winning over a number of heterogeneous groups.
1996
In the 1996 presidential election, Clinton was re-elected, receiving 49.2 percent of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole (40.7 percent of the popular vote) and Reform candidate Ross Perot (8.4 percent of the popular vote). Clinton received 379 of the Electoral College votes, with Dole receiving 159 electoral votes. With his victory, he became the first Democrat to win two consecutive presidential elections since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Presidency (1993–2001)
Clinton's "third way" of moderate liberalism built up the nation's fiscal health and put the nation on a firm footing abroad amid globalization and the development of anti-American terrorist organizations.
During his presidency, Clinton advocated for a wide variety of legislation and programs, most of which were enacted into law or implemented by the executive branch. His policies, particularly the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance. His policy of fiscal conservatism helped to reduce deficits on budgetary matters. Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history.
The Congressional Budget Office reported budget surpluses of $69 billion in 1998, $126 billion in 1999, and $236 billion in 2000, during the last three years of Clinton's presidency. Over the years of the recorded surplus, the gross national debt rose each year. At the end of the fiscal year (September 30) for each of the years a surplus was recorded, The U.S. treasury reported a gross debt of $5.413 trillion in 1997, $5.526 trillion in 1998, $5.656 trillion in 1999, and $5.674 trillion in 2000. Over the same period, the Office of Management and Budget reported an end of year (December 31) gross debt of $5.369 trillion in 1997, $5.478 trillion in 1998, $5.606 in 1999, and $5.629 trillion in 2000. At the end of his presidency, the Clintons moved to 15 Old House Lane in Chappaqua, New York, in order to satisfy a residency requirement for his wife to win election as a U.S. Senator from New York.
First term (1993–1997)
Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd president of the United States on January 20, 1993. Clinton was physically exhausted at the time, and had an inexperienced staff. His high levels of public support dropped in the first few weeks, as he made a series of mistakes. His first choice for attorney general had not paid her taxes on babysitters and was forced to withdraw. The second appointee also withdrew for the same reason. Clinton had repeatedly promised to encourage gays in the military service, despite what he knew to be the strong opposition of the military leadership. He tried anyway, and was publicly opposed by the top generals, and forced by Congress to a compromise position of "Don't ask, don't tell" whereby gays could serve if and only if they kept it secret. He devised a $16 billion stimulus package primarily to aid inner-city programs desired by liberals, but it was defeated by a Republican filibuster in the Senate. His popularity at the 100 day mark of his term was the lowest of any president at that point.
Public opinion did support one liberal program, and Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition. This action had bipartisan support, and was popular with the public.
Two days after taking office, on January 22, 1993—the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade—Clinton reversed restrictions on domestic and international family planning programs that had been imposed by Reagan and Bush. Clinton said abortion should be kept "safe, legal, and rare"—a slogan that had been suggested by political scientist Samuel L. Popkin and first used by Clinton in December 1991, while campaigning. During the eight years of the Clinton administration, the abortion rate declined by 18 percent.
On February 15, 1993, Clinton made his first address to the nation, announcing his plan to raise taxes to close a budget deficit. Two days later, in a nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, Clinton unveiled his economic plan. The plan focused on reducing the deficit rather than on cutting taxes for the middle class, which had been high on his campaign agenda. Clinton's advisers pressured him to raise taxes, based on the theory that a smaller federal budget deficit would reduce bond interest rates.
President Clinton's attorney general Janet Reno authorized the FBI's use of armored vehicles to deploy tear gas into the buildings of the Branch Davidian community near Waco, Texas, in hopes of ending a 51 day siege. During the operation on April 19, 1993, the buildings caught fire and 75 of the residents died, including 24 children. The raid had originally been planned by the Bush administration; Clinton had played no role.
On May 19, 1993, Clinton fired seven employees of the White House Travel Office. This caused the White House travel office controversy even though the travel office staff served at the pleasure of the president and could be dismissed without cause. The White House responded to the controversy by claiming that the firings were done in response to financial improprieties that had been revealed by a brief FBI investigation. Critics contended that the firings had been done to allow friends of the Clintons to take over the travel business and the involvement of the FBI was unwarranted.
In August, Clinton signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which passed Congress without a Republican vote. It cut taxes for 15million low-income families, made tax cuts available to 90 percent of small businesses, and raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2 percent of taxpayers. Additionally, it mandated that the budget be balanced over many years through the implementation of spending restraints.
On September 22, 1993, Clinton made a major speech to Congress regarding a health care reform plan; the program aimed at achieving universal coverage through a national health care plan. This was one of the most prominent items on Clinton's legislative agenda and resulted from a task force headed by Hillary Clinton. The plan was well received in political circles, but it was eventually doomed by well-organized lobby opposition from conservatives, the American Medical Association, and the health insurance industry. However, Clinton biographer John F. Harris said the program failed because of a lack of coordination within the White House. Despite the Democratic majority in Congress, the effort to create a national health care system ultimately died when compromise legislation by George J. Mitchell failed to gain a majority of support in August 1994. The failure of the bill was the first major legislative defeat of the Clinton administration.
In November 1993, David Hale—the source of criminal allegations against Bill Clinton in the Whitewater controversy—alleged that while governor of Arkansas, Clinton pressured Hale to provide an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, the Clintons' partner in the Whitewater land deal. A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation resulted in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project, but the Clintons themselves were never charged, and Clinton maintains his and his wife's innocence in the affair.
On November 30, 1993, Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill, which mandated federal background checks on people who purchase firearms in the United States. The law also imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases, until the NICS system was implemented in 1998. He also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, a subsidy for low-income workers.
In December of the same year, allegations by Arkansas state troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry were first reported by David Brock in The American Spectator. In the affair later known as "Troopergate", the officers alleged that they had arranged sexual liaisons for Clinton back when he was governor of Arkansas. The story mentioned a woman named Paula, a reference to Paula Jones. Brock later apologized to Clinton, saying the article was politically motivated "bad journalism", and that "the troopers were greedy and had slimy motives".
That month, Clinton implemented a Department of Defense directive known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", which allowed gay men and women to serve in the armed services provided they kept their sexual preferences a secret. The Act forbade the military from inquiring about an individual's sexual orientation. The policy was developed as a compromise after Clinton's proposal to allow gays to serve openly in the military met staunch opposition from prominent Congressional Republicans and Democrats, including senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Sam Nunn (D-GA). According to David Mixner, Clinton's support for the compromise led to a heated dispute with Vice President Al Gore, who felt that "the President should lift the ban ... even though [his executive order] was sure to be overridden by the Congress". Some gay-rights advocates criticized Clinton for not going far enough and accused him of making his campaign promise to get votes and contributions. Their position was that Clinton should have integrated the military by executive order, noting that President Harry S. Truman used executive order to racially desegregate the armed forces. Clinton's defenders argued that an executive order might have prompted the Senate to write the exclusion of gays into law, potentially making it harder to integrate the military in the future. Later in his presidency, in 1999, Clinton criticized the way the policy was implemented, saying he did not think any serious person could say it was not "out of whack". The policy remained controversial, and was finally repealed in 2011, removing open sexual orientation as a reason for dismissal from the armed forces.
On January 1, 1994, Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law. Throughout his first year in office, Clinton consistently supported ratification of the treaty by the U.S. Senate. Clinton and most of his allies in the Democratic Leadership Committee strongly supported free trade measures; there remained, however, strong disagreement within the party. Opposition came chiefly from anti-trade Republicans, protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot. The bill passed the house with 234 votes against 200 opposed (132 Republicans and 102 Democrats voting in favor; 156 Democrats, 43 Republicans, and one independent against). The treaty was then ratified by the Senate and signed into law by the president.
The Omnibus Crime Bill, which Clinton signed into law in September 1994, made many changes to U.S. crime and law enforcement legislation including the expansion of the death penalty to include crimes not resulting in death, such as running a large-scale drug enterprise. During Clinton's re-election campaign he said, "My 1994 crime bill expanded the death penalty for drug kingpins, murderers of federal law enforcement officers, and nearly 60 additional categories of violent felons." It also included a subsection of assault weapons ban for a ten-year period.
On October 21, 1994, the Clinton administration launched the first official White House website, whitehouse.gov. The site was followed with three more versions, resulting in the final edition launched in 2000. The White House website was part of a wider movement of the Clinton administration toward web-based communication. According to Robert Longley, "Clinton and Gore were responsible for pressing almost all federal agencies, the U.S. court system and the U.S. military onto the Internet, thus opening up America's government to more of America's citizens than ever before. On July 17, 1996, Clinton issued Executive Order 13011—Federal Information Technology, ordering the heads of all federal agencies to utilize information technology fully to make the information of the agency easily accessible to the public."
After two years of Democratic Party control, the Democrats lost control of Congress to the Republicans in the mid-term elections in 1994, for the first time in forty years.
A speech delivered by President Bill Clinton at the December 6, 1995 White House Conference on HIV/AIDS projected that a cure for AIDS and a vaccine to prevent further infection would be developed. The President focused on his administration's accomplishments and efforts related to the epidemic, including an accelerated drug-approval process. He also condemned homophobia and discrimination against people with HIV. Clinton announced three new initiatives: creating a special working group to coordinate AIDS research throughout the Federal government; convening public health experts to develop an action plan that integrates HIV prevention with substance abuse prevention; and launching a new effort by the Department of Justice to ensure that health care facilities provide equal access to people with HIV and AIDS.
The White House FBI files controversy of June 1996 arose concerning improper access by the White House to FBI security-clearance documents. Craig Livingstone, head of the White House Office of Personnel Security, improperly requested, and received from the FBI, background report files without asking permission of the subject individuals; many of these were employees of former Republican administrations. In March 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray determined there was no credible evidence of any crime. Ray's report further stated, "there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official was involved" in seeking the files.
On September 21, 1996, Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage for federal purposes as the legal union of one man and one woman; the legislation allowed individual states to refuse to recognize gay marriages that were performed in other states. Paul Yandura, speaking for the White House gay and lesbian liaison office, said Clinton's signing DOMA "was a political decision that they made at the time of a re-election". In defense of his actions, Clinton has said that DOMA was intended to "head off an attempt to send a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to the states", a possibility he described as highly likely in the context of a "very reactionary Congress". Administration spokesman Richard Socarides said, "the alternatives we knew were going to be far worse, and it was time to move on and get the president re-elected." Clinton himself said DOMA was something "which the Republicans put on the ballot to try to get the base vote for Bush up, I think it's obvious that something had to be done to try to keep the Republican Congress from presenting that". Others were more critical. The veteran gay rights and gay marriage activist Evan Wolfson has called these claims "historic revisionism". In a July 2, 2011, editorial The New York Times opined, "The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted in 1996 as an election-year wedge issue, signed by President Bill Clinton in one of his worst policy moments." Ultimately, in United States v. Windsor, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down DOMA in June 2013.
Despite DOMA, Clinton was the first president to select openly gay persons for administrative positions, and he is generally credited as being the first president to publicly champion gay rights. During his presidency, Clinton issued two substantially controversial executive orders on behalf of gay rights, the first lifting the ban on security clearances for LGBT federal employees and the second outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal civilian workforce. Under Clinton's leadership, federal funding for HIV/AIDS research, prevention and treatment more than doubled. Clinton also pushed for passing hate crimes laws for gays and for the private sector Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which, buoyed by his lobbying, failed to pass the Senate by a single vote in 1996. Advocacy for these issues, paired with the politically unpopular nature of the gay rights movement at the time, led to enthusiastic support for Clinton's election and reelection by the Human Rights Campaign. Clinton came out for gay marriage in July 2009 and urged the Supreme Court to overturn DOMA in 2013. He was later honored by GLAAD for his prior pro-gay stances and his reversal on DOMA.
The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy was an alleged effort by China to influence the domestic policies of the United States, before and during the Clinton administration, and involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself. Despite the evidence, the Chinese government denied all accusations.
As part of a 1996 initiative to curb illegal immigration, Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) on September 30, 1996. Appointed by Clinton, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended reducing legal immigration from about 800,000 people a year to about 550,000.
Ken Gormley, author of The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr, reveals in his book that Clinton narrowly escaped possible assassination in the Philippines in November 1996. During his visit to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Manila, while he was on his way to meet with a senior member of the Philippine government, Clinton was saved from danger minutes before his motorcade was scheduled to drive over a bridge charged with a timed improvised explosive device (IED). According to officials, the IED was large enough to "blow up the entire presidential motorcade". Details of the plot were revealed to Gormley by Lewis C. Merletti, former member of the presidential protection detail and Director of the Secret Service. Intelligence officers intercepted a radio transmission indicating there was a wedding cake under a bridge. This alerted Merletti and others as Clinton's motorcade was scheduled to drive over a major bridge in downtown Manila. Once more, the word "wedding" was the code name used by a terrorist group for a past assassination attempt. Merletti wanted to reroute the motorcade, but the alternate route would add forty-five minutes to the drive time. Clinton was very angry, as he was already late for the meeting, but following the advice of the secret service possibly saved his life. Two other bombs had been discovered in Manila earlier in the week so the threat level that day was high. Security personnel at the Manila International Airport uncovered several grenades and a timing device in a travel bag. Officials also discovered a bomb near a major U.S. naval base. The president was scheduled to visit both these locations later in the week. An intense investigation took place into the events in Manila and it was discovered that the group behind the bridge bomb was a Saudi terrorist group in Afghanistan known as al-Qaeda and the plot was masterminded by Osama bin Laden. Until recently, this thwarted assassination attempt was never made public and remained top secret. Only top members of the U.S. intelligence community were aware of these events.
Second term (1997–2001)
In the January 1997, State of the Union address, Clinton proposed a new initiative to provide health coverage to up to five million children. Senators Ted Kennedy—a Democrat—and Orrin Hatch—a Republican—teamed up with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her staff in 1997, and succeeded in passing legislation forming the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the largest (successful) health care reform in the years of the Clinton Presidency. That year, Hillary Clinton shepherded through Congress the Adoption and Safe Families Act and two years later she succeeded in helping pass the Foster Care Independence Act. Bill Clinton negotiated the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 by the Republican Congress. In October 1997, he announced he was getting hearing aids, due to hearing loss attributed to his age, and his time spent as a musician in his youth. In 1999, he signed into law the Financial Services Modernization Act also known as the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, which repealed the part of the Glass–Steagall Act that had prohibited a bank from offering a full range of investment, commercial banking, and insurance services since its enactment in 1933.
Impeachment and acquittal
After a House inquiry, Clinton was impeached on December 19, 1998, by the House of Representatives. The House voted 228–206 to impeach him for perjury to a grand jury and voted 221–212 to impeach him for obstruction of justice. Clinton was only the second U.S. president (after Andrew Johnson) to be impeached. Impeachment proceedings were based on allegations that Clinton had illegally lied about and covered up his relationship with 22-year-old White House (and later Department of Defense) employee Monica Lewinsky. After the Starr Report was submitted to the House providing what it termed "substantial and credible information that President Clinton Committed Acts that May Constitute Grounds for an Impeachment", the House began impeachment hearings against Clinton before the mid-term elections. To hold impeachment proceedings, the Republican leadership called a lame-duck session in December 1998.
While the House Judiciary Committee hearings ended in a straight party-line vote, there was lively debate on the House floor. The two charges passed in the House (largely with Republican support, but with a handful of Democratic votes as well) were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony before a grand jury that had been convened to investigate perjury he may have committed in his sworn deposition during Jones v. Clinton, Paula Jones's sexual harassment lawsuit. The obstruction charge was based on his actions to conceal his relationship with Lewinsky before and after that deposition.
The Senate later acquitted Clinton of both charges. The Senate refused to meet to hold an impeachment trial before the end of the old term, so the trial was held over until the next Congress. Clinton was represented by Washington law firm Williams & Connolly. The Senate finished a twenty-one-day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote of 55 not guilty/45 guilty on the perjury charge and 50 not guilty/50 guilty on the obstruction of justice charge. Both votes fell short of the constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an officeholder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty, and only a handful of Republicans voting not guilty.
On January 19, 2001, Clinton's law license was suspended for five years after he acknowledged to an Arkansas circuit court that he had engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice in the Jones case.
Pardons and commutations
Clinton issued 141 pardons and 36 commutations on his last day in office on January 20, 2001. Controversy surrounded Marc Rich and allegations that Hillary Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, accepted payments in return for influencing the president's decision-making regarding the pardons. Federal prosecutor Mary Jo White was appointed to investigate the pardon of Rich. She was later replaced by then-Republican James Comey. The investigation found no wrongdoing on Clinton's part. Clinton also pardoned 4 defendants in the Whitewater Scandal, Chris Wade, Susan McDougal, Stephen Smith, and Robert W. Palmer, all of whom had ties to Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. Former Clinton HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, was also among Clinton's pardons.
Campaign finance controversies
In February 1997 it was discovered upon documents being released by the Clinton Administration that 938 people had stayed at the White House and that 821 of them had made donations to the Democratic Party and got the opportunity to stay in the Lincoln bedroom as a result of the donations. Some donors included Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Jane Fonda, and Judy Collins. Top donors also got golf games and morning jogs with Clinton as a result of the contributions. Janet Reno was called on to investigate the matter by Trent Lott, but she refused.
In 1996, it was found that several Chinese foreigners made contributions to Clinton's reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee with the backing of the People's Republic of China. Some of them also attempted to donate to Clinton's defense fund. This violated United States law forbidding non-American citizens from making campaign contributions. Clinton and Al Gore also allegedly met with the foreign donors. A Republican investigation led by Fred Thompson found that Clinton was targeted by the Chinese government. However, Democratic senators Joe Lieberman and John Glenn said that the evidence showed that China only targeted congressional elections and not presidential elections.
Military and foreign affairs
Somalia
The Battle of Mogadishu occurred in Somalia in 1993. During the operation, two U.S. helicopters were shot down by rocket-propelled grenade attacks to their tail rotors, trapping soldiers behind enemy lines. This resulted in an urban battle that killed 18 American soldiers, wounded 73 others, and one was taken prisoner. There were many more Somali casualties. Some of the American bodies were dragged through the streets—a spectacle broadcast on television news programs. In response, U.S. forces were withdrawn from Somalia and later conflicts were approached with fewer soldiers on the ground.
Rwanda
In April 1994, genocide broke out in Rwanda. Intelligence reports indicate that Clinton was aware a "final solution to eliminate all Tutsis" was underway, long before the administration publicly used the word "genocide". Fearing a reprisal of the events in Somalia the previous year, Clinton chose not to intervene. Clinton has called his failure to intervene one of his main foreign policy failings, saying "I don't think we could have ended the violence, but I think we could have cut it down. And I regret it."
Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 1995, U.S. and NATO aircraft bombed Bosnian Serb targets to halt attacks on U.N. safe zones and pressure them into a peace accord that would end the Bosnian war. Clinton deployed U.S. peacekeepers to Bosnia in late 1995, to uphold the subsequent Dayton Agreement.
Irish peace talks
In 1992, before his presidency, Clinton proposed sending a peace envoy to Northern Ireland, but this was dropped to avoid tensions with the British government. In November 1995, in a ceasefire during the Troubles, Clinton became the first president to visit Northern Ireland, examining both of the two divided communities of Belfast. Despite unionist criticism, Clinton used this as a way to negotiate an end to the violent conflict with London, Dublin, the paramilitaries and the other groups. Clinton went on to play a key role in the peace talks, which produced the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Iran
In February 1996, the Clinton administration agreed to pay Iran US$131.8million (equivalent to $ million in ) in settlement to discontinue a case brought by Iran in 1989 against the U.S. in the International Court of Justice after the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 by the U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser.
Osama bin Laden
Capturing Osama bin Laden had been an objective of the U.S. government during the presidency of Bill Clinton (and continued to be until bin Laden's death in 2011). Despite claims by Mansoor Ijaz and Sudanese officials that the Sudanese government had offered to arrest and extradite bin Laden, and that U.S. authorities rejected each offer, the 9/11 Commission Report stated that "we have not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim".
In response to a 1996 State Department warning about bin Laden and the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa by al-Qaeda (which killed 224 people, including 12 Americans), Clinton ordered several military missions to capture or kill bin Laden, all of which were unsuccessful. In August 1998, Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan, targeting the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan, which was suspected of assisting bin Laden in making chemical weapons, and bin Laden's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
Kosovo
In the midst of a brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in the province of Kosovo by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Clinton authorized the use of U.S. Armed Forces in a NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, named Operation Allied Force. The stated reasoning behind the intervention was to stop the ethnic cleansing (and what the Clinton administration labeled genocide) of Albanians by Yugoslav anti-guerilla military units. General Wesley Clark was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and oversaw the mission. With United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, the bombing campaign ended on June 10, 1999. The resolution placed Kosovo under UN administration and authorized a peacekeeping force to be deployed to the region. NATO announced its soldiers all survived combat, though two died in an Apache helicopter crash. Journalists in the popular press criticized genocide statements by the Clinton administration as false and greatly exaggerated. Prior to the bombing campaign on March 24, 1999, common estimates showed that the number of civilians killed in the over year long conflict in Kosovo had approximately been 1,800, of which were primarily Albanians but also Serbs and that there was no evidence of genocide or ethnic cleansing. In a post-war inquiry, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe noted "the patterns of the expulsions and the vast increase in lootings, killings, rape, kidnappings and pillage once the NATO air war began on March 24". In 2001, the U.N.-supervised Supreme Court of Kosovo ruled that genocide (the intent to destroy a people) did not take place, but recognized "a systematic campaign of terror, including murders, rapes, arsons and severe maltreatments" with the intention being the forceful departure of the Albanian population. The term "ethnic cleansing" was used as an alternative to "genocide" to denote not just ethnically motivated murder but also displacement, though critics charge there is little difference. Slobodan Milošević, the president of Yugoslavia at the time of the atrocities, was eventually brought to trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague on charges including crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the war. He died in 2006, before the completion of the trial.
Iraq
In Clinton's 1998 State of the Union Address, he warned Congress that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was building an arsenal of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 on October 31, 1998, which instituted a policy of "regime change" against Iraq, though it explicitly stated it did not provide for direct intervention on the part of American military forces. The administration then launched a four-day bombing campaign named Operation Desert Fox, lasting from December 16 to 19, 1998. At the end of this operation Clinton announced that "So long as Saddam remains in power, he will remain a threat to his people, his region, and the world. With our allies, we must pursue a strategy to contain him and to constrain his weapons of mass destruction program, while working toward the day Iraq has a government willing to live at peace with its people and with its neighbors." American and British aircraft in the Iraq no-fly zones attacked hostile Iraqi air defenses 166 times in 1999 and 78 times in 2000.
China
On October 10, 2000, Clinton signed into law the U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000, which granted permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) trade status to China. The president asserted that free trade would gradually open China to democratic reform.
Relations were damaged briefly by the American bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in May 1999. Clinton apologized for the bombing, stating it was accidental.
The U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000 granted China permanent normal trade relations (NTR) status (previously called most favoured nation (MFN)) when China becomes a full member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), ending annual review and approval of NTR. The Act was signed into law on October 10, 2000, by Clinton. President Clinton in 2000 pushed Congress to approve the U.S.-China trade agreement and China's accession to the WTO, saying that more trade with China would advance America's economic interests: "Economically, this agreement is the equivalent of a one-way street. It requires China to open its markets—with a fifth of the world's population, potentially the biggest markets in the world—to both our products and services in unprecedented new ways," said Clinton.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
After initial successes such as the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s, which also led to the Israel–Jordan peace treaty in 1994 and the Wye River Memorandum in October 1998, Clinton attempted an effort to end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He brought Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David for the Camp David Summit in July 2000, which lasted 14 days. Following the failures of the peace talks, Clinton said Arafat had "missed the opportunity" to facilitate a "just and lasting peace". In his autobiography, Clinton blames Arafat for the collapse of the summit. Following another attempt in December 2000 at Bolling Air Force Base, in which the president offered the Clinton Parameters, the situation broke down completely after the end of the Taba Summit and with the start of the Second Intifada.
Judicial appointments
Clinton appointed two justices to the Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993 and Stephen Breyer in 1994. Both justices went on to serve until the 2020s, leaving a lasting judicial legacy for President Clinton.
Clinton was the first president in history to appoint more women and minority judges than white male judges to the federal courts. In his eight years in office, 11.6% of Clinton's court of appeals nominees and 17.4% of his district court nominees were black; 32.8% of his court of appeals nominees and 28.5% of his district court nominees were women.
Public opinion
Throughout Clinton's first term, his job approval rating fluctuated in the 40s and 50s. In his second term, his rating consistently ranged from the high-50s to the high-60s. After his impeachment proceedings in 1998 and 1999, Clinton's rating reached its highest point. According to a CBS News/New York Times poll, Clinton left office with an approval rating of 68 percent, which matched those of Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era. Clinton's average Gallup poll approval rating for his last quarter in office was 61%, the highest final quarter rating any president has received for fifty years. Forty-seven percent of the respondents identified themselves as being Clinton supporters.
As he was leaving office, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll revealed that 45 percent of Americans said they would miss him; 55 percent thought he "would have something worthwhile to contribute and should remain active in public life"; 68 percent thought he would be remembered more for his "involvement in personal scandal" than for "his accomplishments"; and 58 percent answered "No" to the question "Do you generally think Bill Clinton is honest and trustworthy?" The same percentage said he would be remembered as either "outstanding" or "above average" as a president, while 22 percent said he would be remembered as "below average" or "poor". ABC News characterized public consensus on Clinton as, "You can't trust him, he's got weak morals and ethics—and he's done a heck of a good job."
In May 2006, a CNN poll comparing Clinton's job performance with that of his successor, George W. Bush, found that a strong majority of respondents said Clinton outperformed Bush in six different areas questioned. Gallup polls in 2007 and 2011 showed that Clinton was regarded by 13 percent of Americans as the greatest president in U.S. history.
In 2014, 18 percent of respondents in a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll of American voters regarded Clinton as the best president since World War II, making him the third most popular among postwar presidents, behind John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. The same poll showed that just 3% of American voters regarded Clinton as the worst president since World War II.
A 2015 poll by The Washington Post asked 162 scholars of the American Political Science Association to rank all the U.S. presidents in order of greatness. According to their findings, Clinton ranked eighth overall, with a rating of 70 percent.
Public image
Clinton was the first baby boomer president. Authors Martin Walker and Bob Woodward stated that Clinton's innovative use of sound bite-ready dialogue, personal charisma, and public perception-oriented campaigning were a major factor in his high public approval ratings. When Clinton played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, he was described by some religious conservatives as "the MTV president". Opponents sometimes referred to him as "Slick Willie", a nickname which was first applied to him in 1980 by Pine Bluff Commercial journalist Paul Greenberg; Greenberg believed that Clinton was abandoning the progressive policies of previous Arkansas Governors such as Winthrop Rockefeller, Dale Bumpers and David Pryor. The claim "Slick Willie" would last throughout his presidency. His folksy manner led him to be nicknamed Bubba, especially in the South. Since 2000, he has frequently been referred to as "The Big Dog" or "Big Dog". His prominent role in campaigning for President Obama during the 2012 presidential election and his widely publicized speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, where he officially nominated Obama and criticized Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Republican policies in detail, earned him the nickname "Explainer-in-Chief".
Clinton drew strong support from the African American community and insisted that the improvement of race relations would be a major theme of his presidency. In 1998, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison called Clinton "the first Black president", saying, "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas". Morrison noted that Clinton's sex life was scrutinized more than his career accomplishments, and she compared this to the stereotyping and double standards that, she said, blacks typically endure. Many viewed this comparison as unfair and disparaging both to Clinton and to the African-American community at large. Clinton, a Baptist, has been open about his faith.
Sexual assault and misconduct allegations
Several women have publicly accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct, including rape, harassment, and sexual assault. Additionally, some commentators have characterized Clinton's sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky as predatory or non-consensual, despite the fact that Lewinsky called the relationship consensual at the time. These allegations have been revisited and lent more credence in 2018, in light of the #MeToo movement, with many commentators and Democratic leaders now saying Clinton should have been compelled to resign after the Lewinsky affair.
In 1994, Paula Jones initiated a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton, claiming he had made unwanted advances towards her in 1991; Clinton denied the allegations. In April 1998, the case was initially dismissed by Judge Susan Webber Wright on the grounds that it lacked legal merit. Jones appealed Webber Wright's ruling, and her suit gained traction following Clinton's admission to having an affair with Monica Lewinsky in August 1998. In 1998, lawyers for Paula Jones released court documents that alleged a pattern of sexual harassment by Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas. Robert S. Bennett, Clinton's main lawyer for the case, called the filing "a pack of lies" and "an organized campaign to smear the President of the United States" funded by Clinton's political enemies. Clinton later agreed to an out-of-court settlement and paid Jones $850,000. Bennett said the president made the settlement only so he could end the lawsuit for good and move on with his life. During the deposition for the Jones lawsuit, which was held at the White House, Clinton denied having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky—a denial that became the basis for an impeachment charge of perjury.
In 1998, Kathleen Willey alleged that Clinton had groped her in a hallway in 1993. An independent counsel determined Willey gave "false information" to the FBI, inconsistent with sworn testimony related to the Jones allegation. On March 19, 1998, Julie Hiatt Steele, a friend of Willey, released an affidavit, accusing the former White House aide of asking her to lie to corroborate Ms. Willey's account of being sexually groped by Clinton in the Oval Office. An attempt by Kenneth Starr to prosecute Steele for making false statements and obstructing justice ended in a mistrial and Starr declined to seek a retrial after Steele sought an investigation against the former Independent Counsel for prosecutorial misconduct. Linda Tripp's grand jury testimony also differed from Willey's claims regarding inappropriate sexual advances.
Also in 1998, Juanita Broaddrick alleged that Clinton had raped her in the spring of 1978, although she said she did not remember the exact date. To support her charge, Broaddrick notes that she told multiple witnesses in 1978 she had been raped by Clinton, something these witnesses also state in interviews to the press. Broaddrick had earlier filed an affidavit denying any "unwelcome sexual advances" and later repeated the denial in a sworn deposition. In a 1998 NBC interview wherein she detailed the alleged rape, Broaddrick said she had denied (under oath) being raped only to avoid testifying about the ordeal publicly.
The Lewinsky scandal has had an enduring impact on Clinton's legacy, beyond his impeachment in 1998. In the wake of the #MeToo movement (which shed light on the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace), various commentators and Democratic political leaders, as well as Lewinsky herself, have revisited their view that the Lewinsky affair was consensual, and instead characterized it as an abuse of power or harassment, in light of the power differential between a president and a 22-year old intern. In 2018, Clinton was asked in several interviews about whether he should have resigned, and he said he had made the right decision in not resigning. During the 2018 Congressional elections, The New York Times alleged that having no Democratic candidate for office asking Clinton to campaign with them was a change that attributed to the revised understanding of the Lewinsky scandal. However, former DNC interim chair Donna Brazile previously urged Clinton in November 2017 to campaign during the 2018 midterm elections, in spite of New York U.S. senator Kirsten Gillibrand's recent criticism of the Lewinsky scandal.
Alleged affairs
Clinton admitted to having extramarital affairs with singer Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky. Actress Elizabeth Gracen, Miss Arkansa winner Sally Perdue, and Dolly Kyle Browning all claimed that they had affairs with Clinton during his time as governor of Arkansas. Browning would later sue Clinton, Bruce Lindsey, Robert S. Bennett, and Jane Mayer alleging they engaged in a conspiracy to attempt to block her from publishing a book loosely based on her relationship with Clinton and tried to defame him. However Browning's lawsuit was dismissed.
Post-presidency (2001–present)
Bill Clinton has continued to be active in public life since leaving office in 2001, giving speeches, fundraising, and founding charitable organizations, and has spoken in prime time at every Democratic National Convention.
Activities until 2008 campaign
In 2002, Clinton warned that pre-emptive military action against Iraq would have unwelcome consequences, and later claimed to have opposed the Iraq War from the start (though some dispute this). In 2005, Clinton criticized the Bush administration for its handling of emissions control, while speaking at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Montreal.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, was dedicated in 2004. Clinton released a best-selling autobiography, My Life, in 2004. In 2007, he released Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, which also became a New York Times Best Seller and garnered positive reviews.
In the aftermath of the 2004 Asian tsunami, U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan appointed Clinton to head a relief effort. After Hurricane Katrina, Clinton joined with fellow former president George H. W. Bush to establish the Bush-Clinton Tsunami Fund in January 2005, and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund in October of that year. As part of the tsunami effort, these two ex-presidents appeared in a Super Bowl XXXIX pre-game show, and traveled to the affected areas. They also spoke together at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin in April 2007.
Based on his philanthropic worldview, Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address issues of global importance. This foundation includes the Clinton Foundation HIV and AIDS Initiative (CHAI), which strives to combat that disease, and has worked with the Australian government toward that end. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), begun by the Clinton Foundation in 2005, attempts to address world problems such as global public health, poverty alleviation and religious and ethnic conflict. In 2005, Clinton announced through his foundation an agreement with manufacturers to stop selling sugary drinks in schools. Clinton's foundation joined with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group in 2006 to improve cooperation among those cities, and he met with foreign leaders to promote this initiative. The foundation has received donations from many governments all over the world, including Asia and the Middle East. In 2008, Foundation director Inder Singh announced deals to reduce the price of anti-malaria drugs by 30 percent in developing nations. Clinton also spoke in favor of California Proposition 87 on alternative energy, which was voted down.
In the early 2000s, Clinton took flights on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet in connection with Clinton Foundation work. Years later, Epstein was convicted on sex trafficking charges. Clinton's office released a statement in 2019 saying, "President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York. In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took four trips on Jeffrey Epstein's airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation. Staff, supporters of the Foundation, and his Secret Service detail traveled on every leg of every trip. [...] He's not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade."
2008 presidential election
During the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, Clinton vigorously advocated on behalf of his wife, Hillary. Through speaking engagements and fundraisers, he was able to raise $10 million toward her campaign. Some worried that as an ex-president, he was too active on the trail, too negative to Clinton rival Barack Obama, and alienating his supporters at home and abroad. Many were especially critical of him following his remarks in the South Carolina primary, which Obama won. Later in the 2008 primaries, there was some infighting between Bill and Hillary's staffs, especially in Pennsylvania. Considering Bill's remarks, many thought he could not rally Hillary supporters behind Obama after Obama won the primary. Such remarks lead to apprehension that the party would be split to the detriment of Obama's election. Fears were allayed August 27, 2008, when Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, saying all his experience as president assures him that Obama is "ready to lead". After Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was over, Bill Clinton continued to raise funds to help pay off her campaign debt.
After the 2008 election
In 2009, Clinton travelled to North Korea on behalf of two American journalists imprisoned there. Euna Lee and Laura Ling had been imprisoned for illegally entering the country from China. Jimmy Carter had made a similar visit in 1994. After Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim issued a pardon.
Since then, Clinton has been assigned many other diplomatic missions. He was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti in 2009 following a series of hurricanes which caused $1 billion in damages. Clinton organized a conference with the Inter-American Development Bank, where a new industrial park was discussed in an effort to "build back better". In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, U.S. president Barack Obama announced that Clinton and George W. Bush would coordinate efforts to raise funds for Haiti's recovery. Funds began pouring into Haiti, which led to funding becoming available for Caracol Industrial Park in a part of the country unaffected by the earthquake. While Hillary Clinton was in South Korea, she and Cheryl Mills worked to convince SAE-A, a large apparel subcontractor, to invest in Haiti despite the company's deep concerns about plans to raise the minimum wage. In the summer of 2010, the South Korean company signed a contract at the U.S. State Department, ensuring that the new industrial park would have a key tenant. In 2010, Clinton announced support of, and delivered the keynote address for, the inauguration of NTR, Ireland's first environmental foundation. At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Clinton gave a widely praised speech nominating Barack Obama.
2016 presidential election and after
During the 2016 presidential election, Clinton again encouraged voters to support Hillary, and made appearances speaking on the campaign trail. In a series of tweets, then-President-elect Donald Trump criticized his ability to get people out to vote. Clinton served as a member of the electoral college for the state of New York. He voted for the Democratic ticket consisting of his wife Hillary and her running-mate Tim Kaine.
On September 7, 2017, Clinton partnered with former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama to work with One America Appeal to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma in the Gulf Coast and Texas communities.
In 2020, Clinton again served as a member of the United States Electoral College from New York, casting his vote for the successful Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Post-presidential health concerns
In September 2004, Clinton underwent quadruple bypass surgery. In March 2005, he again underwent surgery, this time for a partially collapsed lung. On February 11, 2010, he was rushed to New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital in Manhattan after complaining of chest pains, and he had two coronary stents implanted in his heart. After this procedure, Clinton adopted a plant-based whole foods (vegan) diet, which had been recommended by doctors Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn. However, he has since incorporated fish and lean proteins at the suggestion of Dr. Mark Hyman, a proponent of the pseudoscientific ethos of functional medicine. As a result, he is no longer a strict vegan.
In October 2021, Clinton was treated for sepsis at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center.
Wealth
The Clintons incurred several million dollars in legal bills during his presidency, which were paid off four years after he left office. Bill and Hillary Clinton have each earned millions of dollars from book publishing. In 2016, Forbes reported Bill and Hillary Clinton made about $240million in the 15years from January 2001, to December 2015, (mostly from paid speeches, business consulting and book-writing). Also in 2016, CNN reported the Clintons combined to receive more than $153million in paid speeches from 2001 until spring 2015. In May 2015, The Hill reported that Bill and Hillary Clinton have made more than $25million in speaking fees since the start of 2014, and that Hillary Clinton also made $5million or more from her book, Hard Choices, during the same time period. In July 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported that at the end of 2012, the Clintons were worth between $5million and $25.5million, and that in 2012 (the last year they were required to disclose the information) the Clintons made between $16 and $17million, mostly from speaking fees earned by the former president. Clinton earned more than $104million from paid speeches between 2001 and 2012. In June 2014, ABC News and The Washington Post reported that Bill Clinton has made more than $100million giving paid speeches since leaving public office, and in 2008, The New York Times reported that the Clintons' income tax returns show they made $109million in the eight years from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2007, including almost $92million from his speaking and book-writing.
Bill Clinton has given dozens of paid speeches each year since leaving office in 2001, mostly to corporations and philanthropic groups in North America and Europe; he often earned $100,000 to $300,000 per speech. Russian investment bank with ties to the Kremlin paid Clinton $500,000 for a speech in Moscow. Hillary Clinton said she and Bill came out of the White House financially "broke" and in debt, especially due to large legal fees incurred during their years in the White House. "We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea's education." She added, "Bill has worked really hard ... we had to pay off all our debts ... he had to make double the money because of, obviously, taxes; and then pay off the debts, and get us houses, and take care of family members."
Personal life
At the age of 10, he was baptized at Park Place Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas and remained a member of a Baptist church. In 2007, with Jimmy Carter, he founded the New Baptist Covenant Baptist organization.
On October 11, 1975, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, he married Hillary Rodham, whom he met while studying at Yale University. They had Chelsea Clinton, their only child, on February 27, 1980. He is the maternal grandfather to Chelsea's three children.
Honors and recognition
Various colleges and universities have awarded Clinton honorary degrees, including Doctorate of Law degrees and Doctor of Humane Letters degrees. He received an honorary degree from Georgetown University, his alma mater, and was the commencement speaker in 1980. He is an honorary fellow of University College, Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar, although he did not complete his studies there. Schools have been named for Clinton, and statues have been built to pay him homage. U.S. states where he has been honored include Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and New York. He was presented with the Medal for Distinguished Public Service by Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 2001. The Clinton Presidential Center was opened in Little Rock, Arkansas, in his honor on December 5, 2001.
He has been honored in various other ways, in countries that include the Czech Republic, Papua New Guinea, Germany, and Kosovo. The Republic of Kosovo, in gratitude for his help during the Kosovo War, renamed a major street in the capital city of Pristina as Bill Clinton Boulevard and added a monumental Clinton statue.
Clinton was selected as Time "Man of the Year" in 1992, and again in 1998, along with Ken Starr. From a poll conducted of the American people in December 1999, Clinton was among eighteen included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th century. In 2001, Clinton received the NAACP's President's Award. He has also been honored with a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, a J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding, a TED Prize (named for the confluence of technology, entertainment and design), and was named as an Honorary GLAAD Media Award recipient for his work as an advocate for the LGBT community.
In 2011, President Michel Martelly of Haiti awarded Clinton with the National Order of Honour and Merit to the rank of Grand Cross "for his various initiatives in Haiti and especially his high contribution to the reconstruction of the country after the earthquake of January 12, 2010". Clinton declared at the ceremony that "in the United States of America, I really don't believe former American presidents need awards anymore, but I am very honored by this one, I love Haiti, and I believe in its promise".
U.S. president Barack Obama awarded Clinton the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 20, 2013.
Electoral history
Authored books
Recordings
Bill Clinton is one of the narrators on Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf, a 2003 recording of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf performed by the Russian National Orchestra, on Pentatone, together with Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren. This garnered Clinton the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.
The audiobook edition of his autobiography, My Life, read by Clinton himself, won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album as well as the Audie Award as the Audiobook of the Year.
Clinton has two more Grammy nominations for his audiobooks: Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World in 2007 and Back to Work in 2012.
See also
Clinton family
Clinton School of Public Service
Efforts to impeach Bill Clinton
Gun control policy of the Clinton Administration
List of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
References
Notes
Citations
Further reading
Primary sources
Clinton, Bill. (with Al Gore). Science in the National Interest. Washington, D.C.: The White House, August 1994.
--- (with Al Gore). The Climate Change Action Plan. Washington, D.C.: The White House, October 1993.
Taylor Branch The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President. (2009) Simon & Schuster.
Official Congressional Record Impeachment Set: ... Containing the Procedures for Implementing the Articles of Impeachment and the Proceedings of the Impeachment Trial of President William Jefferson Clinton. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 1999.
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, William J. Clinton. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 1994–2002.
S. Daniel Abraham Peace Is Possible, foreword by Bill Clinton
Popular books
Peter Baker The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton (2000)
James Bovard Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (2000)
Joe Conason and Gene Lyons The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton (2003)
Elizabeth Drew On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994)
David Gergen Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership. (2000)
Nigel Hamilton Bill Clinton: An American Journey (2003)
Christopher Hitchens No One Left to Lie to: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton (1999)
Michael Isikoff Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story (1999)
Mark Katz Clinton and Me: A Real-Life Political Comedy (2004)
David Maraniss The Clinton Enigma: A Four and a Half Minute Speech Reveals This President's Entire Life (1998)
Dick Morris with Eileen McGann Because He Could (2004)
Richard A. Posner An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton (1999)
Mark J. Rozell The Clinton Scandal and the Future of American Government (2000)
Timperlake, Edward, and William C. Triplett II Year of the Rat: How Bill Clinton Compromised U.S. Security for Chinese Cash. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 1998.
Michael Waldman POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words That Defined the Clinton Presidency (2000)
Ivory Tower Publishing Company. Achievements of the Clinton Administration: the Complete Legislative and Executive. (1995)
Scholarly studies
Campbell, Colin, and Bert A. Rockman, eds. The Clinton Legacy (Chatham House Pub, 2000)
Cohen; Jeffrey E. "The Polls: Change and Stability in Public Assessments of Personal Traits, Bill Clinton, 1993–99" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 31, 2001
Cronin, Thomas E. and Michael A. Genovese; "President Clinton and Character Questions" Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 28, 1998
Davis; John. "The Evolution of American Grand Strategy and the War on Terrorism: Clinton and Bush Perspectives" White House Studies, Vol. 3, 2003
Dumbrell, John. "Was there a Clinton doctrine? President Clinton's foreign policy reconsidered". Diplomacy and Statecraft 13.2 (2002): 43–56.
Edwards; George C. "Bill Clinton and His Crisis of Governance" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Fisher; Patrick. "Clinton's Greatest Legislative Achievement? the Success of the 1993 Budget Reconciliation Bill" White House Studies, Vol. 1, 2001
Glad; Betty. "Evaluating Presidential Character" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Halberstam, David. War in a time of peace: Bush, Clinton, and the generals (Simon and Schuster, 2001). online
Harris, John F. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House (2006). online
Head, Simon. The Clinton System (January 30, 2016), The New York Review of Books
Hyland, William G. Clinton's World: Remaking American Foreign Policy (1999)
Jewett, Aubrey W. and Marc D. Turetzky; "Stability and Change in President Clinton's Foreign Policy Beliefs, 1993–96" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Laham, Nicholas, A Lost Cause: Bill Clinton's Campaign for National Health Insurance (1996)
Lanoue, David J. and Craig F. Emmert; "Voting in the Glare of the Spotlight: Representatives' Votes on the Impeachment of President Clinton" Polity, Vol. 32, 1999
Levy, Peter B. Encyclopedia of the Clinton presidency (Greenwood, 2002) online
Maurer; Paul J. "Media Feeding Frenzies: Press Behavior during Two Clinton Scandals" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999
Nesmith, Bruce F., and Paul J. Quirk, "Triangulation: Position and Leadership in Clinton’s Domestic Policy." in 42: Inside the Presidency of Bill Clinton edited by Michael Nelson at al. (Cornell UP, 2016) pp. 46–76.
Nie; Martin A. "'It's the Environment, Stupid!': Clinton and the Environment" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997 in JSTOR
O'Connor; Brendon. "Policies, Principles, and Polls: Bill Clinton's Third Way Welfare Politics 1992–1996" The Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 48, 2002
Palmer, David. "'What Might Have Been'--Bill Clinton and American Political Power." Australasian Journal of American Studies (2005): 38–58. online
Renshon; Stanley A. The Clinton Presidency: Campaigning, Governing, and the Psychology of Leadership Westview Press, 1995
Renshon; Stanley A. "The Polls: The Public's Response to the Clinton Scandals, Part 1: Inconsistent Theories, Contradictory Evidence" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32, 2002
Romano, Flavio. Clinton and Blair: the political economy of the third way (Routledge, 2007)
Rushefsky, Mark E. and Kant Patel. Politics, Power & Policy Making: The Case of Health Care Reform in the 1990s (1998)
Schantz, Harvey L. Politics in an Era of Divided Government: Elections and Governance in the Second Clinton Administration (2001)
Troy, Gill. The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s (2015)
Walt, Stephen M. "Two Cheers for Clinton's Foreign Policy" Foreign Affairs 79#2 (2000), pp. 63–79 online.
Warshaw, Shirley Anne. The Clinton Years (Infobase Publishing, 2009)
White, Mark, ed. The Presidency of Bill Clinton: The Legacy of a New Domestic and Foreign Policy (I.B.Tauris, 2012)
External links
Official
Presidential Library & Museum
Clinton Foundation
White House biography
Archived White House website
Interviews, speeches, and statements
Full audio of a number of Clinton speeches Miller Center of Public Affairs
Oral History Interview with Bill Clinton from Oral Histories of the American South, June 1974
"The Wanderer", a profile from The New Yorker, September 2006
Media coverage
Other
Extensive essays on Bill Clinton and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
"Life Portrait of Bill Clinton", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, December 20, 1999
Clinton an American Experience documentary
1992 election episode in CNN's Race for the White House
1946 births
Living people
2016 United States presidential electors
2020 United States presidential electors
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American politicians
20th-century Baptists
20th-century presidents of the United States
21st-century American non-fiction writers
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21st-century American politicians
21st-century presidents of the United States
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Alumni of University College, Oxford
American Rhodes Scholars
American autobiographers
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American memoirists
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American people of English descent
American people of Irish descent
American people of Scotch-Irish descent
American people of Scottish descent
American political writers
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Arkansas Attorneys General
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Articles containing video clips
Baptists from Arkansas
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Clinton Foundation people
Collars of the Order of the White Lion
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Fellows of University College, Oxford
Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Governors of Arkansas
Grammy Award winners
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Rodham family
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Spouses of New York (state) politicians
Time Person of the Year
University of Arkansas faculty
Writers from Arkansas
Yale Law School alumni
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers
| true |
[
"Bill Lawry... This is Your Life is the fifth album released by The Twelfth Man. Released on 7 December 1997, it reached number one on the ARIA Album Charts for two weeks. The album contains special guest vocals from Jimmy Barnes, John Farnham, and Merv Hughes.\n\nAt the ARIA Music Awards of 1998, the album was nominated for ARIA Award for Best Comedy Release losing to Paul McDermott's Unplugged Good News Week Tapes: Volume 1.\n\nPlot\nAn episode of This Is Your Life is aired about Bill Lawry, with many of Bill's friends and rivals making appearances. There is a running gag throughout that Ritchie is none too impressed by Bill receiving an episode of This Is Your Life before him and not inviting him to a party in the city. Another running gag is Bill Lawry repeatedly calling host Mike Munro, Matt Munro.\n\nTrack listing \nCD (4934352)\n \"What's on the Box\" – 1:11\n \"Bill's Surprise\" – 3:32\n \"\"..You Were Born...\" / The Doctor / The School Master\" – 8:29\n \"Blind Love / The Wife / The Pigeons / The School Chum / Ratings-winning Guest #1\" – 7:59\n \"Bill's Early Careers / Richie / 'The Don' / Ratings-winning Guest #2\" – 8:25\n \"Peter Pollock / The Nawab / Geoff Boycott / The Fan Club\" – 7:40\n \"Bill Hangs Up His Boots / Chappelli And Maxy / Tony / The Hero\" – 12:27\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nSee also\n List of number-one albums of 1997 (Australia)\n List of number-one albums of 1998 (Australia)\n List of Top 25 albums for 1997 in Australia\n\nReferences\n\n1997 albums\nCricket on the radio\nThe Twelfth Man albums\n1990s comedy albums",
"Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? is a children's picture book by Bill Martin, Jr. and illustrated by Eric Carle. It is the third companion book to Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?.\n\nPlot summary\nVarious formerly and currently endangered animals answer the question \"What do you see?\" and the answers are what animal they see. The text is in rhyme. The list of animals includes a panda bear, a bald eagle, a water buffalo, a spider monkey, a green sea turtle, a macaroni penguin, a sea lion, a red wolf, a whooping crane and a black panther. The last iteration is a dreaming child who sees all the animals \"wild and free.\"\n\nReception\nA Bella Online review says, \"The book is a great tool to introduce conservation to youngsters. It is never too early, to introduce infants, toddlers and young children to the conservation of animals and natural resources.\" A Wonder Korner review says, \"Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle have done it again! These popular collaborators have added a new book about animal conversations to their series of rhythmic animal books. The combined talent of Martin and Carle are bound to ensure this a spot on the shelves of children's classics. It was reviewed by Publishers Weekly. It was reviewed by Booklist.\n\nTexas ban\nIn 2010, the book was banned in Texas when the Texas Education Agency confused author Bill Martin, Jr. with leftist philosopher Bill Martin.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nBear book sales will benefit kids' health\n\n2006 children's books\nAmerican picture books\nHenry Holt and Company books\nPicture books by Eric Carle\nFictional pandas\nBooks about bears"
] |
[
"Bill Clinton",
"Early life and career",
"Where did Bill Clinton begin his career?",
"Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life, both occurring in 1963, that contributed to his decision to become a public figure.",
"Where did Bill Clinton meet Hillary?",
"I don't know.",
"What is significant about Bill's early life?",
"use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Clinton turned 15 that he formally adopted the surname Clinton"
] |
C_b683706c6b674cf081a007960267a41c_1
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Where did Bill attend school?
| 4 |
Where did Bill Clinton attend school?
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Bill Clinton
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Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas. He was the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr. (1918-1946), a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy (later Virginia Kelley: 1923-1994). His parents had married on September 4, 1943, but this union later proved to be bigamous, as Blythe was still married to his third wife. Soon after Bill was born, Virginia traveled to New Orleans to study nursing. She left her son in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the southern United States was racially segregated, Clinton's grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races. In 1950, Bill's mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr., who owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950. Although he immediately assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Clinton turned 15 that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather. Clinton said that he remembered his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half-brother, Roger Clinton Jr., to the point where he intervened multiple times with the threat of violence to protect them. In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School, where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician. Clinton was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone, winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section. He briefly considered dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life: Clinton began an interest in law at Hot Springs High, when he took up the challenge to argue the defense of the ancient Roman Senator Catiline in a mock trial in his Latin class. After a vigorous defense that made use of his "budding rhetorical and political skills", he told the Latin teacher Elizabeth Buck that it "made him realize that someday he would study law". Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life, both occurring in 1963, that contributed to his decision to become a public figure. One was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy. The other was watching Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 I Have a Dream speech on TV, which impressed him enough that he later memorized it. CANNOTANSWER
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In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School,
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William Jefferson Clinton (; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again from 1983 to 1992, and as attorney general of Arkansas from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton became known as a New Democrat, as many of his policies reflected a centrist "Third Way" political philosophy. He is the husband of Hillary Clinton, who was a senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, secretary of state from 2009 to 2013 and the Democratic nominee for president in the 2016 presidential election.
Clinton was born and raised in Arkansas and attended Georgetown University. He received a Rhodes Scholarship to study at University College, Oxford, and he later graduated from Yale Law School. He met Hillary Rodham at Yale; they married in 1975. After graduating from law school, Clinton returned to Arkansas and won election as state attorney general, followed by two non-consecutive terms as Arkansas governor. As governor, he overhauled the state's education system and served as chairman of the National Governors Association. Clinton was elected president in the 1992 presidential election, defeating incumbent Republican president George H. W. Bush and independent businessman Ross Perot. At 46 years old, he became the third-youngest president of the United States.
Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history. He signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, but failed to pass his plan for national health care reform. In the 1994 elections, the Republican Party won unified control of Congress for the first time in 40 years. In spite of the electoral successes of Republicans, Clinton won reelection in 1996 with a landslide victory. Starting in the mid 1990s, Clinton began an ideological evolution as he became much more conservative in his domestic policy advocating for welfare reform and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, as well as financial and telecommunication deregulation measures. He also appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer to the U.S. Supreme Court. During the last three years of Clinton's presidency, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus—the first such surplus since 1969. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U.S. military intervention in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, signed the Dayton Peace agreement, signed the Iraq Liberation Act in opposition to Saddam Hussein, participated in the Oslo I Accord and Camp David Summit to advance the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, and assisted the Northern Ireland peace process.
Clinton's second term would be dominated by the Monica Lewinsky scandal which began in 1996, when he began a sexual affair with 22-year-old White House intern Monica Lewinsky. In January 1998, news of the sexual relationship made tabloid headlines. The scandal escalated throughout the year, culminating on December 19 when Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives, becoming the second U.S. president to be impeached after Andrew Johnson. The two impeachment articles that the House passed were based on him using the powers of the presidency to obstruct the investigation and that he lied under oath. The following year saw the impeachment trial begin in the Senate, but Clinton was acquitted on both charges as the Senate failed to cast 67 votes against him, the conviction threshold.
Clinton left office with the highest end-of-term approval rating of any U.S. president since Franklin D. Roosevelt. His presidency has been ranked among the upper tier in historical rankings of U.S. presidents. However, his personal conduct and allegations of sexual assault against him have made him the subject of substantial scrutiny. Since leaving office, he has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. Clinton created the Clinton Foundation to address international causes such as the prevention of HIV/AIDS and global warming. In 2009, he was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti. After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Clinton and George W. Bush formed the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. He has remained active in Democratic Party politics, campaigning for his wife's 2008 and 2016 presidential campaigns.
Early life and career
Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas. He is the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr., a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy (later Virginia Kelley). His parents had married on September 4, 1943, but this union later proved to be bigamous, as Blythe was still married to his third wife. Virginia traveled to New Orleans to study nursing soon after Bill was born, leaving him in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the southern United States was racially segregated, Clinton's grandparents sold goods on credit to people of all races. In 1950, Bill's mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr., who co-owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950.
Although he immediately assumed use of his stepfather's surname, it was not until Clinton turned 15 that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward him. Clinton has described his stepfather as a gambler and an alcoholic who regularly abused his mother and half-brother, Roger Clinton Jr. He threatened his stepfather with violence multiple times to protect them.
In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. John's Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School, where he was an active student leader, avid reader, and musician. Clinton was in the chorus and played the tenor saxophone, winning first chair in the state band's saxophone section. He briefly considered dedicating his life to music, but as he noted in his autobiography My Life:
Clinton began an interest in law at Hot Springs High, when he took up the challenge to argue the defense of the ancient Roman senator Catiline in a mock trial in his Latin class. After a vigorous defense that made use of his "budding rhetorical and political skills", he told the Latin teacher Elizabeth Buck it "made him realize that someday he would study law".
Clinton has identified two influential moments in his life, both occurring in 1963, that contributed to his decision to become a public figure. One was his visit as a Boys Nation senator to the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy. The other was watching Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech on TV, which impressed him so much that he later memorized it.
College and law school years
Georgetown University
With the aid of scholarships, Clinton attended the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service degree in 1968. Georgetown was the only school where Clinton applied.
In 1964 and 1965, Clinton won elections for class president. From 1964 to 1967, he was an intern and then a clerk in the office of Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. While in college, he became a brother of service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Clinton was also a member of the Order of DeMolay, a youth group affiliated with Freemasonry, but he never became a Freemason. He is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi honorary band fraternity.
Oxford
Upon graduating from Georgetown in 1968, Clinton won a Rhodes Scholarship to University College, Oxford, where he initially read for a B.Phil. in philosophy, politics, and economics but transferred to a B.Litt. in politics and, ultimately, a B.Phil. in politics. Clinton did not expect to return for the second year because of the draft and so he switched programs; this type of activity was common among other Rhodes Scholars from his cohort. He had received an offer to study at Yale Law School, Yale University, and so he left early to return to the United States and did not receive a degree from Oxford.
During his time at Oxford, Clinton befriended fellow American Rhodes Scholar Frank Aller. In 1969, Aller received a draft letter that mandated deployment to the Vietnam War. Aller's 1971 suicide had an influential impact on Clinton. British writer and feminist Sara Maitland said of Clinton, "I remember Bill and Frank Aller taking me to a pub in Walton Street in the summer term of 1969 and talking to me about the Vietnam War. I knew nothing about it, and when Frank began to describe the napalming of civilians I began to cry. Bill said that feeling bad wasn't good enough. That was the first time I encountered the idea that liberal sensitivities weren't enough and you had to do something about such things". Clinton was a member of the Oxford University Basketball Club and also played for Oxford University's rugby union team.
While Clinton was president in 1994, he received an honorary degree and a fellowship from the University of Oxford, specifically for being "a doughty and tireless champion of the cause of world peace", having "a powerful collaborator in his wife," and for winning "general applause for his achievement of resolving the gridlock that prevented an agreed budget".
Vietnam War opposition and draft controversy
During the Vietnam War, Clinton received educational draft deferments while he was in England in 1968 and 1969. While at Oxford, he participated in Vietnam War protests and organized a Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam event in October 1969. He was planning to attend law school in the U.S. and knew he might lose his deferment. Clinton tried unsuccessfully to obtain positions in the National Guard and the Air Force officer candidate school, and he then made arrangements to join the Reserve Officers' Training Corps (ROTC) program at the University of Arkansas.
He subsequently decided not to join the ROTC, saying in a letter to the officer in charge of the program that he opposed the war, but did not think it was honorable to use ROTC, National Guard, or Reserve service to avoid serving in Vietnam. He further stated that because he opposed the war, he would not volunteer to serve in uniform, but would subject himself to the draft, and would serve if selected only as a way "to maintain my political viability within the system". Clinton registered for the draft and received a high number (311), meaning that those whose birthdays had been drawn as numbers1 to 310 would be drafted before him, making it unlikely he would be called up. (In fact, the highest number drafted was 195.)
Colonel Eugene Holmes, the Army officer who had been involved with Clinton's ROTC application, suspected that Clinton attempted to manipulate the situation to avoid the draft and avoid serving in uniform. He issued a notarized statement during the 1992 presidential campaign:
During the 1992 campaign, it was revealed that Clinton's uncle had attempted to secure him a position in the Navy Reserve, which would have prevented him from being deployed to Vietnam. This effort was unsuccessful and Clinton said in 1992 that he had been unaware of it until then. Although legal, Clinton's actions with respect to the draft and deciding whether to serve in the military were criticized during his first presidential campaign by conservatives and some Vietnam veterans, some of whom charged that he had used Fulbright's influence to avoid military service. Clinton's 1992 campaign manager, James Carville, successfully argued that Clinton's letter in which he declined to join the ROTC should be made public, insisting that voters, many of whom had also opposed the Vietnam War, would understand and appreciate his position.
Law school
After Oxford, Clinton attended Yale Law School and earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1973. In 1971, he met his future wife, Hillary Rodham, in the Yale Law Library; she was a class year ahead of him. They began dating and were soon inseparable. After only about a month, Clinton postponed his summer plans to be a coordinator for the George McGovern campaign for the 1972 United States presidential election in order to move in with her in California. The couple continued living together in New Haven when they returned to law school.
Clinton eventually moved to Texas with Rodham in 1972 to take a job leading McGovern's effort there. He spent considerable time in Dallas, at the campaign's local headquarters on Lemmon Avenue, where he had an office. Clinton worked with future two-term mayor of Dallas Ron Kirk, future governor of Texas Ann Richards, and then unknown television director and filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
Governor of Arkansas (1979–1981, 1983–1992)
After graduating from Yale Law School, Clinton returned to Arkansas and became a law professor at the University of Arkansas. In 1974, he ran for the House of Representatives. Running in the conservative 3rd district against incumbent Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt, Clinton's campaign was bolstered by the anti-Republican and anti-incumbent mood resulting from the Watergate scandal. Hammerschmidt, who had received 77 percent of the vote in 1972, defeated Clinton by only a 52 percent to 48 percent margin. In 1976, Clinton ran for Arkansas attorney general. With only minor opposition in the primary and no opposition at all in the general election, Clinton was elected.
In 1978, Clinton entered the Arkansas gubernatorial primary. At just 31 years old, he was one of the youngest gubernatorial candidates in the state's history. Clinton was elected Governor of Arkansas in 1978, having defeated the Republican candidate Lynn Lowe, a farmer from Texarkana. Clinton was only 32 years old when he took office, the youngest governor in the country at the time and the second youngest governor in the history of Arkansas. Due to his youthful appearance, Clinton was often called the "Boy Governor". He worked on educational reform and directed the maintenance of Arkansas's roads, with wife Hillary leading a successful committee on urban health care reform. However, his term included an unpopular motor vehicle tax and citizens' anger over the escape of Cuban refugees (from the Mariel boatlift) detained in Fort Chaffee in 1980. Monroe Schwarzlose, of Kingsland in Cleveland County, polled 31 percent of the vote against Clinton in the Democratic gubernatorial primary of 1980. Some suggested Schwarzlose's unexpected voter turnout foreshadowed Clinton's defeat by Republican challenger Frank D. White in the general election that year. As Clinton once joked, he was the youngest ex-governor in the nation's history.
Clinton joined friend Bruce Lindsey's Little Rock law firm of Wright, Lindsey and Jennings. In 1982, he was elected governor a second time and kept the office for ten years. Effective with the 1986 election, Arkansas had changed its gubernatorial term of office from two to four years. During his term, he helped transform Arkansas's economy and improved the state's educational system. For senior citizens, he removed the sales tax from medications and increased the home property-tax exemption. He became a leading figure among the New Democrats, a group of Democrats who advocated welfare reform, smaller government, and other policies not supported by liberals. Formally organized as the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the New Democrats argued that in light of President Ronald Reagan's landslide victory in 1984, the Democratic Party needed to adopt a more centrist political stance in order to succeed at the national level. Clinton delivered the Democratic response to Reagan's 1985 State of the Union Address and served as chair of the National Governors Association from 1986 to 1987, bringing him to an audience beyond Arkansas.
In the early 1980s, Clinton made reform of the Arkansas education system a top priority of his gubernatorial administration. The Arkansas Education Standards Committee was chaired by Clinton's wife Hillary, who was also an attorney as well as the chair of the Legal Services Corporation. The committee transformed Arkansas's education system. Proposed reforms included more spending for schools (supported by a sales-tax increase), better opportunities for gifted children, vocational education, higher teachers' salaries, more course variety, and compulsory teacher competency exams. The reforms passed in September 1983 after Clinton called a special legislative session—the longest in Arkansas history. Many have considered this the greatest achievement of the Clinton governorship. He defeated four Republican candidates for governor: Lowe (1978), White (1982 and 1986), Jonesboro businessmen Woody Freeman (1984), and Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock (1990).
Also in the 1980s, the Clintons' personal and business affairs included transactions that became the basis of the Whitewater controversy investigation, which later dogged his presidential administration. After extensive investigation over several years, no indictments were made against the Clintons related to the years in Arkansas.
According to some sources, Clinton was a death penalty opponent in his early years, but he eventually switched positions. However he might have felt previously, by 1992, Clinton was insisting that Democrats "should no longer feel guilty about protecting the innocent". During Clinton's final term as governor, Arkansas performed its first executions since 1964 (the death penalty had been reinstated in 1976). As Governor, he oversaw the first four executions carried out by the state of Arkansas since the death penalty was reinstated there in 1976: one by electric chair and three by lethal injection. To draw attention to his stance on capital punishment, Clinton flew home to Arkansas mid-campaign in 1992, in order to affirm in person that the controversial execution of Ricky Ray Rector, would go forward as scheduled.
1988 Democratic presidential primaries
In 1987, the media speculated that Clinton would enter the presidential race after incumbent New York governor Mario Cuomo declined to run and Democratic front-runner Gary Hart withdrew owing to revelations of multiple marital infidelities. Clinton decided to remain as Arkansas governor (following consideration for the potential candidacy of Hillary for governor, initially favored—but ultimately vetoed—by the First Lady). For the nomination, Clinton endorsed Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis. He gave the nationally televised opening night address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, but his speech, which was 33 minutes long and twice the length it was expected to be, was criticized for being too long and poorly delivered. Clinton presented himself both as a moderate and as a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, and he headed the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991.
Presidential campaigns
1992
In the first primary contest, the Iowa Caucus, Clinton finished a distant third to Iowa senator Tom Harkin. During the campaign for the New Hampshire primary, reports surfaced that Clinton had engaged in an extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers. Clinton fell far behind former Massachusetts senator Paul Tsongas in the New Hampshire polls. Following Super Bowl XXVI, Clinton and his wife Hillary went on 60 Minutes to rebuff the charges. Their television appearance was a calculated risk, but Clinton regained several delegates. He finished second to Tsongas in the New Hampshire primary, but after trailing badly in the polls and coming within single digits of winning, the media viewed it as a victory. News outlets labeled him "The Comeback Kid" for earning a firm second-place finish.
Winning the big prizes of Florida and Texas and many of the Southern primaries on Super Tuesday gave Clinton a sizable delegate lead. However, former California governor Jerry Brown was scoring victories and Clinton had yet to win a significant contest outside his native South. With no major Southern state remaining, Clinton targeted New York, which had many delegates. He scored a resounding victory in New York City, shedding his image as a regional candidate. Having been transformed into the consensus candidate, he secured the Democratic Party nomination, finishing with a victory in Jerry Brown's home state of California.
During the campaign, questions of conflict of interest regarding state business and the politically powerful Rose Law Firm, at which Hillary Rodham Clinton was a partner, arose. Clinton argued the questions were moot because all transactions with the state had been deducted before determining Hillary's firm pay. Further concern arose when Bill Clinton announced that, with Hillary, voters would be getting two presidents "for the price of one".
Clinton was still the governor of Arkansas while campaigning for U.S. president, and he returned to his home state to see that Ricky Ray Rector would be executed. After killing a police officer and a civilian, Rector shot himself in the head, leading to what his lawyers said was a state where he could still talk but did not understand the idea of death. According to both Arkansas state law and Federal law, a seriously mentally impaired inmate cannot be executed. The courts disagreed with the allegation of grave mental impairment and allowed the execution. Clinton's return to Arkansas for the execution was framed in an article for The New York Times as a possible political move to counter "soft on crime" accusations.
Bush's approval ratings were around 80 percent during the Gulf War, and he was described as unbeatable. When Bush compromised with Democrats to try to lower Federal deficits, he reneged on his promise not to raise taxes, which hurt his approval rating. Clinton repeatedly condemned Bush for making a promise he failed to keep. By election time, the economy was souring and Bush saw his approval rating plummet to just slightly over 40 percent. Finally, conservatives were previously united by anti-communism, but with the end of the Cold War, the party lacked a uniting issue. When Pat Buchanan and Pat Robertson addressed Christian themes at the Republican National Convention—with Bush criticizing Democrats for omitting God from their platform—many moderates were alienated. Clinton then pointed to his moderate, "New Democrat" record as governor of Arkansas, though some on the more liberal side of the party remained suspicious. Many Democrats who had supported Ronald Reagan and Bush in previous elections switched their support to Clinton. Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore, toured the country during the final weeks of the campaign, shoring up support and pledging a "new beginning".
On March 26, 1992, during a Democratic fund raiser of the presidential campaign, Robert Rafsky confronted then Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas and asked what he was going to do about AIDS, to which Clinton replied, "I feel your pain." The televised exchange led to AIDS becoming an issue in the 1992 presidential election. On April 4, then candidate Clinton met with members of ACT UP and other leading AIDS advocates to discuss his AIDS agenda and agreed to make a major AIDS policy speech, to have people with HIV speak to the Democratic Convention, and to sign onto the AIDS United Action five point plan.
Clinton won the 1992 presidential election (370 electoral votes) against Republican incumbent George H. W. Bush (168 electoral votes) and billionaire populist Ross Perot (zero electoral votes), who ran as an independent on a platform that focused on domestic issues. Bush's steep decline in public approval was a significant part of Clinton's success. Clinton's victory in the election ended twelve years of Republican rule of the White House and twenty of the previous twenty-four years. The election gave Democrats full control of the United States Congress, the first time one party controlled both the executive and legislative branches since Democrats held the 96th United States Congress during the presidency of Jimmy Carter.
According to Seymour Martin Lipset, the 1992 election had several unique characteristics. Voters felt that economic conditions were worse than they actually were, which harmed Bush. A rare event was the presence of a strong third-party candidate. Liberals launched a backlash against 12 years of a conservative White House. The chief factor was Clinton's uniting his party, and winning over a number of heterogeneous groups.
1996
In the 1996 presidential election, Clinton was re-elected, receiving 49.2 percent of the popular vote over Republican Bob Dole (40.7 percent of the popular vote) and Reform candidate Ross Perot (8.4 percent of the popular vote). Clinton received 379 of the Electoral College votes, with Dole receiving 159 electoral votes. With his victory, he became the first Democrat to win two consecutive presidential elections since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Presidency (1993–2001)
Clinton's "third way" of moderate liberalism built up the nation's fiscal health and put the nation on a firm footing abroad amid globalization and the development of anti-American terrorist organizations.
During his presidency, Clinton advocated for a wide variety of legislation and programs, most of which were enacted into law or implemented by the executive branch. His policies, particularly the North American Free Trade Agreement and welfare reform, have been attributed to a centrist Third Way philosophy of governance. His policy of fiscal conservatism helped to reduce deficits on budgetary matters. Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history.
The Congressional Budget Office reported budget surpluses of $69 billion in 1998, $126 billion in 1999, and $236 billion in 2000, during the last three years of Clinton's presidency. Over the years of the recorded surplus, the gross national debt rose each year. At the end of the fiscal year (September 30) for each of the years a surplus was recorded, The U.S. treasury reported a gross debt of $5.413 trillion in 1997, $5.526 trillion in 1998, $5.656 trillion in 1999, and $5.674 trillion in 2000. Over the same period, the Office of Management and Budget reported an end of year (December 31) gross debt of $5.369 trillion in 1997, $5.478 trillion in 1998, $5.606 in 1999, and $5.629 trillion in 2000. At the end of his presidency, the Clintons moved to 15 Old House Lane in Chappaqua, New York, in order to satisfy a residency requirement for his wife to win election as a U.S. Senator from New York.
First term (1993–1997)
Clinton was inaugurated as the 42nd president of the United States on January 20, 1993. Clinton was physically exhausted at the time, and had an inexperienced staff. His high levels of public support dropped in the first few weeks, as he made a series of mistakes. His first choice for attorney general had not paid her taxes on babysitters and was forced to withdraw. The second appointee also withdrew for the same reason. Clinton had repeatedly promised to encourage gays in the military service, despite what he knew to be the strong opposition of the military leadership. He tried anyway, and was publicly opposed by the top generals, and forced by Congress to a compromise position of "Don't ask, don't tell" whereby gays could serve if and only if they kept it secret. He devised a $16 billion stimulus package primarily to aid inner-city programs desired by liberals, but it was defeated by a Republican filibuster in the Senate. His popularity at the 100 day mark of his term was the lowest of any president at that point.
Public opinion did support one liberal program, and Clinton signed the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, which required large employers to allow employees to take unpaid leave for pregnancy or a serious medical condition. This action had bipartisan support, and was popular with the public.
Two days after taking office, on January 22, 1993—the 20th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade—Clinton reversed restrictions on domestic and international family planning programs that had been imposed by Reagan and Bush. Clinton said abortion should be kept "safe, legal, and rare"—a slogan that had been suggested by political scientist Samuel L. Popkin and first used by Clinton in December 1991, while campaigning. During the eight years of the Clinton administration, the abortion rate declined by 18 percent.
On February 15, 1993, Clinton made his first address to the nation, announcing his plan to raise taxes to close a budget deficit. Two days later, in a nationally televised address to a joint session of Congress, Clinton unveiled his economic plan. The plan focused on reducing the deficit rather than on cutting taxes for the middle class, which had been high on his campaign agenda. Clinton's advisers pressured him to raise taxes, based on the theory that a smaller federal budget deficit would reduce bond interest rates.
President Clinton's attorney general Janet Reno authorized the FBI's use of armored vehicles to deploy tear gas into the buildings of the Branch Davidian community near Waco, Texas, in hopes of ending a 51 day siege. During the operation on April 19, 1993, the buildings caught fire and 75 of the residents died, including 24 children. The raid had originally been planned by the Bush administration; Clinton had played no role.
On May 19, 1993, Clinton fired seven employees of the White House Travel Office. This caused the White House travel office controversy even though the travel office staff served at the pleasure of the president and could be dismissed without cause. The White House responded to the controversy by claiming that the firings were done in response to financial improprieties that had been revealed by a brief FBI investigation. Critics contended that the firings had been done to allow friends of the Clintons to take over the travel business and the involvement of the FBI was unwarranted.
In August, Clinton signed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, which passed Congress without a Republican vote. It cut taxes for 15million low-income families, made tax cuts available to 90 percent of small businesses, and raised taxes on the wealthiest 1.2 percent of taxpayers. Additionally, it mandated that the budget be balanced over many years through the implementation of spending restraints.
On September 22, 1993, Clinton made a major speech to Congress regarding a health care reform plan; the program aimed at achieving universal coverage through a national health care plan. This was one of the most prominent items on Clinton's legislative agenda and resulted from a task force headed by Hillary Clinton. The plan was well received in political circles, but it was eventually doomed by well-organized lobby opposition from conservatives, the American Medical Association, and the health insurance industry. However, Clinton biographer John F. Harris said the program failed because of a lack of coordination within the White House. Despite the Democratic majority in Congress, the effort to create a national health care system ultimately died when compromise legislation by George J. Mitchell failed to gain a majority of support in August 1994. The failure of the bill was the first major legislative defeat of the Clinton administration.
In November 1993, David Hale—the source of criminal allegations against Bill Clinton in the Whitewater controversy—alleged that while governor of Arkansas, Clinton pressured Hale to provide an illegal $300,000 loan to Susan McDougal, the Clintons' partner in the Whitewater land deal. A U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation resulted in convictions against the McDougals for their role in the Whitewater project, but the Clintons themselves were never charged, and Clinton maintains his and his wife's innocence in the affair.
On November 30, 1993, Clinton signed into law the Brady Bill, which mandated federal background checks on people who purchase firearms in the United States. The law also imposed a five-day waiting period on purchases, until the NICS system was implemented in 1998. He also expanded the Earned Income Tax Credit, a subsidy for low-income workers.
In December of the same year, allegations by Arkansas state troopers Larry Patterson and Roger Perry were first reported by David Brock in The American Spectator. In the affair later known as "Troopergate", the officers alleged that they had arranged sexual liaisons for Clinton back when he was governor of Arkansas. The story mentioned a woman named Paula, a reference to Paula Jones. Brock later apologized to Clinton, saying the article was politically motivated "bad journalism", and that "the troopers were greedy and had slimy motives".
That month, Clinton implemented a Department of Defense directive known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", which allowed gay men and women to serve in the armed services provided they kept their sexual preferences a secret. The Act forbade the military from inquiring about an individual's sexual orientation. The policy was developed as a compromise after Clinton's proposal to allow gays to serve openly in the military met staunch opposition from prominent Congressional Republicans and Democrats, including senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Sam Nunn (D-GA). According to David Mixner, Clinton's support for the compromise led to a heated dispute with Vice President Al Gore, who felt that "the President should lift the ban ... even though [his executive order] was sure to be overridden by the Congress". Some gay-rights advocates criticized Clinton for not going far enough and accused him of making his campaign promise to get votes and contributions. Their position was that Clinton should have integrated the military by executive order, noting that President Harry S. Truman used executive order to racially desegregate the armed forces. Clinton's defenders argued that an executive order might have prompted the Senate to write the exclusion of gays into law, potentially making it harder to integrate the military in the future. Later in his presidency, in 1999, Clinton criticized the way the policy was implemented, saying he did not think any serious person could say it was not "out of whack". The policy remained controversial, and was finally repealed in 2011, removing open sexual orientation as a reason for dismissal from the armed forces.
On January 1, 1994, Clinton signed the North American Free Trade Agreement into law. Throughout his first year in office, Clinton consistently supported ratification of the treaty by the U.S. Senate. Clinton and most of his allies in the Democratic Leadership Committee strongly supported free trade measures; there remained, however, strong disagreement within the party. Opposition came chiefly from anti-trade Republicans, protectionist Democrats and supporters of Ross Perot. The bill passed the house with 234 votes against 200 opposed (132 Republicans and 102 Democrats voting in favor; 156 Democrats, 43 Republicans, and one independent against). The treaty was then ratified by the Senate and signed into law by the president.
The Omnibus Crime Bill, which Clinton signed into law in September 1994, made many changes to U.S. crime and law enforcement legislation including the expansion of the death penalty to include crimes not resulting in death, such as running a large-scale drug enterprise. During Clinton's re-election campaign he said, "My 1994 crime bill expanded the death penalty for drug kingpins, murderers of federal law enforcement officers, and nearly 60 additional categories of violent felons." It also included a subsection of assault weapons ban for a ten-year period.
On October 21, 1994, the Clinton administration launched the first official White House website, whitehouse.gov. The site was followed with three more versions, resulting in the final edition launched in 2000. The White House website was part of a wider movement of the Clinton administration toward web-based communication. According to Robert Longley, "Clinton and Gore were responsible for pressing almost all federal agencies, the U.S. court system and the U.S. military onto the Internet, thus opening up America's government to more of America's citizens than ever before. On July 17, 1996, Clinton issued Executive Order 13011—Federal Information Technology, ordering the heads of all federal agencies to utilize information technology fully to make the information of the agency easily accessible to the public."
After two years of Democratic Party control, the Democrats lost control of Congress to the Republicans in the mid-term elections in 1994, for the first time in forty years.
A speech delivered by President Bill Clinton at the December 6, 1995 White House Conference on HIV/AIDS projected that a cure for AIDS and a vaccine to prevent further infection would be developed. The President focused on his administration's accomplishments and efforts related to the epidemic, including an accelerated drug-approval process. He also condemned homophobia and discrimination against people with HIV. Clinton announced three new initiatives: creating a special working group to coordinate AIDS research throughout the Federal government; convening public health experts to develop an action plan that integrates HIV prevention with substance abuse prevention; and launching a new effort by the Department of Justice to ensure that health care facilities provide equal access to people with HIV and AIDS.
The White House FBI files controversy of June 1996 arose concerning improper access by the White House to FBI security-clearance documents. Craig Livingstone, head of the White House Office of Personnel Security, improperly requested, and received from the FBI, background report files without asking permission of the subject individuals; many of these were employees of former Republican administrations. In March 2000, Independent Counsel Robert Ray determined there was no credible evidence of any crime. Ray's report further stated, "there was no substantial and credible evidence that any senior White House official was involved" in seeking the files.
On September 21, 1996, Clinton signed into law the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage for federal purposes as the legal union of one man and one woman; the legislation allowed individual states to refuse to recognize gay marriages that were performed in other states. Paul Yandura, speaking for the White House gay and lesbian liaison office, said Clinton's signing DOMA "was a political decision that they made at the time of a re-election". In defense of his actions, Clinton has said that DOMA was intended to "head off an attempt to send a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage to the states", a possibility he described as highly likely in the context of a "very reactionary Congress". Administration spokesman Richard Socarides said, "the alternatives we knew were going to be far worse, and it was time to move on and get the president re-elected." Clinton himself said DOMA was something "which the Republicans put on the ballot to try to get the base vote for Bush up, I think it's obvious that something had to be done to try to keep the Republican Congress from presenting that". Others were more critical. The veteran gay rights and gay marriage activist Evan Wolfson has called these claims "historic revisionism". In a July 2, 2011, editorial The New York Times opined, "The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted in 1996 as an election-year wedge issue, signed by President Bill Clinton in one of his worst policy moments." Ultimately, in United States v. Windsor, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down DOMA in June 2013.
Despite DOMA, Clinton was the first president to select openly gay persons for administrative positions, and he is generally credited as being the first president to publicly champion gay rights. During his presidency, Clinton issued two substantially controversial executive orders on behalf of gay rights, the first lifting the ban on security clearances for LGBT federal employees and the second outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation in the federal civilian workforce. Under Clinton's leadership, federal funding for HIV/AIDS research, prevention and treatment more than doubled. Clinton also pushed for passing hate crimes laws for gays and for the private sector Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which, buoyed by his lobbying, failed to pass the Senate by a single vote in 1996. Advocacy for these issues, paired with the politically unpopular nature of the gay rights movement at the time, led to enthusiastic support for Clinton's election and reelection by the Human Rights Campaign. Clinton came out for gay marriage in July 2009 and urged the Supreme Court to overturn DOMA in 2013. He was later honored by GLAAD for his prior pro-gay stances and his reversal on DOMA.
The 1996 United States campaign finance controversy was an alleged effort by China to influence the domestic policies of the United States, before and during the Clinton administration, and involved the fundraising practices of the administration itself. Despite the evidence, the Chinese government denied all accusations.
As part of a 1996 initiative to curb illegal immigration, Clinton signed the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRIRA) on September 30, 1996. Appointed by Clinton, the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform recommended reducing legal immigration from about 800,000 people a year to about 550,000.
Ken Gormley, author of The Death of American Virtue: Clinton vs. Starr, reveals in his book that Clinton narrowly escaped possible assassination in the Philippines in November 1996. During his visit to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Manila, while he was on his way to meet with a senior member of the Philippine government, Clinton was saved from danger minutes before his motorcade was scheduled to drive over a bridge charged with a timed improvised explosive device (IED). According to officials, the IED was large enough to "blow up the entire presidential motorcade". Details of the plot were revealed to Gormley by Lewis C. Merletti, former member of the presidential protection detail and Director of the Secret Service. Intelligence officers intercepted a radio transmission indicating there was a wedding cake under a bridge. This alerted Merletti and others as Clinton's motorcade was scheduled to drive over a major bridge in downtown Manila. Once more, the word "wedding" was the code name used by a terrorist group for a past assassination attempt. Merletti wanted to reroute the motorcade, but the alternate route would add forty-five minutes to the drive time. Clinton was very angry, as he was already late for the meeting, but following the advice of the secret service possibly saved his life. Two other bombs had been discovered in Manila earlier in the week so the threat level that day was high. Security personnel at the Manila International Airport uncovered several grenades and a timing device in a travel bag. Officials also discovered a bomb near a major U.S. naval base. The president was scheduled to visit both these locations later in the week. An intense investigation took place into the events in Manila and it was discovered that the group behind the bridge bomb was a Saudi terrorist group in Afghanistan known as al-Qaeda and the plot was masterminded by Osama bin Laden. Until recently, this thwarted assassination attempt was never made public and remained top secret. Only top members of the U.S. intelligence community were aware of these events.
Second term (1997–2001)
In the January 1997, State of the Union address, Clinton proposed a new initiative to provide health coverage to up to five million children. Senators Ted Kennedy—a Democrat—and Orrin Hatch—a Republican—teamed up with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her staff in 1997, and succeeded in passing legislation forming the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the largest (successful) health care reform in the years of the Clinton Presidency. That year, Hillary Clinton shepherded through Congress the Adoption and Safe Families Act and two years later she succeeded in helping pass the Foster Care Independence Act. Bill Clinton negotiated the passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 by the Republican Congress. In October 1997, he announced he was getting hearing aids, due to hearing loss attributed to his age, and his time spent as a musician in his youth. In 1999, he signed into law the Financial Services Modernization Act also known as the Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act, which repealed the part of the Glass–Steagall Act that had prohibited a bank from offering a full range of investment, commercial banking, and insurance services since its enactment in 1933.
Impeachment and acquittal
After a House inquiry, Clinton was impeached on December 19, 1998, by the House of Representatives. The House voted 228–206 to impeach him for perjury to a grand jury and voted 221–212 to impeach him for obstruction of justice. Clinton was only the second U.S. president (after Andrew Johnson) to be impeached. Impeachment proceedings were based on allegations that Clinton had illegally lied about and covered up his relationship with 22-year-old White House (and later Department of Defense) employee Monica Lewinsky. After the Starr Report was submitted to the House providing what it termed "substantial and credible information that President Clinton Committed Acts that May Constitute Grounds for an Impeachment", the House began impeachment hearings against Clinton before the mid-term elections. To hold impeachment proceedings, the Republican leadership called a lame-duck session in December 1998.
While the House Judiciary Committee hearings ended in a straight party-line vote, there was lively debate on the House floor. The two charges passed in the House (largely with Republican support, but with a handful of Democratic votes as well) were for perjury and obstruction of justice. The perjury charge arose from Clinton's testimony before a grand jury that had been convened to investigate perjury he may have committed in his sworn deposition during Jones v. Clinton, Paula Jones's sexual harassment lawsuit. The obstruction charge was based on his actions to conceal his relationship with Lewinsky before and after that deposition.
The Senate later acquitted Clinton of both charges. The Senate refused to meet to hold an impeachment trial before the end of the old term, so the trial was held over until the next Congress. Clinton was represented by Washington law firm Williams & Connolly. The Senate finished a twenty-one-day trial on February 12, 1999, with the vote of 55 not guilty/45 guilty on the perjury charge and 50 not guilty/50 guilty on the obstruction of justice charge. Both votes fell short of the constitutional two-thirds majority requirement to convict and remove an officeholder. The final vote was generally along party lines, with no Democrats voting guilty, and only a handful of Republicans voting not guilty.
On January 19, 2001, Clinton's law license was suspended for five years after he acknowledged to an Arkansas circuit court that he had engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice in the Jones case.
Pardons and commutations
Clinton issued 141 pardons and 36 commutations on his last day in office on January 20, 2001. Controversy surrounded Marc Rich and allegations that Hillary Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham, accepted payments in return for influencing the president's decision-making regarding the pardons. Federal prosecutor Mary Jo White was appointed to investigate the pardon of Rich. She was later replaced by then-Republican James Comey. The investigation found no wrongdoing on Clinton's part. Clinton also pardoned 4 defendants in the Whitewater Scandal, Chris Wade, Susan McDougal, Stephen Smith, and Robert W. Palmer, all of whom had ties to Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas. Former Clinton HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, was also among Clinton's pardons.
Campaign finance controversies
In February 1997 it was discovered upon documents being released by the Clinton Administration that 938 people had stayed at the White House and that 821 of them had made donations to the Democratic Party and got the opportunity to stay in the Lincoln bedroom as a result of the donations. Some donors included Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Jane Fonda, and Judy Collins. Top donors also got golf games and morning jogs with Clinton as a result of the contributions. Janet Reno was called on to investigate the matter by Trent Lott, but she refused.
In 1996, it was found that several Chinese foreigners made contributions to Clinton's reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee with the backing of the People's Republic of China. Some of them also attempted to donate to Clinton's defense fund. This violated United States law forbidding non-American citizens from making campaign contributions. Clinton and Al Gore also allegedly met with the foreign donors. A Republican investigation led by Fred Thompson found that Clinton was targeted by the Chinese government. However, Democratic senators Joe Lieberman and John Glenn said that the evidence showed that China only targeted congressional elections and not presidential elections.
Military and foreign affairs
Somalia
The Battle of Mogadishu occurred in Somalia in 1993. During the operation, two U.S. helicopters were shot down by rocket-propelled grenade attacks to their tail rotors, trapping soldiers behind enemy lines. This resulted in an urban battle that killed 18 American soldiers, wounded 73 others, and one was taken prisoner. There were many more Somali casualties. Some of the American bodies were dragged through the streets—a spectacle broadcast on television news programs. In response, U.S. forces were withdrawn from Somalia and later conflicts were approached with fewer soldiers on the ground.
Rwanda
In April 1994, genocide broke out in Rwanda. Intelligence reports indicate that Clinton was aware a "final solution to eliminate all Tutsis" was underway, long before the administration publicly used the word "genocide". Fearing a reprisal of the events in Somalia the previous year, Clinton chose not to intervene. Clinton has called his failure to intervene one of his main foreign policy failings, saying "I don't think we could have ended the violence, but I think we could have cut it down. And I regret it."
Bosnia and Herzegovina
In 1995, U.S. and NATO aircraft bombed Bosnian Serb targets to halt attacks on U.N. safe zones and pressure them into a peace accord that would end the Bosnian war. Clinton deployed U.S. peacekeepers to Bosnia in late 1995, to uphold the subsequent Dayton Agreement.
Irish peace talks
In 1992, before his presidency, Clinton proposed sending a peace envoy to Northern Ireland, but this was dropped to avoid tensions with the British government. In November 1995, in a ceasefire during the Troubles, Clinton became the first president to visit Northern Ireland, examining both of the two divided communities of Belfast. Despite unionist criticism, Clinton used this as a way to negotiate an end to the violent conflict with London, Dublin, the paramilitaries and the other groups. Clinton went on to play a key role in the peace talks, which produced the Good Friday Agreement in 1998.
Iran
In February 1996, the Clinton administration agreed to pay Iran US$131.8million (equivalent to $ million in ) in settlement to discontinue a case brought by Iran in 1989 against the U.S. in the International Court of Justice after the shooting down of Iran Air Flight 655 by the U.S. Navy guided missile cruiser.
Osama bin Laden
Capturing Osama bin Laden had been an objective of the U.S. government during the presidency of Bill Clinton (and continued to be until bin Laden's death in 2011). Despite claims by Mansoor Ijaz and Sudanese officials that the Sudanese government had offered to arrest and extradite bin Laden, and that U.S. authorities rejected each offer, the 9/11 Commission Report stated that "we have not found any reliable evidence to support the Sudanese claim".
In response to a 1996 State Department warning about bin Laden and the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa by al-Qaeda (which killed 224 people, including 12 Americans), Clinton ordered several military missions to capture or kill bin Laden, all of which were unsuccessful. In August 1998, Clinton ordered cruise missile strikes on terrorist targets in Afghanistan and Sudan, targeting the Al-Shifa pharmaceutical factory in Sudan, which was suspected of assisting bin Laden in making chemical weapons, and bin Laden's terrorist training camps in Afghanistan.
Kosovo
In the midst of a brutal crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists in the province of Kosovo by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Clinton authorized the use of U.S. Armed Forces in a NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999, named Operation Allied Force. The stated reasoning behind the intervention was to stop the ethnic cleansing (and what the Clinton administration labeled genocide) of Albanians by Yugoslav anti-guerilla military units. General Wesley Clark was Supreme Allied Commander of NATO and oversaw the mission. With United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, the bombing campaign ended on June 10, 1999. The resolution placed Kosovo under UN administration and authorized a peacekeeping force to be deployed to the region. NATO announced its soldiers all survived combat, though two died in an Apache helicopter crash. Journalists in the popular press criticized genocide statements by the Clinton administration as false and greatly exaggerated. Prior to the bombing campaign on March 24, 1999, common estimates showed that the number of civilians killed in the over year long conflict in Kosovo had approximately been 1,800, of which were primarily Albanians but also Serbs and that there was no evidence of genocide or ethnic cleansing. In a post-war inquiry, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe noted "the patterns of the expulsions and the vast increase in lootings, killings, rape, kidnappings and pillage once the NATO air war began on March 24". In 2001, the U.N.-supervised Supreme Court of Kosovo ruled that genocide (the intent to destroy a people) did not take place, but recognized "a systematic campaign of terror, including murders, rapes, arsons and severe maltreatments" with the intention being the forceful departure of the Albanian population. The term "ethnic cleansing" was used as an alternative to "genocide" to denote not just ethnically motivated murder but also displacement, though critics charge there is little difference. Slobodan Milošević, the president of Yugoslavia at the time of the atrocities, was eventually brought to trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague on charges including crimes against humanity and war crimes for his role in the war. He died in 2006, before the completion of the trial.
Iraq
In Clinton's 1998 State of the Union Address, he warned Congress that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was building an arsenal of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.
Clinton signed the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 on October 31, 1998, which instituted a policy of "regime change" against Iraq, though it explicitly stated it did not provide for direct intervention on the part of American military forces. The administration then launched a four-day bombing campaign named Operation Desert Fox, lasting from December 16 to 19, 1998. At the end of this operation Clinton announced that "So long as Saddam remains in power, he will remain a threat to his people, his region, and the world. With our allies, we must pursue a strategy to contain him and to constrain his weapons of mass destruction program, while working toward the day Iraq has a government willing to live at peace with its people and with its neighbors." American and British aircraft in the Iraq no-fly zones attacked hostile Iraqi air defenses 166 times in 1999 and 78 times in 2000.
China
On October 10, 2000, Clinton signed into law the U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000, which granted permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) trade status to China. The president asserted that free trade would gradually open China to democratic reform.
Relations were damaged briefly by the American bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in May 1999. Clinton apologized for the bombing, stating it was accidental.
The U.S.–China Relations Act of 2000 granted China permanent normal trade relations (NTR) status (previously called most favoured nation (MFN)) when China becomes a full member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), ending annual review and approval of NTR. The Act was signed into law on October 10, 2000, by Clinton. President Clinton in 2000 pushed Congress to approve the U.S.-China trade agreement and China's accession to the WTO, saying that more trade with China would advance America's economic interests: "Economically, this agreement is the equivalent of a one-way street. It requires China to open its markets—with a fifth of the world's population, potentially the biggest markets in the world—to both our products and services in unprecedented new ways," said Clinton.
Israeli-Palestinian conflict
After initial successes such as the Oslo Accords of the early 1990s, which also led to the Israel–Jordan peace treaty in 1994 and the Wye River Memorandum in October 1998, Clinton attempted an effort to end the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He brought Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat together at Camp David for the Camp David Summit in July 2000, which lasted 14 days. Following the failures of the peace talks, Clinton said Arafat had "missed the opportunity" to facilitate a "just and lasting peace". In his autobiography, Clinton blames Arafat for the collapse of the summit. Following another attempt in December 2000 at Bolling Air Force Base, in which the president offered the Clinton Parameters, the situation broke down completely after the end of the Taba Summit and with the start of the Second Intifada.
Judicial appointments
Clinton appointed two justices to the Supreme Court: Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 1993 and Stephen Breyer in 1994. Both justices went on to serve until the 2020s, leaving a lasting judicial legacy for President Clinton.
Clinton was the first president in history to appoint more women and minority judges than white male judges to the federal courts. In his eight years in office, 11.6% of Clinton's court of appeals nominees and 17.4% of his district court nominees were black; 32.8% of his court of appeals nominees and 28.5% of his district court nominees were women.
Public opinion
Throughout Clinton's first term, his job approval rating fluctuated in the 40s and 50s. In his second term, his rating consistently ranged from the high-50s to the high-60s. After his impeachment proceedings in 1998 and 1999, Clinton's rating reached its highest point. According to a CBS News/New York Times poll, Clinton left office with an approval rating of 68 percent, which matched those of Ronald Reagan and Franklin D. Roosevelt as the highest ratings for departing presidents in the modern era. Clinton's average Gallup poll approval rating for his last quarter in office was 61%, the highest final quarter rating any president has received for fifty years. Forty-seven percent of the respondents identified themselves as being Clinton supporters.
As he was leaving office, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll revealed that 45 percent of Americans said they would miss him; 55 percent thought he "would have something worthwhile to contribute and should remain active in public life"; 68 percent thought he would be remembered more for his "involvement in personal scandal" than for "his accomplishments"; and 58 percent answered "No" to the question "Do you generally think Bill Clinton is honest and trustworthy?" The same percentage said he would be remembered as either "outstanding" or "above average" as a president, while 22 percent said he would be remembered as "below average" or "poor". ABC News characterized public consensus on Clinton as, "You can't trust him, he's got weak morals and ethics—and he's done a heck of a good job."
In May 2006, a CNN poll comparing Clinton's job performance with that of his successor, George W. Bush, found that a strong majority of respondents said Clinton outperformed Bush in six different areas questioned. Gallup polls in 2007 and 2011 showed that Clinton was regarded by 13 percent of Americans as the greatest president in U.S. history.
In 2014, 18 percent of respondents in a Quinnipiac University Polling Institute poll of American voters regarded Clinton as the best president since World War II, making him the third most popular among postwar presidents, behind John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan. The same poll showed that just 3% of American voters regarded Clinton as the worst president since World War II.
A 2015 poll by The Washington Post asked 162 scholars of the American Political Science Association to rank all the U.S. presidents in order of greatness. According to their findings, Clinton ranked eighth overall, with a rating of 70 percent.
Public image
Clinton was the first baby boomer president. Authors Martin Walker and Bob Woodward stated that Clinton's innovative use of sound bite-ready dialogue, personal charisma, and public perception-oriented campaigning were a major factor in his high public approval ratings. When Clinton played the saxophone on The Arsenio Hall Show, he was described by some religious conservatives as "the MTV president". Opponents sometimes referred to him as "Slick Willie", a nickname which was first applied to him in 1980 by Pine Bluff Commercial journalist Paul Greenberg; Greenberg believed that Clinton was abandoning the progressive policies of previous Arkansas Governors such as Winthrop Rockefeller, Dale Bumpers and David Pryor. The claim "Slick Willie" would last throughout his presidency. His folksy manner led him to be nicknamed Bubba, especially in the South. Since 2000, he has frequently been referred to as "The Big Dog" or "Big Dog". His prominent role in campaigning for President Obama during the 2012 presidential election and his widely publicized speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention, where he officially nominated Obama and criticized Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Republican policies in detail, earned him the nickname "Explainer-in-Chief".
Clinton drew strong support from the African American community and insisted that the improvement of race relations would be a major theme of his presidency. In 1998, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison called Clinton "the first Black president", saying, "Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald's-and-junk-food-loving boy from Arkansas". Morrison noted that Clinton's sex life was scrutinized more than his career accomplishments, and she compared this to the stereotyping and double standards that, she said, blacks typically endure. Many viewed this comparison as unfair and disparaging both to Clinton and to the African-American community at large. Clinton, a Baptist, has been open about his faith.
Sexual assault and misconduct allegations
Several women have publicly accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct, including rape, harassment, and sexual assault. Additionally, some commentators have characterized Clinton's sexual relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky as predatory or non-consensual, despite the fact that Lewinsky called the relationship consensual at the time. These allegations have been revisited and lent more credence in 2018, in light of the #MeToo movement, with many commentators and Democratic leaders now saying Clinton should have been compelled to resign after the Lewinsky affair.
In 1994, Paula Jones initiated a sexual harassment lawsuit against Clinton, claiming he had made unwanted advances towards her in 1991; Clinton denied the allegations. In April 1998, the case was initially dismissed by Judge Susan Webber Wright on the grounds that it lacked legal merit. Jones appealed Webber Wright's ruling, and her suit gained traction following Clinton's admission to having an affair with Monica Lewinsky in August 1998. In 1998, lawyers for Paula Jones released court documents that alleged a pattern of sexual harassment by Clinton when he was Governor of Arkansas. Robert S. Bennett, Clinton's main lawyer for the case, called the filing "a pack of lies" and "an organized campaign to smear the President of the United States" funded by Clinton's political enemies. Clinton later agreed to an out-of-court settlement and paid Jones $850,000. Bennett said the president made the settlement only so he could end the lawsuit for good and move on with his life. During the deposition for the Jones lawsuit, which was held at the White House, Clinton denied having sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky—a denial that became the basis for an impeachment charge of perjury.
In 1998, Kathleen Willey alleged that Clinton had groped her in a hallway in 1993. An independent counsel determined Willey gave "false information" to the FBI, inconsistent with sworn testimony related to the Jones allegation. On March 19, 1998, Julie Hiatt Steele, a friend of Willey, released an affidavit, accusing the former White House aide of asking her to lie to corroborate Ms. Willey's account of being sexually groped by Clinton in the Oval Office. An attempt by Kenneth Starr to prosecute Steele for making false statements and obstructing justice ended in a mistrial and Starr declined to seek a retrial after Steele sought an investigation against the former Independent Counsel for prosecutorial misconduct. Linda Tripp's grand jury testimony also differed from Willey's claims regarding inappropriate sexual advances.
Also in 1998, Juanita Broaddrick alleged that Clinton had raped her in the spring of 1978, although she said she did not remember the exact date. To support her charge, Broaddrick notes that she told multiple witnesses in 1978 she had been raped by Clinton, something these witnesses also state in interviews to the press. Broaddrick had earlier filed an affidavit denying any "unwelcome sexual advances" and later repeated the denial in a sworn deposition. In a 1998 NBC interview wherein she detailed the alleged rape, Broaddrick said she had denied (under oath) being raped only to avoid testifying about the ordeal publicly.
The Lewinsky scandal has had an enduring impact on Clinton's legacy, beyond his impeachment in 1998. In the wake of the #MeToo movement (which shed light on the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace), various commentators and Democratic political leaders, as well as Lewinsky herself, have revisited their view that the Lewinsky affair was consensual, and instead characterized it as an abuse of power or harassment, in light of the power differential between a president and a 22-year old intern. In 2018, Clinton was asked in several interviews about whether he should have resigned, and he said he had made the right decision in not resigning. During the 2018 Congressional elections, The New York Times alleged that having no Democratic candidate for office asking Clinton to campaign with them was a change that attributed to the revised understanding of the Lewinsky scandal. However, former DNC interim chair Donna Brazile previously urged Clinton in November 2017 to campaign during the 2018 midterm elections, in spite of New York U.S. senator Kirsten Gillibrand's recent criticism of the Lewinsky scandal.
Alleged affairs
Clinton admitted to having extramarital affairs with singer Gennifer Flowers and Monica Lewinsky. Actress Elizabeth Gracen, Miss Arkansa winner Sally Perdue, and Dolly Kyle Browning all claimed that they had affairs with Clinton during his time as governor of Arkansas. Browning would later sue Clinton, Bruce Lindsey, Robert S. Bennett, and Jane Mayer alleging they engaged in a conspiracy to attempt to block her from publishing a book loosely based on her relationship with Clinton and tried to defame him. However Browning's lawsuit was dismissed.
Post-presidency (2001–present)
Bill Clinton has continued to be active in public life since leaving office in 2001, giving speeches, fundraising, and founding charitable organizations, and has spoken in prime time at every Democratic National Convention.
Activities until 2008 campaign
In 2002, Clinton warned that pre-emptive military action against Iraq would have unwelcome consequences, and later claimed to have opposed the Iraq War from the start (though some dispute this). In 2005, Clinton criticized the Bush administration for its handling of emissions control, while speaking at the United Nations Climate Change conference in Montreal.
The William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas, was dedicated in 2004. Clinton released a best-selling autobiography, My Life, in 2004. In 2007, he released Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, which also became a New York Times Best Seller and garnered positive reviews.
In the aftermath of the 2004 Asian tsunami, U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan appointed Clinton to head a relief effort. After Hurricane Katrina, Clinton joined with fellow former president George H. W. Bush to establish the Bush-Clinton Tsunami Fund in January 2005, and the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund in October of that year. As part of the tsunami effort, these two ex-presidents appeared in a Super Bowl XXXIX pre-game show, and traveled to the affected areas. They also spoke together at the funeral of Boris Yeltsin in April 2007.
Based on his philanthropic worldview, Clinton created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address issues of global importance. This foundation includes the Clinton Foundation HIV and AIDS Initiative (CHAI), which strives to combat that disease, and has worked with the Australian government toward that end. The Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), begun by the Clinton Foundation in 2005, attempts to address world problems such as global public health, poverty alleviation and religious and ethnic conflict. In 2005, Clinton announced through his foundation an agreement with manufacturers to stop selling sugary drinks in schools. Clinton's foundation joined with the Large Cities Climate Leadership Group in 2006 to improve cooperation among those cities, and he met with foreign leaders to promote this initiative. The foundation has received donations from many governments all over the world, including Asia and the Middle East. In 2008, Foundation director Inder Singh announced deals to reduce the price of anti-malaria drugs by 30 percent in developing nations. Clinton also spoke in favor of California Proposition 87 on alternative energy, which was voted down.
In the early 2000s, Clinton took flights on Jeffrey Epstein's private jet in connection with Clinton Foundation work. Years later, Epstein was convicted on sex trafficking charges. Clinton's office released a statement in 2019 saying, "President Clinton knows nothing about the terrible crimes Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty to in Florida some years ago, or those with which he has been recently charged in New York. In 2002 and 2003, President Clinton took four trips on Jeffrey Epstein's airplane: one to Europe, one to Asia, and two to Africa, which included stops in connection with the work of the Clinton Foundation. Staff, supporters of the Foundation, and his Secret Service detail traveled on every leg of every trip. [...] He's not spoken to Epstein in well over a decade."
2008 presidential election
During the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, Clinton vigorously advocated on behalf of his wife, Hillary. Through speaking engagements and fundraisers, he was able to raise $10 million toward her campaign. Some worried that as an ex-president, he was too active on the trail, too negative to Clinton rival Barack Obama, and alienating his supporters at home and abroad. Many were especially critical of him following his remarks in the South Carolina primary, which Obama won. Later in the 2008 primaries, there was some infighting between Bill and Hillary's staffs, especially in Pennsylvania. Considering Bill's remarks, many thought he could not rally Hillary supporters behind Obama after Obama won the primary. Such remarks lead to apprehension that the party would be split to the detriment of Obama's election. Fears were allayed August 27, 2008, when Clinton enthusiastically endorsed Obama at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, saying all his experience as president assures him that Obama is "ready to lead". After Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign was over, Bill Clinton continued to raise funds to help pay off her campaign debt.
After the 2008 election
In 2009, Clinton travelled to North Korea on behalf of two American journalists imprisoned there. Euna Lee and Laura Ling had been imprisoned for illegally entering the country from China. Jimmy Carter had made a similar visit in 1994. After Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Kim issued a pardon.
Since then, Clinton has been assigned many other diplomatic missions. He was named United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti in 2009 following a series of hurricanes which caused $1 billion in damages. Clinton organized a conference with the Inter-American Development Bank, where a new industrial park was discussed in an effort to "build back better". In response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, U.S. president Barack Obama announced that Clinton and George W. Bush would coordinate efforts to raise funds for Haiti's recovery. Funds began pouring into Haiti, which led to funding becoming available for Caracol Industrial Park in a part of the country unaffected by the earthquake. While Hillary Clinton was in South Korea, she and Cheryl Mills worked to convince SAE-A, a large apparel subcontractor, to invest in Haiti despite the company's deep concerns about plans to raise the minimum wage. In the summer of 2010, the South Korean company signed a contract at the U.S. State Department, ensuring that the new industrial park would have a key tenant. In 2010, Clinton announced support of, and delivered the keynote address for, the inauguration of NTR, Ireland's first environmental foundation. At the 2012 Democratic National Convention, Clinton gave a widely praised speech nominating Barack Obama.
2016 presidential election and after
During the 2016 presidential election, Clinton again encouraged voters to support Hillary, and made appearances speaking on the campaign trail. In a series of tweets, then-President-elect Donald Trump criticized his ability to get people out to vote. Clinton served as a member of the electoral college for the state of New York. He voted for the Democratic ticket consisting of his wife Hillary and her running-mate Tim Kaine.
On September 7, 2017, Clinton partnered with former presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama to work with One America Appeal to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey and Hurricane Irma in the Gulf Coast and Texas communities.
In 2020, Clinton again served as a member of the United States Electoral College from New York, casting his vote for the successful Democratic ticket of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
Post-presidential health concerns
In September 2004, Clinton underwent quadruple bypass surgery. In March 2005, he again underwent surgery, this time for a partially collapsed lung. On February 11, 2010, he was rushed to New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Hospital in Manhattan after complaining of chest pains, and he had two coronary stents implanted in his heart. After this procedure, Clinton adopted a plant-based whole foods (vegan) diet, which had been recommended by doctors Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn. However, he has since incorporated fish and lean proteins at the suggestion of Dr. Mark Hyman, a proponent of the pseudoscientific ethos of functional medicine. As a result, he is no longer a strict vegan.
In October 2021, Clinton was treated for sepsis at the University of California, Irvine Medical Center.
Wealth
The Clintons incurred several million dollars in legal bills during his presidency, which were paid off four years after he left office. Bill and Hillary Clinton have each earned millions of dollars from book publishing. In 2016, Forbes reported Bill and Hillary Clinton made about $240million in the 15years from January 2001, to December 2015, (mostly from paid speeches, business consulting and book-writing). Also in 2016, CNN reported the Clintons combined to receive more than $153million in paid speeches from 2001 until spring 2015. In May 2015, The Hill reported that Bill and Hillary Clinton have made more than $25million in speaking fees since the start of 2014, and that Hillary Clinton also made $5million or more from her book, Hard Choices, during the same time period. In July 2014, The Wall Street Journal reported that at the end of 2012, the Clintons were worth between $5million and $25.5million, and that in 2012 (the last year they were required to disclose the information) the Clintons made between $16 and $17million, mostly from speaking fees earned by the former president. Clinton earned more than $104million from paid speeches between 2001 and 2012. In June 2014, ABC News and The Washington Post reported that Bill Clinton has made more than $100million giving paid speeches since leaving public office, and in 2008, The New York Times reported that the Clintons' income tax returns show they made $109million in the eight years from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2007, including almost $92million from his speaking and book-writing.
Bill Clinton has given dozens of paid speeches each year since leaving office in 2001, mostly to corporations and philanthropic groups in North America and Europe; he often earned $100,000 to $300,000 per speech. Russian investment bank with ties to the Kremlin paid Clinton $500,000 for a speech in Moscow. Hillary Clinton said she and Bill came out of the White House financially "broke" and in debt, especially due to large legal fees incurred during their years in the White House. "We had no money when we got there, and we struggled to, you know, piece together the resources for mortgages, for houses, for Chelsea's education." She added, "Bill has worked really hard ... we had to pay off all our debts ... he had to make double the money because of, obviously, taxes; and then pay off the debts, and get us houses, and take care of family members."
Personal life
At the age of 10, he was baptized at Park Place Baptist Church in Hot Springs, Arkansas and remained a member of a Baptist church. In 2007, with Jimmy Carter, he founded the New Baptist Covenant Baptist organization.
On October 11, 1975, in Fayetteville, Arkansas, he married Hillary Rodham, whom he met while studying at Yale University. They had Chelsea Clinton, their only child, on February 27, 1980. He is the maternal grandfather to Chelsea's three children.
Honors and recognition
Various colleges and universities have awarded Clinton honorary degrees, including Doctorate of Law degrees and Doctor of Humane Letters degrees. He received an honorary degree from Georgetown University, his alma mater, and was the commencement speaker in 1980. He is an honorary fellow of University College, Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar, although he did not complete his studies there. Schools have been named for Clinton, and statues have been built to pay him homage. U.S. states where he has been honored include Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and New York. He was presented with the Medal for Distinguished Public Service by Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 2001. The Clinton Presidential Center was opened in Little Rock, Arkansas, in his honor on December 5, 2001.
He has been honored in various other ways, in countries that include the Czech Republic, Papua New Guinea, Germany, and Kosovo. The Republic of Kosovo, in gratitude for his help during the Kosovo War, renamed a major street in the capital city of Pristina as Bill Clinton Boulevard and added a monumental Clinton statue.
Clinton was selected as Time "Man of the Year" in 1992, and again in 1998, along with Ken Starr. From a poll conducted of the American people in December 1999, Clinton was among eighteen included in Gallup's List of Widely Admired People of the 20th century. In 2001, Clinton received the NAACP's President's Award. He has also been honored with a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children, a J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding, a TED Prize (named for the confluence of technology, entertainment and design), and was named as an Honorary GLAAD Media Award recipient for his work as an advocate for the LGBT community.
In 2011, President Michel Martelly of Haiti awarded Clinton with the National Order of Honour and Merit to the rank of Grand Cross "for his various initiatives in Haiti and especially his high contribution to the reconstruction of the country after the earthquake of January 12, 2010". Clinton declared at the ceremony that "in the United States of America, I really don't believe former American presidents need awards anymore, but I am very honored by this one, I love Haiti, and I believe in its promise".
U.S. president Barack Obama awarded Clinton the Presidential Medal of Freedom on November 20, 2013.
Electoral history
Authored books
Recordings
Bill Clinton is one of the narrators on Wolf Tracks and Peter and the Wolf, a 2003 recording of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf performed by the Russian National Orchestra, on Pentatone, together with Mikhail Gorbachev and Sophia Loren. This garnered Clinton the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Children.
The audiobook edition of his autobiography, My Life, read by Clinton himself, won the 2005 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album as well as the Audie Award as the Audiobook of the Year.
Clinton has two more Grammy nominations for his audiobooks: Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World in 2007 and Back to Work in 2012.
See also
Clinton family
Clinton School of Public Service
Efforts to impeach Bill Clinton
Gun control policy of the Clinton Administration
List of presidents of the United States
List of presidents of the United States by previous experience
References
Notes
Citations
Further reading
Primary sources
Clinton, Bill. (with Al Gore). Science in the National Interest. Washington, D.C.: The White House, August 1994.
--- (with Al Gore). The Climate Change Action Plan. Washington, D.C.: The White House, October 1993.
Taylor Branch The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President. (2009) Simon & Schuster.
Official Congressional Record Impeachment Set: ... Containing the Procedures for Implementing the Articles of Impeachment and the Proceedings of the Impeachment Trial of President William Jefferson Clinton. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 1999.
Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, William J. Clinton. Washington, D.C.: Office of the Federal Register, National Archives and Records Administration: For sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 1994–2002.
S. Daniel Abraham Peace Is Possible, foreword by Bill Clinton
Popular books
Peter Baker The Breach: Inside the Impeachment and Trial of William Jefferson Clinton (2000)
James Bovard Feeling Your Pain: The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years (2000)
Joe Conason and Gene Lyons The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton (2003)
Elizabeth Drew On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994)
David Gergen Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership. (2000)
Nigel Hamilton Bill Clinton: An American Journey (2003)
Christopher Hitchens No One Left to Lie to: The Triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton (1999)
Michael Isikoff Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter's Story (1999)
Mark Katz Clinton and Me: A Real-Life Political Comedy (2004)
David Maraniss The Clinton Enigma: A Four and a Half Minute Speech Reveals This President's Entire Life (1998)
Dick Morris with Eileen McGann Because He Could (2004)
Richard A. Posner An Affair of State: The Investigation, Impeachment, and Trial of President Clinton (1999)
Mark J. Rozell The Clinton Scandal and the Future of American Government (2000)
Timperlake, Edward, and William C. Triplett II Year of the Rat: How Bill Clinton Compromised U.S. Security for Chinese Cash. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 1998.
Michael Waldman POTUS Speaks: Finding the Words That Defined the Clinton Presidency (2000)
Ivory Tower Publishing Company. Achievements of the Clinton Administration: the Complete Legislative and Executive. (1995)
Scholarly studies
Campbell, Colin, and Bert A. Rockman, eds. The Clinton Legacy (Chatham House Pub, 2000)
Cohen; Jeffrey E. "The Polls: Change and Stability in Public Assessments of Personal Traits, Bill Clinton, 1993–99" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 31, 2001
Cronin, Thomas E. and Michael A. Genovese; "President Clinton and Character Questions" Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 28, 1998
Davis; John. "The Evolution of American Grand Strategy and the War on Terrorism: Clinton and Bush Perspectives" White House Studies, Vol. 3, 2003
Dumbrell, John. "Was there a Clinton doctrine? President Clinton's foreign policy reconsidered". Diplomacy and Statecraft 13.2 (2002): 43–56.
Edwards; George C. "Bill Clinton and His Crisis of Governance" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Fisher; Patrick. "Clinton's Greatest Legislative Achievement? the Success of the 1993 Budget Reconciliation Bill" White House Studies, Vol. 1, 2001
Glad; Betty. "Evaluating Presidential Character" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Halberstam, David. War in a time of peace: Bush, Clinton, and the generals (Simon and Schuster, 2001). online
Harris, John F. The Survivor: Bill Clinton in the White House (2006). online
Head, Simon. The Clinton System (January 30, 2016), The New York Review of Books
Hyland, William G. Clinton's World: Remaking American Foreign Policy (1999)
Jewett, Aubrey W. and Marc D. Turetzky; "Stability and Change in President Clinton's Foreign Policy Beliefs, 1993–96" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 28, 1998
Laham, Nicholas, A Lost Cause: Bill Clinton's Campaign for National Health Insurance (1996)
Lanoue, David J. and Craig F. Emmert; "Voting in the Glare of the Spotlight: Representatives' Votes on the Impeachment of President Clinton" Polity, Vol. 32, 1999
Levy, Peter B. Encyclopedia of the Clinton presidency (Greenwood, 2002) online
Maurer; Paul J. "Media Feeding Frenzies: Press Behavior during Two Clinton Scandals" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 29, 1999
Nesmith, Bruce F., and Paul J. Quirk, "Triangulation: Position and Leadership in Clinton’s Domestic Policy." in 42: Inside the Presidency of Bill Clinton edited by Michael Nelson at al. (Cornell UP, 2016) pp. 46–76.
Nie; Martin A. "'It's the Environment, Stupid!': Clinton and the Environment" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, 1997 in JSTOR
O'Connor; Brendon. "Policies, Principles, and Polls: Bill Clinton's Third Way Welfare Politics 1992–1996" The Australian Journal of Politics and History, Vol. 48, 2002
Palmer, David. "'What Might Have Been'--Bill Clinton and American Political Power." Australasian Journal of American Studies (2005): 38–58. online
Renshon; Stanley A. The Clinton Presidency: Campaigning, Governing, and the Psychology of Leadership Westview Press, 1995
Renshon; Stanley A. "The Polls: The Public's Response to the Clinton Scandals, Part 1: Inconsistent Theories, Contradictory Evidence" Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 32, 2002
Romano, Flavio. Clinton and Blair: the political economy of the third way (Routledge, 2007)
Rushefsky, Mark E. and Kant Patel. Politics, Power & Policy Making: The Case of Health Care Reform in the 1990s (1998)
Schantz, Harvey L. Politics in an Era of Divided Government: Elections and Governance in the Second Clinton Administration (2001)
Troy, Gill. The Age of Clinton: America in the 1990s (2015)
Walt, Stephen M. "Two Cheers for Clinton's Foreign Policy" Foreign Affairs 79#2 (2000), pp. 63–79 online.
Warshaw, Shirley Anne. The Clinton Years (Infobase Publishing, 2009)
White, Mark, ed. The Presidency of Bill Clinton: The Legacy of a New Domestic and Foreign Policy (I.B.Tauris, 2012)
External links
Official
Presidential Library & Museum
Clinton Foundation
White House biography
Archived White House website
Interviews, speeches, and statements
Full audio of a number of Clinton speeches Miller Center of Public Affairs
Oral History Interview with Bill Clinton from Oral Histories of the American South, June 1974
"The Wanderer", a profile from The New Yorker, September 2006
Media coverage
Other
Extensive essays on Bill Clinton and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
"Life Portrait of Bill Clinton", from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, December 20, 1999
Clinton an American Experience documentary
1992 election episode in CNN's Race for the White House
1946 births
Living people
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| true |
[
"Steinbach Pride (also known as the March for Equality) is an annual pride march and rally in Steinbach, Manitoba. The first event, which was attended by 3,000 people, was held on July 9, 2016. It garnered national attention in Canada after no elected officials of the area chose to attend.\n\nHistory \nIn spring 2013, the NDP provincial government tabled Bill 18, an anti-bullying bill, which required all publicly funded schools to support anti-bullying student groups, including those supporting students of \"all sexual orientations and gender identities,\" such as Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs).\n\nSome socially conservative groups such as Southland Community Church and Steinbach Christian School opposed the bill on grounds that it violated their religious freedom, and Steinbach City Council passed a resolution asking the government to review the issue. A prayer meeting in Steinbach against Bill 18 drew 1,200 people. Bill 18 passed without amendments in September, and has not been rescinded even after the Progressive Conservatives came into power.\n\nIn 2016, Steinbach resident Michelle McHale petitioned Hanover School Division, asking for an inclusive curriculum, while the board responded by citing an internal policy not to discuss same-sex relationships in the classroom. It also denied a similar request from a lesbian student in one of their schools. McHale and her partner then filed a Human Rights Complaint against Hanover School Division.\n\nMcHale, who had been involved in Pride Winnipeg, organized the first ever Pride Parade in Steinbach.\n\nSince 2019, the event has been organized by Chris Plett. The 2020 and 2021 events were postponed due the Covid 19 pandemic.\n\nFirst parade \nThe first Steinbach Pride event was held on July 9, 2016. Organizers were expecting about 200 people, but over 3,000 people came from the region and across the province and the parade received national attention.\n\nSupport for the parade grew when news and criticisms broke that neither the mayor of Steinbach, their provincial representative, nor their federal representative would attend. Federal MP Ted Falk claimed a conflict in his schedule with Frog Follies festival in St-Pierre-Jolys, but when the Follies organizers publicly asked him to attend Steinbach Pride instead, Falk came out to say he would not attend because of “values of faith, family and community.”\n\nAt first, the RCMP denied the organizers' application for a permit to march on the street and asked the parade to stay on the sidewalk, but were able to negotiate a route with the city. The parade route went from E.A. Friesen Park to Steinbach City Hall, where speakers addressed a crowd that spilled out beyond the building's lawn.\n\nReferences \n\nPride parades in Canada\nLGBT in Manitoba\nLGBT Mennonites",
"The Bing Act of 1921 was an Ohio law, adopted April 29, 1921, that stated children between the ages of six and eighteen are required to attend school. There were two major exceptions to this law: a child who had already graduated high school did not have to stay in school until turning eighteen; and a child who was sixteen years old and had passed the seventh grade was allowed to work as a farmer instead of attending school.\n\nThe Bing Bill was drafted for Ohio legislation by Ohio Council of Child Welfare’s education committee. Although the Bill had many supporters, women’s groups were the primary activists for the bill. On January 24, 1921, the bill was introduced to the Ohio House of Representatives by Simeon H. Bing from Gallia County, chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Schools and President of Rio Grande College.\n\nThe Bing Bill was opposed by groups such and farmers and the Amish. They didn’t want to take their children out of the workforce and they knew it would cost them more with taxes being raised to run the schools. They also thought the schools would train the children to be delinquent and have bad behavior. Supporters argued that schooling will help the young farmers bring more efficient practices and modern ideas to the farms. \n\t\nThis law was created to stop child labor. Business wanted to employ children so that they could pay them less money than they would an adult worker. People who opposed child labor were for the Bing act because it mandated that children had to be at least sixteen years of age to work at most industries in Ohio. At age sixteen the children had to get a work permit from their parents and school to say they have passed the seventh grade and are allowed to work. \n\t\nWhen children were forced to attend school some families had some financial troubles because they relied on their children to help with the bills and help on the farms. The schools also had financial trouble because more children attended schools. Every school had to have equivalent education through the highs school level and rural schools needed transportation. The Ohio Legislature adopted a 3 percent sales tax that gave half of the funds to the school districts for education purposes and operating costs. With making schooling mandatory, school attendance went up. This reduced illiteracy and promoted good citizenry. Businessmen and industrialists were for the Bing bill because they wanted more intelligence in the work field.\n\nReferences \n\n\"Bing Act of 1921\", Ohio History Central, July 1, 2005, http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1506\n\"Education\", Patterson for Ohio House, 2000, https://web.archive.org/web/20120822013906/http://pattersonforohio.com/education/\n\nEducation in Ohio\n1921 in Ohio\nCompulsory education"
] |
[
"Aaron Carter",
"2000-2002: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron"
] |
C_c783a972e54e4adb9a459a3b550cabcf_1
|
Was "Come Get It" Aaron Carter's first album produced?
| 1 |
Was "Come Get It" Aaron Carter's first album produced?
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Aaron Carter
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Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", which songs received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as opening act in several concerts for Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. In December of that year the album went platinum and he began dating teen actress Hilary Duff. In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. At the age of 13, Carter recorded the album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001 and featured his first duet recording with his brother, Nick, and a duet with the new group at the time, No Secrets. Play Along Toys also created an Aaron Carter action figure in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron also went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. CANNOTANSWER
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Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label.
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Aaron Charles Carter (born December 7, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer. He first came to fame as a pop and hip hop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among pre-teen and teenage audiences during the first years of the 21st century with his four studio albums.
Carter began performing at age seven and released his self-titled debut album in 1997 at age nine, selling a million copies worldwide. His second album Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000) sold three million copies in the United States, and Carter began making guest appearances on Nickelodeon and touring with the Backstreet Boys shortly after the record's release. Carter's next album, Oh Aaron, also went platinum, and the musician released what would be his last studio album for 16 years, Another Earthquake!, in 2002, followed by his 2003 Most Requested Hits collection.
He has appeared on Dancing with the Stars, the Broadway musical Seussical, the off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, and made several one-off performances. In 2014, he released a single featuring rapper Pat SoLo, "Ooh Wee". Carter released the single, "Fool's Gold", on April 1, 2016, and an EP titled LøVë in February 2017. His fifth studio album of the same name was released on February 16, 2018.
Early life
Aaron Charles Carter was born on December 7, 1987 in Tampa, Florida, where his parents, Jane Elizabeth (née Spaulding) and Robert Gene Carter (1952–2017), ran a retirement home. The family was originally from New York City, where his older brother Nick, of the boy band Backstreet Boys, was born. In addition to his brother, he has three sisters: twin sister Angel (a model), B.J. and Leslie (1986–2012). Carter attended the Frank D. Miles Elementary School and the Ruskin School in Florida.
Music career
1997–1999: Music beginnings and self-titled debut album
Carter began his career as the lead singer of Dead End, a band formed after the members met at a Tampa rock school. He left the band after two years because they were interested in alternative rock while Carter was interested in pop.
Carter made his first solo appearance, singing a cover of The Jets' "Crush on You", when opening for the Backstreet Boys in Berlin in March 1997. The performance was followed by a record contract, and in the fall of 1997, he released his first single "Crush on You". Carter's debut studio album Aaron Carter, was released on December 1, 1997. The album achieved gold status in Norway, Spain, Denmark, Canada, and Germany, and was released in the United States on June 16, 1998.
2000–2001: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron
Carter's second studio album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It), was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", all of which received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as the opening act in several concerts for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again Tour.
In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical.
At the age of 13, Carter recorded his third studio album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001, and featured his first duet recording with his brother Nick, and a song with the group No Secrets. Play Along Toys created an Aaron Carter doll in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. His songs "Leave It Up to Me", "A.C.'s Alien Nation", and "Go Jimmy Jimmy" were used in the soundtrack for the 2001 movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
2002–2008: Another Earthquake, Most Requested Hits, Saturday Night and House of Carters
Carter's fourth studio album, Another Earthquake!, was released on September 3, 2002 during the "Rock, Rap, and Retro" tour. The album featured the patriotic-themed "America A.O." and the ballad "Do You Remember". He guest-starred on three episodes of the Nickelodeon TV show All That and sang the theme song to the PBS animated series Liberty's Kids, titled "Through my own Eyes".
In 2002, Carter's parents filed a lawsuit against his former manager Lou Pearlman (now deceased), alleging failure to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties on Carter's 1998 album, which was released through Pearlman's label and production company Trans Continental. On March 13, 2003, Pearlman was declared in contempt of court for ignoring a court order to produce documents relating to royalty payments. The suit was settled out of court.
Carter's Most Requested Hits, a collection including tracks from his last three albums as well as a new single, "One Better", was released on November 3, 2003.
"Saturday Night" was released on March 22, 2005 and promoted by Carter that summer. The song was released by Trans Continental label, with Lou Pearlman as executive producer. The single was also featured in the soundtrack of the film Popstar, in which Carter starred. The direct-to-video film was based heavily on his own life as a performer. A real-life Motocross racer, Carter also appeared in 2005's Supercross.
On March 21, 2006, Trans Continental filed a lawsuit against Carter with the Los Angeles Superior Court, citing that Carter reneged on a recording deal. Carter signed the contract on December 7, 2004 when he was 17; his attorney argued that Carter had the right to "cancel or void various agreements" that were signed when he was a minor.
Carter and his siblings starred in a reality show, House of Carters, which ran in October–November 2006 on E!. The series featured all five Carter siblings reuniting to live in the same house.
2009–2013: Dancing with the Stars and return to touring
In 2009, Carter joined season 9 of Dancing with the Stars. He was partnered with Karina Smirnoff; they finished in fifth place.
During this time he also released some music online, including the single "Dance with Me" featuring Flo Rida. On August 22, 2010, Carter performed in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY at a benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol, a 3-year-old stricken with Stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer.
On January 23, 2011, Carter's manager Johnny Wright announced that Carter entered a treatment facility "to heal some emotional and spiritual issues he was dealing with." After entering the facility, Carter's first message to his fans was, "The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human." On February 10, 2011, it was announced that Carter had successfully completed a month of rehab at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California. Carter was scheduled to perform a second benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol on February 5, 2011, in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY. On March 24, 2011, he performed at a benefit concert for the activist organization, "Four Years. Go" in Manville, New Jersey. On September 2, 2011, Carter performed a show at the Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales, Florida.
On November 7, 2011, Carter began starring in the Off-Broadway production of the world's longest running musical, The Fantasticks, at the Snapple Theater Center in New York City. Carter was cast in the role of Matt, the play's central character.
In January 2012, Carter was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. He was eliminated in the first episode.
Throughout 2012, Carter made several one-off performances. On January 12, 2012, Carter performed a concert at Showcase Live in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and on January 19, 2012, he performed another concert at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. On May 11, 2012, he performed an acoustic show at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Carter hosted a Ryan Cabrera show on May 30, 2012 in Flemington, New Jersey, and performed at Mixtape Festival on August 17, 2012. In 2013, Carter kicked off his first tour in eight years, the After Party Tour. The tour ran from February to December 2013 and included over 150 shows in the United States and Canada.
2014–present: The Music Never Stopped and LØVË projects
In June 2014, Carter went on an 11-city Canadian tour during which he performed new songs from his upcoming album. Carter also announced that he would be embarking on a worldwide tour entitled the Wonderful World Tour, named for a song titled "Wonderful World" off of his upcoming album. The tour included 50 dates and ran from September 2014 until January 2015. In July, Carter appeared on Good Day LA, where he performed "Ooh Wee", a single featuring Pat SoLo. In February 2015, Carter released an EP through SoundCloud titled The Music Never Stopped.
On January 31, 2016, Carter released his music video for "Curious" under the name Kid Carter, co-directed by MDM Media's Michael D. Monroe, Ben Epstein and Aaron Carter.
In April 2016, Carter released the single "Fool's Gold". Another single, "Sooner or Later", was released in January 2017. Both songs appeared on the EP LØVË, released in February 2017, written by Carter, Jon Asher, Melanie Fontana, Taylor "Lakestreet Louie" Helgeson, and Michel Schulz, produced and independently released by Carter on his new venture Rakkaus Records. An album of the same name was released as his fifth studio album on February 16, 2018.
Personal life
Legal troubles
On February 21, 2008, Carter was arrested in Kimble County, Texas, when he was pulled over for speeding, and authorities found less than two ounces of marijuana in his car.
On July 15, 2017, Carter was arrested in Georgia on suspicion of driving under the influence and marijuana charges. On October 19, 2021, Carter agreed to plea no contest to reckless driving and was placed on probation and, among other conditions, was ordered to perform community service and pay $1,500 in court fees and fines.
On August 12, 2019, Carter was granted a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend, Russian model Lina Valentina, after she reportedly threatened to stab him. On March 29, 2020, Carter's girlfriend Melanie Martin was arrested in Los Angeles following an alleged domestic violence incident against him. A few months earlier, Carter had the name 'Melanie' tattooed on his forehead.
Sexuality and relationships
Carter came out as bisexual on August 5, 2017 through Twitter, and later that year on December 18, he made a guest appearance on the podcast LGBTQ&A to discuss both his career and sexuality. He has reaffirmed his bisexuality publicly on at least one other occasion, but has also said that he has only ever had relationships with women. He has dated several high-profile female celebrities, including Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan.
On September 18, 2006, it was reported that Carter was engaged to former beauty queen and Playboy model Kari Ann Peniche. US Weekly later reported that Carter broke off his engagement to Peniche, saying he was impulsive in proposing to her. The two reunited in 2015.
Finances
On November 22, 2013, Carter filed a bankruptcy petition to shed more than $3.5 million in debt, mostly taxes owed from the money made at the height of his popularity. "This is not a negative thing," Carter's publicist Steve Honig told CNN. "It's actually very positive. It's him doing what he needs to do to move forward." The petition states that Carter's biggest creditor is the U.S. government; "he owes the Internal Revenue Service $1.3 million in back taxes from his income in 2003, when Carter was just 16." Carter settled all of his tax debt in 2014.
In February 2019, Carter purchased a home in Lancaster, California.
Health
In September 2017, Carter appeared on The Doctors, a syndicated health-focused talk show, to discuss public attention generated by his gaunt appearance and drug-related arrests. A thorough series of tests and examinations revealed Carter was not suffering from cancer or any sexually transmitted disease, but he did have a candida infection; which can be a sign of a weakened immune system. Carter tested negative for illegal drugs, but tested positive for "a mixture of benzodiazepines with opiates", a potentially dangerous combination of prescription medications that Carter said he took for anxiety and sleep. He was malnourished and underweight — at - with a body mass index of 17 (a BMI of 18.5 to 25 is normal range). Carter was advised to enter a drug rehabilitation program and remain under medical care.
Carter admitted himself to Alo House, a treatment center in Malibu, California. In February 2018, he reported improvement and that his weight was . In 2019, Carter and his mother, Jane, appeared in the WEtv reality series Marriage Bootcamp: Family Edition. The show focuses on attempting to repair strained relationships through unconventional therapy.
Controversies
Carter has had a tumultuous relationship with his siblings, and many of their feuds have played out on social media. In September 2019, Carter made allegations of sexual abuse against his sister Leslie, who died of a drug overdose in 2012, saying that the abuse began when he was 10 and ended when he was 13, and occurred when Leslie would fail to take her prescribed medication for her bipolar disorder. He also accused his brother Nick of life-long abuse, and implied that Nick also abused a female family member. Nick's legal team denied the allegations, which came after Nick and their sister, Angel, sought restraining orders against Carter, who reportedly confessed that he had thoughts of killing Nick's then-pregnant wife, Lauren Carter.
In January 2020, German artist Jonas Jödicke tweeted that Carter was making unauthorized use of Jödicke's copyrighted artwork to promote merchandise. Carter did reply. Following the incident, Jödicke was interviewed by Forbes, saying he was "absolutely amazed" at Carter's response. In June 2021, Carter agreed to pay Jödicke $12,500.
In March 2020, Carter set up an OnlyFans account, which is popular in the adult entertainment industry. Carter began charging $50 to $100 per nude photo, or $26 a month. PinkNews stated "the prices are steep and the content is bizarre", while Queerty stated "The reviews of Aaron Carter's OnlyFans page are in and they're not good."
In August 2021, Carter was announced as a performer in the Las Vegas production of Naked Boys Singing. He was let go before the show's debut because he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Boxing career
On June 11, 2021, Carter participated in an exhibition boxing match with former NBA player Lamar Odom. Odom knocked Carter out in the second round.
Discography
Studio albums
Aaron Carter (1997)
Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000)
Oh Aaron (2001)
Another Earthquake! (2002)
LØVË (2018)
Tours
Headlining
2000–2001: Party Tour
2002: Aaron's Winter Party
2002: Rock Rap N' Retro Tour
2003–2004: Jukebox Tour
2005: Remix Tour
2013: After Party Tour
2014: Aaron Carter's Wonderful World Tour
Co-headlining
1998: Kids Go Music Festival (with Take 5, No Authority and 911)
1998: Kids Go Christmas Festival (with R&B)
1999: All That! Music and More Festival (with Monica, 98 Degrees, B*Witched, Tatyana Ali, 3rd Storee, and No Authority)
2001: Radio Disney Live! 2001 World Tour (with Krystal Harris, Hoku, Baha Men, Myra, True Vibe, Jump5, Brooke Allison, Plus One, Kaci, Play and A-Teens)
2018–2020 Pop 2000 Tour
Opening act
1997: Backstreet Boys: Live In Concert Tour (Germany, Switzerland, Austria)
1998: Backstreet's Back Tour (United States, Canada)
2000: Oops!... I Did It Again Tour (England, Germany)
Promotional
1998: Eurasian Tour
2000: Australian Tour
2000: Wal-Mart Promo Tour
Filmography
Television
Film
References
External links
1987 births
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American rappers
21st-century American singers
American child singers
American dance musicians
American hip hop singers
American male child actors
American male dancers
American male film actors
American male pop singers
American male rappers
American male singer-songwriters
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Bisexual men
Bisexual male actors
Bisexual musicians
LGBT rappers
Child pop musicians
Jive Records artists
LGBT people from Florida
LGBT singers from the United States
Living people
Male actors from Florida
Male actors from Tampa, Florida
Musicians from Tampa, Florida
Participants in American reality television series
People from Ruskin, Florida
Rappers from Florida
Singer-songwriters from Florida
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
OnlyFans creators
| false |
[
"2 Good 2 B True is American teen pop singer Aaron Carter's third compilation album. The album primarily consists of songs that originally appeared on Aaron Carter's last three studio albums. It was released in February 2006, only one month after his previous compilation Come Get It: The Very Best of Aaron Carter.\n\nTrack listing\n\nTrack information\nTracks 1–4 can be found on 2000's Aaron's Party (Come Get It).\nTrack 3 can be found on 2000s The Little Vampire soundtrack.\nTrack 6 can be found on 2001's Oh Aaron.\nTracks 8–10 can be found on 2002's Another Earthquake.\nTracks 5 and 7 are B-sides to singles released from the album Aaron's Party (Come Get It).\n\nReferences\n\nAaron Carter compilation albums\n2006 compilation albums\nSony BMG compilation albums",
"Aaron's Party: The Videos is pop musician Aaron Carter's first music video DVD with videos from his then-recent album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It). It was released in 2000, the month after the release of the corresponding album. The video peaked at #7 at US Billboard Top Music Video Charts. The DVD was certified Platinum by RIAA in December 1, 2000.\n\nVideos\n\"Aaron's Party Come Get It\"- 3:24\n\"I Want Candy\"- 3:13\n\"Bounce\"- 3:19\n\"Iko Iko\"- 2:41\n\"The Clapping Song\"- 2:58\n\nCertifications and sales\n\nReferences\n\n2000 video albums\n2000 compilation albums\nMusic video compilation albums\nAaron Carter video albums"
] |
[
"Aaron Carter",
"2000-2002: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron",
"Was \"Come Get It\" Aaron Carter's first album produced?",
"Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label."
] |
C_c783a972e54e4adb9a459a3b550cabcf_1
|
When did Aaron Carter make his acting debut?
| 2 |
When did Aaron Carter make his acting debut?
|
Aaron Carter
|
Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", which songs received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as opening act in several concerts for Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. In December of that year the album went platinum and he began dating teen actress Hilary Duff. In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. At the age of 13, Carter recorded the album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001 and featured his first duet recording with his brother, Nick, and a duet with the new group at the time, No Secrets. Play Along Toys also created an Aaron Carter action figure in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron also went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. CANNOTANSWER
|
In March 2001, he made his acting debut,
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Aaron Charles Carter (born December 7, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer. He first came to fame as a pop and hip hop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among pre-teen and teenage audiences during the first years of the 21st century with his four studio albums.
Carter began performing at age seven and released his self-titled debut album in 1997 at age nine, selling a million copies worldwide. His second album Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000) sold three million copies in the United States, and Carter began making guest appearances on Nickelodeon and touring with the Backstreet Boys shortly after the record's release. Carter's next album, Oh Aaron, also went platinum, and the musician released what would be his last studio album for 16 years, Another Earthquake!, in 2002, followed by his 2003 Most Requested Hits collection.
He has appeared on Dancing with the Stars, the Broadway musical Seussical, the off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, and made several one-off performances. In 2014, he released a single featuring rapper Pat SoLo, "Ooh Wee". Carter released the single, "Fool's Gold", on April 1, 2016, and an EP titled LøVë in February 2017. His fifth studio album of the same name was released on February 16, 2018.
Early life
Aaron Charles Carter was born on December 7, 1987 in Tampa, Florida, where his parents, Jane Elizabeth (née Spaulding) and Robert Gene Carter (1952–2017), ran a retirement home. The family was originally from New York City, where his older brother Nick, of the boy band Backstreet Boys, was born. In addition to his brother, he has three sisters: twin sister Angel (a model), B.J. and Leslie (1986–2012). Carter attended the Frank D. Miles Elementary School and the Ruskin School in Florida.
Music career
1997–1999: Music beginnings and self-titled debut album
Carter began his career as the lead singer of Dead End, a band formed after the members met at a Tampa rock school. He left the band after two years because they were interested in alternative rock while Carter was interested in pop.
Carter made his first solo appearance, singing a cover of The Jets' "Crush on You", when opening for the Backstreet Boys in Berlin in March 1997. The performance was followed by a record contract, and in the fall of 1997, he released his first single "Crush on You". Carter's debut studio album Aaron Carter, was released on December 1, 1997. The album achieved gold status in Norway, Spain, Denmark, Canada, and Germany, and was released in the United States on June 16, 1998.
2000–2001: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron
Carter's second studio album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It), was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", all of which received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as the opening act in several concerts for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again Tour.
In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical.
At the age of 13, Carter recorded his third studio album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001, and featured his first duet recording with his brother Nick, and a song with the group No Secrets. Play Along Toys created an Aaron Carter doll in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. His songs "Leave It Up to Me", "A.C.'s Alien Nation", and "Go Jimmy Jimmy" were used in the soundtrack for the 2001 movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
2002–2008: Another Earthquake, Most Requested Hits, Saturday Night and House of Carters
Carter's fourth studio album, Another Earthquake!, was released on September 3, 2002 during the "Rock, Rap, and Retro" tour. The album featured the patriotic-themed "America A.O." and the ballad "Do You Remember". He guest-starred on three episodes of the Nickelodeon TV show All That and sang the theme song to the PBS animated series Liberty's Kids, titled "Through my own Eyes".
In 2002, Carter's parents filed a lawsuit against his former manager Lou Pearlman (now deceased), alleging failure to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties on Carter's 1998 album, which was released through Pearlman's label and production company Trans Continental. On March 13, 2003, Pearlman was declared in contempt of court for ignoring a court order to produce documents relating to royalty payments. The suit was settled out of court.
Carter's Most Requested Hits, a collection including tracks from his last three albums as well as a new single, "One Better", was released on November 3, 2003.
"Saturday Night" was released on March 22, 2005 and promoted by Carter that summer. The song was released by Trans Continental label, with Lou Pearlman as executive producer. The single was also featured in the soundtrack of the film Popstar, in which Carter starred. The direct-to-video film was based heavily on his own life as a performer. A real-life Motocross racer, Carter also appeared in 2005's Supercross.
On March 21, 2006, Trans Continental filed a lawsuit against Carter with the Los Angeles Superior Court, citing that Carter reneged on a recording deal. Carter signed the contract on December 7, 2004 when he was 17; his attorney argued that Carter had the right to "cancel or void various agreements" that were signed when he was a minor.
Carter and his siblings starred in a reality show, House of Carters, which ran in October–November 2006 on E!. The series featured all five Carter siblings reuniting to live in the same house.
2009–2013: Dancing with the Stars and return to touring
In 2009, Carter joined season 9 of Dancing with the Stars. He was partnered with Karina Smirnoff; they finished in fifth place.
During this time he also released some music online, including the single "Dance with Me" featuring Flo Rida. On August 22, 2010, Carter performed in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY at a benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol, a 3-year-old stricken with Stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer.
On January 23, 2011, Carter's manager Johnny Wright announced that Carter entered a treatment facility "to heal some emotional and spiritual issues he was dealing with." After entering the facility, Carter's first message to his fans was, "The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human." On February 10, 2011, it was announced that Carter had successfully completed a month of rehab at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California. Carter was scheduled to perform a second benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol on February 5, 2011, in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY. On March 24, 2011, he performed at a benefit concert for the activist organization, "Four Years. Go" in Manville, New Jersey. On September 2, 2011, Carter performed a show at the Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales, Florida.
On November 7, 2011, Carter began starring in the Off-Broadway production of the world's longest running musical, The Fantasticks, at the Snapple Theater Center in New York City. Carter was cast in the role of Matt, the play's central character.
In January 2012, Carter was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. He was eliminated in the first episode.
Throughout 2012, Carter made several one-off performances. On January 12, 2012, Carter performed a concert at Showcase Live in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and on January 19, 2012, he performed another concert at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. On May 11, 2012, he performed an acoustic show at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Carter hosted a Ryan Cabrera show on May 30, 2012 in Flemington, New Jersey, and performed at Mixtape Festival on August 17, 2012. In 2013, Carter kicked off his first tour in eight years, the After Party Tour. The tour ran from February to December 2013 and included over 150 shows in the United States and Canada.
2014–present: The Music Never Stopped and LØVË projects
In June 2014, Carter went on an 11-city Canadian tour during which he performed new songs from his upcoming album. Carter also announced that he would be embarking on a worldwide tour entitled the Wonderful World Tour, named for a song titled "Wonderful World" off of his upcoming album. The tour included 50 dates and ran from September 2014 until January 2015. In July, Carter appeared on Good Day LA, where he performed "Ooh Wee", a single featuring Pat SoLo. In February 2015, Carter released an EP through SoundCloud titled The Music Never Stopped.
On January 31, 2016, Carter released his music video for "Curious" under the name Kid Carter, co-directed by MDM Media's Michael D. Monroe, Ben Epstein and Aaron Carter.
In April 2016, Carter released the single "Fool's Gold". Another single, "Sooner or Later", was released in January 2017. Both songs appeared on the EP LØVË, released in February 2017, written by Carter, Jon Asher, Melanie Fontana, Taylor "Lakestreet Louie" Helgeson, and Michel Schulz, produced and independently released by Carter on his new venture Rakkaus Records. An album of the same name was released as his fifth studio album on February 16, 2018.
Personal life
Legal troubles
On February 21, 2008, Carter was arrested in Kimble County, Texas, when he was pulled over for speeding, and authorities found less than two ounces of marijuana in his car.
On July 15, 2017, Carter was arrested in Georgia on suspicion of driving under the influence and marijuana charges. On October 19, 2021, Carter agreed to plea no contest to reckless driving and was placed on probation and, among other conditions, was ordered to perform community service and pay $1,500 in court fees and fines.
On August 12, 2019, Carter was granted a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend, Russian model Lina Valentina, after she reportedly threatened to stab him. On March 29, 2020, Carter's girlfriend Melanie Martin was arrested in Los Angeles following an alleged domestic violence incident against him. A few months earlier, Carter had the name 'Melanie' tattooed on his forehead.
Sexuality and relationships
Carter came out as bisexual on August 5, 2017 through Twitter, and later that year on December 18, he made a guest appearance on the podcast LGBTQ&A to discuss both his career and sexuality. He has reaffirmed his bisexuality publicly on at least one other occasion, but has also said that he has only ever had relationships with women. He has dated several high-profile female celebrities, including Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan.
On September 18, 2006, it was reported that Carter was engaged to former beauty queen and Playboy model Kari Ann Peniche. US Weekly later reported that Carter broke off his engagement to Peniche, saying he was impulsive in proposing to her. The two reunited in 2015.
Finances
On November 22, 2013, Carter filed a bankruptcy petition to shed more than $3.5 million in debt, mostly taxes owed from the money made at the height of his popularity. "This is not a negative thing," Carter's publicist Steve Honig told CNN. "It's actually very positive. It's him doing what he needs to do to move forward." The petition states that Carter's biggest creditor is the U.S. government; "he owes the Internal Revenue Service $1.3 million in back taxes from his income in 2003, when Carter was just 16." Carter settled all of his tax debt in 2014.
In February 2019, Carter purchased a home in Lancaster, California.
Health
In September 2017, Carter appeared on The Doctors, a syndicated health-focused talk show, to discuss public attention generated by his gaunt appearance and drug-related arrests. A thorough series of tests and examinations revealed Carter was not suffering from cancer or any sexually transmitted disease, but he did have a candida infection; which can be a sign of a weakened immune system. Carter tested negative for illegal drugs, but tested positive for "a mixture of benzodiazepines with opiates", a potentially dangerous combination of prescription medications that Carter said he took for anxiety and sleep. He was malnourished and underweight — at - with a body mass index of 17 (a BMI of 18.5 to 25 is normal range). Carter was advised to enter a drug rehabilitation program and remain under medical care.
Carter admitted himself to Alo House, a treatment center in Malibu, California. In February 2018, he reported improvement and that his weight was . In 2019, Carter and his mother, Jane, appeared in the WEtv reality series Marriage Bootcamp: Family Edition. The show focuses on attempting to repair strained relationships through unconventional therapy.
Controversies
Carter has had a tumultuous relationship with his siblings, and many of their feuds have played out on social media. In September 2019, Carter made allegations of sexual abuse against his sister Leslie, who died of a drug overdose in 2012, saying that the abuse began when he was 10 and ended when he was 13, and occurred when Leslie would fail to take her prescribed medication for her bipolar disorder. He also accused his brother Nick of life-long abuse, and implied that Nick also abused a female family member. Nick's legal team denied the allegations, which came after Nick and their sister, Angel, sought restraining orders against Carter, who reportedly confessed that he had thoughts of killing Nick's then-pregnant wife, Lauren Carter.
In January 2020, German artist Jonas Jödicke tweeted that Carter was making unauthorized use of Jödicke's copyrighted artwork to promote merchandise. Carter did reply. Following the incident, Jödicke was interviewed by Forbes, saying he was "absolutely amazed" at Carter's response. In June 2021, Carter agreed to pay Jödicke $12,500.
In March 2020, Carter set up an OnlyFans account, which is popular in the adult entertainment industry. Carter began charging $50 to $100 per nude photo, or $26 a month. PinkNews stated "the prices are steep and the content is bizarre", while Queerty stated "The reviews of Aaron Carter's OnlyFans page are in and they're not good."
In August 2021, Carter was announced as a performer in the Las Vegas production of Naked Boys Singing. He was let go before the show's debut because he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Boxing career
On June 11, 2021, Carter participated in an exhibition boxing match with former NBA player Lamar Odom. Odom knocked Carter out in the second round.
Discography
Studio albums
Aaron Carter (1997)
Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000)
Oh Aaron (2001)
Another Earthquake! (2002)
LØVË (2018)
Tours
Headlining
2000–2001: Party Tour
2002: Aaron's Winter Party
2002: Rock Rap N' Retro Tour
2003–2004: Jukebox Tour
2005: Remix Tour
2013: After Party Tour
2014: Aaron Carter's Wonderful World Tour
Co-headlining
1998: Kids Go Music Festival (with Take 5, No Authority and 911)
1998: Kids Go Christmas Festival (with R&B)
1999: All That! Music and More Festival (with Monica, 98 Degrees, B*Witched, Tatyana Ali, 3rd Storee, and No Authority)
2001: Radio Disney Live! 2001 World Tour (with Krystal Harris, Hoku, Baha Men, Myra, True Vibe, Jump5, Brooke Allison, Plus One, Kaci, Play and A-Teens)
2018–2020 Pop 2000 Tour
Opening act
1997: Backstreet Boys: Live In Concert Tour (Germany, Switzerland, Austria)
1998: Backstreet's Back Tour (United States, Canada)
2000: Oops!... I Did It Again Tour (England, Germany)
Promotional
1998: Eurasian Tour
2000: Australian Tour
2000: Wal-Mart Promo Tour
Filmography
Television
Film
References
External links
1987 births
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American rappers
21st-century American singers
American child singers
American dance musicians
American hip hop singers
American male child actors
American male dancers
American male film actors
American male pop singers
American male rappers
American male singer-songwriters
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Bisexual men
Bisexual male actors
Bisexual musicians
LGBT rappers
Child pop musicians
Jive Records artists
LGBT people from Florida
LGBT singers from the United States
Living people
Male actors from Florida
Male actors from Tampa, Florida
Musicians from Tampa, Florida
Participants in American reality television series
People from Ruskin, Florida
Rappers from Florida
Singer-songwriters from Florida
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
OnlyFans creators
| true |
[
"Most Requested Hits is American teen pop singer Aaron Carter's first compilation album and fourth overall album under Jive Records. The album did not make the top 50 and has only sold about 50,000 copies. The compilation included no tracks from Carter's self-titled debut album, including one of Carter's most successful singles worldwide, \"Crush on You\".\n\nTrack listing\n\"Aaron's Party (Come Get It)\" (B. Kierulf; J. Schwartz) – 3:25\n\"I Want Candy\" (Bert Berns; Gerald Goldstein; Richard Gottehrer; Robert Feldman) – 3:14\n\"That's How I Beat Shaq\" (B. Kierulf; J. Schwartz) – 3:25\n\"Oh Aaron\" (featuring Nick Carter and No Secrets) (Andy Goldmark; B. Kierulf; J. Schwartz) – 3:17 \n\"Not Too Young, Not Too Old\" (featuring Nick Carter) (A. Lindsey; L. Palmer; L. Secon; M. Power; S. Williams; V. Raeburn) – 3:08\n\"I'm All About You\" (Andy Goldmark; M. Mueller) – 3:41 \n\"Leave It Up to Me\" (L. Secon; M. Power) – 2:59\n\"Another Earthquake\" (L. Secon; M. Power) – 2:51 \n\"To All the Girls\" (K. Giola; Rich Cronin; Sheppard) – 3:26\n\"Summertime\" (featuring Baha Men) (Martin Bushell; N. Cook; Tony Momrelle) – 3:50 \n\"Do You Remember\" (D. O'Donoghue; M. Mueller; M. Sheehan) – 3:58 \n\"America A O\" (Alan Ross; L. Secon; M. Power) – 3:30 \n\"She Wants Me\" (featuring Nick Carter) (J. Coplan) – 3:43\n\"One Better\" (A. Carter; B. Kierulf; J. Schwartz) – 3:29\n\"My Shorty\" (A. Theodore; M. Sandlofer) – 3:41\n\"One Better\" (Remix) (Hidden Bonus Track) – 3:19\n\nTrack information\nTracks 1–3 can be found on 2000's Aaron's Party (Come Get It).\nTracks 4–6 can be found on 2001's Oh Aaron.\nTrack 7 can be found on 2001's Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius soundtrack and on the Korean edition of Oh Aaron.\nTracks 8–12 can be found on 2002's Another Earthquake.\nTracks 13–16 are original tracks.\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2003 compilation albums\nAaron Carter compilation albums",
"Come Get It: The Very Best of Aaron Carter is American teen pop singer Aaron Carter's second compilation album, released in 2006. The album received mixed reviews, with ChartAttack calling it inexplicable.\n\nBackground\nCome Get It: The Very Best of Aaron Carter is the fifth and final overall album released under the Jive Records label. Carter's recording career had come to a halt since his lawsuit against Lou Pearlman in 2003. By 2006, Carter had begun to transition away from recording and into reality television with the premiere of the reality show House of Carters.\n\nTrack listing\n \"Aaron's Party (Come Get It)\" – 3:25\n \"That's How I Beat Shaq\" – 3:24\n \"Bounce\" – 3:19\n \"My Internet Girl\" – 4:00\n \"I Want Candy\" – 3:14\n \"Leave It Up to Me\" – 2:58\n \"A.C.'s Alien Nation\" – 3:22\n \"Oh Aaron\" (with Nick Carter and No Secrets) – 3:18\n \"I'm All About You\" – 3:41\n \"To All the Girls\" – 3:26\n \"Another Earthquake\" – 2:52\n \"One Better\" – 3:30\n\nTrack information\n Tracks 1–5 can be found on 2000's Aaron's Party (Come Get It).\n Tracks 6–7 can be found on 2001's Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius soundtrack.\n Tracks 8–9 can be found on 2001's Oh Aaron.\n Tracks 10–11 can be found on 2002's Another Earthquake.\n Track 12 can be found on 2003's Most Requested Hits.\n\nTrack 1, \"Aaron's Party (Come Get It)\" peaked at #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of September 16, 2000.\n\nTracks 6 and 7 did not chart but were part of a landmark cross-promotion deal between Nickelodeon Records and Jive Records.\n\nTrack 9, \"I'm All About You\", landed on Top 40 radio in 2002.\n\nDespite both charting in the Top 10 in the United Kingdom, neither \"Crush on You\" or \"Crazy Little Party Girl\" appear on this compilation. No definitive statement was given for their omission, however Carter is known to dislike his debut album and original singing voice. This was the second compilation album of his, after 2003's Most Requested Hits where no songs from his debut album were featured.\n\nCritical reception\nWriting for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine praises the compilation for its tighter and more concise approach to Carter's discography, compared to 2003's Most Requested Hits. Erlewine also notes the omission of \"Shake It\", Carter's first hit, and Carter's cover of \"Surfin' USA\", both tracks present on his debut album.\n\nReferences\n\n2006 greatest hits albums\nAaron Carter compilation albums"
] |
[
"Aaron Carter",
"2000-2002: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron",
"Was \"Come Get It\" Aaron Carter's first album produced?",
"Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label.",
"When did Aaron Carter make his acting debut?",
"In March 2001, he made his acting debut,"
] |
C_c783a972e54e4adb9a459a3b550cabcf_1
|
What was his first acting job?
| 3 |
What was Aaron Carter's first acting job?
|
Aaron Carter
|
Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", which songs received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as opening act in several concerts for Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. In December of that year the album went platinum and he began dating teen actress Hilary Duff. In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. At the age of 13, Carter recorded the album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001 and featured his first duet recording with his brother, Nick, and a duet with the new group at the time, No Secrets. Play Along Toys also created an Aaron Carter action figure in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron also went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. CANNOTANSWER
|
guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire.
|
Aaron Charles Carter (born December 7, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer. He first came to fame as a pop and hip hop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among pre-teen and teenage audiences during the first years of the 21st century with his four studio albums.
Carter began performing at age seven and released his self-titled debut album in 1997 at age nine, selling a million copies worldwide. His second album Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000) sold three million copies in the United States, and Carter began making guest appearances on Nickelodeon and touring with the Backstreet Boys shortly after the record's release. Carter's next album, Oh Aaron, also went platinum, and the musician released what would be his last studio album for 16 years, Another Earthquake!, in 2002, followed by his 2003 Most Requested Hits collection.
He has appeared on Dancing with the Stars, the Broadway musical Seussical, the off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, and made several one-off performances. In 2014, he released a single featuring rapper Pat SoLo, "Ooh Wee". Carter released the single, "Fool's Gold", on April 1, 2016, and an EP titled LøVë in February 2017. His fifth studio album of the same name was released on February 16, 2018.
Early life
Aaron Charles Carter was born on December 7, 1987 in Tampa, Florida, where his parents, Jane Elizabeth (née Spaulding) and Robert Gene Carter (1952–2017), ran a retirement home. The family was originally from New York City, where his older brother Nick, of the boy band Backstreet Boys, was born. In addition to his brother, he has three sisters: twin sister Angel (a model), B.J. and Leslie (1986–2012). Carter attended the Frank D. Miles Elementary School and the Ruskin School in Florida.
Music career
1997–1999: Music beginnings and self-titled debut album
Carter began his career as the lead singer of Dead End, a band formed after the members met at a Tampa rock school. He left the band after two years because they were interested in alternative rock while Carter was interested in pop.
Carter made his first solo appearance, singing a cover of The Jets' "Crush on You", when opening for the Backstreet Boys in Berlin in March 1997. The performance was followed by a record contract, and in the fall of 1997, he released his first single "Crush on You". Carter's debut studio album Aaron Carter, was released on December 1, 1997. The album achieved gold status in Norway, Spain, Denmark, Canada, and Germany, and was released in the United States on June 16, 1998.
2000–2001: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron
Carter's second studio album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It), was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", all of which received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as the opening act in several concerts for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again Tour.
In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical.
At the age of 13, Carter recorded his third studio album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001, and featured his first duet recording with his brother Nick, and a song with the group No Secrets. Play Along Toys created an Aaron Carter doll in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. His songs "Leave It Up to Me", "A.C.'s Alien Nation", and "Go Jimmy Jimmy" were used in the soundtrack for the 2001 movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
2002–2008: Another Earthquake, Most Requested Hits, Saturday Night and House of Carters
Carter's fourth studio album, Another Earthquake!, was released on September 3, 2002 during the "Rock, Rap, and Retro" tour. The album featured the patriotic-themed "America A.O." and the ballad "Do You Remember". He guest-starred on three episodes of the Nickelodeon TV show All That and sang the theme song to the PBS animated series Liberty's Kids, titled "Through my own Eyes".
In 2002, Carter's parents filed a lawsuit against his former manager Lou Pearlman (now deceased), alleging failure to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties on Carter's 1998 album, which was released through Pearlman's label and production company Trans Continental. On March 13, 2003, Pearlman was declared in contempt of court for ignoring a court order to produce documents relating to royalty payments. The suit was settled out of court.
Carter's Most Requested Hits, a collection including tracks from his last three albums as well as a new single, "One Better", was released on November 3, 2003.
"Saturday Night" was released on March 22, 2005 and promoted by Carter that summer. The song was released by Trans Continental label, with Lou Pearlman as executive producer. The single was also featured in the soundtrack of the film Popstar, in which Carter starred. The direct-to-video film was based heavily on his own life as a performer. A real-life Motocross racer, Carter also appeared in 2005's Supercross.
On March 21, 2006, Trans Continental filed a lawsuit against Carter with the Los Angeles Superior Court, citing that Carter reneged on a recording deal. Carter signed the contract on December 7, 2004 when he was 17; his attorney argued that Carter had the right to "cancel or void various agreements" that were signed when he was a minor.
Carter and his siblings starred in a reality show, House of Carters, which ran in October–November 2006 on E!. The series featured all five Carter siblings reuniting to live in the same house.
2009–2013: Dancing with the Stars and return to touring
In 2009, Carter joined season 9 of Dancing with the Stars. He was partnered with Karina Smirnoff; they finished in fifth place.
During this time he also released some music online, including the single "Dance with Me" featuring Flo Rida. On August 22, 2010, Carter performed in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY at a benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol, a 3-year-old stricken with Stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer.
On January 23, 2011, Carter's manager Johnny Wright announced that Carter entered a treatment facility "to heal some emotional and spiritual issues he was dealing with." After entering the facility, Carter's first message to his fans was, "The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human." On February 10, 2011, it was announced that Carter had successfully completed a month of rehab at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California. Carter was scheduled to perform a second benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol on February 5, 2011, in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY. On March 24, 2011, he performed at a benefit concert for the activist organization, "Four Years. Go" in Manville, New Jersey. On September 2, 2011, Carter performed a show at the Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales, Florida.
On November 7, 2011, Carter began starring in the Off-Broadway production of the world's longest running musical, The Fantasticks, at the Snapple Theater Center in New York City. Carter was cast in the role of Matt, the play's central character.
In January 2012, Carter was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. He was eliminated in the first episode.
Throughout 2012, Carter made several one-off performances. On January 12, 2012, Carter performed a concert at Showcase Live in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and on January 19, 2012, he performed another concert at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. On May 11, 2012, he performed an acoustic show at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Carter hosted a Ryan Cabrera show on May 30, 2012 in Flemington, New Jersey, and performed at Mixtape Festival on August 17, 2012. In 2013, Carter kicked off his first tour in eight years, the After Party Tour. The tour ran from February to December 2013 and included over 150 shows in the United States and Canada.
2014–present: The Music Never Stopped and LØVË projects
In June 2014, Carter went on an 11-city Canadian tour during which he performed new songs from his upcoming album. Carter also announced that he would be embarking on a worldwide tour entitled the Wonderful World Tour, named for a song titled "Wonderful World" off of his upcoming album. The tour included 50 dates and ran from September 2014 until January 2015. In July, Carter appeared on Good Day LA, where he performed "Ooh Wee", a single featuring Pat SoLo. In February 2015, Carter released an EP through SoundCloud titled The Music Never Stopped.
On January 31, 2016, Carter released his music video for "Curious" under the name Kid Carter, co-directed by MDM Media's Michael D. Monroe, Ben Epstein and Aaron Carter.
In April 2016, Carter released the single "Fool's Gold". Another single, "Sooner or Later", was released in January 2017. Both songs appeared on the EP LØVË, released in February 2017, written by Carter, Jon Asher, Melanie Fontana, Taylor "Lakestreet Louie" Helgeson, and Michel Schulz, produced and independently released by Carter on his new venture Rakkaus Records. An album of the same name was released as his fifth studio album on February 16, 2018.
Personal life
Legal troubles
On February 21, 2008, Carter was arrested in Kimble County, Texas, when he was pulled over for speeding, and authorities found less than two ounces of marijuana in his car.
On July 15, 2017, Carter was arrested in Georgia on suspicion of driving under the influence and marijuana charges. On October 19, 2021, Carter agreed to plea no contest to reckless driving and was placed on probation and, among other conditions, was ordered to perform community service and pay $1,500 in court fees and fines.
On August 12, 2019, Carter was granted a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend, Russian model Lina Valentina, after she reportedly threatened to stab him. On March 29, 2020, Carter's girlfriend Melanie Martin was arrested in Los Angeles following an alleged domestic violence incident against him. A few months earlier, Carter had the name 'Melanie' tattooed on his forehead.
Sexuality and relationships
Carter came out as bisexual on August 5, 2017 through Twitter, and later that year on December 18, he made a guest appearance on the podcast LGBTQ&A to discuss both his career and sexuality. He has reaffirmed his bisexuality publicly on at least one other occasion, but has also said that he has only ever had relationships with women. He has dated several high-profile female celebrities, including Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan.
On September 18, 2006, it was reported that Carter was engaged to former beauty queen and Playboy model Kari Ann Peniche. US Weekly later reported that Carter broke off his engagement to Peniche, saying he was impulsive in proposing to her. The two reunited in 2015.
Finances
On November 22, 2013, Carter filed a bankruptcy petition to shed more than $3.5 million in debt, mostly taxes owed from the money made at the height of his popularity. "This is not a negative thing," Carter's publicist Steve Honig told CNN. "It's actually very positive. It's him doing what he needs to do to move forward." The petition states that Carter's biggest creditor is the U.S. government; "he owes the Internal Revenue Service $1.3 million in back taxes from his income in 2003, when Carter was just 16." Carter settled all of his tax debt in 2014.
In February 2019, Carter purchased a home in Lancaster, California.
Health
In September 2017, Carter appeared on The Doctors, a syndicated health-focused talk show, to discuss public attention generated by his gaunt appearance and drug-related arrests. A thorough series of tests and examinations revealed Carter was not suffering from cancer or any sexually transmitted disease, but he did have a candida infection; which can be a sign of a weakened immune system. Carter tested negative for illegal drugs, but tested positive for "a mixture of benzodiazepines with opiates", a potentially dangerous combination of prescription medications that Carter said he took for anxiety and sleep. He was malnourished and underweight — at - with a body mass index of 17 (a BMI of 18.5 to 25 is normal range). Carter was advised to enter a drug rehabilitation program and remain under medical care.
Carter admitted himself to Alo House, a treatment center in Malibu, California. In February 2018, he reported improvement and that his weight was . In 2019, Carter and his mother, Jane, appeared in the WEtv reality series Marriage Bootcamp: Family Edition. The show focuses on attempting to repair strained relationships through unconventional therapy.
Controversies
Carter has had a tumultuous relationship with his siblings, and many of their feuds have played out on social media. In September 2019, Carter made allegations of sexual abuse against his sister Leslie, who died of a drug overdose in 2012, saying that the abuse began when he was 10 and ended when he was 13, and occurred when Leslie would fail to take her prescribed medication for her bipolar disorder. He also accused his brother Nick of life-long abuse, and implied that Nick also abused a female family member. Nick's legal team denied the allegations, which came after Nick and their sister, Angel, sought restraining orders against Carter, who reportedly confessed that he had thoughts of killing Nick's then-pregnant wife, Lauren Carter.
In January 2020, German artist Jonas Jödicke tweeted that Carter was making unauthorized use of Jödicke's copyrighted artwork to promote merchandise. Carter did reply. Following the incident, Jödicke was interviewed by Forbes, saying he was "absolutely amazed" at Carter's response. In June 2021, Carter agreed to pay Jödicke $12,500.
In March 2020, Carter set up an OnlyFans account, which is popular in the adult entertainment industry. Carter began charging $50 to $100 per nude photo, or $26 a month. PinkNews stated "the prices are steep and the content is bizarre", while Queerty stated "The reviews of Aaron Carter's OnlyFans page are in and they're not good."
In August 2021, Carter was announced as a performer in the Las Vegas production of Naked Boys Singing. He was let go before the show's debut because he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Boxing career
On June 11, 2021, Carter participated in an exhibition boxing match with former NBA player Lamar Odom. Odom knocked Carter out in the second round.
Discography
Studio albums
Aaron Carter (1997)
Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000)
Oh Aaron (2001)
Another Earthquake! (2002)
LØVË (2018)
Tours
Headlining
2000–2001: Party Tour
2002: Aaron's Winter Party
2002: Rock Rap N' Retro Tour
2003–2004: Jukebox Tour
2005: Remix Tour
2013: After Party Tour
2014: Aaron Carter's Wonderful World Tour
Co-headlining
1998: Kids Go Music Festival (with Take 5, No Authority and 911)
1998: Kids Go Christmas Festival (with R&B)
1999: All That! Music and More Festival (with Monica, 98 Degrees, B*Witched, Tatyana Ali, 3rd Storee, and No Authority)
2001: Radio Disney Live! 2001 World Tour (with Krystal Harris, Hoku, Baha Men, Myra, True Vibe, Jump5, Brooke Allison, Plus One, Kaci, Play and A-Teens)
2018–2020 Pop 2000 Tour
Opening act
1997: Backstreet Boys: Live In Concert Tour (Germany, Switzerland, Austria)
1998: Backstreet's Back Tour (United States, Canada)
2000: Oops!... I Did It Again Tour (England, Germany)
Promotional
1998: Eurasian Tour
2000: Australian Tour
2000: Wal-Mart Promo Tour
Filmography
Television
Film
References
External links
1987 births
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American rappers
21st-century American singers
American child singers
American dance musicians
American hip hop singers
American male child actors
American male dancers
American male film actors
American male pop singers
American male rappers
American male singer-songwriters
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Bisexual men
Bisexual male actors
Bisexual musicians
LGBT rappers
Child pop musicians
Jive Records artists
LGBT people from Florida
LGBT singers from the United States
Living people
Male actors from Florida
Male actors from Tampa, Florida
Musicians from Tampa, Florida
Participants in American reality television series
People from Ruskin, Florida
Rappers from Florida
Singer-songwriters from Florida
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
OnlyFans creators
| true |
[
"Bildad ( Bildaḏ), the Shuhite, was one of Job's three friends who visited the patriarch in the Hebrew Bible's Book of Job. He was a descendant of Shuah, son of Abraham and Keturah (Genesis 25:1 - 25:2), whose family lived in the deserts of Arabia, or a resident of the district. In speaking with Job, his intent was consolation, but he became an accuser, asking Job what he has done to deserve God's wrath.\n\nSpeeches\nThe three speeches of Bildad are contained in Job 8, Job 18 and Job 25. In substance, they were largely an echo of what had been maintained by Eliphaz the Temanite, the first of Job's friends to speak, but charged with somewhat increased vehemence because he deemed Job's words so impious and wrathful. Bildad was the first to attribute Job's calamity to actual wickedness, albeit indirectly, by accusing his children (who were destroyed, Job 1:19) of sin to warrant their punishment (Job 8:4). His brief third speech, just five verses in length, marked the silencing of the friends.\n\nSee also \nEliphaz\nZophar\n Elihu\n Bildad is also the name of one of the owners of the Pequod in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nHebrew Bible people\nBook of Job",
"Mukul Chadda is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema.\n\nEarly life and education\nMukul was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is an MBA from IIM Ahmedabad and it was after working in a bank in New York City that he decided to take his passion for acting forward. Even while he was in New York City, he take part-time classes at Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. He did shows and he would rehearse on weekends. Then he left his job and came to India. His plan was to try it out for a year or two and see what happens next. Then he did it for longer and after he did a bunch of advertisements and other stuff then he realized that acting was paying his bills, so he continued acting.\n\nPersonal life\nMukul has been married to actress Rasika Dugal since 2010.\n\nFilmography\n\nFilms\n\nWeb Series\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nIndian male actors\nLiving people\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nIndian male film actors\nMale actors in Hindi cinema\nMale actors from Mumbai\nIndian stage actors\n \nIndian Institute of Management Ahmedabad\nIndian Institute of Management Ahmedabad\nIndian Institutes of Management alumni"
] |
[
"Aaron Carter",
"2000-2002: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron",
"Was \"Come Get It\" Aaron Carter's first album produced?",
"Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label.",
"When did Aaron Carter make his acting debut?",
"In March 2001, he made his acting debut,",
"What was his first acting job?",
"guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire."
] |
C_c783a972e54e4adb9a459a3b550cabcf_1
|
When was the album "Oh Aaron" released?
| 4 |
When was Aaron Carter's album "Oh Aaron" released?
|
Aaron Carter
|
Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", which songs received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as opening act in several concerts for Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. In December of that year the album went platinum and he began dating teen actress Hilary Duff. In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. At the age of 13, Carter recorded the album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001 and featured his first duet recording with his brother, Nick, and a duet with the new group at the time, No Secrets. Play Along Toys also created an Aaron Carter action figure in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron also went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. CANNOTANSWER
|
August 7, 2001
|
Aaron Charles Carter (born December 7, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer. He first came to fame as a pop and hip hop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among pre-teen and teenage audiences during the first years of the 21st century with his four studio albums.
Carter began performing at age seven and released his self-titled debut album in 1997 at age nine, selling a million copies worldwide. His second album Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000) sold three million copies in the United States, and Carter began making guest appearances on Nickelodeon and touring with the Backstreet Boys shortly after the record's release. Carter's next album, Oh Aaron, also went platinum, and the musician released what would be his last studio album for 16 years, Another Earthquake!, in 2002, followed by his 2003 Most Requested Hits collection.
He has appeared on Dancing with the Stars, the Broadway musical Seussical, the off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, and made several one-off performances. In 2014, he released a single featuring rapper Pat SoLo, "Ooh Wee". Carter released the single, "Fool's Gold", on April 1, 2016, and an EP titled LøVë in February 2017. His fifth studio album of the same name was released on February 16, 2018.
Early life
Aaron Charles Carter was born on December 7, 1987 in Tampa, Florida, where his parents, Jane Elizabeth (née Spaulding) and Robert Gene Carter (1952–2017), ran a retirement home. The family was originally from New York City, where his older brother Nick, of the boy band Backstreet Boys, was born. In addition to his brother, he has three sisters: twin sister Angel (a model), B.J. and Leslie (1986–2012). Carter attended the Frank D. Miles Elementary School and the Ruskin School in Florida.
Music career
1997–1999: Music beginnings and self-titled debut album
Carter began his career as the lead singer of Dead End, a band formed after the members met at a Tampa rock school. He left the band after two years because they were interested in alternative rock while Carter was interested in pop.
Carter made his first solo appearance, singing a cover of The Jets' "Crush on You", when opening for the Backstreet Boys in Berlin in March 1997. The performance was followed by a record contract, and in the fall of 1997, he released his first single "Crush on You". Carter's debut studio album Aaron Carter, was released on December 1, 1997. The album achieved gold status in Norway, Spain, Denmark, Canada, and Germany, and was released in the United States on June 16, 1998.
2000–2001: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron
Carter's second studio album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It), was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", all of which received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as the opening act in several concerts for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again Tour.
In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical.
At the age of 13, Carter recorded his third studio album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001, and featured his first duet recording with his brother Nick, and a song with the group No Secrets. Play Along Toys created an Aaron Carter doll in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. His songs "Leave It Up to Me", "A.C.'s Alien Nation", and "Go Jimmy Jimmy" were used in the soundtrack for the 2001 movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
2002–2008: Another Earthquake, Most Requested Hits, Saturday Night and House of Carters
Carter's fourth studio album, Another Earthquake!, was released on September 3, 2002 during the "Rock, Rap, and Retro" tour. The album featured the patriotic-themed "America A.O." and the ballad "Do You Remember". He guest-starred on three episodes of the Nickelodeon TV show All That and sang the theme song to the PBS animated series Liberty's Kids, titled "Through my own Eyes".
In 2002, Carter's parents filed a lawsuit against his former manager Lou Pearlman (now deceased), alleging failure to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties on Carter's 1998 album, which was released through Pearlman's label and production company Trans Continental. On March 13, 2003, Pearlman was declared in contempt of court for ignoring a court order to produce documents relating to royalty payments. The suit was settled out of court.
Carter's Most Requested Hits, a collection including tracks from his last three albums as well as a new single, "One Better", was released on November 3, 2003.
"Saturday Night" was released on March 22, 2005 and promoted by Carter that summer. The song was released by Trans Continental label, with Lou Pearlman as executive producer. The single was also featured in the soundtrack of the film Popstar, in which Carter starred. The direct-to-video film was based heavily on his own life as a performer. A real-life Motocross racer, Carter also appeared in 2005's Supercross.
On March 21, 2006, Trans Continental filed a lawsuit against Carter with the Los Angeles Superior Court, citing that Carter reneged on a recording deal. Carter signed the contract on December 7, 2004 when he was 17; his attorney argued that Carter had the right to "cancel or void various agreements" that were signed when he was a minor.
Carter and his siblings starred in a reality show, House of Carters, which ran in October–November 2006 on E!. The series featured all five Carter siblings reuniting to live in the same house.
2009–2013: Dancing with the Stars and return to touring
In 2009, Carter joined season 9 of Dancing with the Stars. He was partnered with Karina Smirnoff; they finished in fifth place.
During this time he also released some music online, including the single "Dance with Me" featuring Flo Rida. On August 22, 2010, Carter performed in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY at a benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol, a 3-year-old stricken with Stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer.
On January 23, 2011, Carter's manager Johnny Wright announced that Carter entered a treatment facility "to heal some emotional and spiritual issues he was dealing with." After entering the facility, Carter's first message to his fans was, "The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human." On February 10, 2011, it was announced that Carter had successfully completed a month of rehab at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California. Carter was scheduled to perform a second benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol on February 5, 2011, in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY. On March 24, 2011, he performed at a benefit concert for the activist organization, "Four Years. Go" in Manville, New Jersey. On September 2, 2011, Carter performed a show at the Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales, Florida.
On November 7, 2011, Carter began starring in the Off-Broadway production of the world's longest running musical, The Fantasticks, at the Snapple Theater Center in New York City. Carter was cast in the role of Matt, the play's central character.
In January 2012, Carter was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. He was eliminated in the first episode.
Throughout 2012, Carter made several one-off performances. On January 12, 2012, Carter performed a concert at Showcase Live in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and on January 19, 2012, he performed another concert at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. On May 11, 2012, he performed an acoustic show at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Carter hosted a Ryan Cabrera show on May 30, 2012 in Flemington, New Jersey, and performed at Mixtape Festival on August 17, 2012. In 2013, Carter kicked off his first tour in eight years, the After Party Tour. The tour ran from February to December 2013 and included over 150 shows in the United States and Canada.
2014–present: The Music Never Stopped and LØVË projects
In June 2014, Carter went on an 11-city Canadian tour during which he performed new songs from his upcoming album. Carter also announced that he would be embarking on a worldwide tour entitled the Wonderful World Tour, named for a song titled "Wonderful World" off of his upcoming album. The tour included 50 dates and ran from September 2014 until January 2015. In July, Carter appeared on Good Day LA, where he performed "Ooh Wee", a single featuring Pat SoLo. In February 2015, Carter released an EP through SoundCloud titled The Music Never Stopped.
On January 31, 2016, Carter released his music video for "Curious" under the name Kid Carter, co-directed by MDM Media's Michael D. Monroe, Ben Epstein and Aaron Carter.
In April 2016, Carter released the single "Fool's Gold". Another single, "Sooner or Later", was released in January 2017. Both songs appeared on the EP LØVË, released in February 2017, written by Carter, Jon Asher, Melanie Fontana, Taylor "Lakestreet Louie" Helgeson, and Michel Schulz, produced and independently released by Carter on his new venture Rakkaus Records. An album of the same name was released as his fifth studio album on February 16, 2018.
Personal life
Legal troubles
On February 21, 2008, Carter was arrested in Kimble County, Texas, when he was pulled over for speeding, and authorities found less than two ounces of marijuana in his car.
On July 15, 2017, Carter was arrested in Georgia on suspicion of driving under the influence and marijuana charges. On October 19, 2021, Carter agreed to plea no contest to reckless driving and was placed on probation and, among other conditions, was ordered to perform community service and pay $1,500 in court fees and fines.
On August 12, 2019, Carter was granted a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend, Russian model Lina Valentina, after she reportedly threatened to stab him. On March 29, 2020, Carter's girlfriend Melanie Martin was arrested in Los Angeles following an alleged domestic violence incident against him. A few months earlier, Carter had the name 'Melanie' tattooed on his forehead.
Sexuality and relationships
Carter came out as bisexual on August 5, 2017 through Twitter, and later that year on December 18, he made a guest appearance on the podcast LGBTQ&A to discuss both his career and sexuality. He has reaffirmed his bisexuality publicly on at least one other occasion, but has also said that he has only ever had relationships with women. He has dated several high-profile female celebrities, including Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan.
On September 18, 2006, it was reported that Carter was engaged to former beauty queen and Playboy model Kari Ann Peniche. US Weekly later reported that Carter broke off his engagement to Peniche, saying he was impulsive in proposing to her. The two reunited in 2015.
Finances
On November 22, 2013, Carter filed a bankruptcy petition to shed more than $3.5 million in debt, mostly taxes owed from the money made at the height of his popularity. "This is not a negative thing," Carter's publicist Steve Honig told CNN. "It's actually very positive. It's him doing what he needs to do to move forward." The petition states that Carter's biggest creditor is the U.S. government; "he owes the Internal Revenue Service $1.3 million in back taxes from his income in 2003, when Carter was just 16." Carter settled all of his tax debt in 2014.
In February 2019, Carter purchased a home in Lancaster, California.
Health
In September 2017, Carter appeared on The Doctors, a syndicated health-focused talk show, to discuss public attention generated by his gaunt appearance and drug-related arrests. A thorough series of tests and examinations revealed Carter was not suffering from cancer or any sexually transmitted disease, but he did have a candida infection; which can be a sign of a weakened immune system. Carter tested negative for illegal drugs, but tested positive for "a mixture of benzodiazepines with opiates", a potentially dangerous combination of prescription medications that Carter said he took for anxiety and sleep. He was malnourished and underweight — at - with a body mass index of 17 (a BMI of 18.5 to 25 is normal range). Carter was advised to enter a drug rehabilitation program and remain under medical care.
Carter admitted himself to Alo House, a treatment center in Malibu, California. In February 2018, he reported improvement and that his weight was . In 2019, Carter and his mother, Jane, appeared in the WEtv reality series Marriage Bootcamp: Family Edition. The show focuses on attempting to repair strained relationships through unconventional therapy.
Controversies
Carter has had a tumultuous relationship with his siblings, and many of their feuds have played out on social media. In September 2019, Carter made allegations of sexual abuse against his sister Leslie, who died of a drug overdose in 2012, saying that the abuse began when he was 10 and ended when he was 13, and occurred when Leslie would fail to take her prescribed medication for her bipolar disorder. He also accused his brother Nick of life-long abuse, and implied that Nick also abused a female family member. Nick's legal team denied the allegations, which came after Nick and their sister, Angel, sought restraining orders against Carter, who reportedly confessed that he had thoughts of killing Nick's then-pregnant wife, Lauren Carter.
In January 2020, German artist Jonas Jödicke tweeted that Carter was making unauthorized use of Jödicke's copyrighted artwork to promote merchandise. Carter did reply. Following the incident, Jödicke was interviewed by Forbes, saying he was "absolutely amazed" at Carter's response. In June 2021, Carter agreed to pay Jödicke $12,500.
In March 2020, Carter set up an OnlyFans account, which is popular in the adult entertainment industry. Carter began charging $50 to $100 per nude photo, or $26 a month. PinkNews stated "the prices are steep and the content is bizarre", while Queerty stated "The reviews of Aaron Carter's OnlyFans page are in and they're not good."
In August 2021, Carter was announced as a performer in the Las Vegas production of Naked Boys Singing. He was let go before the show's debut because he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Boxing career
On June 11, 2021, Carter participated in an exhibition boxing match with former NBA player Lamar Odom. Odom knocked Carter out in the second round.
Discography
Studio albums
Aaron Carter (1997)
Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000)
Oh Aaron (2001)
Another Earthquake! (2002)
LØVË (2018)
Tours
Headlining
2000–2001: Party Tour
2002: Aaron's Winter Party
2002: Rock Rap N' Retro Tour
2003–2004: Jukebox Tour
2005: Remix Tour
2013: After Party Tour
2014: Aaron Carter's Wonderful World Tour
Co-headlining
1998: Kids Go Music Festival (with Take 5, No Authority and 911)
1998: Kids Go Christmas Festival (with R&B)
1999: All That! Music and More Festival (with Monica, 98 Degrees, B*Witched, Tatyana Ali, 3rd Storee, and No Authority)
2001: Radio Disney Live! 2001 World Tour (with Krystal Harris, Hoku, Baha Men, Myra, True Vibe, Jump5, Brooke Allison, Plus One, Kaci, Play and A-Teens)
2018–2020 Pop 2000 Tour
Opening act
1997: Backstreet Boys: Live In Concert Tour (Germany, Switzerland, Austria)
1998: Backstreet's Back Tour (United States, Canada)
2000: Oops!... I Did It Again Tour (England, Germany)
Promotional
1998: Eurasian Tour
2000: Australian Tour
2000: Wal-Mart Promo Tour
Filmography
Television
Film
References
External links
1987 births
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American rappers
21st-century American singers
American child singers
American dance musicians
American hip hop singers
American male child actors
American male dancers
American male film actors
American male pop singers
American male rappers
American male singer-songwriters
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Bisexual men
Bisexual male actors
Bisexual musicians
LGBT rappers
Child pop musicians
Jive Records artists
LGBT people from Florida
LGBT singers from the United States
Living people
Male actors from Florida
Male actors from Tampa, Florida
Musicians from Tampa, Florida
Participants in American reality television series
People from Ruskin, Florida
Rappers from Florida
Singer-songwriters from Florida
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
OnlyFans creators
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[
"Oh Aaron is the third studio album by American teen pop singer Aaron Carter, released in the summer of 2001 through Jive Records. The album features three collaborations with No Secrets and his older brother, Nick Carter. Despite being not as successful as his second album, it found success in the U.S., peaking at #7 and was certified Platinum by the RIAA making this Aaron's second top 10 album and second platinum-selling album. This album was also his second album that was released under Jive Records.\n\nOh Aaron was accompanied by a concert DVD of the same name, which was released on March 26, 2002, and included footage of his 2001 concert in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as well as music videos and interviews.\n\nPlay Along Toys also created an Aaron Carter action figure in conjunction with the album's release.\n\nSingles\n\"Oh Aaron\": is the title song and first single from Aaron Carter's third album \"Oh Aaron\". It features his older brother Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys and No Secrets. The song talks about Aaron getting tickets to a Backstreet Boys concert. The music video was filmed in Toronto. In the video, Aaron promises his friends (and parents and their friends) tickets to the Backstreet Boys concert, thinking Nick would hook him up. Nick agrees to at first, but when Aaron states that is 3,003 tickets, Nick disagrees. After some short begging, Nick agrees to-only if Aaron raps at his concert. Aaron later gets chased by fans on his way to the concert. He begs Nick to make him stay inside, but Nick carries him outside. At the end, Aaron is carried by tons of his fans. No Secrets sings the chorus of the song in different locations.\n\"Not Too Young, Not Too Old\"\n\"I'm All About You\": the third and final single of the album. In the video, Aaron is dancing and singing the song in a room. In a couple sub-plots, Aaron is sitting with a girl eating dinner, in a limousine, and enters a nightclub. The video can be seen on the Oh Aaron: Live In Concert DVD.\n\nCritical reception\n\nAllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine commended Carter's voice for sounding less childish but criticized his performance of kid-friendly songs with adolescent overtones and sexual themes, and the producers for utilizing \"cut and paste commercialism\" with various genres throughout the track listing, saying it comes across as \"disturbing pandering\". Beth Johnson from Entertainment Weekly said about the record, \"Preteens across the country can rejoice: 13-year-old cutie-pie Aaron Carter has released his second sing-along album in less than a year. Apparently A.C. (as he name-checks himself) knows what his fans like: cheery BSB/’N Sync-style raps, puppy-love ballads, and songs with \"You\" in the title (there are four of them). As harmless (for kids) as it is unlistenable (for adults).\"\n\nIn their look at the Least Essential Albums of 2001, The A.V. Club awarded Oh Aaron the title of Least Essential Awkward Adolescence, with Stephen Thompson saying, \"[A]ppearing to have aged about five years since 2000's Aaron's Party (Come Get It) and now possessing a voice that's gone from chirpy to unsure, the singer/rapper seems ill-suited for inching his way into artistic relevance as he begins to sprout facial hair and think about muscle cars.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nNotes\n\"Stride (Jump on the Fizzy)\" contains a sample from \"Break My Stride\" written by Matthew Wilder and Greg Prestopino.\nThe Australian edition includes two bonus tracks before the interview with Aaron as tracks 11 and 12, \"Get Up on Ya Feet\" and \"One for the Summer\". \nThe Korean edition of the album included only \"Get Up on Ya Feet\". A Korean special edition included a bonus VCD with the music videos of \"Oh Aaron\", \"Not Too Young, Not Too Old\", \"I'm All About You\", and the song and music video for Aaron's promotional song featured in Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, \"Leave It Up to Me\". It also featured an interview with Aaron along with brother Nick, and a look behind the scenes of the filming of the video for \"I'm All About You\". \"Come Follow Me\" was featured in the extended trailer for Hey Arnold! The Movie.\nOther Asian editions were special releases featuring most of the songs from Aaron's debut album as \"bonus tracks\". A similar concept was employed on an Eastern European edition, which featured several tracks from Aaron's Party (as well as a remix of the title track and another song from around the time, \"Everybody Stand Up\"), two songs from Aaron's debut, \"Leave It Up to Me\" from Jimmy Neutron and another song by Aaron's on the soundtrack, \"A.C.'s Alien Nation\". This edition contains several misspellings and what seem to be repeats of several tracks already on the album.\n\nPersonnel\nAdapted from the liner notes of Oh Aaron.\n\nVocals\nAaron Carter – lead vocals , background vocals \nNo Secrets – background vocals\nAndy Goldmark – additional vocals , background vocals \nJennifer Karr – additional vocals \nBrian Kierulf – additional vocals \nAudrey Martells – additional vocals \nJosh Schwartz – additional vocals , background vocals \nStacy Smith – additional vocals \nNate \"Billionheir\" Butler – background vocals \nTaylur Davis – background vocals \nMarc Nelson – background vocals \nTony T – background vocals \nTodd \"Boogie\" Terrell – background vocals \nDana Williams – background vocals \nDavida Williams – background vocals \n\nInstrumentation\nBrian Kierulf – guitar\nJosh Schwartz – guitar\nPaul Gendler – guitar \nMichael Thompson – guitar \nBlake Eiseman – guitar \nMike Hartnett – bass \nMyles 'Mad Myles' Schneit – scratches \n\nProduction\nCharles McCrorey – assistant engineer \nRowie Nameri – assistant engineer \nJohn O'Mahony – assistant engineer \nJason Rankins – assistant engineer \nRich Tapper – assistant engineer \nTony Zeller – assistant engineer \nRich Travali – mixing \nChris Trevett – mixing \nBob Kraushaar – mixing \nBrian Kierulf – programming\nChaz Harper – mastering\n\nArtwork\nNick Gamma – art direction and design\nRobert Ascroft – photography\n\nCharts and certifications\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications and sales\n\nReferences\n\n2001 albums\nAaron Carter albums\nJive Records albums\nAlbums recorded at Chung King Studios\nAlbums recorded at Westlake Recording Studios",
"2 Good 2 B True is American teen pop singer Aaron Carter's third compilation album. The album primarily consists of songs that originally appeared on Aaron Carter's last three studio albums. It was released in February 2006, only one month after his previous compilation Come Get It: The Very Best of Aaron Carter.\n\nTrack listing\n\nTrack information\nTracks 1–4 can be found on 2000's Aaron's Party (Come Get It).\nTrack 3 can be found on 2000s The Little Vampire soundtrack.\nTrack 6 can be found on 2001's Oh Aaron.\nTracks 8–10 can be found on 2002's Another Earthquake.\nTracks 5 and 7 are B-sides to singles released from the album Aaron's Party (Come Get It).\n\nReferences\n\nAaron Carter compilation albums\n2006 compilation albums\nSony BMG compilation albums"
] |
[
"Aaron Carter",
"2000-2002: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron",
"Was \"Come Get It\" Aaron Carter's first album produced?",
"Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label.",
"When did Aaron Carter make his acting debut?",
"In March 2001, he made his acting debut,",
"What was his first acting job?",
"guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire.",
"When was the album \"Oh Aaron\" released?",
"August 7, 2001"
] |
C_c783a972e54e4adb9a459a3b550cabcf_1
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What were some of the hits on the "Oh Aaron" album?
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What were some of the hits on the Aaron Carter's "Oh Aaron" album?
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Aaron Carter
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Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", which songs received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as opening act in several concerts for Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. In December of that year the album went platinum and he began dating teen actress Hilary Duff. In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. At the age of 13, Carter recorded the album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001 and featured his first duet recording with his brother, Nick, and a duet with the new group at the time, No Secrets. Play Along Toys also created an Aaron Carter action figure in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron also went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. CANNOTANSWER
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featured his first duet recording with his brother, Nick, and a duet with the new group at the time, No Secrets.
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Aaron Charles Carter (born December 7, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer. He first came to fame as a pop and hip hop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among pre-teen and teenage audiences during the first years of the 21st century with his four studio albums.
Carter began performing at age seven and released his self-titled debut album in 1997 at age nine, selling a million copies worldwide. His second album Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000) sold three million copies in the United States, and Carter began making guest appearances on Nickelodeon and touring with the Backstreet Boys shortly after the record's release. Carter's next album, Oh Aaron, also went platinum, and the musician released what would be his last studio album for 16 years, Another Earthquake!, in 2002, followed by his 2003 Most Requested Hits collection.
He has appeared on Dancing with the Stars, the Broadway musical Seussical, the off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, and made several one-off performances. In 2014, he released a single featuring rapper Pat SoLo, "Ooh Wee". Carter released the single, "Fool's Gold", on April 1, 2016, and an EP titled LøVë in February 2017. His fifth studio album of the same name was released on February 16, 2018.
Early life
Aaron Charles Carter was born on December 7, 1987 in Tampa, Florida, where his parents, Jane Elizabeth (née Spaulding) and Robert Gene Carter (1952–2017), ran a retirement home. The family was originally from New York City, where his older brother Nick, of the boy band Backstreet Boys, was born. In addition to his brother, he has three sisters: twin sister Angel (a model), B.J. and Leslie (1986–2012). Carter attended the Frank D. Miles Elementary School and the Ruskin School in Florida.
Music career
1997–1999: Music beginnings and self-titled debut album
Carter began his career as the lead singer of Dead End, a band formed after the members met at a Tampa rock school. He left the band after two years because they were interested in alternative rock while Carter was interested in pop.
Carter made his first solo appearance, singing a cover of The Jets' "Crush on You", when opening for the Backstreet Boys in Berlin in March 1997. The performance was followed by a record contract, and in the fall of 1997, he released his first single "Crush on You". Carter's debut studio album Aaron Carter, was released on December 1, 1997. The album achieved gold status in Norway, Spain, Denmark, Canada, and Germany, and was released in the United States on June 16, 1998.
2000–2001: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron
Carter's second studio album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It), was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", all of which received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as the opening act in several concerts for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again Tour.
In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical.
At the age of 13, Carter recorded his third studio album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001, and featured his first duet recording with his brother Nick, and a song with the group No Secrets. Play Along Toys created an Aaron Carter doll in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. His songs "Leave It Up to Me", "A.C.'s Alien Nation", and "Go Jimmy Jimmy" were used in the soundtrack for the 2001 movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
2002–2008: Another Earthquake, Most Requested Hits, Saturday Night and House of Carters
Carter's fourth studio album, Another Earthquake!, was released on September 3, 2002 during the "Rock, Rap, and Retro" tour. The album featured the patriotic-themed "America A.O." and the ballad "Do You Remember". He guest-starred on three episodes of the Nickelodeon TV show All That and sang the theme song to the PBS animated series Liberty's Kids, titled "Through my own Eyes".
In 2002, Carter's parents filed a lawsuit against his former manager Lou Pearlman (now deceased), alleging failure to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties on Carter's 1998 album, which was released through Pearlman's label and production company Trans Continental. On March 13, 2003, Pearlman was declared in contempt of court for ignoring a court order to produce documents relating to royalty payments. The suit was settled out of court.
Carter's Most Requested Hits, a collection including tracks from his last three albums as well as a new single, "One Better", was released on November 3, 2003.
"Saturday Night" was released on March 22, 2005 and promoted by Carter that summer. The song was released by Trans Continental label, with Lou Pearlman as executive producer. The single was also featured in the soundtrack of the film Popstar, in which Carter starred. The direct-to-video film was based heavily on his own life as a performer. A real-life Motocross racer, Carter also appeared in 2005's Supercross.
On March 21, 2006, Trans Continental filed a lawsuit against Carter with the Los Angeles Superior Court, citing that Carter reneged on a recording deal. Carter signed the contract on December 7, 2004 when he was 17; his attorney argued that Carter had the right to "cancel or void various agreements" that were signed when he was a minor.
Carter and his siblings starred in a reality show, House of Carters, which ran in October–November 2006 on E!. The series featured all five Carter siblings reuniting to live in the same house.
2009–2013: Dancing with the Stars and return to touring
In 2009, Carter joined season 9 of Dancing with the Stars. He was partnered with Karina Smirnoff; they finished in fifth place.
During this time he also released some music online, including the single "Dance with Me" featuring Flo Rida. On August 22, 2010, Carter performed in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY at a benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol, a 3-year-old stricken with Stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer.
On January 23, 2011, Carter's manager Johnny Wright announced that Carter entered a treatment facility "to heal some emotional and spiritual issues he was dealing with." After entering the facility, Carter's first message to his fans was, "The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human." On February 10, 2011, it was announced that Carter had successfully completed a month of rehab at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California. Carter was scheduled to perform a second benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol on February 5, 2011, in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY. On March 24, 2011, he performed at a benefit concert for the activist organization, "Four Years. Go" in Manville, New Jersey. On September 2, 2011, Carter performed a show at the Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales, Florida.
On November 7, 2011, Carter began starring in the Off-Broadway production of the world's longest running musical, The Fantasticks, at the Snapple Theater Center in New York City. Carter was cast in the role of Matt, the play's central character.
In January 2012, Carter was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. He was eliminated in the first episode.
Throughout 2012, Carter made several one-off performances. On January 12, 2012, Carter performed a concert at Showcase Live in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and on January 19, 2012, he performed another concert at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. On May 11, 2012, he performed an acoustic show at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Carter hosted a Ryan Cabrera show on May 30, 2012 in Flemington, New Jersey, and performed at Mixtape Festival on August 17, 2012. In 2013, Carter kicked off his first tour in eight years, the After Party Tour. The tour ran from February to December 2013 and included over 150 shows in the United States and Canada.
2014–present: The Music Never Stopped and LØVË projects
In June 2014, Carter went on an 11-city Canadian tour during which he performed new songs from his upcoming album. Carter also announced that he would be embarking on a worldwide tour entitled the Wonderful World Tour, named for a song titled "Wonderful World" off of his upcoming album. The tour included 50 dates and ran from September 2014 until January 2015. In July, Carter appeared on Good Day LA, where he performed "Ooh Wee", a single featuring Pat SoLo. In February 2015, Carter released an EP through SoundCloud titled The Music Never Stopped.
On January 31, 2016, Carter released his music video for "Curious" under the name Kid Carter, co-directed by MDM Media's Michael D. Monroe, Ben Epstein and Aaron Carter.
In April 2016, Carter released the single "Fool's Gold". Another single, "Sooner or Later", was released in January 2017. Both songs appeared on the EP LØVË, released in February 2017, written by Carter, Jon Asher, Melanie Fontana, Taylor "Lakestreet Louie" Helgeson, and Michel Schulz, produced and independently released by Carter on his new venture Rakkaus Records. An album of the same name was released as his fifth studio album on February 16, 2018.
Personal life
Legal troubles
On February 21, 2008, Carter was arrested in Kimble County, Texas, when he was pulled over for speeding, and authorities found less than two ounces of marijuana in his car.
On July 15, 2017, Carter was arrested in Georgia on suspicion of driving under the influence and marijuana charges. On October 19, 2021, Carter agreed to plea no contest to reckless driving and was placed on probation and, among other conditions, was ordered to perform community service and pay $1,500 in court fees and fines.
On August 12, 2019, Carter was granted a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend, Russian model Lina Valentina, after she reportedly threatened to stab him. On March 29, 2020, Carter's girlfriend Melanie Martin was arrested in Los Angeles following an alleged domestic violence incident against him. A few months earlier, Carter had the name 'Melanie' tattooed on his forehead.
Sexuality and relationships
Carter came out as bisexual on August 5, 2017 through Twitter, and later that year on December 18, he made a guest appearance on the podcast LGBTQ&A to discuss both his career and sexuality. He has reaffirmed his bisexuality publicly on at least one other occasion, but has also said that he has only ever had relationships with women. He has dated several high-profile female celebrities, including Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan.
On September 18, 2006, it was reported that Carter was engaged to former beauty queen and Playboy model Kari Ann Peniche. US Weekly later reported that Carter broke off his engagement to Peniche, saying he was impulsive in proposing to her. The two reunited in 2015.
Finances
On November 22, 2013, Carter filed a bankruptcy petition to shed more than $3.5 million in debt, mostly taxes owed from the money made at the height of his popularity. "This is not a negative thing," Carter's publicist Steve Honig told CNN. "It's actually very positive. It's him doing what he needs to do to move forward." The petition states that Carter's biggest creditor is the U.S. government; "he owes the Internal Revenue Service $1.3 million in back taxes from his income in 2003, when Carter was just 16." Carter settled all of his tax debt in 2014.
In February 2019, Carter purchased a home in Lancaster, California.
Health
In September 2017, Carter appeared on The Doctors, a syndicated health-focused talk show, to discuss public attention generated by his gaunt appearance and drug-related arrests. A thorough series of tests and examinations revealed Carter was not suffering from cancer or any sexually transmitted disease, but he did have a candida infection; which can be a sign of a weakened immune system. Carter tested negative for illegal drugs, but tested positive for "a mixture of benzodiazepines with opiates", a potentially dangerous combination of prescription medications that Carter said he took for anxiety and sleep. He was malnourished and underweight — at - with a body mass index of 17 (a BMI of 18.5 to 25 is normal range). Carter was advised to enter a drug rehabilitation program and remain under medical care.
Carter admitted himself to Alo House, a treatment center in Malibu, California. In February 2018, he reported improvement and that his weight was . In 2019, Carter and his mother, Jane, appeared in the WEtv reality series Marriage Bootcamp: Family Edition. The show focuses on attempting to repair strained relationships through unconventional therapy.
Controversies
Carter has had a tumultuous relationship with his siblings, and many of their feuds have played out on social media. In September 2019, Carter made allegations of sexual abuse against his sister Leslie, who died of a drug overdose in 2012, saying that the abuse began when he was 10 and ended when he was 13, and occurred when Leslie would fail to take her prescribed medication for her bipolar disorder. He also accused his brother Nick of life-long abuse, and implied that Nick also abused a female family member. Nick's legal team denied the allegations, which came after Nick and their sister, Angel, sought restraining orders against Carter, who reportedly confessed that he had thoughts of killing Nick's then-pregnant wife, Lauren Carter.
In January 2020, German artist Jonas Jödicke tweeted that Carter was making unauthorized use of Jödicke's copyrighted artwork to promote merchandise. Carter did reply. Following the incident, Jödicke was interviewed by Forbes, saying he was "absolutely amazed" at Carter's response. In June 2021, Carter agreed to pay Jödicke $12,500.
In March 2020, Carter set up an OnlyFans account, which is popular in the adult entertainment industry. Carter began charging $50 to $100 per nude photo, or $26 a month. PinkNews stated "the prices are steep and the content is bizarre", while Queerty stated "The reviews of Aaron Carter's OnlyFans page are in and they're not good."
In August 2021, Carter was announced as a performer in the Las Vegas production of Naked Boys Singing. He was let go before the show's debut because he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Boxing career
On June 11, 2021, Carter participated in an exhibition boxing match with former NBA player Lamar Odom. Odom knocked Carter out in the second round.
Discography
Studio albums
Aaron Carter (1997)
Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000)
Oh Aaron (2001)
Another Earthquake! (2002)
LØVË (2018)
Tours
Headlining
2000–2001: Party Tour
2002: Aaron's Winter Party
2002: Rock Rap N' Retro Tour
2003–2004: Jukebox Tour
2005: Remix Tour
2013: After Party Tour
2014: Aaron Carter's Wonderful World Tour
Co-headlining
1998: Kids Go Music Festival (with Take 5, No Authority and 911)
1998: Kids Go Christmas Festival (with R&B)
1999: All That! Music and More Festival (with Monica, 98 Degrees, B*Witched, Tatyana Ali, 3rd Storee, and No Authority)
2001: Radio Disney Live! 2001 World Tour (with Krystal Harris, Hoku, Baha Men, Myra, True Vibe, Jump5, Brooke Allison, Plus One, Kaci, Play and A-Teens)
2018–2020 Pop 2000 Tour
Opening act
1997: Backstreet Boys: Live In Concert Tour (Germany, Switzerland, Austria)
1998: Backstreet's Back Tour (United States, Canada)
2000: Oops!... I Did It Again Tour (England, Germany)
Promotional
1998: Eurasian Tour
2000: Australian Tour
2000: Wal-Mart Promo Tour
Filmography
Television
Film
References
External links
1987 births
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American rappers
21st-century American singers
American child singers
American dance musicians
American hip hop singers
American male child actors
American male dancers
American male film actors
American male pop singers
American male rappers
American male singer-songwriters
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Bisexual men
Bisexual male actors
Bisexual musicians
LGBT rappers
Child pop musicians
Jive Records artists
LGBT people from Florida
LGBT singers from the United States
Living people
Male actors from Florida
Male actors from Tampa, Florida
Musicians from Tampa, Florida
Participants in American reality television series
People from Ruskin, Florida
Rappers from Florida
Singer-songwriters from Florida
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
OnlyFans creators
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[
"Come Get It: The Very Best of Aaron Carter is American teen pop singer Aaron Carter's second compilation album, released in 2006. The album received mixed reviews, with ChartAttack calling it inexplicable.\n\nBackground\nCome Get It: The Very Best of Aaron Carter is the fifth and final overall album released under the Jive Records label. Carter's recording career had come to a halt since his lawsuit against Lou Pearlman in 2003. By 2006, Carter had begun to transition away from recording and into reality television with the premiere of the reality show House of Carters.\n\nTrack listing\n \"Aaron's Party (Come Get It)\" – 3:25\n \"That's How I Beat Shaq\" – 3:24\n \"Bounce\" – 3:19\n \"My Internet Girl\" – 4:00\n \"I Want Candy\" – 3:14\n \"Leave It Up to Me\" – 2:58\n \"A.C.'s Alien Nation\" – 3:22\n \"Oh Aaron\" (with Nick Carter and No Secrets) – 3:18\n \"I'm All About You\" – 3:41\n \"To All the Girls\" – 3:26\n \"Another Earthquake\" – 2:52\n \"One Better\" – 3:30\n\nTrack information\n Tracks 1–5 can be found on 2000's Aaron's Party (Come Get It).\n Tracks 6–7 can be found on 2001's Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius soundtrack.\n Tracks 8–9 can be found on 2001's Oh Aaron.\n Tracks 10–11 can be found on 2002's Another Earthquake.\n Track 12 can be found on 2003's Most Requested Hits.\n\nTrack 1, \"Aaron's Party (Come Get It)\" peaked at #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of September 16, 2000.\n\nTracks 6 and 7 did not chart but were part of a landmark cross-promotion deal between Nickelodeon Records and Jive Records.\n\nTrack 9, \"I'm All About You\", landed on Top 40 radio in 2002.\n\nDespite both charting in the Top 10 in the United Kingdom, neither \"Crush on You\" or \"Crazy Little Party Girl\" appear on this compilation. No definitive statement was given for their omission, however Carter is known to dislike his debut album and original singing voice. This was the second compilation album of his, after 2003's Most Requested Hits where no songs from his debut album were featured.\n\nCritical reception\nWriting for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine praises the compilation for its tighter and more concise approach to Carter's discography, compared to 2003's Most Requested Hits. Erlewine also notes the omission of \"Shake It\", Carter's first hit, and Carter's cover of \"Surfin' USA\", both tracks present on his debut album.\n\nReferences\n\n2006 greatest hits albums\nAaron Carter compilation albums",
"What We Live For is the second studio album by American pop rock band American Authors, produced by returning collaborators Aaron Accetta and Shep Goodman. Running at 42 minutes and comprising twelve tracks, the album was released worldwide by Island Records on July 1, 2016. The album marks the third major release by the band under the American Authors moniker, and largely continues the sound of their debut album, Oh, What a Life.\n\nWhat We Live For debuted at number 60 on the Billboard 200 and spawned four singles: \"Go Big or Go Home\", \"Pride\", \"What We Live For\" and \"I'm Born to Run\". To promote the album, the band went on a U.S. tour to promote the record ahead of its release.\n\nBackground and recording\n\nIn March 2014, American Authors released their debut studio album, Oh, What a Life, after many years releasing extended plays under the moniker The Blue Pages. American Authors enjoyed considerable success with the album, gaining significant exposure, especially through adult contemporary radio. Their success is largely due to the commercial boom of their hit single, \"Best Day of My Life\", which by April 2015 had been certified 3× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, marking sales exceeding three million. Drummer Matt Sanchez described the band's achievements; \"truthfully, most people don’t realize we’ve been a band for about eight years, so success seems like it’s come in marathon form and we still got a long way to go.\" Heading into the creative process for their follow-up album, the band expressed a preference to preserve most of the sound that made \"Best Day of My Life\" and Oh, What a Life commercially successful, but with a more mature feel, citing the need to reflect the growth of the band as artists.\n\nSongwriting and early recording sessions for the band's follow-up to Oh, What a Life began as early as on tour in 2014. While serving as a supporting act on the Native Summer Tour, the band entertained the idea of co-writing a song with OneRepublic's frontman Ryan Tedder, hoping to add what American Authors frontman Zac Barnett as \"the Ryan Tedder touch\". The band continued to write and record new songs for the album during their time on the 13th Annual Honda Civic Tours and tours throughout 2015, with some songs even being premiered and exercised live in their tours, such as \"Nothing Better\" and \"Pride\". Principal recording commenced in early to mid 2015, and was primarily recorded with producers Aaron Accetta and Shep Goodman, who had previously worked with the band on their eponymous extended play and Oh, What a Life. While the band had an extensive set of songs at the beginning of the sessions, enough to create an album outright, the band exercised their material and continued to write and record new songs well into 2016.\n\nComposition\n\nWhat We Live For largely continues the sound of the band's debut studio album, Oh, What a Life. Lead singer Zac Barnett stated that \"we tried to take a lot of the stuff that our fans like and love about us from Oh, What a Life and take that to the next level as far as sounds go. [We] brought back some of the old instruments like mandolin and banjo, but also experimented with a lot of different sounds like vocal samples. We brought back a lot of piano [and] bigger harmonies.\" Lyrically, the album builds on Oh, What a Lifes biographical themes, which followed the band's origins and journey; What We Live For documents the band's experiences during the present and their perspective on the future.\n\nPromotion\n\"Go Big or Go Home\", which would ultimately appear as the seventh track on the final album, was released in May 2015 as a single, after the band's last single promoting Oh, What a Life, \"Luck\", was released a year previously. \"Pride\" also appeared on a single in December 2015, and was also solicited as a promotional single to United States adult contemporary radio thereafter. What We Live For was officially unveiled by the band and Island Records on March 2, 2016, with pre-orders for both a digital download and compact disc version of the album being made available the same day. The album's opening two tracks, \"What We Live For\" and \"I'm Born to Run\" were also made available to purchase in April 2016, on the album's page on iTunes. Supporting the album, the band embarked on a 19-date tour of the United States from March through to May 2015, performing songs appearing on the new album live, in the lead-up to its release. It was announced through the band's Facebook page that the album's release date was pushed nearly two months from their original date, saying they are \"putting the finishing touches\" on their album and planned to release new music videos before their album was available in stores.\n\nReception\n\nCritical\n\nSoundtrack appearances\n\"Go Big or Go Home\" was featured in NBA videos showing highlights from the 2015 playoffs.\n\"Right Here Right Now\" is featured on EA Sports game, Madden NFL 17.\n\"What We Live For\" was featured in 2016 World Cup of Hockey video packages.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel\nAmerican Authors\nZac Barnett – lead vocals, guitar\nJames Adam Shelley – lead guitar, banjo, mandolin\nDave Rublin – bass, keyboard\nMatt Sanchez – drums, percussion\n\nProduction\nAaron Accetta – producer\nShep Goodman – producer\nFrequency – producer of \"Mess With Your Heart\"\n\nCharts\n\nRelease history\n\nReferences\nNotes\n\nCitations\n\nExternal links\n\nAmerican Authors official website\n\n2016 albums\nAmerican Authors albums\nAlbums produced by Aaron Accetta\nAlbums produced by Shep Goodman\nIsland Records albums"
] |
[
"Aaron Carter",
"2000-2002: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron",
"Was \"Come Get It\" Aaron Carter's first album produced?",
"Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label.",
"When did Aaron Carter make his acting debut?",
"In March 2001, he made his acting debut,",
"What was his first acting job?",
"guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire.",
"When was the album \"Oh Aaron\" released?",
"August 7, 2001",
"What were some of the hits on the \"Oh Aaron\" album?",
"featured his first duet recording with his brother, Nick, and a duet with the new group at the time, No Secrets."
] |
C_c783a972e54e4adb9a459a3b550cabcf_1
|
Did Aaron perform any other recordings with any other siblings?
| 6 |
Besides Oh Aaron Did Aaron Carter perform any other recordings with any other siblings?
|
Aaron Carter
|
Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", which songs received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as opening act in several concerts for Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. In December of that year the album went platinum and he began dating teen actress Hilary Duff. In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. At the age of 13, Carter recorded the album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001 and featured his first duet recording with his brother, Nick, and a duet with the new group at the time, No Secrets. Play Along Toys also created an Aaron Carter action figure in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron also went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Aaron Charles Carter (born December 7, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer. He first came to fame as a pop and hip hop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among pre-teen and teenage audiences during the first years of the 21st century with his four studio albums.
Carter began performing at age seven and released his self-titled debut album in 1997 at age nine, selling a million copies worldwide. His second album Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000) sold three million copies in the United States, and Carter began making guest appearances on Nickelodeon and touring with the Backstreet Boys shortly after the record's release. Carter's next album, Oh Aaron, also went platinum, and the musician released what would be his last studio album for 16 years, Another Earthquake!, in 2002, followed by his 2003 Most Requested Hits collection.
He has appeared on Dancing with the Stars, the Broadway musical Seussical, the off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, and made several one-off performances. In 2014, he released a single featuring rapper Pat SoLo, "Ooh Wee". Carter released the single, "Fool's Gold", on April 1, 2016, and an EP titled LøVë in February 2017. His fifth studio album of the same name was released on February 16, 2018.
Early life
Aaron Charles Carter was born on December 7, 1987 in Tampa, Florida, where his parents, Jane Elizabeth (née Spaulding) and Robert Gene Carter (1952–2017), ran a retirement home. The family was originally from New York City, where his older brother Nick, of the boy band Backstreet Boys, was born. In addition to his brother, he has three sisters: twin sister Angel (a model), B.J. and Leslie (1986–2012). Carter attended the Frank D. Miles Elementary School and the Ruskin School in Florida.
Music career
1997–1999: Music beginnings and self-titled debut album
Carter began his career as the lead singer of Dead End, a band formed after the members met at a Tampa rock school. He left the band after two years because they were interested in alternative rock while Carter was interested in pop.
Carter made his first solo appearance, singing a cover of The Jets' "Crush on You", when opening for the Backstreet Boys in Berlin in March 1997. The performance was followed by a record contract, and in the fall of 1997, he released his first single "Crush on You". Carter's debut studio album Aaron Carter, was released on December 1, 1997. The album achieved gold status in Norway, Spain, Denmark, Canada, and Germany, and was released in the United States on June 16, 1998.
2000–2001: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron
Carter's second studio album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It), was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", all of which received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as the opening act in several concerts for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again Tour.
In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical.
At the age of 13, Carter recorded his third studio album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001, and featured his first duet recording with his brother Nick, and a song with the group No Secrets. Play Along Toys created an Aaron Carter doll in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. His songs "Leave It Up to Me", "A.C.'s Alien Nation", and "Go Jimmy Jimmy" were used in the soundtrack for the 2001 movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
2002–2008: Another Earthquake, Most Requested Hits, Saturday Night and House of Carters
Carter's fourth studio album, Another Earthquake!, was released on September 3, 2002 during the "Rock, Rap, and Retro" tour. The album featured the patriotic-themed "America A.O." and the ballad "Do You Remember". He guest-starred on three episodes of the Nickelodeon TV show All That and sang the theme song to the PBS animated series Liberty's Kids, titled "Through my own Eyes".
In 2002, Carter's parents filed a lawsuit against his former manager Lou Pearlman (now deceased), alleging failure to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties on Carter's 1998 album, which was released through Pearlman's label and production company Trans Continental. On March 13, 2003, Pearlman was declared in contempt of court for ignoring a court order to produce documents relating to royalty payments. The suit was settled out of court.
Carter's Most Requested Hits, a collection including tracks from his last three albums as well as a new single, "One Better", was released on November 3, 2003.
"Saturday Night" was released on March 22, 2005 and promoted by Carter that summer. The song was released by Trans Continental label, with Lou Pearlman as executive producer. The single was also featured in the soundtrack of the film Popstar, in which Carter starred. The direct-to-video film was based heavily on his own life as a performer. A real-life Motocross racer, Carter also appeared in 2005's Supercross.
On March 21, 2006, Trans Continental filed a lawsuit against Carter with the Los Angeles Superior Court, citing that Carter reneged on a recording deal. Carter signed the contract on December 7, 2004 when he was 17; his attorney argued that Carter had the right to "cancel or void various agreements" that were signed when he was a minor.
Carter and his siblings starred in a reality show, House of Carters, which ran in October–November 2006 on E!. The series featured all five Carter siblings reuniting to live in the same house.
2009–2013: Dancing with the Stars and return to touring
In 2009, Carter joined season 9 of Dancing with the Stars. He was partnered with Karina Smirnoff; they finished in fifth place.
During this time he also released some music online, including the single "Dance with Me" featuring Flo Rida. On August 22, 2010, Carter performed in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY at a benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol, a 3-year-old stricken with Stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer.
On January 23, 2011, Carter's manager Johnny Wright announced that Carter entered a treatment facility "to heal some emotional and spiritual issues he was dealing with." After entering the facility, Carter's first message to his fans was, "The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human." On February 10, 2011, it was announced that Carter had successfully completed a month of rehab at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California. Carter was scheduled to perform a second benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol on February 5, 2011, in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY. On March 24, 2011, he performed at a benefit concert for the activist organization, "Four Years. Go" in Manville, New Jersey. On September 2, 2011, Carter performed a show at the Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales, Florida.
On November 7, 2011, Carter began starring in the Off-Broadway production of the world's longest running musical, The Fantasticks, at the Snapple Theater Center in New York City. Carter was cast in the role of Matt, the play's central character.
In January 2012, Carter was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. He was eliminated in the first episode.
Throughout 2012, Carter made several one-off performances. On January 12, 2012, Carter performed a concert at Showcase Live in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and on January 19, 2012, he performed another concert at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. On May 11, 2012, he performed an acoustic show at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Carter hosted a Ryan Cabrera show on May 30, 2012 in Flemington, New Jersey, and performed at Mixtape Festival on August 17, 2012. In 2013, Carter kicked off his first tour in eight years, the After Party Tour. The tour ran from February to December 2013 and included over 150 shows in the United States and Canada.
2014–present: The Music Never Stopped and LØVË projects
In June 2014, Carter went on an 11-city Canadian tour during which he performed new songs from his upcoming album. Carter also announced that he would be embarking on a worldwide tour entitled the Wonderful World Tour, named for a song titled "Wonderful World" off of his upcoming album. The tour included 50 dates and ran from September 2014 until January 2015. In July, Carter appeared on Good Day LA, where he performed "Ooh Wee", a single featuring Pat SoLo. In February 2015, Carter released an EP through SoundCloud titled The Music Never Stopped.
On January 31, 2016, Carter released his music video for "Curious" under the name Kid Carter, co-directed by MDM Media's Michael D. Monroe, Ben Epstein and Aaron Carter.
In April 2016, Carter released the single "Fool's Gold". Another single, "Sooner or Later", was released in January 2017. Both songs appeared on the EP LØVË, released in February 2017, written by Carter, Jon Asher, Melanie Fontana, Taylor "Lakestreet Louie" Helgeson, and Michel Schulz, produced and independently released by Carter on his new venture Rakkaus Records. An album of the same name was released as his fifth studio album on February 16, 2018.
Personal life
Legal troubles
On February 21, 2008, Carter was arrested in Kimble County, Texas, when he was pulled over for speeding, and authorities found less than two ounces of marijuana in his car.
On July 15, 2017, Carter was arrested in Georgia on suspicion of driving under the influence and marijuana charges. On October 19, 2021, Carter agreed to plea no contest to reckless driving and was placed on probation and, among other conditions, was ordered to perform community service and pay $1,500 in court fees and fines.
On August 12, 2019, Carter was granted a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend, Russian model Lina Valentina, after she reportedly threatened to stab him. On March 29, 2020, Carter's girlfriend Melanie Martin was arrested in Los Angeles following an alleged domestic violence incident against him. A few months earlier, Carter had the name 'Melanie' tattooed on his forehead.
Sexuality and relationships
Carter came out as bisexual on August 5, 2017 through Twitter, and later that year on December 18, he made a guest appearance on the podcast LGBTQ&A to discuss both his career and sexuality. He has reaffirmed his bisexuality publicly on at least one other occasion, but has also said that he has only ever had relationships with women. He has dated several high-profile female celebrities, including Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan.
On September 18, 2006, it was reported that Carter was engaged to former beauty queen and Playboy model Kari Ann Peniche. US Weekly later reported that Carter broke off his engagement to Peniche, saying he was impulsive in proposing to her. The two reunited in 2015.
Finances
On November 22, 2013, Carter filed a bankruptcy petition to shed more than $3.5 million in debt, mostly taxes owed from the money made at the height of his popularity. "This is not a negative thing," Carter's publicist Steve Honig told CNN. "It's actually very positive. It's him doing what he needs to do to move forward." The petition states that Carter's biggest creditor is the U.S. government; "he owes the Internal Revenue Service $1.3 million in back taxes from his income in 2003, when Carter was just 16." Carter settled all of his tax debt in 2014.
In February 2019, Carter purchased a home in Lancaster, California.
Health
In September 2017, Carter appeared on The Doctors, a syndicated health-focused talk show, to discuss public attention generated by his gaunt appearance and drug-related arrests. A thorough series of tests and examinations revealed Carter was not suffering from cancer or any sexually transmitted disease, but he did have a candida infection; which can be a sign of a weakened immune system. Carter tested negative for illegal drugs, but tested positive for "a mixture of benzodiazepines with opiates", a potentially dangerous combination of prescription medications that Carter said he took for anxiety and sleep. He was malnourished and underweight — at - with a body mass index of 17 (a BMI of 18.5 to 25 is normal range). Carter was advised to enter a drug rehabilitation program and remain under medical care.
Carter admitted himself to Alo House, a treatment center in Malibu, California. In February 2018, he reported improvement and that his weight was . In 2019, Carter and his mother, Jane, appeared in the WEtv reality series Marriage Bootcamp: Family Edition. The show focuses on attempting to repair strained relationships through unconventional therapy.
Controversies
Carter has had a tumultuous relationship with his siblings, and many of their feuds have played out on social media. In September 2019, Carter made allegations of sexual abuse against his sister Leslie, who died of a drug overdose in 2012, saying that the abuse began when he was 10 and ended when he was 13, and occurred when Leslie would fail to take her prescribed medication for her bipolar disorder. He also accused his brother Nick of life-long abuse, and implied that Nick also abused a female family member. Nick's legal team denied the allegations, which came after Nick and their sister, Angel, sought restraining orders against Carter, who reportedly confessed that he had thoughts of killing Nick's then-pregnant wife, Lauren Carter.
In January 2020, German artist Jonas Jödicke tweeted that Carter was making unauthorized use of Jödicke's copyrighted artwork to promote merchandise. Carter did reply. Following the incident, Jödicke was interviewed by Forbes, saying he was "absolutely amazed" at Carter's response. In June 2021, Carter agreed to pay Jödicke $12,500.
In March 2020, Carter set up an OnlyFans account, which is popular in the adult entertainment industry. Carter began charging $50 to $100 per nude photo, or $26 a month. PinkNews stated "the prices are steep and the content is bizarre", while Queerty stated "The reviews of Aaron Carter's OnlyFans page are in and they're not good."
In August 2021, Carter was announced as a performer in the Las Vegas production of Naked Boys Singing. He was let go before the show's debut because he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Boxing career
On June 11, 2021, Carter participated in an exhibition boxing match with former NBA player Lamar Odom. Odom knocked Carter out in the second round.
Discography
Studio albums
Aaron Carter (1997)
Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000)
Oh Aaron (2001)
Another Earthquake! (2002)
LØVË (2018)
Tours
Headlining
2000–2001: Party Tour
2002: Aaron's Winter Party
2002: Rock Rap N' Retro Tour
2003–2004: Jukebox Tour
2005: Remix Tour
2013: After Party Tour
2014: Aaron Carter's Wonderful World Tour
Co-headlining
1998: Kids Go Music Festival (with Take 5, No Authority and 911)
1998: Kids Go Christmas Festival (with R&B)
1999: All That! Music and More Festival (with Monica, 98 Degrees, B*Witched, Tatyana Ali, 3rd Storee, and No Authority)
2001: Radio Disney Live! 2001 World Tour (with Krystal Harris, Hoku, Baha Men, Myra, True Vibe, Jump5, Brooke Allison, Plus One, Kaci, Play and A-Teens)
2018–2020 Pop 2000 Tour
Opening act
1997: Backstreet Boys: Live In Concert Tour (Germany, Switzerland, Austria)
1998: Backstreet's Back Tour (United States, Canada)
2000: Oops!... I Did It Again Tour (England, Germany)
Promotional
1998: Eurasian Tour
2000: Australian Tour
2000: Wal-Mart Promo Tour
Filmography
Television
Film
References
External links
1987 births
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American rappers
21st-century American singers
American child singers
American dance musicians
American hip hop singers
American male child actors
American male dancers
American male film actors
American male pop singers
American male rappers
American male singer-songwriters
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Bisexual men
Bisexual male actors
Bisexual musicians
LGBT rappers
Child pop musicians
Jive Records artists
LGBT people from Florida
LGBT singers from the United States
Living people
Male actors from Florida
Male actors from Tampa, Florida
Musicians from Tampa, Florida
Participants in American reality television series
People from Ruskin, Florida
Rappers from Florida
Singer-songwriters from Florida
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
OnlyFans creators
| false |
[
"Aaron McMillan (11 February 197714 May 2007) was an Australian classical pianist.\n\nHe attended Glenaeon Rudolf Steiner School in Middle Cove, New South Wales, near Sydney. A keen basketballer, at age 15 he captained his local basketball team to a state championship and was named most valuable player. He hoped to gain selection in the national basketball team at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. After an injury during training forced his departure from the sport, he then moved to his next passion, music.\n\nHe continued piano studies with Neta Maughan (teacher of Michael Kieran Harvey, Simon Tedeschi, and her own daughter Tamara Anna Cislowska). At age 16, he was the youngest Australian pianist to gain a Licentiate Diploma of Music with distinction. He took part in the 1996 Sydney International Piano Competition.\n\nIn addition to performing, he became an entrepreneur. He organised and financed many of his own concerts and recordings, but also set up a company called \"Wayfarer\" to promote other musicians. He organised a concert at the Sydney Town Hall where 20 Australian composers performed their own works - these included Dulcie Holland, Miriam Hyde and Elena Kats-Chernin.\n\nAs an adult his other love was cricket. He coached other players and through the game he met Gavin Robertson and Steve Waugh, and Tim Farriss from INXS, who all became his friends.\n\nIn 2001, McMillan was diagnosed with hemangiopericytoma, a rare brain tumour. It was discovered while he was being photographed for the cover of an album. A small pimple on his eyelid prompted him to see a doctor, who diagnosed the condition. He was operated on by Charlie Teo and the tumor was successfully removed. The first of two Australian Story programs on ABC television, entitled Playing for Time, followed his surgery at Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital. Among his various charity work, he was an ambassador for Charlie Teo's \"Cure for Life Foundation\". The tumour returned in 2003. It did not respond to treatment, and by 2005 he could no longer play the piano. \n\nMcMillan performed solo at the Sydney Opera House on two occasions. Because of his illness, he could not perform at a planned third concert but instead made it an opportunity for him to present other pianists. He released a 9-CD box set of his recordings, which he produced from his bed in the palliative care unit of St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst. The Governor of New South Wales, Marie Bashir, officiated at the release. His story is told in Susan Wyndham's book, \"Life In His Hands\", which deals with both Aaron and Charlie Teo, his neurosurgeon.\n\nHe died on 14 May 2007 at St Vincent's Hospital. Just three days prior to his death, at his hospital bedside, he was awarded a Mo Award for services to the entertainment industry.\n\nFamily \n\nHis parents, Brian McMillan, and Gail née Robinson, met on a meditation retreat. Soon after Aaron's birth, his father left to become a Buddhist monk in Thailand, and did not see his son again until he was 15. In the meantime, the marriage was dissolved, and his mother married Giles Puckett, and they had two additional children. Aaron, an only child, gained two siblings. Aaron was influenced by his grandparents' Roman Catholicism, by Rudolf Steiner's anthroposophy, by his father's Buddhism, and other spiritual ideas.\n\nNotes\n\nExternal links \n www.aaronmcmillanmusic.com \n Inspiring talents used to the full Obituary in The Sydney Morning Herald\n Playing for Time Transcript of ABC Australia Story documentary\n Meet Aaron McMillan The Homily preached at the Funeral Mass\n\n1977 births\n2007 deaths\nDeaths from brain tumor\nAustralian classical pianists\nMale classical pianists\nPeople from New South Wales\nDeaths from cancer in New South Wales\nWaldorf school alumni\n20th-century classical pianists\n20th-century Australian male musicians\n20th-century Australian musicians",
"Aaron Brennan is a fictional character from the Australian soap opera Neighbours, played by Matt Wilson. The actor received the role after a long casting process, during which Wilson sent the producers a recording of himself performing a scene, before attending an audition. Wilson relocated from Sydney to Melbourne for filming. The character was initially intended to be a guest part, but due to Wilson's \"endearing quality\", he was promoted to the full-time cast. He made his first screen appearance during the episode broadcast on 16 June 2015. Aaron was the third Brennan sibling to be introduced, following his brothers Mark (Scott McGregor) and Tyler Brennan (Travis Burns) in 2010 and 2015 respectively.\n\nAaron is portrayed as a confident, happy, occasionally naive, optimist. He was initially shown to be closer to Tyler than Mark, but the brothers were bonded when their estranged father was introduced. The character had a unique entrance to the show as an exotic dancer performing at The Waterhole. Wilson took dance lessons ahead of his first scenes. Aaron has embarked on various careers throughout his duration, including bodyguard and social media manager. Aaron is openly gay, and he has formed relationships with established regular Nate Kinski (Meyne Wyatt), despite initially having nothing in common, and later Tom Quill (Kane Felsinger) and David Tanaka (Takaya Honda). The character has received a positive response from television critics and viewers. He was named Best New Male Character of 2015 by a columnist for Soap World.\n\nCasting\nOn 17 May 2015, it was announced actor and model Matt Wilson had joined the cast as Aaron Brennan, the middle brother of established characters Mark Brennan (Scott McGregor) and Tyler Brennan (Travis Burns). Wilson was given the role of Aaron after a long casting process. The process started with Wilson recording himself performing a scene and sending the footage to the producers, who then invited him to attend an audition. During the lengthy waiting period, Wilson watched the show \"religiously\", which made him want to be a part of the cast even more. Months after his audition, Wilson was sent an email informing him he had won the role. Of joining the cast, Wilson said \"It's surreal. This stuff is part of your living room growing up and never in my wildest dreams did I think I would have this chance.\" Wilson relocated from Sydney to Melbourne, where the Neighbours studios are located. He made his debut appearance as Aaron during the episode broadcast on 16 June 2015. Executive producer Jason Herbison later revealed that Aaron was only ever intended to be a guest character, but Wilson's \"endearing quality\" led him to be promoted to the full-time cast.\n\nDevelopment\n\nCharacterisation\nIn his fictional backstory, Aaron left his hometown of Port Lincoln shortly after Mark's departure. Aaron had not seen his brothers in six years, as he was living on the other side of the country, but they had kept in contact and stayed close. Aaron gets bored doing the same job every day and he eventually realised that working down the mines was not something he wanted to do anymore. Wilson told Claire Crick of All About Soap that after Aaron saw a male dance show in Perth, he made \"a snap decision\" to become an exotic dancer. Wilson said Aaron's career choice was similar to the characters featured in the 2012 film Magic Mike.\n\nAt the time of his arrival, Aaron was much closer to his younger brother Tyler as they both liked to live in the moment, whereas Mark was a bit more sensible and OCD. Wilson thought Aaron liked being the middle brother because he loves to be the centre of attention. The actor commented, \"There's definitely no middle-child syndrome here! He's quick to mediate any arguments between the other two.\" Wilson also said Aaron was opportunistic like Tyler, but he understood limitations like Mark. McGregor opined Mark's younger siblings made him a stronger character, while Burns thought Aaron's arrival had changed the dynamic between Mark and Tyler.\n\nWilson described Aaron as \"a very confident young guy\", who loves life and is not easily fazed. He also likes to make others happy. The actor also told Daniel Kilkelly of Digital Spy: \"Aaron's an infectious person. He's really happy, he's an optimist, he's got a lot of energy and there's a really good vibe which comes off him. He's received well by absolutely everyone.\" A writer for the official Neighbours website described the character as having \"a big heart, and a cheeky streak.\" They also said Aaron's family was important to him and he would do anything for his siblings. Speaking to Hazel Bradley of The West Australian, Wilson admitted that he shared some similarities with his character, such as optimism and selflessness. However, Wilson thought Aaron was also naïve and occasionally vulnerable.\n\nAaron is openly gay, and Wilson told Peter Gray of Q News that he felt no pressure portraying a gay character, as there was a lot of support for Aaron. He called Aaron \"a typical Aussie gay guy\", which, he believed, was not well represented on Australian television at the time. Wilson turned to his own gay friends while researching Aaron's wardrobe. He thought the character was similar to them and based the clothing on items they wear. Wilson thought Aaron would be a good boyfriend because he was romantic, but his career put a strain on his past relationships. While his siblings have accepted Aaron's sexuality, their father struggled with it, but Aaron refused to let it get to him.\n\nIntroduction\n\nMark contacted Aaron after fearing that Tyler had \"gone off the rails\", following his arrest. Mark knew Aaron and Tyler had a close relationship and he needed Aaron's help. Both Mark and Tyler assumed Aaron still worked down the mines in Western Australia, but he had secretly switched careers to become an exotic dancer. At the same time Mark contacted Aaron, he was booked to appear at a charity bingo night hosted by Sheila Canning (Colette Mann) at The Waterhole. Aaron was set to perform his routine in the bar when bingo was called. Sheila encouraged Mark and Tyler to attend the event and they were \"stunned\" to see their brother half-naked on the stage.\n\nWilson explained that he had no dance experience coming into the show and took private lessons ahead of filming. He commented, \"I hit the stage with 100 per cent confidence, so all of my efforts paid off!\" Mark was unimpressed with his younger brother's new career choice and berated him for it, while Tyler was amused. He was further cheered up when Aaron helped him out at the garage. Mark made an effort to bond with his brothers, after seeing how close Aaron and Tyler were.\n\nRelationship with Nate Kinski\nAs Aaron settled onto Ramsay Street, Tyler learned he was single and he decided to try and set Aaron up on a date with his friend Nate Kinski (Meyne Wyatt). Tyler's motive for the matchmaking scheme was his need to repair his broken friendship with Nate, who had not forgiven him for stealing a prescription pad from Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher). Aaron and Nate's first meeting did not go well, as they disagreed about everything and realised that they had nothing in common. Despite Tyler's efforts to get them to agree on something, Aaron and Nate realised what he was trying to do and told him that nothing was going to happen between them. Tyler's scheme did manage to get Nate to reconcile with him. Of the scenes, Wilson told Kilkelly: \"Although Aaron is quite an infectious person and everyone receives him really well, for some unbeknown reason Nate just gives him the cold shoulder. Aaron doesn't really know how to handle that. The scene where Tyler tries to set us up is hilarious - it's an absolute car crash of a scene!\"\n\nNate initially did not want anything to do with Aaron, but then Aaron got involved with his feud with Alistair Hall (Nick Cain) in an effort to help him out. Wilson said that Nate did not like Aaron's \"game-playing\". Sheila later charged a reluctant Nate with the task of getting Aaron to sign an employment contract for The Waterhole. Nate kept making snide comments about Aaron's career, so he refused to sign the contract. Sheila told Nate to make things right with Aaron, forcing him to beg. Aaron enjoyed seeing Nate's discomfort and agreed to sign the contract if he only dealt with Sheila. However, when Sheila suffered lock jaw, she forced Aaron and Nate to work together and they could resist taunting each other. Nate teased Aaron by telling him he found him to be attractive, while Aaron went to kiss him, only to pull away quickly. A TV Soap writer observed \"it's beginning to look like there might be a mutual attraction behind Nate and Aaron's guarded exteriors.\"\n\nAaron and Nate were forced to spend more time together when Naomi Canning (Morgana O'Reilly) locked them in an outdoor hotel room with a glass front as part of a promotion for Lassiter's Hotel. The storyline started with Naomi hiring Aaron and a female model to pose as a happy couple. However, when the female model failed to turn up, Naomi grabbed Nate and locked him inside the room with Aaron. Nate decided to make the most of the situation and he hoped he could annoy Aaron in the process. Wyatt said, \"after a while Nate doesn't even notice the audience and starts to lighten up, which surprises Aaron.\" Naomi's plan was a success, as Lassiter's received positive press about its support for same-sex relationships. She then asked the men to do something special for a photograph and Nate spontaneously kissed Aaron. Nate enjoyed the kiss and it became clear that he had strong feelings for Aaron. Wyatt thought the characters were \"a good balance\", but a future relationship depended on whether they could be themselves around each other.\n\nWhen Aaron attempted to cheer up his friend Josh Willis (Harley Bonner) by acting as his wingman for the evening, he put himself in danger when her boyfriend Evan Shields (Daniel Fischer) appeared. Aaron tried to smooth things over, but he and Evan squared up to each other, leaving Josh to defuse the situation. As Aaron walked home, Evan appeared and threw a drink in his face, before attacking him. Wilson said it was a \"pretty bad\" moment, but Nate came to Aaron's rescue and dragged Evan away, before scaring him off. Aaron did not have a chance to thank Nate, as he left the scene. Neither Aaron and Nate were willing to accept that they had romantic feelings for each other. Nate believed Aaron was not interested in him, so when Aaron offered to be his slave for the week to make up for injuring him during Tai Chi, Nate was unaware Aaron was trying to flirt with him. Nate later confronted Aaron, who confessed to having feelings for him. But Nate thought Aaron was joking and Aaron was \"crushed\" by his rejection. Tyler then told Nate that his brother was attracted to him.\n\nAaron and Nate eventually developed a relationship. After Nate got involved in a fight, he decided to leave town to clear his head. Aaron was \"angry and upset\" when he learnt that Nate had returned to Australia and had not been in contact with him. Wilson said Aaron and Nate had \"a lot of stuff to sort out\", while adding that the characters wanted to be together, but were unsure if they could make it work. He continued, \"Ever since they first met they've always argued about the small suff and they're still doing it now.\" Wilson later commented that as much as they loved each other, they could not live with each other because they were opposites. He also said that the couple complemented one another well, as \"Nate is really closed off, whereas Aaron is a lot more free and happy.\" When Nate eventually returned, he struggled to reconnect with Aaron and was \"gutted\" to learn that Aaron had moved on with someone else while he was away. Wilson added that Aaron resists a reconciliation as he has been hurt.\n\nCareer changes and Tom Quill\nAfter giving up exotic dancing, Aaron briefly sold coffee and then worked as a bodyguard for \"resident baddie\" Paul Robinson (Stefan Dennis). However, Aaron struggled to cope with Paul's various schemes. In March 2016, Wilson teased a new darker storyline for Aaron, saying \"I can't talk about it yet but anything where you have to go to the dark places in your mind is really challenging.\" Aaron was later hired to be new mayor Sonya Rebecchi's (Eve Morey) executive assistant, and Wilson joked \"I get to wear a lot of suits from here on in, which is better than wearing next to nothing, which is how I first came on the show.\" Aaron also attracted the attentions of Tom Quill (Kane Felsinger), the development manager for Lassiter's Hotel. Aaron accepted some champagne from Tom, before realising that it could be seen as conflict of interest as Tom wanted to know Sonya's position on the proposed expansion of Lassiter's. Aaron later returned the gift to Tom, who made an advance on Aaron. As he was hurting over Nate's silence, Aaron agreed to go on a date with Tom. Following the success of the first date, Aaron and Tom went on another and Tom learnt that approval for the Lassiter's expansion could take months. He persuaded Aaron to give him a list of everyone opposed to the expansion and when Aaron discovered they had withdrawn their opposition, he knew he had \"crossed the ethical line.\"\n\nTom then used Aaron's laptop to doctor an environmental impact report, leading the council to approve the development. Aaron then realised Tom had taken advantage of him and told Sonya, who fired him. Shortly after, an explosion at the Lassiter's Hotel dominated the show's storylines and Aaron was shown to have \"a guilty conscience\" over something. Aaron was later \"anxious\" to know if Tom was okay, as he had not been since that day. After hearing that Tom's ID had been found in the wreckage, Aaron feared that he was dead and tried to push Nate away. But when Nate pressed him, Aaron admitted that if Tom was dead, then it was down to him. In an interview with Carena Crawford of All About Soap, Wilson detailed the events in the lead up to the explosion, saying \"Aaron knew Tom was dodgy and went on a hunt to find out exactly what was going on. The last time Aaron saw Tom they had a bit of an altercation and got into a fight in the hotel boiler room.\" Wilson went on to explain that Aaron hit Tom and then walked away, leaving Tom in a semi-conscious state. When the boiler room exploded shortly afterwards, Aaron believed that Tom had been killed.\n\nIn what was billed as \"a tense storyline\", Aaron began receiving threatening text message from an unknown sender who knew what he did to Tom. Aaron initially tried to keep the messages to himself, but he was \"freaking out\" as he could be charged with manslaughter or murder if his secret came out. Nate believed Tom's mother Julie Quill (Gail Easdale) might be behind the messages, as she had been asking Aaron a lot of questions about the day of the explosion and his relationship with Tom. However, once Nate discovered it was not Julie, Aaron thought that it would be best if he went to the police. Wilson told Carena Crawford of All About Soap, \"Aaron's finding it hard to walk around Erinsborough thinking that he's killed someone.\" The person behind the messages soon demanded $10,000 from Aaron, giving Nate a chance to set up a trap. He hid some money in an envelope at an old well and when they mystery person picked it up, they caught him. The person behind the messages turned out to be Tom, and Wilson said Aaron experienced \"really mixed emotions\" when he saw him. Aaron really believed he had killed someone and was facing time in prison and when he realised that was not going to happen, he wanted to stop Tom. Aaron then declared that he was going to tell Mark, but Nate warned him that he could still face charges for punching Tom.\n\nDavid Tanaka\n\nIn 2016, producers introduced the Tanaka twins David (Takaya Honda) and Leo (Tim Kano), who move to Erinsborough. Aaron is initially attracted to Leo, while his friend Amy Williams (Zoe Cramond) likes David. Aaron organises a night out at the Back Lane Bar in the city for the group, where Aaron realises that Leo is straight and interested in Amy. Aaron leaves the bar early, but he later sets up Amy and David on a date. However, he shares an \"intense moment\" with David, leading him to believe that David is gay. He goes to warn Amy, but is too late and she goes on her date with David. Aaron later confronts David, who insists that he is not gay and that he likes Amy. Aaron later helps organises a day out for David's great-grandmother Kazuko Sano (Linda Chin) and they bond. Aaron also urges David to question Kazuko about his biological father, but David is hurt by Kazuko's angry reaction. Aaron tries to apologise to David, but David thinks he is making romantic advances towards him and insults Aaron's homosexuality. He later apologises and they share another moment.\n\nAfter realising that he should embrace his sexuality, David goes to Number 24 late at night to see Aaron and potentially confess his feelings for him. But in a storyline twist, Aaron admits that he is not alone and actually has another man in his room, causing David to leave quickly. David comes out and realises he has feelings for Aaron. They spend ANZAC Day together, but when David tries to kiss Aaron, he is rejected. Wilson said that Aaron is not expecting the kiss, as he was thinking about Nate at the time. David feels embarrassed and runs off, which Wilson thought was true to the character. He explained, \"They are pretty much opposites – Aaron will always stand and fight, whereas David always chooses flight.\" In an interview on Tenplay, Wilson explains that while Aaron does have feelings for David, he knows that David needs to deal with his sexuality and have some fun first. Aaron hopes that David will return to him eventually. Wilson liked the pairing of Aaron and David, calling them \"a great couple\", and he thought they could get married in the future.\n\nWilson admitted that he and Honda wanted the writers to hurry up and get the couple together, but knew they were having \"some fun\" and building the relationship up first. A few months later, Aaron and David begin a relationship. Wilson said it was getting increasingly harder for Aaron to be without David, as he explores his sexuality, as Aaron was in love with him. Wilson also pointed out that it was obvious to everyone else that the pair should be a couple. David's brother Leo \"becomes sick of the guys misreading each other’s signals\" and forces Aaron to tell David about his feelings for him during a karaoke event at The Waterhole. Wilson said the couple's relationship would have \"great potential\" for future storylines. He did not think they would be boring if they got together, and pointed out that there was mileage in their opposite personality traits, saying \"David is quite the introvert, so he wouldn't like Aaron dancing and hanging out in nightclubs. Whereas Aaron wouldn't want to just sit at home with David every night.\"\n\nFamily introductions\n\nA month after Aaron's arrival, the Brennan brothers' father Russell Brennan (Russell Kiefel) was introduced and the family became the focus of a \"controversial\" domestic violence storyline. Russell abused his sons as they were growing up and the brothers later became estranged from him. Russell wants to prove that he is a changed man. While Mark is pleased to see his father, Tyler tries to avoid him, and Aaron thinks about Russell's negative reaction upon learning he had a gay son. Russell makes plans to buy the local garage with his sons, but Tyler is still unhappy to be reunited with him. When Tyler punches Russell, he eventually tells Aaron and Mark about the abuse he had suffered at the hands of their father. Mark is initially sceptical, until he talks with Aaron and they confront Russell, who does not deny the accusations. Aaron and Mark support their younger brother and ask Russell to leave town.\n\nProducers planned to bring Russell back, but the storyline had to be rewritten due to Kiefel's unexpected death. In 2017, it was announced the Brennan brothers' mother Fay Brennan (Zoe Bertram) would be introduced instead. Wilson said that the brothers have various issues with their mother and Aaron acts \"very out of character\" towards her. Wilson enjoyed exploring the family dynamic further, as well as playing Aaron's unpredictable reaction to her arrival. He also said some viewers would be able to relate to the issues that Aaron and his mother have. Aaron later admits to his partner, David, that he resents Fay for leaving the family, as he was just thirteen years old and trying to deal with his sexuality. David encourages Aaron to resolve his issues with his mother, and Wilson stated that Aaron and Fay would \"go through the whole process of resolving that.\"\n\nThe following year, Aaron, Mark and Tyler's younger sister Chloe Brennan (April Rose Pengilly) was introduced. Chloe's backstory states that when Russell and Fay's marriage ended, she went to live with her mother, while the brothers stayed with Russell. The siblings only saw each other during the holidays and at Christmas. Chloe comes to Erinsborough in an attempt to reconnect with Aaron and Mark. In November 2018, Chloe reveals to her brothers that she has Huntington's disease, after learning that Aaron and David want to have a baby using Aaron's sperm. Chloe initially tries to persuade them to let David be the donor, but eventually tells Mark and Aaron that she has the Huntington's gene, and they could have it too. Mark decides to get tested right away, but Aaron decides not to, as he would rather not know.\n\nOther storylines\nWhen Josh learns Aaron is looking for someone else to join his dance act, he auditions for the place, as he needs to raise money for an operation for his sick daughter. Aaron and Josh then form an exotic dance duo called The Heat. Josh is \"terrified\" when The Heat receive their first booking, a 50th birthday party at the community centre. Aaron and Josh put together a routine on the day and while the performance starts off \"a bit rough\", the female audience enjoy it. Aaron also enjoys the attention, while Josh receives an indecent proposal from a member of the audience. Bonner said that he and Wilson had dance lessons at the Ministry of Dance for the scenes.\n\nNeeding another job, Aaron decides to reinvent himself as a social media manager in mid-2016. He befriends his neighbour Xanthe Canning (Lilly Van der Meer) upon learning that she is being bullied online by trolls. When Aaron realises that Xanthe is trying to lose weight and change her appearance, he becomes her mentor and tells her to ignore the trolls. Aaron then launches his own brand management company and Nate helps fund it. Just as Aaron starts to feel disheartened, Paul Robinson asks Aaron to help him clear his name after he is charged with causing the Lassiter's explosion. Paul explains that he just wants to change public opinion of him and Aaron agrees to help. He comes up with a strategy to use social media, as traditional media sources will not touch the story. Aaron convinces Piper Willis (Mavournee Hazel) to interview Paul for her vlog.\n\nIn 2017, Aaron explores another new career when he teams up with Mishti Sharma (Scarlet Vas) to purchase and run a gym. Aaron and Mishti bond over their respective interests in fitness, and when they learn that a local gym, The Shed, is for sale, they decide to purchase it together. The pair are \"left disappointed\" when the gym is sold to someone else, however, when that sale falls through, Mishti puts in an offer, which is accepted. When Mishti goes to tell Aaron what she has done, she learns that he does not want to buy the business anymore. But Aaron changes his mind when Sonya gives him a \"confidence boost\" by pointing out how his friendly persona and love of fitness would make him a great gym owner. Of Mishti's bond with Aaron, Vas commented, \"I think her friendship with Aaron is really cute. They're different, but fitness brings them together. Plus it's so much fun working with Matt Wilson [Aaron]. He's the kindest person.\" Wilson thought the career change was a \"pivotal moment\" for his character, and he was happy that he did not have to do any more dancing scenes. He also liked working on the new set and thought Aaron being a personal trainer was a good fit.\n\nReception\n\nFor his portrayal of Aaron, Wilson received a nomination for Best Daytime Star at the 2018 Inside Soap Awards. Aaron and David's partnership was nominated for Best Soap Couple at the 2018 Digital Spy Reader Awards; they came in seventh place with 5.3% of the total votes.\n\nShannon Molloy of news.com.au observed that Aaron made a \"colourful and abrupt entrance\". While an Inside Soap writer stated \"Let's just say that the hunky new Brennan brother, Aaron, makes quite an entrance…\" Another contributor to the publication wrote that the character \"made quite the impression\". Anthony D. Langford from TheBacklot.com admitted to being surprised that the producers had made one of the Brennan brothers gay. He also questioned whether Aaron's love life would be \"as messy and complicated as his brothers' tend to be\" and hoped Wilson had been cast for more than his body and appearance.\n\nClaire Crick from All About Soap was pleased to meet the latest Brennan brother, commenting \"We've been waiting for weeks in the All About Soap office, and as of today Aaron Brennan is finally on our screens. Hurrah! And he certainly arrived with a bang, didn't he?\" Crick went on to say that Aaron was a mix of his two brothers' personalities and a good dancer. She also branded him \"lovely Aaron\". Digital Spy's Daniel Kilkelly dubbed the character \"Erinsborough's nice guy\". While Will Stroude of Attitude labelled him \"Ramsay Street's ravishing new resident\" and \"Mark and Tyler's mischievous middle brother\". Aaron's arrival was named one of \"the best bits of July\" by a writer for the Inside Soap Yearbook 2016.\n\nLangford, now writing for TVSource Magazine, said that he was not a fan of Aaron's relationship with Nate. He found the pairing to be lacking in chemistry and \"terribly boring\". He added \"I just don't believe a guy like Aaron would date a total downer like Nate.\" A Soap World columnist named Aaron the Best New Male Character during their feature on the highs and lows of soap operas in 2015. The columnist wrote, \"As we got to know Aaron, there was even more to like as he made his mark with his cheeky and playful personality. In a refreshing change, the very masculine looking Aaron turned out to be gay, proving that you can't always judge a book by its cover.\"\n\nBen Fenlon of the Daily Express thought that Aaron stripping for an investor, while accompanied by a solar powered lawnmower, was \"one of most bizarre moments in Neighbours''' history, maybe even in soap.\" In 2019, Digital Spy's Conor McMullan included Aaron's various career changes in his feature about repetitive Neighbours storylines. He wrote, \"Not everyone can walk into the perfect job the first time around. Or indeed, second or third. For Aaron Brennan, it took five or six attempts. Since his arrival in 2015, Aaron has racked up an impressive number of careers – most quickly discarded as quickly as he started them.\" McMullan said Aaron's job as personal trainer and gym owner was \"the best and most believable route\" for him, so everything worked out eventually.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nAaron Brennan at the Official Neighbours'' website\n\nNeighbours characters\nTelevision characters introduced in 2015\nFictional dancers\nFictional bodyguards\nFictional gay males\nFictional secretaries\nFictional personal trainers\nFictional LGBT characters in television\nMale characters in television"
] |
[
"Aaron Carter",
"2000-2002: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron",
"Was \"Come Get It\" Aaron Carter's first album produced?",
"Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label.",
"When did Aaron Carter make his acting debut?",
"In March 2001, he made his acting debut,",
"What was his first acting job?",
"guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire.",
"When was the album \"Oh Aaron\" released?",
"August 7, 2001",
"What were some of the hits on the \"Oh Aaron\" album?",
"featured his first duet recording with his brother, Nick, and a duet with the new group at the time, No Secrets.",
"Did Aaron perform any other recordings with any other siblings?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_c783a972e54e4adb9a459a3b550cabcf_1
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Did Aaron have any additional acting jobs after LIzzie McGuire?
| 7 |
Did Aaron Carter have any additional acting jobs after LIzzie McGuire?
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Aaron Carter
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Carter's next album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It) was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", which songs received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as opening act in several concerts for Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys. In December of that year the album went platinum and he began dating teen actress Hilary Duff. In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty. At the age of 13, Carter recorded the album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001 and featured his first duet recording with his brother, Nick, and a duet with the new group at the time, No Secrets. Play Along Toys also created an Aaron Carter action figure in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron also went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. CANNOTANSWER
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In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty.
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Aaron Charles Carter (born December 7, 1987) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer. He first came to fame as a pop and hip hop singer in the late 1990s, establishing himself as a star among pre-teen and teenage audiences during the first years of the 21st century with his four studio albums.
Carter began performing at age seven and released his self-titled debut album in 1997 at age nine, selling a million copies worldwide. His second album Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000) sold three million copies in the United States, and Carter began making guest appearances on Nickelodeon and touring with the Backstreet Boys shortly after the record's release. Carter's next album, Oh Aaron, also went platinum, and the musician released what would be his last studio album for 16 years, Another Earthquake!, in 2002, followed by his 2003 Most Requested Hits collection.
He has appeared on Dancing with the Stars, the Broadway musical Seussical, the off-Broadway musical The Fantasticks, and made several one-off performances. In 2014, he released a single featuring rapper Pat SoLo, "Ooh Wee". Carter released the single, "Fool's Gold", on April 1, 2016, and an EP titled LøVë in February 2017. His fifth studio album of the same name was released on February 16, 2018.
Early life
Aaron Charles Carter was born on December 7, 1987 in Tampa, Florida, where his parents, Jane Elizabeth (née Spaulding) and Robert Gene Carter (1952–2017), ran a retirement home. The family was originally from New York City, where his older brother Nick, of the boy band Backstreet Boys, was born. In addition to his brother, he has three sisters: twin sister Angel (a model), B.J. and Leslie (1986–2012). Carter attended the Frank D. Miles Elementary School and the Ruskin School in Florida.
Music career
1997–1999: Music beginnings and self-titled debut album
Carter began his career as the lead singer of Dead End, a band formed after the members met at a Tampa rock school. He left the band after two years because they were interested in alternative rock while Carter was interested in pop.
Carter made his first solo appearance, singing a cover of The Jets' "Crush on You", when opening for the Backstreet Boys in Berlin in March 1997. The performance was followed by a record contract, and in the fall of 1997, he released his first single "Crush on You". Carter's debut studio album Aaron Carter, was released on December 1, 1997. The album achieved gold status in Norway, Spain, Denmark, Canada, and Germany, and was released in the United States on June 16, 1998.
2000–2001: Aaron's Party (Come Get It), acting debut, and Oh Aaron
Carter's second studio album, Aaron's Party (Come Get It), was released in the United States on September 26, 2000 under the Jive label. The album sold more than three million copies in the United States and was certified 3x platinum by RIAA. The album included the hit singles, "I Want Candy", "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)", "That's How I Beat Shaq" and "Bounce", all of which received airplay on Disney and Nickelodeon. He also made several guest appearances on Nickelodeon and performed as the opening act in several concerts for the Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears' Oops!... I Did It Again Tour.
In March 2001, he made his acting debut, guest starring on an episode of the Disney Channel series Lizzie McGuire. That same month, he and fellow teen star Samantha Mumba performed a concert in MGM studios live on Disney Channel, titled Aaron Carter and Samantha Mumba in Concert. Aaron's part of the concert was released to DVD that same month as Aaron's Party: Live in Concert. In April 2001, he made his Broadway debut, playing JoJo the Who in Seussical the Musical.
At the age of 13, Carter recorded his third studio album Oh Aaron, which was released on August 7, 2001, and featured his first duet recording with his brother Nick, and a song with the group No Secrets. Play Along Toys created an Aaron Carter doll in conjunction with the album's release. Oh Aaron went platinum that same year and a live concert at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was released to DVD as Oh Aaron: Live In Concert. His songs "Leave It Up to Me", "A.C.'s Alien Nation", and "Go Jimmy Jimmy" were used in the soundtrack for the 2001 movie Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
2002–2008: Another Earthquake, Most Requested Hits, Saturday Night and House of Carters
Carter's fourth studio album, Another Earthquake!, was released on September 3, 2002 during the "Rock, Rap, and Retro" tour. The album featured the patriotic-themed "America A.O." and the ballad "Do You Remember". He guest-starred on three episodes of the Nickelodeon TV show All That and sang the theme song to the PBS animated series Liberty's Kids, titled "Through my own Eyes".
In 2002, Carter's parents filed a lawsuit against his former manager Lou Pearlman (now deceased), alleging failure to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in royalties on Carter's 1998 album, which was released through Pearlman's label and production company Trans Continental. On March 13, 2003, Pearlman was declared in contempt of court for ignoring a court order to produce documents relating to royalty payments. The suit was settled out of court.
Carter's Most Requested Hits, a collection including tracks from his last three albums as well as a new single, "One Better", was released on November 3, 2003.
"Saturday Night" was released on March 22, 2005 and promoted by Carter that summer. The song was released by Trans Continental label, with Lou Pearlman as executive producer. The single was also featured in the soundtrack of the film Popstar, in which Carter starred. The direct-to-video film was based heavily on his own life as a performer. A real-life Motocross racer, Carter also appeared in 2005's Supercross.
On March 21, 2006, Trans Continental filed a lawsuit against Carter with the Los Angeles Superior Court, citing that Carter reneged on a recording deal. Carter signed the contract on December 7, 2004 when he was 17; his attorney argued that Carter had the right to "cancel or void various agreements" that were signed when he was a minor.
Carter and his siblings starred in a reality show, House of Carters, which ran in October–November 2006 on E!. The series featured all five Carter siblings reuniting to live in the same house.
2009–2013: Dancing with the Stars and return to touring
In 2009, Carter joined season 9 of Dancing with the Stars. He was partnered with Karina Smirnoff; they finished in fifth place.
During this time he also released some music online, including the single "Dance with Me" featuring Flo Rida. On August 22, 2010, Carter performed in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY at a benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol, a 3-year-old stricken with Stage 4 neuroblastoma cancer.
On January 23, 2011, Carter's manager Johnny Wright announced that Carter entered a treatment facility "to heal some emotional and spiritual issues he was dealing with." After entering the facility, Carter's first message to his fans was, "The main thing in life is not to be afraid of being human." On February 10, 2011, it was announced that Carter had successfully completed a month of rehab at the Betty Ford Center in Rancho Mirage, California. Carter was scheduled to perform a second benefit concert for Audrianna Bartol on February 5, 2011, in Lake Ronkonkoma, NY. On March 24, 2011, he performed at a benefit concert for the activist organization, "Four Years. Go" in Manville, New Jersey. On September 2, 2011, Carter performed a show at the Eagle Ridge Mall in Lake Wales, Florida.
On November 7, 2011, Carter began starring in the Off-Broadway production of the world's longest running musical, The Fantasticks, at the Snapple Theater Center in New York City. Carter was cast in the role of Matt, the play's central character.
In January 2012, Carter was one of eight celebrities participating in the Food Network reality series Rachael vs. Guy: Celebrity Cook-Off. He was eliminated in the first episode.
Throughout 2012, Carter made several one-off performances. On January 12, 2012, Carter performed a concert at Showcase Live in Foxborough, Massachusetts, and on January 19, 2012, he performed another concert at the Gramercy Theater in New York City. On May 11, 2012, he performed an acoustic show at the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, Connecticut. Carter hosted a Ryan Cabrera show on May 30, 2012 in Flemington, New Jersey, and performed at Mixtape Festival on August 17, 2012. In 2013, Carter kicked off his first tour in eight years, the After Party Tour. The tour ran from February to December 2013 and included over 150 shows in the United States and Canada.
2014–present: The Music Never Stopped and LØVË projects
In June 2014, Carter went on an 11-city Canadian tour during which he performed new songs from his upcoming album. Carter also announced that he would be embarking on a worldwide tour entitled the Wonderful World Tour, named for a song titled "Wonderful World" off of his upcoming album. The tour included 50 dates and ran from September 2014 until January 2015. In July, Carter appeared on Good Day LA, where he performed "Ooh Wee", a single featuring Pat SoLo. In February 2015, Carter released an EP through SoundCloud titled The Music Never Stopped.
On January 31, 2016, Carter released his music video for "Curious" under the name Kid Carter, co-directed by MDM Media's Michael D. Monroe, Ben Epstein and Aaron Carter.
In April 2016, Carter released the single "Fool's Gold". Another single, "Sooner or Later", was released in January 2017. Both songs appeared on the EP LØVË, released in February 2017, written by Carter, Jon Asher, Melanie Fontana, Taylor "Lakestreet Louie" Helgeson, and Michel Schulz, produced and independently released by Carter on his new venture Rakkaus Records. An album of the same name was released as his fifth studio album on February 16, 2018.
Personal life
Legal troubles
On February 21, 2008, Carter was arrested in Kimble County, Texas, when he was pulled over for speeding, and authorities found less than two ounces of marijuana in his car.
On July 15, 2017, Carter was arrested in Georgia on suspicion of driving under the influence and marijuana charges. On October 19, 2021, Carter agreed to plea no contest to reckless driving and was placed on probation and, among other conditions, was ordered to perform community service and pay $1,500 in court fees and fines.
On August 12, 2019, Carter was granted a restraining order against his ex-girlfriend, Russian model Lina Valentina, after she reportedly threatened to stab him. On March 29, 2020, Carter's girlfriend Melanie Martin was arrested in Los Angeles following an alleged domestic violence incident against him. A few months earlier, Carter had the name 'Melanie' tattooed on his forehead.
Sexuality and relationships
Carter came out as bisexual on August 5, 2017 through Twitter, and later that year on December 18, he made a guest appearance on the podcast LGBTQ&A to discuss both his career and sexuality. He has reaffirmed his bisexuality publicly on at least one other occasion, but has also said that he has only ever had relationships with women. He has dated several high-profile female celebrities, including Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan.
On September 18, 2006, it was reported that Carter was engaged to former beauty queen and Playboy model Kari Ann Peniche. US Weekly later reported that Carter broke off his engagement to Peniche, saying he was impulsive in proposing to her. The two reunited in 2015.
Finances
On November 22, 2013, Carter filed a bankruptcy petition to shed more than $3.5 million in debt, mostly taxes owed from the money made at the height of his popularity. "This is not a negative thing," Carter's publicist Steve Honig told CNN. "It's actually very positive. It's him doing what he needs to do to move forward." The petition states that Carter's biggest creditor is the U.S. government; "he owes the Internal Revenue Service $1.3 million in back taxes from his income in 2003, when Carter was just 16." Carter settled all of his tax debt in 2014.
In February 2019, Carter purchased a home in Lancaster, California.
Health
In September 2017, Carter appeared on The Doctors, a syndicated health-focused talk show, to discuss public attention generated by his gaunt appearance and drug-related arrests. A thorough series of tests and examinations revealed Carter was not suffering from cancer or any sexually transmitted disease, but he did have a candida infection; which can be a sign of a weakened immune system. Carter tested negative for illegal drugs, but tested positive for "a mixture of benzodiazepines with opiates", a potentially dangerous combination of prescription medications that Carter said he took for anxiety and sleep. He was malnourished and underweight — at - with a body mass index of 17 (a BMI of 18.5 to 25 is normal range). Carter was advised to enter a drug rehabilitation program and remain under medical care.
Carter admitted himself to Alo House, a treatment center in Malibu, California. In February 2018, he reported improvement and that his weight was . In 2019, Carter and his mother, Jane, appeared in the WEtv reality series Marriage Bootcamp: Family Edition. The show focuses on attempting to repair strained relationships through unconventional therapy.
Controversies
Carter has had a tumultuous relationship with his siblings, and many of their feuds have played out on social media. In September 2019, Carter made allegations of sexual abuse against his sister Leslie, who died of a drug overdose in 2012, saying that the abuse began when he was 10 and ended when he was 13, and occurred when Leslie would fail to take her prescribed medication for her bipolar disorder. He also accused his brother Nick of life-long abuse, and implied that Nick also abused a female family member. Nick's legal team denied the allegations, which came after Nick and their sister, Angel, sought restraining orders against Carter, who reportedly confessed that he had thoughts of killing Nick's then-pregnant wife, Lauren Carter.
In January 2020, German artist Jonas Jödicke tweeted that Carter was making unauthorized use of Jödicke's copyrighted artwork to promote merchandise. Carter did reply. Following the incident, Jödicke was interviewed by Forbes, saying he was "absolutely amazed" at Carter's response. In June 2021, Carter agreed to pay Jödicke $12,500.
In March 2020, Carter set up an OnlyFans account, which is popular in the adult entertainment industry. Carter began charging $50 to $100 per nude photo, or $26 a month. PinkNews stated "the prices are steep and the content is bizarre", while Queerty stated "The reviews of Aaron Carter's OnlyFans page are in and they're not good."
In August 2021, Carter was announced as a performer in the Las Vegas production of Naked Boys Singing. He was let go before the show's debut because he refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Boxing career
On June 11, 2021, Carter participated in an exhibition boxing match with former NBA player Lamar Odom. Odom knocked Carter out in the second round.
Discography
Studio albums
Aaron Carter (1997)
Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000)
Oh Aaron (2001)
Another Earthquake! (2002)
LØVË (2018)
Tours
Headlining
2000–2001: Party Tour
2002: Aaron's Winter Party
2002: Rock Rap N' Retro Tour
2003–2004: Jukebox Tour
2005: Remix Tour
2013: After Party Tour
2014: Aaron Carter's Wonderful World Tour
Co-headlining
1998: Kids Go Music Festival (with Take 5, No Authority and 911)
1998: Kids Go Christmas Festival (with R&B)
1999: All That! Music and More Festival (with Monica, 98 Degrees, B*Witched, Tatyana Ali, 3rd Storee, and No Authority)
2001: Radio Disney Live! 2001 World Tour (with Krystal Harris, Hoku, Baha Men, Myra, True Vibe, Jump5, Brooke Allison, Plus One, Kaci, Play and A-Teens)
2018–2020 Pop 2000 Tour
Opening act
1997: Backstreet Boys: Live In Concert Tour (Germany, Switzerland, Austria)
1998: Backstreet's Back Tour (United States, Canada)
2000: Oops!... I Did It Again Tour (England, Germany)
Promotional
1998: Eurasian Tour
2000: Australian Tour
2000: Wal-Mart Promo Tour
Filmography
Television
Film
References
External links
1987 births
20th-century American singers
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American rappers
21st-century American singers
American child singers
American dance musicians
American hip hop singers
American male child actors
American male dancers
American male film actors
American male pop singers
American male rappers
American male singer-songwriters
American male television actors
American male voice actors
Bisexual men
Bisexual male actors
Bisexual musicians
LGBT rappers
Child pop musicians
Jive Records artists
LGBT people from Florida
LGBT singers from the United States
Living people
Male actors from Florida
Male actors from Tampa, Florida
Musicians from Tampa, Florida
Participants in American reality television series
People from Ruskin, Florida
Rappers from Florida
Singer-songwriters from Florida
20th-century LGBT people
21st-century LGBT people
OnlyFans creators
| false |
[
"The Lizzie McGuire Movie is a soundtrack album to the 2003 film The Lizzie McGuire Movie. It was released on April 22, 2003, by Walt Disney Records.\n\nMusic\nIt is composed primarily of songs from (or inspired by) the film, including Hilary Duff's \"Why Not\" and her sister Haylie's \"Girl in the Band\". \"Why Not\" was released to Radio Disney on April 15, 2003. It was released in Australia and Europe on June 23, 2003. A version of \"Why Not\" featuring different lyrics in the first verse was later included on Duff's second studio album, Metamorphosis. Duff referred to \"Why Not\" as \"a song that I really love. It's really fun, and about just letting loose, so it's really cool\".\n\nCritical reception\nHeather Phares of AllMusic called The Lizzie McGuire Movie Soundtrack a \"fun but not especially memorable soundtrack\".\n\nCommercial performance\nTwo weeks after its release, The Lizzie McGuire Movie was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for shipments of over 500,000 copies in the United States. The soundtrack was number ten on the week of May 14, selling 92,900 copies, which was 30% gain over the previous week. The next week saw a sales decrease of 16% to 78,000 copies, despite raising two spots to number eight. On the week of May 28, the soundtrack remained at number eight, selling an additional 77,000 copies. The album has been certified platinum by the CRIA, and 2x platinum by the RIAA for selling 2,000,000 copies in the U.S.\n\nTrack listing\n\nNotes\n – indicates executive producer\n – indicates co-producer\n – indicates remixer\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nCertifications\n\nScore\n\nThe Lizzie McGuire Movie score was composed by Cliff Eidelman, and has never received any commercial release.\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nArticle about \"Why Not\" on TotalGirl! Australia\nWalt Disney Records | Lizzie McGuire Movie Soundtrack\nWalt Disney Records - The Lizzie McGuire Movie Soundtrack (Internet Archive)\n\nLizzie McGuire\nDisney film soundtracks\n2003 soundtrack albums\nComedy film soundtracks",
"Lizzie McGuire: Total Party! is a soundtrack album which contains songs aimed at girls, released as a tie-in to the Lizzie McGuire TV series. Almost all of the songs are party songs. It includes songs from Pink, Vitamin C, A*Teens, Jesse McCartney and Atomic Kitten.\n\nTrack listing \n\n \"Theme to Lizzie McGuire\" (Extended Supa Mix) – Angie Jaree \n \"Perfect Day\" (Sunshine Mix) - Hoku \n \"Crush'n\" - Jesse McCartney \n \"Get the Party Started\" (Radio Disney Mix) - P!nk \n \"Dancing Queen\" - A*Teens \n \"No More (Baby I'ma Do Right)\" - 3LW \n \"Ladies Night\" - Atomic Kitten \n \"1-2-3\" - Nikki Cleary \n \"That's What Girls Do\" - No Secrets \n \"Hey Now (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun)\" - Triple Image featuring Jamie Lynn Spears \n \"Smile\" - Vitamin C \n \"Absolutely (Story of a Girl)\" - Nine Days \n \"Us Against The World\" - Play\n \"C'est la Vie\" - B*Witched\n\nBonus Karaoke Instrumentals\n15. \"I Can't Wait\"\n16. \"Hey Now (Girls Just Wanna Have Fun)\"\n17. \"Get the Party Started\" (Radio Disney Mix)\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nWalt Disney Records | Lizzie McGuire Total Party\nLizzie McGuire Total Party! (Internet Archive)\n\nTelevision soundtracks\nLizzie McGuire\n2004 soundtrack albums\nWalt Disney Records soundtracks"
] |
[
"Kurt Gödel",
"Studying in Vienna"
] |
C_b6f8ecf0757e4926bffdf2aee4f00841_0
|
What subjects did Godel study in Vienna?
| 1 |
What subjects did Kurt Godel study in Vienna?
|
Kurt Gödel
|
At the age of 18, Godel joined his brother in Vienna and entered the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy. During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's Metaphysische Anfangsgrunde der Naturwissenschaft, and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Godel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Godel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences." Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency of mathematical systems may have set Godel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published Grundzuge der theoretischen Logik (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system? This became the topic that Godel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established the completeness of the first-order predicate calculus (Godel's completeness theorem). He was awarded his doctorate in 1930. His thesis, along with some additional work, was published by the Vienna Academy of Science. CANNOTANSWER
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mathematics and philosophy.
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Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( , ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel had an immense effect upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century, a time when others such as Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, and David Hilbert were using logic and set theory to investigate the foundations of mathematics, building on earlier work by the likes of Richard Dedekind, Georg Cantor and Frege.
Gödel published his first incompleteness theorem in 1931 when he was 25 years old, one year after finishing his doctorate at the University of Vienna. The first incompleteness theorem states that for any ω-consistent recursive axiomatic system powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (for example Peano arithmetic), there are true propositions about the natural numbers that can be neither proved nor disproved from the axioms. To prove this, Gödel developed a technique now known as Gödel numbering, which codes formal expressions as natural numbers. The second incompleteness theorem, which follows from the first, states that the system cannot prove its own consistency.
Gödel also showed that neither the axiom of choice nor the continuum hypothesis can be disproved from the accepted Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, assuming that its axioms are consistent. The former result opened the door for mathematicians to assume the axiom of choice in their proofs. He also made important contributions to proof theory by clarifying the connections between classical logic, intuitionistic logic, and modal logic.
Early life and education
Childhood
Gödel was born April 28, 1906, in Brünn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czech Republic) into the German-speaking family of Rudolf Gödel (1874–1929), the managing director and part owner of a major textile firm, and Marianne Gödel (née Handschuh, 1879–1966). Throughout his life, Gödel would remain close to his mother; their correspondence was frequent and wide-ranging. At the time of his birth the city had a German-speaking majority which included his parents. His father was Catholic and his mother was Protestant and the children were raised Protestant. The ancestors of Kurt Gödel were often active in Brünn's cultural life. For example, his grandfather Joseph Gödel was a famous singer in his time and for some years a member of the (Men's Choral Union of Brünn).
Gödel automatically became a citizen of Czechoslovakia at age 12 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed following its defeat in the First World War. According to his classmate , like many residents of the predominantly German , "Gödel considered himself always Austrian and an exile in Czechoslovakia". In February 1929, he was granted release from his Czechoslovakian citizenship and then, in April, granted Austrian citizenship. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Gödel automatically became a German citizen at age 32. In 1948, after World War II, at the age of 42, he became an American citizen.
In his family, the young Gödel was nicknamed ("Mr. Why") because of his insatiable curiosity. According to his brother Rudolf, at the age of six or seven, Kurt suffered from rheumatic fever; he completely recovered, but for the rest of his life he remained convinced that his heart had suffered permanent damage. Beginning at age four, Gödel suffered from "frequent episodes of poor health", which would continue for his entire life.
Gödel attended the , a Lutheran school in Brünn from 1912 to 1916, and was enrolled in the from 1916 to 1924, excelling with honors in all his subjects, particularly in mathematics, languages and religion. Although Gödel had first excelled in languages, he later became more interested in history and mathematics. His interest in mathematics increased when in 1920 his older brother Rudolf (born 1902) left for Vienna, where he attended medical school at the University of Vienna. During his teens, Gödel studied Gabelsberger shorthand, Goethe's Theory of Colours and criticisms of Isaac Newton, and the writings of Immanuel Kant.
Studies in Vienna
At the age of 18, Gödel joined his brother at the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy.<ref>At the University of Vienna, Kurt Gödel attended several mathematics and philosophy courses side by side with Hermann Broch, who was then in his early forties. See: {{cite book|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=BFgpBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|title=Kurt Gödel: Das Album - The Album|author=Sigmund, Karl|author-link=Karl Sigmund|author2=Dawson Jr., John W.|author-link2=John W. Dawson Jr.|author3=Mühlberger, Kurt|page=27|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=2007|isbn=978-3-8348-0173-9}}</ref> During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's , and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Gödel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Gödel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences."
Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency in mathematical systems may have set Gödel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: "Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system?"
This problem became the topic that Gödel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established his eponymous completeness theorem regarding the first-order predicate calculus. He was awarded his doctorate in 1930, and his thesis (accompanied by some additional work) was published by the Vienna Academy of Science.
Career
Incompleteness theorem
In 1930 Gödel attended the Second Conference on the Epistemology of the Exact Sciences, held in Königsberg, 5–7 September. Here he delivered his incompleteness theorems.
Gödel published his incompleteness theorems in (called in English "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of and Related Systems"). In that article, he proved for any computable axiomatic system that is powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (e.g., the Peano axioms or Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice), that:
If a (logical or axiomatic formal) system is omega-consistent, it cannot be syntactically complete.
The consistency of axioms cannot be proved within their own system.
These theorems ended a half-century of attempts, beginning with the work of Gottlob Frege and culminating in and Hilbert's formalism, to find a set of axioms sufficient for all mathematics.
In hindsight, the basic idea at the heart of the incompleteness theorem is rather simple. Gödel essentially constructed a formula that claims that it is unprovable in a given formal system. If it were provable, it would be false.
Thus there will always be at least one true but unprovable statement.
That is, for any computably enumerable set of axioms for arithmetic (that is, a set that can in principle be printed out by an idealized computer with unlimited resources), there is a formula that is true of arithmetic, but which is not provable in that system.
To make this precise, however, Gödel needed to produce a method to encode (as natural numbers) statements, proofs, and the concept of provability; he did this using a process known as Gödel numbering.
In his two-page paper (1932) Gödel refuted the finite-valuedness of intuitionistic logic. In the proof, he implicitly used what has later become known as Gödel–Dummett intermediate logic (or Gödel fuzzy logic).
Mid-1930s: further work and U.S. visits
Gödel earned his habilitation at Vienna in 1932, and in 1933 he became a (unpaid lecturer) there. In 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, and over the following years the Nazis rose in influence in Austria, and among Vienna's mathematicians. In June 1936, Moritz Schlick, whose seminar had aroused Gödel's interest in logic, was assassinated by one of his former students, Johann Nelböck. This triggered "a severe nervous crisis" in Gödel. He developed paranoid symptoms, including a fear of being poisoned, and spent several months in a sanitarium for nervous diseases.
In 1933, Gödel first traveled to the U.S., where he met Albert Einstein, who became a good friend. He delivered an address to the annual meeting of the American Mathematical Society. During this year, Gödel also developed the ideas of computability and recursive functions to the point where he was able to present a lecture on general recursive functions and the concept of truth. This work was developed in number theory, using Gödel numbering.
In 1934, Gödel gave a series of lectures at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, entitled On undecidable propositions of formal mathematical systems. Stephen Kleene, who had just completed his PhD at Princeton, took notes of these lectures that have been subsequently published.
Gödel visited the IAS again in the autumn of 1935. The travelling and the hard work had exhausted him and the next year he took a break to recover from a depressive episode. He returned to teaching in 1937. During this time, he worked on the proof of consistency of the axiom of choice and of the continuum hypothesis; he went on to show that these hypotheses cannot be disproved from the common system of axioms of set theory.
He married (née Porkert, 1899–1981), whom he had known for over 10 years, on September 20, 1938. Gödel's parents had opposed their relationship because she was a divorced dancer, six years older than he was.
Subsequently, he left for another visit to the United States, spending the autumn of 1938 at the IAS and publishing Consistency of the axiom of choice and of the generalized continuum-hypothesis with the axioms of set theory, a classic of modern mathematics. In that work he introduced the constructible universe, a model of set theory in which the only sets that exist are those that can be constructed from simpler sets. Gödel showed that both the axiom of choice (AC) and the generalized continuum hypothesis (GCH) are true in the constructible universe, and therefore must be consistent with the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms for set theory (ZF). This result has had considerable consequences for working mathematicians, as it means they can assume the axiom of choice when proving the Hahn–Banach theorem. Paul Cohen later constructed a model of ZF in which AC and GCH are false; together these proofs mean that AC and GCH are independent of the ZF axioms for set theory.
Gödel spent the spring of 1939 at the University of Notre Dame.
Princeton, Einstein, U.S. citizenship
After the Anschluss on 12 March 1938, Austria had become a part of Nazi Germany.
Germany abolished the title , so Gödel had to apply for a different position under the new order. His former association with Jewish members of the Vienna Circle, especially with Hahn, weighed against him. The University of Vienna turned his application down.
His predicament intensified when the German army found him fit for conscription. World War II started in September 1939.
Before the year was up, Gödel and his wife left Vienna for Princeton. To avoid the difficulty of an Atlantic crossing, the Gödels took the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Pacific, sailed from Japan to San Francisco (which they reached on March 4, 1940), then crossed the US by train to Princeton. There Gödel accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), which he had previously visited during 1933–34.
Albert Einstein was also living at Princeton during this time. Gödel and Einstein developed a strong friendship, and were known to take long walks together to and from the Institute for Advanced Study. The nature of their conversations was a mystery to the other Institute members. Economist Oskar Morgenstern recounts that toward the end of his life Einstein confided that his "own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely ... to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel".
Gödel and his wife, Adele, spent the summer of 1942 in Blue Hill, Maine, at the Blue Hill Inn at the top of the bay. Gödel was not merely vacationing but had a very productive summer of work. Using [volume 15] of Gödel's still-unpublished [working notebooks], John W. Dawson Jr. conjectures that Gödel discovered a proof for the independence of the axiom of choice from finite type theory, a weakened form of set theory, while in Blue Hill in 1942. Gödel's close friend Hao Wang supports this conjecture, noting that Gödel's Blue Hill notebooks contain his most extensive treatment of the problem.
On December 5, 1947, Einstein and Morgenstern accompanied Gödel to his U.S. citizenship exam, where they acted as witnesses. Gödel had confided in them that he had discovered an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that could allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship; this has since been dubbed Gödel's Loophole. Einstein and Morgenstern were concerned that their friend's unpredictable behavior might jeopardize his application. The judge turned out to be Phillip Forman, who knew Einstein and had administered the oath at Einstein's own citizenship hearing. Everything went smoothly until Forman happened to ask Gödel if he thought a dictatorship like the Nazi regime could happen in the U.S. Gödel then started to explain his discovery to Forman. Forman understood what was going on, cut Gödel off, and moved the hearing on to other questions and a routine conclusion.
Gödel became a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1946. Around this time he stopped publishing, though he continued to work. He became a full professor at the Institute in 1953 and an emeritus professor in 1976.
During his time at the Institute, Gödel's interests turned to philosophy and physics. In 1949, he demonstrated the existence of solutions involving closed timelike curves, to Einstein's field equations in general relativity. He is said to have given this elaboration to Einstein as a present for his 70th birthday. His "rotating universes" would allow time travel to the past and caused Einstein to have doubts about his own theory. His solutions are known as the Gödel metric (an exact solution of the Einstein field equation).
He studied and admired the works of Gottfried Leibniz, but came to believe that a hostile conspiracy had caused some of Leibniz's works to be suppressed. To a lesser extent he studied Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl. In the early 1970s, Gödel circulated among his friends an elaboration of Leibniz's version of Anselm of Canterbury's ontological proof of God's existence. This is now known as Gödel's ontological proof.
Awards and honours
Gödel was awarded (with Julian Schwinger) the first Albert Einstein Award in 1951, and was also awarded the National Medal of Science, in 1974. Gödel was elected a resident member of the American Philosophical Society in 1961 and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1968. He was a Plenary Speaker of the ICM in 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Gödel Prize, an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, is named after him.
Later life and death
Later in his life, Gödel suffered periods of mental instability and illness. Following the assassination of his close friend Moritz Schlick, Gödel developed an obsessive fear of being poisoned, and would eat only food prepared by his wife Adele. Adele was hospitalized beginning in late 1977, and in her absence Gödel refused to eat; he weighed when he died of "malnutrition and inanition caused by personality disturbance" in Princeton Hospital on January 14, 1978 He was buried in Princeton Cemetery. Adele died in 1981.
Religious views
Gödel was a Christian. He believed that God was personal, and called his philosophy "rationalistic, idealistic, optimistic, and theological".
Gödel believed firmly in an afterlife, saying, "Of course this supposes that there are many relationships which today's science and received wisdom haven't any inkling of. But I am convinced of this [the afterlife], independently of any theology." It is "possible today to perceive, by pure reasoning" that it "is entirely consistent with known facts." "If the world is rationally constructed and has meaning, then there must be such a thing [as an afterlife]."
In an unmailed answer to a questionnaire, Gödel described his religion as "baptized Lutheran (but not member of any religious congregation). My belief is theistic, not pantheistic, following Leibniz rather than Spinoza." Of religion(s) in general, he said: "Religions are, for the most part, bad—but religion is not". According to his wife Adele, "Gödel, although he did not go to church, was religious and read the Bible in bed every Sunday morning", while of Islam, he said, "I like Islam: it is a consistent [or consequential] idea of religion and open-minded."
Legacy
The Kurt Gödel Society, founded in 1987, was named in his honor. It is an international organization for the promotion of research in logic, philosophy, and the history of mathematics. The University of Vienna hosts the Kurt Gödel Research Center for Mathematical Logic. The Association for Symbolic Logic has invited an annual Kurt Gödel lecturer each year since 1990. Gödel's Philosophical Notebooks are edited at the Kurt Gödel Research Centre which is situated at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Germany.
Five volumes of Gödel's collected works have been published. The first two include his publications; the third includes unpublished manuscripts from his , and the final two include correspondence.
in 2005 John Dawson published a biography of Gödel, Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel (A. K. Peters, Wellesley, MA, ). Gödel was also one of four mathematicians examined in David Malone's 2008 BBC documentary Dangerous Knowledge.
Douglas Hofstadter wrote the 1979 book to celebrate the work and ideas of Gödel, M. C. Escher and Johann Sebastian Bach. It partly explores the ramifications of the fact that Gödel's incompleteness theorem can be applied to any Turing-complete computational system, which may include the human brain.
Lou Jacobi plays Gödel in the 1994 film I.Q.Bibliography
Important publications
In German:
1930, "Die Vollständigkeit der Axiome des logischen Funktionenkalküls." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 37: 349–60.
1931, "Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme, I." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 38: 173–98.
1932, "Zum intuitionistischen Aussagenkalkül", Anzeiger Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien 69: 65–66.
In English:
1940. The Consistency of the Axiom of Choice and of the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis with the Axioms of Set Theory. Princeton University Press.
1947. "What is Cantor's continuum problem?" The American Mathematical Monthly 54: 515–25. Revised version in Paul Benacerraf and Hilary Putnam, eds., 1984 (1964). Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings. Cambridge Univ. Press: 470–85.
1950, "Rotating Universes in General Relativity Theory." Proceedings of the international Congress of Mathematicians in Cambridge, Vol. 1, pp. 175–81.
In English translation:
Kurt Gödel, 1992. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. B. Meltzer, with a comprehensive introduction by Richard Braithwaite. Dover reprint of the 1962 Basic Books edition.
Kurt Gödel, 2000. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. Martin Hirzel
Jean van Heijenoort, 1967. A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879–1931. Harvard Univ. Press.
1930. "The completeness of the axioms of the functional calculus of logic," 582–91.
1930. "Some metamathematical results on completeness and consistency," 595–96. Abstract to (1931).
1931. "On formally undecidable propositions of Principia Mathematica and related systems," 596–616.
1931a. "On completeness and consistency," 616–17.
"My philosophical viewpoint", c. 1960, unpublished.
"The modern development of the foundations of mathematics in the light of philosophy", 1961, unpublished.
Collected Works: Oxford University Press: New York. Editor-in-chief: Solomon Feferman.
Volume I: Publications 1929–1936 / Paperback: ,
Volume II: Publications 1938–1974 / Paperback: ,
Volume III: Unpublished Essays and Lectures / Paperback: ,
Volume IV: Correspondence, A–G ,
Volume V: Correspondence, H–Z .
Philosophische Notizbücher / Philosophical Notebooks: De Gruyter: Berlin/München/Boston. Editor: Eva-Maria Engelen.
Volume 1: Philosophie I Maximen 0 / Philosophy I Maxims 0 .
Volume 2: Zeiteinteilung (Maximen) I und II / Time Management (Maxims) I and II .
Volume 3: Maximen III / Maxims III
See also
Gödel machine
Gödel fuzzy logic
Gödel–Löb logic
Gödel Prize
Infinite-valued logic
List of Austrian scientists
List of pioneers in computer science
Mathematical Platonism
Original proof of Gödel's completeness theorem
Primitive recursive functional
Strange loop
Tarski's undefinability theorem
World Logic Day
Notes
References
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.
Further reading
Stephen Budiansky, 2021. Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel. W.W. Norton & Company.
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Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870–1940. Princeton Univ. Press.
Jaakko Hintikka, 2000. On Gödel. Wadsworth.
Douglas Hofstadter, 1980. Gödel, Escher, Bach. Vintage.
Stephen Kleene, 1967. Mathematical Logic. Dover paperback reprint c. 2001.
Stephen Kleene, 1980. Introduction to Metamathematics. North Holland (Ishi Press paperback. 2009. )
J.R. Lucas, 1970. The Freedom of the Will. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Ernest Nagel and Newman, James R., 1958. Gödel's Proof. New York Univ. Press.
Procházka, Jiří, 2006, 2006, 2008, 2008, 2010. Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Genealogie. ITEM, Brno. Volume I. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume II. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume III. Brno 2008, . In German, English. Volume IV. Brno, Princeton 2008, . In German, English Volume V, Brno, Princeton 2010, . In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří, 2012. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Historie". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton. Volume I. . In German, English.
Ed Regis, 1987. Who Got Einstein's Office? Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.
Raymond Smullyan, 1992. Godel's Incompleteness Theorems. Oxford University Press.
Olga Taussky-Todd, 1983. Remembrances of Kurt Gödel. Engineering & Science, Winter 1988.
Gödel, Alois, 2006. Brünn 1679–1684. ITEM, Brno 2006, edited by Jiří Procházka,
Procházka, Jiří 2017. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2017. Volume I. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2019. "Kurt Gödel 1906-1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2019. Volume II. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2O2O. "Kurt Gödel: 19O6-1978. Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton
2O2O. Volume III. ((( ISBN 978 8O-9O5 148-1-2))). In German, English. 223 Pages.
Yourgrau, Palle, 1999. Gödel Meets Einstein: Time Travel in the Gödel Universe. Chicago: Open Court.
Yourgrau, Palle, 2004. A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein.'' Basic Books. Book review by John Stachel in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society (54 (7), pp. 861–68):
External links
Time Bandits: an article about the relationship between Gödel and Einstein by Jim Holt
Notices of the AMS, April 2006, Volume 53, Number 4 Kurt Gödel Centenary Issue
Paul Davies and Freeman Dyson discuss Kurt Godel
"Gödel and the Nature of Mathematical Truth" Edge: A Talk with Rebecca Goldstein on Kurt Gödel.
It's Not All In The Numbers: Gregory Chaitin Explains Gödel's Mathematical Complexities.
Gödel photo gallery.
Kurt Gödel
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
1906 births
1978 deaths
20th-century American mathematicians
20th-century American philosophers
20th-century Austrian mathematicians
American relativity theorists
American Protestants
American logicians
American people of Moravian-German descent
Analytic philosophers
Austrian emigrants to the United States
Austrian logicians
Austrian people of Moravian-German descent
Austrian philosophers
Austrian Protestants
Austro-Hungarian mathematicians
Burials at Princeton Cemetery
Deaths by starvation
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Institute for Advanced Study faculty
National Medal of Science laureates
Ontologists
Scientists from Brno
People from the Margraviate of Moravia
People with acquired American citizenship
People with paranoid personality disorder
Platonists
Princeton University faculty
Protestant philosophers
Set theorists
Vienna Circle
University of Notre Dame faculty
University of Vienna alumni
Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy
| true |
[
"Kurt Gödel (28 April 1906 – 14 January 1978) was an Austrian (later American) logician, mathematician and philosopher.\n\nGodel or similar may also refer to:\nGödel (programming language)\n3366 Gödel, a main belt asteroid discovered in 1985\nGödel, Kastamonu, a village in the Kastamonu Province, Turkey\nGodel (river), at Föhr, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany\nGodel Iceport, at the coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica\n\nOther people with the surname Godel include:\nGaston Godel (1914−2004), Swiss race walker\nVahé Godel (born 1931), Swiss writer\nArkadiusz Godel (born 1952), Polish fencer\nJon Godel, 21st-century British journalist\n\nSee also\nGodel mouthpiece, a scuba mouthpiece with a snorkel attached",
"Vahé Godel (born 16 August 1931, in Geneva) is a French Swiss writer, translator and scholar of Armenian literature. He is the son of Robert Godel, a noted linguist and expert on the Armenian language, and Meline Papazian, an Armenian from Bursa. While being a well-known writer in his own right in his native Switzerland, Vahé Godel has also translated numerous Armenian poets, both past and present. His translations include: Odes et lamentations by Grégoire de Narek, Tous les désirs de l'âme by Grégoire de Narek and Nahabed Koutchag, Le chant du pain by Daniel Varoujan, J’apporterai des pierres and Erevan by Marine Petrossian.\n\nHis brother Armen Godel is an actor and director.\n\nReferences\n\nPeople from Geneva\n1931 births\nSwiss male poets\nSwiss translators\nLiving people\n20th-century Swiss poets\n20th-century male writers"
] |
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"Kurt Gödel",
"Studying in Vienna",
"What subjects did Godel study in Vienna?",
"mathematics and philosophy."
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C_b6f8ecf0757e4926bffdf2aee4f00841_0
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How many years did he study in Vienna?
| 2 |
How many years Kurt Godel study in Vienna?
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Kurt Gödel
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At the age of 18, Godel joined his brother in Vienna and entered the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy. During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's Metaphysische Anfangsgrunde der Naturwissenschaft, and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Godel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Godel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences." Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency of mathematical systems may have set Godel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published Grundzuge der theoretischen Logik (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system? This became the topic that Godel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established the completeness of the first-order predicate calculus (Godel's completeness theorem). He was awarded his doctorate in 1930. His thesis, along with some additional work, was published by the Vienna Academy of Science. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( , ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel had an immense effect upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century, a time when others such as Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, and David Hilbert were using logic and set theory to investigate the foundations of mathematics, building on earlier work by the likes of Richard Dedekind, Georg Cantor and Frege.
Gödel published his first incompleteness theorem in 1931 when he was 25 years old, one year after finishing his doctorate at the University of Vienna. The first incompleteness theorem states that for any ω-consistent recursive axiomatic system powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (for example Peano arithmetic), there are true propositions about the natural numbers that can be neither proved nor disproved from the axioms. To prove this, Gödel developed a technique now known as Gödel numbering, which codes formal expressions as natural numbers. The second incompleteness theorem, which follows from the first, states that the system cannot prove its own consistency.
Gödel also showed that neither the axiom of choice nor the continuum hypothesis can be disproved from the accepted Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, assuming that its axioms are consistent. The former result opened the door for mathematicians to assume the axiom of choice in their proofs. He also made important contributions to proof theory by clarifying the connections between classical logic, intuitionistic logic, and modal logic.
Early life and education
Childhood
Gödel was born April 28, 1906, in Brünn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czech Republic) into the German-speaking family of Rudolf Gödel (1874–1929), the managing director and part owner of a major textile firm, and Marianne Gödel (née Handschuh, 1879–1966). Throughout his life, Gödel would remain close to his mother; their correspondence was frequent and wide-ranging. At the time of his birth the city had a German-speaking majority which included his parents. His father was Catholic and his mother was Protestant and the children were raised Protestant. The ancestors of Kurt Gödel were often active in Brünn's cultural life. For example, his grandfather Joseph Gödel was a famous singer in his time and for some years a member of the (Men's Choral Union of Brünn).
Gödel automatically became a citizen of Czechoslovakia at age 12 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed following its defeat in the First World War. According to his classmate , like many residents of the predominantly German , "Gödel considered himself always Austrian and an exile in Czechoslovakia". In February 1929, he was granted release from his Czechoslovakian citizenship and then, in April, granted Austrian citizenship. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Gödel automatically became a German citizen at age 32. In 1948, after World War II, at the age of 42, he became an American citizen.
In his family, the young Gödel was nicknamed ("Mr. Why") because of his insatiable curiosity. According to his brother Rudolf, at the age of six or seven, Kurt suffered from rheumatic fever; he completely recovered, but for the rest of his life he remained convinced that his heart had suffered permanent damage. Beginning at age four, Gödel suffered from "frequent episodes of poor health", which would continue for his entire life.
Gödel attended the , a Lutheran school in Brünn from 1912 to 1916, and was enrolled in the from 1916 to 1924, excelling with honors in all his subjects, particularly in mathematics, languages and religion. Although Gödel had first excelled in languages, he later became more interested in history and mathematics. His interest in mathematics increased when in 1920 his older brother Rudolf (born 1902) left for Vienna, where he attended medical school at the University of Vienna. During his teens, Gödel studied Gabelsberger shorthand, Goethe's Theory of Colours and criticisms of Isaac Newton, and the writings of Immanuel Kant.
Studies in Vienna
At the age of 18, Gödel joined his brother at the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy.<ref>At the University of Vienna, Kurt Gödel attended several mathematics and philosophy courses side by side with Hermann Broch, who was then in his early forties. See: {{cite book|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=BFgpBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|title=Kurt Gödel: Das Album - The Album|author=Sigmund, Karl|author-link=Karl Sigmund|author2=Dawson Jr., John W.|author-link2=John W. Dawson Jr.|author3=Mühlberger, Kurt|page=27|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=2007|isbn=978-3-8348-0173-9}}</ref> During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's , and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Gödel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Gödel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences."
Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency in mathematical systems may have set Gödel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: "Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system?"
This problem became the topic that Gödel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established his eponymous completeness theorem regarding the first-order predicate calculus. He was awarded his doctorate in 1930, and his thesis (accompanied by some additional work) was published by the Vienna Academy of Science.
Career
Incompleteness theorem
In 1930 Gödel attended the Second Conference on the Epistemology of the Exact Sciences, held in Königsberg, 5–7 September. Here he delivered his incompleteness theorems.
Gödel published his incompleteness theorems in (called in English "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of and Related Systems"). In that article, he proved for any computable axiomatic system that is powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (e.g., the Peano axioms or Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice), that:
If a (logical or axiomatic formal) system is omega-consistent, it cannot be syntactically complete.
The consistency of axioms cannot be proved within their own system.
These theorems ended a half-century of attempts, beginning with the work of Gottlob Frege and culminating in and Hilbert's formalism, to find a set of axioms sufficient for all mathematics.
In hindsight, the basic idea at the heart of the incompleteness theorem is rather simple. Gödel essentially constructed a formula that claims that it is unprovable in a given formal system. If it were provable, it would be false.
Thus there will always be at least one true but unprovable statement.
That is, for any computably enumerable set of axioms for arithmetic (that is, a set that can in principle be printed out by an idealized computer with unlimited resources), there is a formula that is true of arithmetic, but which is not provable in that system.
To make this precise, however, Gödel needed to produce a method to encode (as natural numbers) statements, proofs, and the concept of provability; he did this using a process known as Gödel numbering.
In his two-page paper (1932) Gödel refuted the finite-valuedness of intuitionistic logic. In the proof, he implicitly used what has later become known as Gödel–Dummett intermediate logic (or Gödel fuzzy logic).
Mid-1930s: further work and U.S. visits
Gödel earned his habilitation at Vienna in 1932, and in 1933 he became a (unpaid lecturer) there. In 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, and over the following years the Nazis rose in influence in Austria, and among Vienna's mathematicians. In June 1936, Moritz Schlick, whose seminar had aroused Gödel's interest in logic, was assassinated by one of his former students, Johann Nelböck. This triggered "a severe nervous crisis" in Gödel. He developed paranoid symptoms, including a fear of being poisoned, and spent several months in a sanitarium for nervous diseases.
In 1933, Gödel first traveled to the U.S., where he met Albert Einstein, who became a good friend. He delivered an address to the annual meeting of the American Mathematical Society. During this year, Gödel also developed the ideas of computability and recursive functions to the point where he was able to present a lecture on general recursive functions and the concept of truth. This work was developed in number theory, using Gödel numbering.
In 1934, Gödel gave a series of lectures at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, entitled On undecidable propositions of formal mathematical systems. Stephen Kleene, who had just completed his PhD at Princeton, took notes of these lectures that have been subsequently published.
Gödel visited the IAS again in the autumn of 1935. The travelling and the hard work had exhausted him and the next year he took a break to recover from a depressive episode. He returned to teaching in 1937. During this time, he worked on the proof of consistency of the axiom of choice and of the continuum hypothesis; he went on to show that these hypotheses cannot be disproved from the common system of axioms of set theory.
He married (née Porkert, 1899–1981), whom he had known for over 10 years, on September 20, 1938. Gödel's parents had opposed their relationship because she was a divorced dancer, six years older than he was.
Subsequently, he left for another visit to the United States, spending the autumn of 1938 at the IAS and publishing Consistency of the axiom of choice and of the generalized continuum-hypothesis with the axioms of set theory, a classic of modern mathematics. In that work he introduced the constructible universe, a model of set theory in which the only sets that exist are those that can be constructed from simpler sets. Gödel showed that both the axiom of choice (AC) and the generalized continuum hypothesis (GCH) are true in the constructible universe, and therefore must be consistent with the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms for set theory (ZF). This result has had considerable consequences for working mathematicians, as it means they can assume the axiom of choice when proving the Hahn–Banach theorem. Paul Cohen later constructed a model of ZF in which AC and GCH are false; together these proofs mean that AC and GCH are independent of the ZF axioms for set theory.
Gödel spent the spring of 1939 at the University of Notre Dame.
Princeton, Einstein, U.S. citizenship
After the Anschluss on 12 March 1938, Austria had become a part of Nazi Germany.
Germany abolished the title , so Gödel had to apply for a different position under the new order. His former association with Jewish members of the Vienna Circle, especially with Hahn, weighed against him. The University of Vienna turned his application down.
His predicament intensified when the German army found him fit for conscription. World War II started in September 1939.
Before the year was up, Gödel and his wife left Vienna for Princeton. To avoid the difficulty of an Atlantic crossing, the Gödels took the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Pacific, sailed from Japan to San Francisco (which they reached on March 4, 1940), then crossed the US by train to Princeton. There Gödel accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), which he had previously visited during 1933–34.
Albert Einstein was also living at Princeton during this time. Gödel and Einstein developed a strong friendship, and were known to take long walks together to and from the Institute for Advanced Study. The nature of their conversations was a mystery to the other Institute members. Economist Oskar Morgenstern recounts that toward the end of his life Einstein confided that his "own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely ... to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel".
Gödel and his wife, Adele, spent the summer of 1942 in Blue Hill, Maine, at the Blue Hill Inn at the top of the bay. Gödel was not merely vacationing but had a very productive summer of work. Using [volume 15] of Gödel's still-unpublished [working notebooks], John W. Dawson Jr. conjectures that Gödel discovered a proof for the independence of the axiom of choice from finite type theory, a weakened form of set theory, while in Blue Hill in 1942. Gödel's close friend Hao Wang supports this conjecture, noting that Gödel's Blue Hill notebooks contain his most extensive treatment of the problem.
On December 5, 1947, Einstein and Morgenstern accompanied Gödel to his U.S. citizenship exam, where they acted as witnesses. Gödel had confided in them that he had discovered an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that could allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship; this has since been dubbed Gödel's Loophole. Einstein and Morgenstern were concerned that their friend's unpredictable behavior might jeopardize his application. The judge turned out to be Phillip Forman, who knew Einstein and had administered the oath at Einstein's own citizenship hearing. Everything went smoothly until Forman happened to ask Gödel if he thought a dictatorship like the Nazi regime could happen in the U.S. Gödel then started to explain his discovery to Forman. Forman understood what was going on, cut Gödel off, and moved the hearing on to other questions and a routine conclusion.
Gödel became a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1946. Around this time he stopped publishing, though he continued to work. He became a full professor at the Institute in 1953 and an emeritus professor in 1976.
During his time at the Institute, Gödel's interests turned to philosophy and physics. In 1949, he demonstrated the existence of solutions involving closed timelike curves, to Einstein's field equations in general relativity. He is said to have given this elaboration to Einstein as a present for his 70th birthday. His "rotating universes" would allow time travel to the past and caused Einstein to have doubts about his own theory. His solutions are known as the Gödel metric (an exact solution of the Einstein field equation).
He studied and admired the works of Gottfried Leibniz, but came to believe that a hostile conspiracy had caused some of Leibniz's works to be suppressed. To a lesser extent he studied Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl. In the early 1970s, Gödel circulated among his friends an elaboration of Leibniz's version of Anselm of Canterbury's ontological proof of God's existence. This is now known as Gödel's ontological proof.
Awards and honours
Gödel was awarded (with Julian Schwinger) the first Albert Einstein Award in 1951, and was also awarded the National Medal of Science, in 1974. Gödel was elected a resident member of the American Philosophical Society in 1961 and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1968. He was a Plenary Speaker of the ICM in 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Gödel Prize, an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, is named after him.
Later life and death
Later in his life, Gödel suffered periods of mental instability and illness. Following the assassination of his close friend Moritz Schlick, Gödel developed an obsessive fear of being poisoned, and would eat only food prepared by his wife Adele. Adele was hospitalized beginning in late 1977, and in her absence Gödel refused to eat; he weighed when he died of "malnutrition and inanition caused by personality disturbance" in Princeton Hospital on January 14, 1978 He was buried in Princeton Cemetery. Adele died in 1981.
Religious views
Gödel was a Christian. He believed that God was personal, and called his philosophy "rationalistic, idealistic, optimistic, and theological".
Gödel believed firmly in an afterlife, saying, "Of course this supposes that there are many relationships which today's science and received wisdom haven't any inkling of. But I am convinced of this [the afterlife], independently of any theology." It is "possible today to perceive, by pure reasoning" that it "is entirely consistent with known facts." "If the world is rationally constructed and has meaning, then there must be such a thing [as an afterlife]."
In an unmailed answer to a questionnaire, Gödel described his religion as "baptized Lutheran (but not member of any religious congregation). My belief is theistic, not pantheistic, following Leibniz rather than Spinoza." Of religion(s) in general, he said: "Religions are, for the most part, bad—but religion is not". According to his wife Adele, "Gödel, although he did not go to church, was religious and read the Bible in bed every Sunday morning", while of Islam, he said, "I like Islam: it is a consistent [or consequential] idea of religion and open-minded."
Legacy
The Kurt Gödel Society, founded in 1987, was named in his honor. It is an international organization for the promotion of research in logic, philosophy, and the history of mathematics. The University of Vienna hosts the Kurt Gödel Research Center for Mathematical Logic. The Association for Symbolic Logic has invited an annual Kurt Gödel lecturer each year since 1990. Gödel's Philosophical Notebooks are edited at the Kurt Gödel Research Centre which is situated at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Germany.
Five volumes of Gödel's collected works have been published. The first two include his publications; the third includes unpublished manuscripts from his , and the final two include correspondence.
in 2005 John Dawson published a biography of Gödel, Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel (A. K. Peters, Wellesley, MA, ). Gödel was also one of four mathematicians examined in David Malone's 2008 BBC documentary Dangerous Knowledge.
Douglas Hofstadter wrote the 1979 book to celebrate the work and ideas of Gödel, M. C. Escher and Johann Sebastian Bach. It partly explores the ramifications of the fact that Gödel's incompleteness theorem can be applied to any Turing-complete computational system, which may include the human brain.
Lou Jacobi plays Gödel in the 1994 film I.Q.Bibliography
Important publications
In German:
1930, "Die Vollständigkeit der Axiome des logischen Funktionenkalküls." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 37: 349–60.
1931, "Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme, I." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 38: 173–98.
1932, "Zum intuitionistischen Aussagenkalkül", Anzeiger Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien 69: 65–66.
In English:
1940. The Consistency of the Axiom of Choice and of the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis with the Axioms of Set Theory. Princeton University Press.
1947. "What is Cantor's continuum problem?" The American Mathematical Monthly 54: 515–25. Revised version in Paul Benacerraf and Hilary Putnam, eds., 1984 (1964). Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings. Cambridge Univ. Press: 470–85.
1950, "Rotating Universes in General Relativity Theory." Proceedings of the international Congress of Mathematicians in Cambridge, Vol. 1, pp. 175–81.
In English translation:
Kurt Gödel, 1992. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. B. Meltzer, with a comprehensive introduction by Richard Braithwaite. Dover reprint of the 1962 Basic Books edition.
Kurt Gödel, 2000. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. Martin Hirzel
Jean van Heijenoort, 1967. A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879–1931. Harvard Univ. Press.
1930. "The completeness of the axioms of the functional calculus of logic," 582–91.
1930. "Some metamathematical results on completeness and consistency," 595–96. Abstract to (1931).
1931. "On formally undecidable propositions of Principia Mathematica and related systems," 596–616.
1931a. "On completeness and consistency," 616–17.
"My philosophical viewpoint", c. 1960, unpublished.
"The modern development of the foundations of mathematics in the light of philosophy", 1961, unpublished.
Collected Works: Oxford University Press: New York. Editor-in-chief: Solomon Feferman.
Volume I: Publications 1929–1936 / Paperback: ,
Volume II: Publications 1938–1974 / Paperback: ,
Volume III: Unpublished Essays and Lectures / Paperback: ,
Volume IV: Correspondence, A–G ,
Volume V: Correspondence, H–Z .
Philosophische Notizbücher / Philosophical Notebooks: De Gruyter: Berlin/München/Boston. Editor: Eva-Maria Engelen.
Volume 1: Philosophie I Maximen 0 / Philosophy I Maxims 0 .
Volume 2: Zeiteinteilung (Maximen) I und II / Time Management (Maxims) I and II .
Volume 3: Maximen III / Maxims III
See also
Gödel machine
Gödel fuzzy logic
Gödel–Löb logic
Gödel Prize
Infinite-valued logic
List of Austrian scientists
List of pioneers in computer science
Mathematical Platonism
Original proof of Gödel's completeness theorem
Primitive recursive functional
Strange loop
Tarski's undefinability theorem
World Logic Day
Notes
References
.
.
Further reading
Stephen Budiansky, 2021. Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel. W.W. Norton & Company.
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.
Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870–1940. Princeton Univ. Press.
Jaakko Hintikka, 2000. On Gödel. Wadsworth.
Douglas Hofstadter, 1980. Gödel, Escher, Bach. Vintage.
Stephen Kleene, 1967. Mathematical Logic. Dover paperback reprint c. 2001.
Stephen Kleene, 1980. Introduction to Metamathematics. North Holland (Ishi Press paperback. 2009. )
J.R. Lucas, 1970. The Freedom of the Will. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Ernest Nagel and Newman, James R., 1958. Gödel's Proof. New York Univ. Press.
Procházka, Jiří, 2006, 2006, 2008, 2008, 2010. Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Genealogie. ITEM, Brno. Volume I. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume II. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume III. Brno 2008, . In German, English. Volume IV. Brno, Princeton 2008, . In German, English Volume V, Brno, Princeton 2010, . In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří, 2012. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Historie". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton. Volume I. . In German, English.
Ed Regis, 1987. Who Got Einstein's Office? Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.
Raymond Smullyan, 1992. Godel's Incompleteness Theorems. Oxford University Press.
Olga Taussky-Todd, 1983. Remembrances of Kurt Gödel. Engineering & Science, Winter 1988.
Gödel, Alois, 2006. Brünn 1679–1684. ITEM, Brno 2006, edited by Jiří Procházka,
Procházka, Jiří 2017. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2017. Volume I. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2019. "Kurt Gödel 1906-1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2019. Volume II. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2O2O. "Kurt Gödel: 19O6-1978. Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton
2O2O. Volume III. ((( ISBN 978 8O-9O5 148-1-2))). In German, English. 223 Pages.
Yourgrau, Palle, 1999. Gödel Meets Einstein: Time Travel in the Gödel Universe. Chicago: Open Court.
Yourgrau, Palle, 2004. A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein.'' Basic Books. Book review by John Stachel in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society (54 (7), pp. 861–68):
External links
Time Bandits: an article about the relationship between Gödel and Einstein by Jim Holt
Notices of the AMS, April 2006, Volume 53, Number 4 Kurt Gödel Centenary Issue
Paul Davies and Freeman Dyson discuss Kurt Godel
"Gödel and the Nature of Mathematical Truth" Edge: A Talk with Rebecca Goldstein on Kurt Gödel.
It's Not All In The Numbers: Gregory Chaitin Explains Gödel's Mathematical Complexities.
Gödel photo gallery.
Kurt Gödel
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
1906 births
1978 deaths
20th-century American mathematicians
20th-century American philosophers
20th-century Austrian mathematicians
American relativity theorists
American Protestants
American logicians
American people of Moravian-German descent
Analytic philosophers
Austrian emigrants to the United States
Austrian logicians
Austrian people of Moravian-German descent
Austrian philosophers
Austrian Protestants
Austro-Hungarian mathematicians
Burials at Princeton Cemetery
Deaths by starvation
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Institute for Advanced Study faculty
National Medal of Science laureates
Ontologists
Scientists from Brno
People from the Margraviate of Moravia
People with acquired American citizenship
People with paranoid personality disorder
Platonists
Princeton University faculty
Protestant philosophers
Set theorists
Vienna Circle
University of Notre Dame faculty
University of Vienna alumni
Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy
| false |
[
"Adolf Dauthage (20 February 1825, Vienna – 3 June 1883, Rustendorf (now a part of Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus, near Vienna) was an Austrian lithographer who produced many portrait lithographs. After a period of study at the Vienna Academy, he worked in the studio of Josef Kriehuber for four years.\n\nReferences \n\n \n Dauthage, Adolph. In Constantin von Wurzbach, Biographisches Lexikon des Kaisertums Österreich, Vol. 3, p. 174, Vienna 1858\n\nExternal links \n\n19th-century Austrian people\nAustrian lithographers\nAustrian artists\nPortrait artists\nArtists from Vienna\n1825 births\n1883 deaths\nAcademy of Fine Arts Vienna alumni",
"Martin Voracek (born 1966 in Vienna, Austria) is an Austrian psychologist and Professor of Psychological Research Methods - Research Synthesis in the University of Vienna's Faculty of Psychology. He is also the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Individual Differences.\n\nResearch\nVoracek has researched many different topics in the field of psychology, including the relationship between IQ and suicide rates, and the association between the digit ratio of a heterosexual man and the number of sexual partners he has had. One of his best-known studies, published in 2002, found that female centerfold models in Playboy had become less representative of the general population since the 1950s. The same study also found that more recent models tend to look much less curvy and more androgynous than did previous models.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nFaculty page\n\nImprobable research: Of wolves and men\nYou are what you drive? Study shows people tend to drive cars that resemble their own faces\n\n1966 births\nLiving people\nAustrian psychologists\nUniversity of Vienna faculty\nScientists from Vienna\nSuicidologists\nAcademic journal editors"
] |
[
"Kurt Gödel",
"Studying in Vienna",
"What subjects did Godel study in Vienna?",
"mathematics and philosophy.",
"How many years did he study in Vienna?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_b6f8ecf0757e4926bffdf2aee4f00841_0
|
What school did Godel attend when he studied in Vienna?
| 3 |
What school did Kurt Godel attend when he studied in Vienna?
|
Kurt Gödel
|
At the age of 18, Godel joined his brother in Vienna and entered the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy. During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's Metaphysische Anfangsgrunde der Naturwissenschaft, and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Godel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Godel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences." Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency of mathematical systems may have set Godel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published Grundzuge der theoretischen Logik (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system? This became the topic that Godel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established the completeness of the first-order predicate calculus (Godel's completeness theorem). He was awarded his doctorate in 1930. His thesis, along with some additional work, was published by the Vienna Academy of Science. CANNOTANSWER
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University of Vienna.
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Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( , ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel had an immense effect upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century, a time when others such as Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, and David Hilbert were using logic and set theory to investigate the foundations of mathematics, building on earlier work by the likes of Richard Dedekind, Georg Cantor and Frege.
Gödel published his first incompleteness theorem in 1931 when he was 25 years old, one year after finishing his doctorate at the University of Vienna. The first incompleteness theorem states that for any ω-consistent recursive axiomatic system powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (for example Peano arithmetic), there are true propositions about the natural numbers that can be neither proved nor disproved from the axioms. To prove this, Gödel developed a technique now known as Gödel numbering, which codes formal expressions as natural numbers. The second incompleteness theorem, which follows from the first, states that the system cannot prove its own consistency.
Gödel also showed that neither the axiom of choice nor the continuum hypothesis can be disproved from the accepted Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, assuming that its axioms are consistent. The former result opened the door for mathematicians to assume the axiom of choice in their proofs. He also made important contributions to proof theory by clarifying the connections between classical logic, intuitionistic logic, and modal logic.
Early life and education
Childhood
Gödel was born April 28, 1906, in Brünn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czech Republic) into the German-speaking family of Rudolf Gödel (1874–1929), the managing director and part owner of a major textile firm, and Marianne Gödel (née Handschuh, 1879–1966). Throughout his life, Gödel would remain close to his mother; their correspondence was frequent and wide-ranging. At the time of his birth the city had a German-speaking majority which included his parents. His father was Catholic and his mother was Protestant and the children were raised Protestant. The ancestors of Kurt Gödel were often active in Brünn's cultural life. For example, his grandfather Joseph Gödel was a famous singer in his time and for some years a member of the (Men's Choral Union of Brünn).
Gödel automatically became a citizen of Czechoslovakia at age 12 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed following its defeat in the First World War. According to his classmate , like many residents of the predominantly German , "Gödel considered himself always Austrian and an exile in Czechoslovakia". In February 1929, he was granted release from his Czechoslovakian citizenship and then, in April, granted Austrian citizenship. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Gödel automatically became a German citizen at age 32. In 1948, after World War II, at the age of 42, he became an American citizen.
In his family, the young Gödel was nicknamed ("Mr. Why") because of his insatiable curiosity. According to his brother Rudolf, at the age of six or seven, Kurt suffered from rheumatic fever; he completely recovered, but for the rest of his life he remained convinced that his heart had suffered permanent damage. Beginning at age four, Gödel suffered from "frequent episodes of poor health", which would continue for his entire life.
Gödel attended the , a Lutheran school in Brünn from 1912 to 1916, and was enrolled in the from 1916 to 1924, excelling with honors in all his subjects, particularly in mathematics, languages and religion. Although Gödel had first excelled in languages, he later became more interested in history and mathematics. His interest in mathematics increased when in 1920 his older brother Rudolf (born 1902) left for Vienna, where he attended medical school at the University of Vienna. During his teens, Gödel studied Gabelsberger shorthand, Goethe's Theory of Colours and criticisms of Isaac Newton, and the writings of Immanuel Kant.
Studies in Vienna
At the age of 18, Gödel joined his brother at the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy.<ref>At the University of Vienna, Kurt Gödel attended several mathematics and philosophy courses side by side with Hermann Broch, who was then in his early forties. See: {{cite book|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=BFgpBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|title=Kurt Gödel: Das Album - The Album|author=Sigmund, Karl|author-link=Karl Sigmund|author2=Dawson Jr., John W.|author-link2=John W. Dawson Jr.|author3=Mühlberger, Kurt|page=27|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=2007|isbn=978-3-8348-0173-9}}</ref> During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's , and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Gödel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Gödel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences."
Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency in mathematical systems may have set Gödel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: "Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system?"
This problem became the topic that Gödel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established his eponymous completeness theorem regarding the first-order predicate calculus. He was awarded his doctorate in 1930, and his thesis (accompanied by some additional work) was published by the Vienna Academy of Science.
Career
Incompleteness theorem
In 1930 Gödel attended the Second Conference on the Epistemology of the Exact Sciences, held in Königsberg, 5–7 September. Here he delivered his incompleteness theorems.
Gödel published his incompleteness theorems in (called in English "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of and Related Systems"). In that article, he proved for any computable axiomatic system that is powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (e.g., the Peano axioms or Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice), that:
If a (logical or axiomatic formal) system is omega-consistent, it cannot be syntactically complete.
The consistency of axioms cannot be proved within their own system.
These theorems ended a half-century of attempts, beginning with the work of Gottlob Frege and culminating in and Hilbert's formalism, to find a set of axioms sufficient for all mathematics.
In hindsight, the basic idea at the heart of the incompleteness theorem is rather simple. Gödel essentially constructed a formula that claims that it is unprovable in a given formal system. If it were provable, it would be false.
Thus there will always be at least one true but unprovable statement.
That is, for any computably enumerable set of axioms for arithmetic (that is, a set that can in principle be printed out by an idealized computer with unlimited resources), there is a formula that is true of arithmetic, but which is not provable in that system.
To make this precise, however, Gödel needed to produce a method to encode (as natural numbers) statements, proofs, and the concept of provability; he did this using a process known as Gödel numbering.
In his two-page paper (1932) Gödel refuted the finite-valuedness of intuitionistic logic. In the proof, he implicitly used what has later become known as Gödel–Dummett intermediate logic (or Gödel fuzzy logic).
Mid-1930s: further work and U.S. visits
Gödel earned his habilitation at Vienna in 1932, and in 1933 he became a (unpaid lecturer) there. In 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, and over the following years the Nazis rose in influence in Austria, and among Vienna's mathematicians. In June 1936, Moritz Schlick, whose seminar had aroused Gödel's interest in logic, was assassinated by one of his former students, Johann Nelböck. This triggered "a severe nervous crisis" in Gödel. He developed paranoid symptoms, including a fear of being poisoned, and spent several months in a sanitarium for nervous diseases.
In 1933, Gödel first traveled to the U.S., where he met Albert Einstein, who became a good friend. He delivered an address to the annual meeting of the American Mathematical Society. During this year, Gödel also developed the ideas of computability and recursive functions to the point where he was able to present a lecture on general recursive functions and the concept of truth. This work was developed in number theory, using Gödel numbering.
In 1934, Gödel gave a series of lectures at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, entitled On undecidable propositions of formal mathematical systems. Stephen Kleene, who had just completed his PhD at Princeton, took notes of these lectures that have been subsequently published.
Gödel visited the IAS again in the autumn of 1935. The travelling and the hard work had exhausted him and the next year he took a break to recover from a depressive episode. He returned to teaching in 1937. During this time, he worked on the proof of consistency of the axiom of choice and of the continuum hypothesis; he went on to show that these hypotheses cannot be disproved from the common system of axioms of set theory.
He married (née Porkert, 1899–1981), whom he had known for over 10 years, on September 20, 1938. Gödel's parents had opposed their relationship because she was a divorced dancer, six years older than he was.
Subsequently, he left for another visit to the United States, spending the autumn of 1938 at the IAS and publishing Consistency of the axiom of choice and of the generalized continuum-hypothesis with the axioms of set theory, a classic of modern mathematics. In that work he introduced the constructible universe, a model of set theory in which the only sets that exist are those that can be constructed from simpler sets. Gödel showed that both the axiom of choice (AC) and the generalized continuum hypothesis (GCH) are true in the constructible universe, and therefore must be consistent with the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms for set theory (ZF). This result has had considerable consequences for working mathematicians, as it means they can assume the axiom of choice when proving the Hahn–Banach theorem. Paul Cohen later constructed a model of ZF in which AC and GCH are false; together these proofs mean that AC and GCH are independent of the ZF axioms for set theory.
Gödel spent the spring of 1939 at the University of Notre Dame.
Princeton, Einstein, U.S. citizenship
After the Anschluss on 12 March 1938, Austria had become a part of Nazi Germany.
Germany abolished the title , so Gödel had to apply for a different position under the new order. His former association with Jewish members of the Vienna Circle, especially with Hahn, weighed against him. The University of Vienna turned his application down.
His predicament intensified when the German army found him fit for conscription. World War II started in September 1939.
Before the year was up, Gödel and his wife left Vienna for Princeton. To avoid the difficulty of an Atlantic crossing, the Gödels took the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Pacific, sailed from Japan to San Francisco (which they reached on March 4, 1940), then crossed the US by train to Princeton. There Gödel accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), which he had previously visited during 1933–34.
Albert Einstein was also living at Princeton during this time. Gödel and Einstein developed a strong friendship, and were known to take long walks together to and from the Institute for Advanced Study. The nature of their conversations was a mystery to the other Institute members. Economist Oskar Morgenstern recounts that toward the end of his life Einstein confided that his "own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely ... to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel".
Gödel and his wife, Adele, spent the summer of 1942 in Blue Hill, Maine, at the Blue Hill Inn at the top of the bay. Gödel was not merely vacationing but had a very productive summer of work. Using [volume 15] of Gödel's still-unpublished [working notebooks], John W. Dawson Jr. conjectures that Gödel discovered a proof for the independence of the axiom of choice from finite type theory, a weakened form of set theory, while in Blue Hill in 1942. Gödel's close friend Hao Wang supports this conjecture, noting that Gödel's Blue Hill notebooks contain his most extensive treatment of the problem.
On December 5, 1947, Einstein and Morgenstern accompanied Gödel to his U.S. citizenship exam, where they acted as witnesses. Gödel had confided in them that he had discovered an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that could allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship; this has since been dubbed Gödel's Loophole. Einstein and Morgenstern were concerned that their friend's unpredictable behavior might jeopardize his application. The judge turned out to be Phillip Forman, who knew Einstein and had administered the oath at Einstein's own citizenship hearing. Everything went smoothly until Forman happened to ask Gödel if he thought a dictatorship like the Nazi regime could happen in the U.S. Gödel then started to explain his discovery to Forman. Forman understood what was going on, cut Gödel off, and moved the hearing on to other questions and a routine conclusion.
Gödel became a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1946. Around this time he stopped publishing, though he continued to work. He became a full professor at the Institute in 1953 and an emeritus professor in 1976.
During his time at the Institute, Gödel's interests turned to philosophy and physics. In 1949, he demonstrated the existence of solutions involving closed timelike curves, to Einstein's field equations in general relativity. He is said to have given this elaboration to Einstein as a present for his 70th birthday. His "rotating universes" would allow time travel to the past and caused Einstein to have doubts about his own theory. His solutions are known as the Gödel metric (an exact solution of the Einstein field equation).
He studied and admired the works of Gottfried Leibniz, but came to believe that a hostile conspiracy had caused some of Leibniz's works to be suppressed. To a lesser extent he studied Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl. In the early 1970s, Gödel circulated among his friends an elaboration of Leibniz's version of Anselm of Canterbury's ontological proof of God's existence. This is now known as Gödel's ontological proof.
Awards and honours
Gödel was awarded (with Julian Schwinger) the first Albert Einstein Award in 1951, and was also awarded the National Medal of Science, in 1974. Gödel was elected a resident member of the American Philosophical Society in 1961 and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1968. He was a Plenary Speaker of the ICM in 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Gödel Prize, an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, is named after him.
Later life and death
Later in his life, Gödel suffered periods of mental instability and illness. Following the assassination of his close friend Moritz Schlick, Gödel developed an obsessive fear of being poisoned, and would eat only food prepared by his wife Adele. Adele was hospitalized beginning in late 1977, and in her absence Gödel refused to eat; he weighed when he died of "malnutrition and inanition caused by personality disturbance" in Princeton Hospital on January 14, 1978 He was buried in Princeton Cemetery. Adele died in 1981.
Religious views
Gödel was a Christian. He believed that God was personal, and called his philosophy "rationalistic, idealistic, optimistic, and theological".
Gödel believed firmly in an afterlife, saying, "Of course this supposes that there are many relationships which today's science and received wisdom haven't any inkling of. But I am convinced of this [the afterlife], independently of any theology." It is "possible today to perceive, by pure reasoning" that it "is entirely consistent with known facts." "If the world is rationally constructed and has meaning, then there must be such a thing [as an afterlife]."
In an unmailed answer to a questionnaire, Gödel described his religion as "baptized Lutheran (but not member of any religious congregation). My belief is theistic, not pantheistic, following Leibniz rather than Spinoza." Of religion(s) in general, he said: "Religions are, for the most part, bad—but religion is not". According to his wife Adele, "Gödel, although he did not go to church, was religious and read the Bible in bed every Sunday morning", while of Islam, he said, "I like Islam: it is a consistent [or consequential] idea of religion and open-minded."
Legacy
The Kurt Gödel Society, founded in 1987, was named in his honor. It is an international organization for the promotion of research in logic, philosophy, and the history of mathematics. The University of Vienna hosts the Kurt Gödel Research Center for Mathematical Logic. The Association for Symbolic Logic has invited an annual Kurt Gödel lecturer each year since 1990. Gödel's Philosophical Notebooks are edited at the Kurt Gödel Research Centre which is situated at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Germany.
Five volumes of Gödel's collected works have been published. The first two include his publications; the third includes unpublished manuscripts from his , and the final two include correspondence.
in 2005 John Dawson published a biography of Gödel, Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel (A. K. Peters, Wellesley, MA, ). Gödel was also one of four mathematicians examined in David Malone's 2008 BBC documentary Dangerous Knowledge.
Douglas Hofstadter wrote the 1979 book to celebrate the work and ideas of Gödel, M. C. Escher and Johann Sebastian Bach. It partly explores the ramifications of the fact that Gödel's incompleteness theorem can be applied to any Turing-complete computational system, which may include the human brain.
Lou Jacobi plays Gödel in the 1994 film I.Q.Bibliography
Important publications
In German:
1930, "Die Vollständigkeit der Axiome des logischen Funktionenkalküls." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 37: 349–60.
1931, "Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme, I." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 38: 173–98.
1932, "Zum intuitionistischen Aussagenkalkül", Anzeiger Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien 69: 65–66.
In English:
1940. The Consistency of the Axiom of Choice and of the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis with the Axioms of Set Theory. Princeton University Press.
1947. "What is Cantor's continuum problem?" The American Mathematical Monthly 54: 515–25. Revised version in Paul Benacerraf and Hilary Putnam, eds., 1984 (1964). Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings. Cambridge Univ. Press: 470–85.
1950, "Rotating Universes in General Relativity Theory." Proceedings of the international Congress of Mathematicians in Cambridge, Vol. 1, pp. 175–81.
In English translation:
Kurt Gödel, 1992. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. B. Meltzer, with a comprehensive introduction by Richard Braithwaite. Dover reprint of the 1962 Basic Books edition.
Kurt Gödel, 2000. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. Martin Hirzel
Jean van Heijenoort, 1967. A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879–1931. Harvard Univ. Press.
1930. "The completeness of the axioms of the functional calculus of logic," 582–91.
1930. "Some metamathematical results on completeness and consistency," 595–96. Abstract to (1931).
1931. "On formally undecidable propositions of Principia Mathematica and related systems," 596–616.
1931a. "On completeness and consistency," 616–17.
"My philosophical viewpoint", c. 1960, unpublished.
"The modern development of the foundations of mathematics in the light of philosophy", 1961, unpublished.
Collected Works: Oxford University Press: New York. Editor-in-chief: Solomon Feferman.
Volume I: Publications 1929–1936 / Paperback: ,
Volume II: Publications 1938–1974 / Paperback: ,
Volume III: Unpublished Essays and Lectures / Paperback: ,
Volume IV: Correspondence, A–G ,
Volume V: Correspondence, H–Z .
Philosophische Notizbücher / Philosophical Notebooks: De Gruyter: Berlin/München/Boston. Editor: Eva-Maria Engelen.
Volume 1: Philosophie I Maximen 0 / Philosophy I Maxims 0 .
Volume 2: Zeiteinteilung (Maximen) I und II / Time Management (Maxims) I and II .
Volume 3: Maximen III / Maxims III
See also
Gödel machine
Gödel fuzzy logic
Gödel–Löb logic
Gödel Prize
Infinite-valued logic
List of Austrian scientists
List of pioneers in computer science
Mathematical Platonism
Original proof of Gödel's completeness theorem
Primitive recursive functional
Strange loop
Tarski's undefinability theorem
World Logic Day
Notes
References
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.
Further reading
Stephen Budiansky, 2021. Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel. W.W. Norton & Company.
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Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870–1940. Princeton Univ. Press.
Jaakko Hintikka, 2000. On Gödel. Wadsworth.
Douglas Hofstadter, 1980. Gödel, Escher, Bach. Vintage.
Stephen Kleene, 1967. Mathematical Logic. Dover paperback reprint c. 2001.
Stephen Kleene, 1980. Introduction to Metamathematics. North Holland (Ishi Press paperback. 2009. )
J.R. Lucas, 1970. The Freedom of the Will. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Ernest Nagel and Newman, James R., 1958. Gödel's Proof. New York Univ. Press.
Procházka, Jiří, 2006, 2006, 2008, 2008, 2010. Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Genealogie. ITEM, Brno. Volume I. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume II. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume III. Brno 2008, . In German, English. Volume IV. Brno, Princeton 2008, . In German, English Volume V, Brno, Princeton 2010, . In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří, 2012. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Historie". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton. Volume I. . In German, English.
Ed Regis, 1987. Who Got Einstein's Office? Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.
Raymond Smullyan, 1992. Godel's Incompleteness Theorems. Oxford University Press.
Olga Taussky-Todd, 1983. Remembrances of Kurt Gödel. Engineering & Science, Winter 1988.
Gödel, Alois, 2006. Brünn 1679–1684. ITEM, Brno 2006, edited by Jiří Procházka,
Procházka, Jiří 2017. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2017. Volume I. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2019. "Kurt Gödel 1906-1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2019. Volume II. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2O2O. "Kurt Gödel: 19O6-1978. Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton
2O2O. Volume III. ((( ISBN 978 8O-9O5 148-1-2))). In German, English. 223 Pages.
Yourgrau, Palle, 1999. Gödel Meets Einstein: Time Travel in the Gödel Universe. Chicago: Open Court.
Yourgrau, Palle, 2004. A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein.'' Basic Books. Book review by John Stachel in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society (54 (7), pp. 861–68):
External links
Time Bandits: an article about the relationship between Gödel and Einstein by Jim Holt
Notices of the AMS, April 2006, Volume 53, Number 4 Kurt Gödel Centenary Issue
Paul Davies and Freeman Dyson discuss Kurt Godel
"Gödel and the Nature of Mathematical Truth" Edge: A Talk with Rebecca Goldstein on Kurt Gödel.
It's Not All In The Numbers: Gregory Chaitin Explains Gödel's Mathematical Complexities.
Gödel photo gallery.
Kurt Gödel
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
1906 births
1978 deaths
20th-century American mathematicians
20th-century American philosophers
20th-century Austrian mathematicians
American relativity theorists
American Protestants
American logicians
American people of Moravian-German descent
Analytic philosophers
Austrian emigrants to the United States
Austrian logicians
Austrian people of Moravian-German descent
Austrian philosophers
Austrian Protestants
Austro-Hungarian mathematicians
Burials at Princeton Cemetery
Deaths by starvation
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Institute for Advanced Study faculty
National Medal of Science laureates
Ontologists
Scientists from Brno
People from the Margraviate of Moravia
People with acquired American citizenship
People with paranoid personality disorder
Platonists
Princeton University faculty
Protestant philosophers
Set theorists
Vienna Circle
University of Notre Dame faculty
University of Vienna alumni
Corresponding Fellows of the British Academy
| true |
[
"Kurt Gödel (28 April 1906 – 14 January 1978) was an Austrian (later American) logician, mathematician and philosopher.\n\nGodel or similar may also refer to:\nGödel (programming language)\n3366 Gödel, a main belt asteroid discovered in 1985\nGödel, Kastamonu, a village in the Kastamonu Province, Turkey\nGodel (river), at Föhr, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany\nGodel Iceport, at the coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica\n\nOther people with the surname Godel include:\nGaston Godel (1914−2004), Swiss race walker\nVahé Godel (born 1931), Swiss writer\nArkadiusz Godel (born 1952), Polish fencer\nJon Godel, 21st-century British journalist\n\nSee also\nGodel mouthpiece, a scuba mouthpiece with a snorkel attached",
"Vahé Godel (born 16 August 1931, in Geneva) is a French Swiss writer, translator and scholar of Armenian literature. He is the son of Robert Godel, a noted linguist and expert on the Armenian language, and Meline Papazian, an Armenian from Bursa. While being a well-known writer in his own right in his native Switzerland, Vahé Godel has also translated numerous Armenian poets, both past and present. His translations include: Odes et lamentations by Grégoire de Narek, Tous les désirs de l'âme by Grégoire de Narek and Nahabed Koutchag, Le chant du pain by Daniel Varoujan, J’apporterai des pierres and Erevan by Marine Petrossian.\n\nHis brother Armen Godel is an actor and director.\n\nReferences\n\nPeople from Geneva\n1931 births\nSwiss male poets\nSwiss translators\nLiving people\n20th-century Swiss poets\n20th-century male writers"
] |
[
"Kurt Gödel",
"Studying in Vienna",
"What subjects did Godel study in Vienna?",
"mathematics and philosophy.",
"How many years did he study in Vienna?",
"I don't know.",
"What school did Godel attend when he studied in Vienna?",
"University of Vienna."
] |
C_b6f8ecf0757e4926bffdf2aee4f00841_0
|
Did Godel study in Vienna after World War 1?
| 4 |
Did Kurt Godel study in Vienna after World War 1?
|
Kurt Gödel
|
At the age of 18, Godel joined his brother in Vienna and entered the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy. During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's Metaphysische Anfangsgrunde der Naturwissenschaft, and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Godel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Godel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences." Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency of mathematical systems may have set Godel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published Grundzuge der theoretischen Logik (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system? This became the topic that Godel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established the completeness of the first-order predicate calculus (Godel's completeness theorem). He was awarded his doctorate in 1930. His thesis, along with some additional work, was published by the Vienna Academy of Science. CANNOTANSWER
|
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Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( , ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel had an immense effect upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century, a time when others such as Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, and David Hilbert were using logic and set theory to investigate the foundations of mathematics, building on earlier work by the likes of Richard Dedekind, Georg Cantor and Frege.
Gödel published his first incompleteness theorem in 1931 when he was 25 years old, one year after finishing his doctorate at the University of Vienna. The first incompleteness theorem states that for any ω-consistent recursive axiomatic system powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (for example Peano arithmetic), there are true propositions about the natural numbers that can be neither proved nor disproved from the axioms. To prove this, Gödel developed a technique now known as Gödel numbering, which codes formal expressions as natural numbers. The second incompleteness theorem, which follows from the first, states that the system cannot prove its own consistency.
Gödel also showed that neither the axiom of choice nor the continuum hypothesis can be disproved from the accepted Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, assuming that its axioms are consistent. The former result opened the door for mathematicians to assume the axiom of choice in their proofs. He also made important contributions to proof theory by clarifying the connections between classical logic, intuitionistic logic, and modal logic.
Early life and education
Childhood
Gödel was born April 28, 1906, in Brünn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czech Republic) into the German-speaking family of Rudolf Gödel (1874–1929), the managing director and part owner of a major textile firm, and Marianne Gödel (née Handschuh, 1879–1966). Throughout his life, Gödel would remain close to his mother; their correspondence was frequent and wide-ranging. At the time of his birth the city had a German-speaking majority which included his parents. His father was Catholic and his mother was Protestant and the children were raised Protestant. The ancestors of Kurt Gödel were often active in Brünn's cultural life. For example, his grandfather Joseph Gödel was a famous singer in his time and for some years a member of the (Men's Choral Union of Brünn).
Gödel automatically became a citizen of Czechoslovakia at age 12 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed following its defeat in the First World War. According to his classmate , like many residents of the predominantly German , "Gödel considered himself always Austrian and an exile in Czechoslovakia". In February 1929, he was granted release from his Czechoslovakian citizenship and then, in April, granted Austrian citizenship. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Gödel automatically became a German citizen at age 32. In 1948, after World War II, at the age of 42, he became an American citizen.
In his family, the young Gödel was nicknamed ("Mr. Why") because of his insatiable curiosity. According to his brother Rudolf, at the age of six or seven, Kurt suffered from rheumatic fever; he completely recovered, but for the rest of his life he remained convinced that his heart had suffered permanent damage. Beginning at age four, Gödel suffered from "frequent episodes of poor health", which would continue for his entire life.
Gödel attended the , a Lutheran school in Brünn from 1912 to 1916, and was enrolled in the from 1916 to 1924, excelling with honors in all his subjects, particularly in mathematics, languages and religion. Although Gödel had first excelled in languages, he later became more interested in history and mathematics. His interest in mathematics increased when in 1920 his older brother Rudolf (born 1902) left for Vienna, where he attended medical school at the University of Vienna. During his teens, Gödel studied Gabelsberger shorthand, Goethe's Theory of Colours and criticisms of Isaac Newton, and the writings of Immanuel Kant.
Studies in Vienna
At the age of 18, Gödel joined his brother at the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy.<ref>At the University of Vienna, Kurt Gödel attended several mathematics and philosophy courses side by side with Hermann Broch, who was then in his early forties. See: {{cite book|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=BFgpBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|title=Kurt Gödel: Das Album - The Album|author=Sigmund, Karl|author-link=Karl Sigmund|author2=Dawson Jr., John W.|author-link2=John W. Dawson Jr.|author3=Mühlberger, Kurt|page=27|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=2007|isbn=978-3-8348-0173-9}}</ref> During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's , and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Gödel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Gödel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences."
Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency in mathematical systems may have set Gödel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: "Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system?"
This problem became the topic that Gödel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established his eponymous completeness theorem regarding the first-order predicate calculus. He was awarded his doctorate in 1930, and his thesis (accompanied by some additional work) was published by the Vienna Academy of Science.
Career
Incompleteness theorem
In 1930 Gödel attended the Second Conference on the Epistemology of the Exact Sciences, held in Königsberg, 5–7 September. Here he delivered his incompleteness theorems.
Gödel published his incompleteness theorems in (called in English "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of and Related Systems"). In that article, he proved for any computable axiomatic system that is powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (e.g., the Peano axioms or Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice), that:
If a (logical or axiomatic formal) system is omega-consistent, it cannot be syntactically complete.
The consistency of axioms cannot be proved within their own system.
These theorems ended a half-century of attempts, beginning with the work of Gottlob Frege and culminating in and Hilbert's formalism, to find a set of axioms sufficient for all mathematics.
In hindsight, the basic idea at the heart of the incompleteness theorem is rather simple. Gödel essentially constructed a formula that claims that it is unprovable in a given formal system. If it were provable, it would be false.
Thus there will always be at least one true but unprovable statement.
That is, for any computably enumerable set of axioms for arithmetic (that is, a set that can in principle be printed out by an idealized computer with unlimited resources), there is a formula that is true of arithmetic, but which is not provable in that system.
To make this precise, however, Gödel needed to produce a method to encode (as natural numbers) statements, proofs, and the concept of provability; he did this using a process known as Gödel numbering.
In his two-page paper (1932) Gödel refuted the finite-valuedness of intuitionistic logic. In the proof, he implicitly used what has later become known as Gödel–Dummett intermediate logic (or Gödel fuzzy logic).
Mid-1930s: further work and U.S. visits
Gödel earned his habilitation at Vienna in 1932, and in 1933 he became a (unpaid lecturer) there. In 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, and over the following years the Nazis rose in influence in Austria, and among Vienna's mathematicians. In June 1936, Moritz Schlick, whose seminar had aroused Gödel's interest in logic, was assassinated by one of his former students, Johann Nelböck. This triggered "a severe nervous crisis" in Gödel. He developed paranoid symptoms, including a fear of being poisoned, and spent several months in a sanitarium for nervous diseases.
In 1933, Gödel first traveled to the U.S., where he met Albert Einstein, who became a good friend. He delivered an address to the annual meeting of the American Mathematical Society. During this year, Gödel also developed the ideas of computability and recursive functions to the point where he was able to present a lecture on general recursive functions and the concept of truth. This work was developed in number theory, using Gödel numbering.
In 1934, Gödel gave a series of lectures at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, entitled On undecidable propositions of formal mathematical systems. Stephen Kleene, who had just completed his PhD at Princeton, took notes of these lectures that have been subsequently published.
Gödel visited the IAS again in the autumn of 1935. The travelling and the hard work had exhausted him and the next year he took a break to recover from a depressive episode. He returned to teaching in 1937. During this time, he worked on the proof of consistency of the axiom of choice and of the continuum hypothesis; he went on to show that these hypotheses cannot be disproved from the common system of axioms of set theory.
He married (née Porkert, 1899–1981), whom he had known for over 10 years, on September 20, 1938. Gödel's parents had opposed their relationship because she was a divorced dancer, six years older than he was.
Subsequently, he left for another visit to the United States, spending the autumn of 1938 at the IAS and publishing Consistency of the axiom of choice and of the generalized continuum-hypothesis with the axioms of set theory, a classic of modern mathematics. In that work he introduced the constructible universe, a model of set theory in which the only sets that exist are those that can be constructed from simpler sets. Gödel showed that both the axiom of choice (AC) and the generalized continuum hypothesis (GCH) are true in the constructible universe, and therefore must be consistent with the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms for set theory (ZF). This result has had considerable consequences for working mathematicians, as it means they can assume the axiom of choice when proving the Hahn–Banach theorem. Paul Cohen later constructed a model of ZF in which AC and GCH are false; together these proofs mean that AC and GCH are independent of the ZF axioms for set theory.
Gödel spent the spring of 1939 at the University of Notre Dame.
Princeton, Einstein, U.S. citizenship
After the Anschluss on 12 March 1938, Austria had become a part of Nazi Germany.
Germany abolished the title , so Gödel had to apply for a different position under the new order. His former association with Jewish members of the Vienna Circle, especially with Hahn, weighed against him. The University of Vienna turned his application down.
His predicament intensified when the German army found him fit for conscription. World War II started in September 1939.
Before the year was up, Gödel and his wife left Vienna for Princeton. To avoid the difficulty of an Atlantic crossing, the Gödels took the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Pacific, sailed from Japan to San Francisco (which they reached on March 4, 1940), then crossed the US by train to Princeton. There Gödel accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), which he had previously visited during 1933–34.
Albert Einstein was also living at Princeton during this time. Gödel and Einstein developed a strong friendship, and were known to take long walks together to and from the Institute for Advanced Study. The nature of their conversations was a mystery to the other Institute members. Economist Oskar Morgenstern recounts that toward the end of his life Einstein confided that his "own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely ... to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel".
Gödel and his wife, Adele, spent the summer of 1942 in Blue Hill, Maine, at the Blue Hill Inn at the top of the bay. Gödel was not merely vacationing but had a very productive summer of work. Using [volume 15] of Gödel's still-unpublished [working notebooks], John W. Dawson Jr. conjectures that Gödel discovered a proof for the independence of the axiom of choice from finite type theory, a weakened form of set theory, while in Blue Hill in 1942. Gödel's close friend Hao Wang supports this conjecture, noting that Gödel's Blue Hill notebooks contain his most extensive treatment of the problem.
On December 5, 1947, Einstein and Morgenstern accompanied Gödel to his U.S. citizenship exam, where they acted as witnesses. Gödel had confided in them that he had discovered an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that could allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship; this has since been dubbed Gödel's Loophole. Einstein and Morgenstern were concerned that their friend's unpredictable behavior might jeopardize his application. The judge turned out to be Phillip Forman, who knew Einstein and had administered the oath at Einstein's own citizenship hearing. Everything went smoothly until Forman happened to ask Gödel if he thought a dictatorship like the Nazi regime could happen in the U.S. Gödel then started to explain his discovery to Forman. Forman understood what was going on, cut Gödel off, and moved the hearing on to other questions and a routine conclusion.
Gödel became a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1946. Around this time he stopped publishing, though he continued to work. He became a full professor at the Institute in 1953 and an emeritus professor in 1976.
During his time at the Institute, Gödel's interests turned to philosophy and physics. In 1949, he demonstrated the existence of solutions involving closed timelike curves, to Einstein's field equations in general relativity. He is said to have given this elaboration to Einstein as a present for his 70th birthday. His "rotating universes" would allow time travel to the past and caused Einstein to have doubts about his own theory. His solutions are known as the Gödel metric (an exact solution of the Einstein field equation).
He studied and admired the works of Gottfried Leibniz, but came to believe that a hostile conspiracy had caused some of Leibniz's works to be suppressed. To a lesser extent he studied Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl. In the early 1970s, Gödel circulated among his friends an elaboration of Leibniz's version of Anselm of Canterbury's ontological proof of God's existence. This is now known as Gödel's ontological proof.
Awards and honours
Gödel was awarded (with Julian Schwinger) the first Albert Einstein Award in 1951, and was also awarded the National Medal of Science, in 1974. Gödel was elected a resident member of the American Philosophical Society in 1961 and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1968. He was a Plenary Speaker of the ICM in 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Gödel Prize, an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, is named after him.
Later life and death
Later in his life, Gödel suffered periods of mental instability and illness. Following the assassination of his close friend Moritz Schlick, Gödel developed an obsessive fear of being poisoned, and would eat only food prepared by his wife Adele. Adele was hospitalized beginning in late 1977, and in her absence Gödel refused to eat; he weighed when he died of "malnutrition and inanition caused by personality disturbance" in Princeton Hospital on January 14, 1978 He was buried in Princeton Cemetery. Adele died in 1981.
Religious views
Gödel was a Christian. He believed that God was personal, and called his philosophy "rationalistic, idealistic, optimistic, and theological".
Gödel believed firmly in an afterlife, saying, "Of course this supposes that there are many relationships which today's science and received wisdom haven't any inkling of. But I am convinced of this [the afterlife], independently of any theology." It is "possible today to perceive, by pure reasoning" that it "is entirely consistent with known facts." "If the world is rationally constructed and has meaning, then there must be such a thing [as an afterlife]."
In an unmailed answer to a questionnaire, Gödel described his religion as "baptized Lutheran (but not member of any religious congregation). My belief is theistic, not pantheistic, following Leibniz rather than Spinoza." Of religion(s) in general, he said: "Religions are, for the most part, bad—but religion is not". According to his wife Adele, "Gödel, although he did not go to church, was religious and read the Bible in bed every Sunday morning", while of Islam, he said, "I like Islam: it is a consistent [or consequential] idea of religion and open-minded."
Legacy
The Kurt Gödel Society, founded in 1987, was named in his honor. It is an international organization for the promotion of research in logic, philosophy, and the history of mathematics. The University of Vienna hosts the Kurt Gödel Research Center for Mathematical Logic. The Association for Symbolic Logic has invited an annual Kurt Gödel lecturer each year since 1990. Gödel's Philosophical Notebooks are edited at the Kurt Gödel Research Centre which is situated at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Germany.
Five volumes of Gödel's collected works have been published. The first two include his publications; the third includes unpublished manuscripts from his , and the final two include correspondence.
in 2005 John Dawson published a biography of Gödel, Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel (A. K. Peters, Wellesley, MA, ). Gödel was also one of four mathematicians examined in David Malone's 2008 BBC documentary Dangerous Knowledge.
Douglas Hofstadter wrote the 1979 book to celebrate the work and ideas of Gödel, M. C. Escher and Johann Sebastian Bach. It partly explores the ramifications of the fact that Gödel's incompleteness theorem can be applied to any Turing-complete computational system, which may include the human brain.
Lou Jacobi plays Gödel in the 1994 film I.Q.Bibliography
Important publications
In German:
1930, "Die Vollständigkeit der Axiome des logischen Funktionenkalküls." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 37: 349–60.
1931, "Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme, I." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 38: 173–98.
1932, "Zum intuitionistischen Aussagenkalkül", Anzeiger Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien 69: 65–66.
In English:
1940. The Consistency of the Axiom of Choice and of the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis with the Axioms of Set Theory. Princeton University Press.
1947. "What is Cantor's continuum problem?" The American Mathematical Monthly 54: 515–25. Revised version in Paul Benacerraf and Hilary Putnam, eds., 1984 (1964). Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings. Cambridge Univ. Press: 470–85.
1950, "Rotating Universes in General Relativity Theory." Proceedings of the international Congress of Mathematicians in Cambridge, Vol. 1, pp. 175–81.
In English translation:
Kurt Gödel, 1992. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. B. Meltzer, with a comprehensive introduction by Richard Braithwaite. Dover reprint of the 1962 Basic Books edition.
Kurt Gödel, 2000. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. Martin Hirzel
Jean van Heijenoort, 1967. A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879–1931. Harvard Univ. Press.
1930. "The completeness of the axioms of the functional calculus of logic," 582–91.
1930. "Some metamathematical results on completeness and consistency," 595–96. Abstract to (1931).
1931. "On formally undecidable propositions of Principia Mathematica and related systems," 596–616.
1931a. "On completeness and consistency," 616–17.
"My philosophical viewpoint", c. 1960, unpublished.
"The modern development of the foundations of mathematics in the light of philosophy", 1961, unpublished.
Collected Works: Oxford University Press: New York. Editor-in-chief: Solomon Feferman.
Volume I: Publications 1929–1936 / Paperback: ,
Volume II: Publications 1938–1974 / Paperback: ,
Volume III: Unpublished Essays and Lectures / Paperback: ,
Volume IV: Correspondence, A–G ,
Volume V: Correspondence, H–Z .
Philosophische Notizbücher / Philosophical Notebooks: De Gruyter: Berlin/München/Boston. Editor: Eva-Maria Engelen.
Volume 1: Philosophie I Maximen 0 / Philosophy I Maxims 0 .
Volume 2: Zeiteinteilung (Maximen) I und II / Time Management (Maxims) I and II .
Volume 3: Maximen III / Maxims III
See also
Gödel machine
Gödel fuzzy logic
Gödel–Löb logic
Gödel Prize
Infinite-valued logic
List of Austrian scientists
List of pioneers in computer science
Mathematical Platonism
Original proof of Gödel's completeness theorem
Primitive recursive functional
Strange loop
Tarski's undefinability theorem
World Logic Day
Notes
References
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Further reading
Stephen Budiansky, 2021. Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel. W.W. Norton & Company.
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Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870–1940. Princeton Univ. Press.
Jaakko Hintikka, 2000. On Gödel. Wadsworth.
Douglas Hofstadter, 1980. Gödel, Escher, Bach. Vintage.
Stephen Kleene, 1967. Mathematical Logic. Dover paperback reprint c. 2001.
Stephen Kleene, 1980. Introduction to Metamathematics. North Holland (Ishi Press paperback. 2009. )
J.R. Lucas, 1970. The Freedom of the Will. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Ernest Nagel and Newman, James R., 1958. Gödel's Proof. New York Univ. Press.
Procházka, Jiří, 2006, 2006, 2008, 2008, 2010. Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Genealogie. ITEM, Brno. Volume I. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume II. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume III. Brno 2008, . In German, English. Volume IV. Brno, Princeton 2008, . In German, English Volume V, Brno, Princeton 2010, . In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří, 2012. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Historie". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton. Volume I. . In German, English.
Ed Regis, 1987. Who Got Einstein's Office? Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.
Raymond Smullyan, 1992. Godel's Incompleteness Theorems. Oxford University Press.
Olga Taussky-Todd, 1983. Remembrances of Kurt Gödel. Engineering & Science, Winter 1988.
Gödel, Alois, 2006. Brünn 1679–1684. ITEM, Brno 2006, edited by Jiří Procházka,
Procházka, Jiří 2017. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2017. Volume I. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2019. "Kurt Gödel 1906-1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2019. Volume II. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2O2O. "Kurt Gödel: 19O6-1978. Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton
2O2O. Volume III. ((( ISBN 978 8O-9O5 148-1-2))). In German, English. 223 Pages.
Yourgrau, Palle, 1999. Gödel Meets Einstein: Time Travel in the Gödel Universe. Chicago: Open Court.
Yourgrau, Palle, 2004. A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein.'' Basic Books. Book review by John Stachel in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society (54 (7), pp. 861–68):
External links
Time Bandits: an article about the relationship between Gödel and Einstein by Jim Holt
Notices of the AMS, April 2006, Volume 53, Number 4 Kurt Gödel Centenary Issue
Paul Davies and Freeman Dyson discuss Kurt Godel
"Gödel and the Nature of Mathematical Truth" Edge: A Talk with Rebecca Goldstein on Kurt Gödel.
It's Not All In The Numbers: Gregory Chaitin Explains Gödel's Mathematical Complexities.
Gödel photo gallery.
Kurt Gödel
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
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1978 deaths
20th-century American mathematicians
20th-century American philosophers
20th-century Austrian mathematicians
American relativity theorists
American Protestants
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American people of Moravian-German descent
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"Kurt Gödel (28 April 1906 – 14 January 1978) was an Austrian (later American) logician, mathematician and philosopher.\n\nGodel or similar may also refer to:\nGödel (programming language)\n3366 Gödel, a main belt asteroid discovered in 1985\nGödel, Kastamonu, a village in the Kastamonu Province, Turkey\nGodel (river), at Föhr, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany\nGodel Iceport, at the coast of Queen Maud Land, Antarctica\n\nOther people with the surname Godel include:\nGaston Godel (1914−2004), Swiss race walker\nVahé Godel (born 1931), Swiss writer\nArkadiusz Godel (born 1952), Polish fencer\nJon Godel, 21st-century British journalist\n\nSee also\nGodel mouthpiece, a scuba mouthpiece with a snorkel attached",
"Otto Scheerpeltz (16 July 1888, Olomouc - 10 November 1975, Vienna) was an Austrian entomologist who specialized in the study of beetles, particularly the rove-beetles, Staphylinidae.\n\nScheerpeltz was born in Olomouc where he went to the local schools. Although interested in plants and animals, he followed his father's advice to study civil engineering at the Technical University. He taught geometry and technical drawing for a while in Vienna and became a full-time teacher in 1910. He started studying zoology and botany in 1922 and received a doctoral summa cum laude in 1930. He did not complete his habilitation due to the outbreak of World War II. He retired as a teacher from the Schottenfelder Oberrrealschule, Vienna in 1945 and joined the Natural History Museum, Vienna in 1948. He helped build the collections and the library there and retired in 1953.\n\nHis collection of Staphylinidae included 300000 specimens with about 10,000 types was bequeathed to the Natural History Museum, Vienna. He authored a catalogue of the Staphylinidae of the world in collaboration with Max Bernhauer. Published in 1926, they described 12,740 species.\n\nReferences\n\n1888 births\n1975 deaths\nAustrian entomologists\nMoravian-German people\nScientists from Olomouc\n20th-century Austrian zoologists"
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Did Kurt excell as a student while studying in Vienna?
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Did Kurt Godel excel as a student while studying in Vienna?
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Kurt Gödel
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At the age of 18, Godel joined his brother in Vienna and entered the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy. During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's Metaphysische Anfangsgrunde der Naturwissenschaft, and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Godel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Godel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences." Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency of mathematical systems may have set Godel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published Grundzuge der theoretischen Logik (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system? This became the topic that Godel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established the completeness of the first-order predicate calculus (Godel's completeness theorem). He was awarded his doctorate in 1930. His thesis, along with some additional work, was published by the Vienna Academy of Science. CANNOTANSWER
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Kurt Friedrich Gödel ( , ; April 28, 1906 – January 14, 1978) was a logician, mathematician, and philosopher. Considered along with Aristotle and Gottlob Frege to be one of the most significant logicians in history, Gödel had an immense effect upon scientific and philosophical thinking in the 20th century, a time when others such as Bertrand Russell, Alfred North Whitehead, and David Hilbert were using logic and set theory to investigate the foundations of mathematics, building on earlier work by the likes of Richard Dedekind, Georg Cantor and Frege.
Gödel published his first incompleteness theorem in 1931 when he was 25 years old, one year after finishing his doctorate at the University of Vienna. The first incompleteness theorem states that for any ω-consistent recursive axiomatic system powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (for example Peano arithmetic), there are true propositions about the natural numbers that can be neither proved nor disproved from the axioms. To prove this, Gödel developed a technique now known as Gödel numbering, which codes formal expressions as natural numbers. The second incompleteness theorem, which follows from the first, states that the system cannot prove its own consistency.
Gödel also showed that neither the axiom of choice nor the continuum hypothesis can be disproved from the accepted Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory, assuming that its axioms are consistent. The former result opened the door for mathematicians to assume the axiom of choice in their proofs. He also made important contributions to proof theory by clarifying the connections between classical logic, intuitionistic logic, and modal logic.
Early life and education
Childhood
Gödel was born April 28, 1906, in Brünn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czech Republic) into the German-speaking family of Rudolf Gödel (1874–1929), the managing director and part owner of a major textile firm, and Marianne Gödel (née Handschuh, 1879–1966). Throughout his life, Gödel would remain close to his mother; their correspondence was frequent and wide-ranging. At the time of his birth the city had a German-speaking majority which included his parents. His father was Catholic and his mother was Protestant and the children were raised Protestant. The ancestors of Kurt Gödel were often active in Brünn's cultural life. For example, his grandfather Joseph Gödel was a famous singer in his time and for some years a member of the (Men's Choral Union of Brünn).
Gödel automatically became a citizen of Czechoslovakia at age 12 when the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed following its defeat in the First World War. According to his classmate , like many residents of the predominantly German , "Gödel considered himself always Austrian and an exile in Czechoslovakia". In February 1929, he was granted release from his Czechoslovakian citizenship and then, in April, granted Austrian citizenship. When Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Gödel automatically became a German citizen at age 32. In 1948, after World War II, at the age of 42, he became an American citizen.
In his family, the young Gödel was nicknamed ("Mr. Why") because of his insatiable curiosity. According to his brother Rudolf, at the age of six or seven, Kurt suffered from rheumatic fever; he completely recovered, but for the rest of his life he remained convinced that his heart had suffered permanent damage. Beginning at age four, Gödel suffered from "frequent episodes of poor health", which would continue for his entire life.
Gödel attended the , a Lutheran school in Brünn from 1912 to 1916, and was enrolled in the from 1916 to 1924, excelling with honors in all his subjects, particularly in mathematics, languages and religion. Although Gödel had first excelled in languages, he later became more interested in history and mathematics. His interest in mathematics increased when in 1920 his older brother Rudolf (born 1902) left for Vienna, where he attended medical school at the University of Vienna. During his teens, Gödel studied Gabelsberger shorthand, Goethe's Theory of Colours and criticisms of Isaac Newton, and the writings of Immanuel Kant.
Studies in Vienna
At the age of 18, Gödel joined his brother at the University of Vienna. By that time, he had already mastered university-level mathematics. Although initially intending to study theoretical physics, he also attended courses on mathematics and philosophy.<ref>At the University of Vienna, Kurt Gödel attended several mathematics and philosophy courses side by side with Hermann Broch, who was then in his early forties. See: {{cite book|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=BFgpBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA27|title=Kurt Gödel: Das Album - The Album|author=Sigmund, Karl|author-link=Karl Sigmund|author2=Dawson Jr., John W.|author-link2=John W. Dawson Jr.|author3=Mühlberger, Kurt|page=27|publisher=Springer-Verlag|year=2007|isbn=978-3-8348-0173-9}}</ref> During this time, he adopted ideas of mathematical realism. He read Kant's , and participated in the Vienna Circle with Moritz Schlick, Hans Hahn, and Rudolf Carnap. Gödel then studied number theory, but when he took part in a seminar run by Moritz Schlick which studied Bertrand Russell's book Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy, he became interested in mathematical logic. According to Gödel, mathematical logic was "a science prior to all others, which contains the ideas and principles underlying all sciences."
Attending a lecture by David Hilbert in Bologna on completeness and consistency in mathematical systems may have set Gödel's life course. In 1928, Hilbert and Wilhelm Ackermann published (Principles of Mathematical Logic), an introduction to first-order logic in which the problem of completeness was posed: "Are the axioms of a formal system sufficient to derive every statement that is true in all models of the system?"
This problem became the topic that Gödel chose for his doctoral work. In 1929, at the age of 23, he completed his doctoral dissertation under Hans Hahn's supervision. In it, he established his eponymous completeness theorem regarding the first-order predicate calculus. He was awarded his doctorate in 1930, and his thesis (accompanied by some additional work) was published by the Vienna Academy of Science.
Career
Incompleteness theorem
In 1930 Gödel attended the Second Conference on the Epistemology of the Exact Sciences, held in Königsberg, 5–7 September. Here he delivered his incompleteness theorems.
Gödel published his incompleteness theorems in (called in English "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of and Related Systems"). In that article, he proved for any computable axiomatic system that is powerful enough to describe the arithmetic of the natural numbers (e.g., the Peano axioms or Zermelo–Fraenkel set theory with the axiom of choice), that:
If a (logical or axiomatic formal) system is omega-consistent, it cannot be syntactically complete.
The consistency of axioms cannot be proved within their own system.
These theorems ended a half-century of attempts, beginning with the work of Gottlob Frege and culminating in and Hilbert's formalism, to find a set of axioms sufficient for all mathematics.
In hindsight, the basic idea at the heart of the incompleteness theorem is rather simple. Gödel essentially constructed a formula that claims that it is unprovable in a given formal system. If it were provable, it would be false.
Thus there will always be at least one true but unprovable statement.
That is, for any computably enumerable set of axioms for arithmetic (that is, a set that can in principle be printed out by an idealized computer with unlimited resources), there is a formula that is true of arithmetic, but which is not provable in that system.
To make this precise, however, Gödel needed to produce a method to encode (as natural numbers) statements, proofs, and the concept of provability; he did this using a process known as Gödel numbering.
In his two-page paper (1932) Gödel refuted the finite-valuedness of intuitionistic logic. In the proof, he implicitly used what has later become known as Gödel–Dummett intermediate logic (or Gödel fuzzy logic).
Mid-1930s: further work and U.S. visits
Gödel earned his habilitation at Vienna in 1932, and in 1933 he became a (unpaid lecturer) there. In 1933 Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany, and over the following years the Nazis rose in influence in Austria, and among Vienna's mathematicians. In June 1936, Moritz Schlick, whose seminar had aroused Gödel's interest in logic, was assassinated by one of his former students, Johann Nelböck. This triggered "a severe nervous crisis" in Gödel. He developed paranoid symptoms, including a fear of being poisoned, and spent several months in a sanitarium for nervous diseases.
In 1933, Gödel first traveled to the U.S., where he met Albert Einstein, who became a good friend. He delivered an address to the annual meeting of the American Mathematical Society. During this year, Gödel also developed the ideas of computability and recursive functions to the point where he was able to present a lecture on general recursive functions and the concept of truth. This work was developed in number theory, using Gödel numbering.
In 1934, Gödel gave a series of lectures at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, entitled On undecidable propositions of formal mathematical systems. Stephen Kleene, who had just completed his PhD at Princeton, took notes of these lectures that have been subsequently published.
Gödel visited the IAS again in the autumn of 1935. The travelling and the hard work had exhausted him and the next year he took a break to recover from a depressive episode. He returned to teaching in 1937. During this time, he worked on the proof of consistency of the axiom of choice and of the continuum hypothesis; he went on to show that these hypotheses cannot be disproved from the common system of axioms of set theory.
He married (née Porkert, 1899–1981), whom he had known for over 10 years, on September 20, 1938. Gödel's parents had opposed their relationship because she was a divorced dancer, six years older than he was.
Subsequently, he left for another visit to the United States, spending the autumn of 1938 at the IAS and publishing Consistency of the axiom of choice and of the generalized continuum-hypothesis with the axioms of set theory, a classic of modern mathematics. In that work he introduced the constructible universe, a model of set theory in which the only sets that exist are those that can be constructed from simpler sets. Gödel showed that both the axiom of choice (AC) and the generalized continuum hypothesis (GCH) are true in the constructible universe, and therefore must be consistent with the Zermelo–Fraenkel axioms for set theory (ZF). This result has had considerable consequences for working mathematicians, as it means they can assume the axiom of choice when proving the Hahn–Banach theorem. Paul Cohen later constructed a model of ZF in which AC and GCH are false; together these proofs mean that AC and GCH are independent of the ZF axioms for set theory.
Gödel spent the spring of 1939 at the University of Notre Dame.
Princeton, Einstein, U.S. citizenship
After the Anschluss on 12 March 1938, Austria had become a part of Nazi Germany.
Germany abolished the title , so Gödel had to apply for a different position under the new order. His former association with Jewish members of the Vienna Circle, especially with Hahn, weighed against him. The University of Vienna turned his application down.
His predicament intensified when the German army found him fit for conscription. World War II started in September 1939.
Before the year was up, Gödel and his wife left Vienna for Princeton. To avoid the difficulty of an Atlantic crossing, the Gödels took the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Pacific, sailed from Japan to San Francisco (which they reached on March 4, 1940), then crossed the US by train to Princeton. There Gödel accepted a position at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), which he had previously visited during 1933–34.
Albert Einstein was also living at Princeton during this time. Gödel and Einstein developed a strong friendship, and were known to take long walks together to and from the Institute for Advanced Study. The nature of their conversations was a mystery to the other Institute members. Economist Oskar Morgenstern recounts that toward the end of his life Einstein confided that his "own work no longer meant much, that he came to the Institute merely ... to have the privilege of walking home with Gödel".
Gödel and his wife, Adele, spent the summer of 1942 in Blue Hill, Maine, at the Blue Hill Inn at the top of the bay. Gödel was not merely vacationing but had a very productive summer of work. Using [volume 15] of Gödel's still-unpublished [working notebooks], John W. Dawson Jr. conjectures that Gödel discovered a proof for the independence of the axiom of choice from finite type theory, a weakened form of set theory, while in Blue Hill in 1942. Gödel's close friend Hao Wang supports this conjecture, noting that Gödel's Blue Hill notebooks contain his most extensive treatment of the problem.
On December 5, 1947, Einstein and Morgenstern accompanied Gödel to his U.S. citizenship exam, where they acted as witnesses. Gödel had confided in them that he had discovered an inconsistency in the U.S. Constitution that could allow the U.S. to become a dictatorship; this has since been dubbed Gödel's Loophole. Einstein and Morgenstern were concerned that their friend's unpredictable behavior might jeopardize his application. The judge turned out to be Phillip Forman, who knew Einstein and had administered the oath at Einstein's own citizenship hearing. Everything went smoothly until Forman happened to ask Gödel if he thought a dictatorship like the Nazi regime could happen in the U.S. Gödel then started to explain his discovery to Forman. Forman understood what was going on, cut Gödel off, and moved the hearing on to other questions and a routine conclusion.
Gödel became a permanent member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton in 1946. Around this time he stopped publishing, though he continued to work. He became a full professor at the Institute in 1953 and an emeritus professor in 1976.
During his time at the Institute, Gödel's interests turned to philosophy and physics. In 1949, he demonstrated the existence of solutions involving closed timelike curves, to Einstein's field equations in general relativity. He is said to have given this elaboration to Einstein as a present for his 70th birthday. His "rotating universes" would allow time travel to the past and caused Einstein to have doubts about his own theory. His solutions are known as the Gödel metric (an exact solution of the Einstein field equation).
He studied and admired the works of Gottfried Leibniz, but came to believe that a hostile conspiracy had caused some of Leibniz's works to be suppressed. To a lesser extent he studied Immanuel Kant and Edmund Husserl. In the early 1970s, Gödel circulated among his friends an elaboration of Leibniz's version of Anselm of Canterbury's ontological proof of God's existence. This is now known as Gödel's ontological proof.
Awards and honours
Gödel was awarded (with Julian Schwinger) the first Albert Einstein Award in 1951, and was also awarded the National Medal of Science, in 1974. Gödel was elected a resident member of the American Philosophical Society in 1961 and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society (ForMemRS) in 1968. He was a Plenary Speaker of the ICM in 1950 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Gödel Prize, an annual prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical computer science, is named after him.
Later life and death
Later in his life, Gödel suffered periods of mental instability and illness. Following the assassination of his close friend Moritz Schlick, Gödel developed an obsessive fear of being poisoned, and would eat only food prepared by his wife Adele. Adele was hospitalized beginning in late 1977, and in her absence Gödel refused to eat; he weighed when he died of "malnutrition and inanition caused by personality disturbance" in Princeton Hospital on January 14, 1978 He was buried in Princeton Cemetery. Adele died in 1981.
Religious views
Gödel was a Christian. He believed that God was personal, and called his philosophy "rationalistic, idealistic, optimistic, and theological".
Gödel believed firmly in an afterlife, saying, "Of course this supposes that there are many relationships which today's science and received wisdom haven't any inkling of. But I am convinced of this [the afterlife], independently of any theology." It is "possible today to perceive, by pure reasoning" that it "is entirely consistent with known facts." "If the world is rationally constructed and has meaning, then there must be such a thing [as an afterlife]."
In an unmailed answer to a questionnaire, Gödel described his religion as "baptized Lutheran (but not member of any religious congregation). My belief is theistic, not pantheistic, following Leibniz rather than Spinoza." Of religion(s) in general, he said: "Religions are, for the most part, bad—but religion is not". According to his wife Adele, "Gödel, although he did not go to church, was religious and read the Bible in bed every Sunday morning", while of Islam, he said, "I like Islam: it is a consistent [or consequential] idea of religion and open-minded."
Legacy
The Kurt Gödel Society, founded in 1987, was named in his honor. It is an international organization for the promotion of research in logic, philosophy, and the history of mathematics. The University of Vienna hosts the Kurt Gödel Research Center for Mathematical Logic. The Association for Symbolic Logic has invited an annual Kurt Gödel lecturer each year since 1990. Gödel's Philosophical Notebooks are edited at the Kurt Gödel Research Centre which is situated at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Germany.
Five volumes of Gödel's collected works have been published. The first two include his publications; the third includes unpublished manuscripts from his , and the final two include correspondence.
in 2005 John Dawson published a biography of Gödel, Logical Dilemmas: The Life and Work of Kurt Gödel (A. K. Peters, Wellesley, MA, ). Gödel was also one of four mathematicians examined in David Malone's 2008 BBC documentary Dangerous Knowledge.
Douglas Hofstadter wrote the 1979 book to celebrate the work and ideas of Gödel, M. C. Escher and Johann Sebastian Bach. It partly explores the ramifications of the fact that Gödel's incompleteness theorem can be applied to any Turing-complete computational system, which may include the human brain.
Lou Jacobi plays Gödel in the 1994 film I.Q.Bibliography
Important publications
In German:
1930, "Die Vollständigkeit der Axiome des logischen Funktionenkalküls." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 37: 349–60.
1931, "Über formal unentscheidbare Sätze der Principia Mathematica und verwandter Systeme, I." Monatshefte für Mathematik und Physik 38: 173–98.
1932, "Zum intuitionistischen Aussagenkalkül", Anzeiger Akademie der Wissenschaften Wien 69: 65–66.
In English:
1940. The Consistency of the Axiom of Choice and of the Generalized Continuum Hypothesis with the Axioms of Set Theory. Princeton University Press.
1947. "What is Cantor's continuum problem?" The American Mathematical Monthly 54: 515–25. Revised version in Paul Benacerraf and Hilary Putnam, eds., 1984 (1964). Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Readings. Cambridge Univ. Press: 470–85.
1950, "Rotating Universes in General Relativity Theory." Proceedings of the international Congress of Mathematicians in Cambridge, Vol. 1, pp. 175–81.
In English translation:
Kurt Gödel, 1992. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. B. Meltzer, with a comprehensive introduction by Richard Braithwaite. Dover reprint of the 1962 Basic Books edition.
Kurt Gödel, 2000. On Formally Undecidable Propositions Of Principia Mathematica And Related Systems, tr. Martin Hirzel
Jean van Heijenoort, 1967. A Source Book in Mathematical Logic, 1879–1931. Harvard Univ. Press.
1930. "The completeness of the axioms of the functional calculus of logic," 582–91.
1930. "Some metamathematical results on completeness and consistency," 595–96. Abstract to (1931).
1931. "On formally undecidable propositions of Principia Mathematica and related systems," 596–616.
1931a. "On completeness and consistency," 616–17.
"My philosophical viewpoint", c. 1960, unpublished.
"The modern development of the foundations of mathematics in the light of philosophy", 1961, unpublished.
Collected Works: Oxford University Press: New York. Editor-in-chief: Solomon Feferman.
Volume I: Publications 1929–1936 / Paperback: ,
Volume II: Publications 1938–1974 / Paperback: ,
Volume III: Unpublished Essays and Lectures / Paperback: ,
Volume IV: Correspondence, A–G ,
Volume V: Correspondence, H–Z .
Philosophische Notizbücher / Philosophical Notebooks: De Gruyter: Berlin/München/Boston. Editor: Eva-Maria Engelen.
Volume 1: Philosophie I Maximen 0 / Philosophy I Maxims 0 .
Volume 2: Zeiteinteilung (Maximen) I und II / Time Management (Maxims) I and II .
Volume 3: Maximen III / Maxims III
See also
Gödel machine
Gödel fuzzy logic
Gödel–Löb logic
Gödel Prize
Infinite-valued logic
List of Austrian scientists
List of pioneers in computer science
Mathematical Platonism
Original proof of Gödel's completeness theorem
Primitive recursive functional
Strange loop
Tarski's undefinability theorem
World Logic Day
Notes
References
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Further reading
Stephen Budiansky, 2021. Journey to the Edge of Reason: The Life of Kurt Gödel. W.W. Norton & Company.
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Ivor Grattan-Guinness, 2000. The Search for Mathematical Roots 1870–1940. Princeton Univ. Press.
Jaakko Hintikka, 2000. On Gödel. Wadsworth.
Douglas Hofstadter, 1980. Gödel, Escher, Bach. Vintage.
Stephen Kleene, 1967. Mathematical Logic. Dover paperback reprint c. 2001.
Stephen Kleene, 1980. Introduction to Metamathematics. North Holland (Ishi Press paperback. 2009. )
J.R. Lucas, 1970. The Freedom of the Will. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Ernest Nagel and Newman, James R., 1958. Gödel's Proof. New York Univ. Press.
Procházka, Jiří, 2006, 2006, 2008, 2008, 2010. Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Genealogie. ITEM, Brno. Volume I. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume II. Brno 2006, . In German, English. Volume III. Brno 2008, . In German, English. Volume IV. Brno, Princeton 2008, . In German, English Volume V, Brno, Princeton 2010, . In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří, 2012. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Historie". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton. Volume I. . In German, English.
Ed Regis, 1987. Who Got Einstein's Office? Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.
Raymond Smullyan, 1992. Godel's Incompleteness Theorems. Oxford University Press.
Olga Taussky-Todd, 1983. Remembrances of Kurt Gödel. Engineering & Science, Winter 1988.
Gödel, Alois, 2006. Brünn 1679–1684. ITEM, Brno 2006, edited by Jiří Procházka,
Procházka, Jiří 2017. "Kurt Gödel: 1906–1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2017. Volume I. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2019. "Kurt Gödel 1906-1978: Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton 2019. Volume II. (). In German, English.
Procházka, Jiří 2O2O. "Kurt Gödel: 19O6-1978. Curriculum vitae". ITEM, Brno, Wien, Princeton
2O2O. Volume III. ((( ISBN 978 8O-9O5 148-1-2))). In German, English. 223 Pages.
Yourgrau, Palle, 1999. Gödel Meets Einstein: Time Travel in the Gödel Universe. Chicago: Open Court.
Yourgrau, Palle, 2004. A World Without Time: The Forgotten Legacy of Gödel and Einstein.'' Basic Books. Book review by John Stachel in the Notices of the American Mathematical Society (54 (7), pp. 861–68):
External links
Time Bandits: an article about the relationship between Gödel and Einstein by Jim Holt
Notices of the AMS, April 2006, Volume 53, Number 4 Kurt Gödel Centenary Issue
Paul Davies and Freeman Dyson discuss Kurt Godel
"Gödel and the Nature of Mathematical Truth" Edge: A Talk with Rebecca Goldstein on Kurt Gödel.
It's Not All In The Numbers: Gregory Chaitin Explains Gödel's Mathematical Complexities.
Gödel photo gallery.
Kurt Gödel
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
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"Edwin Othello Excell (December 13, 1851 – June 10, 1921), commonly known as E. O. Excell, was a prominent American publisher, composer, song leader, and singer of music for church, Sunday school, and evangelistic meetings during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Some of the significant collaborators in his vocal and publishing work included Sam P. Jones, William E. Biederwolf, Gipsy Smith, Charles Reign Scoville, J. Wilbur Chapman, W. E. M. Hackleman, Charles H. Gabriel and D. B. Towner.\n\nHis 1909 stanza selection and arrangement of Amazing Grace became the most widely used and familiar setting of that hymn by the second half of the twentieth century. The influence of his sacred music on American popular culture through revival meetings, religious conventions, circuit chautauquas, and church hymnals was substantial enough by the 1920s to garner a satirical reference by Sinclair Lewis in the novel Elmer Gantry.\n\nExcell compiled or contributed to about ninety secular and sacred song books and is estimated to have written, composed, or arranged more than two thousand of the songs he published. The music publishing business he started in 1881 and that eventually bore his name was the highest volume producer of hymnbooks in America at the time of his death.\n\nEarly years\nExcell was the son of German Reformed minister and self-published author J. J. Excell. He was born in Uniontown, Stark County, Ohio and attended public schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania. After marrying in 1871 near Brady's Bend, Pennsylvania, he relocated to that state and supported his family for several years as a plasterer, bricklayer, and singing instructor. His focus was turned to sacred music through his experience leading songs at revivals and worship services of Methodist Episcopal churches, first in East Brady and then, starting in 1881, Oil City, Pennsylvania. Between 1877 and 1883 he studied music formally at the Normal Musical Institutes of George F. Root where he also received vocal training under Root's son, Frederick. He moved to Chicago, base of Root's operations, in 1883 to pursue music publishing in earnest.\n\nVocalist and song leader\n\nExcell was described as \"a big, robust six-footer, with a six-in caliber voice\" and extraordinary range that enabled him to solo as baritone or tenor. Publisher George H. Doran observed him leading songs at a revival and later noted that Excell \"was a master of mass control; he might easily have become conductor of some mighty chorus\". These talents fostered his early success as a rural singing teacher in Pennsylvania and helped secure a position as church choirmaster for the two years preceding his move to Illinois.\n\nTwo important contacts made during his early years in Chicago were Benjamin F. Jacobs and John H. Vincent. Both men had been heavily involved with the uniform Sunday school lesson system established among many Protestant denominations during the early 1870s. Vincent was also co-founder of the original Chautauqua Assembly and involved with the burgeoning church youth movements of the era, such as Christian Endeavor and Epworth Leagues. Excell assisted with the music of their Sunday school work for at least two years and later served as music editor for correspondence courses Vincent established through the Chautauqua Press. He also performed as a vocalist for programs at the Chautauqua Institution. Insights gained from these associations were significant in that much of what Excell would later publish targeted Sunday school and youth program music needs.\n\nThe Methodist Episcopal church of Excell's day was still divided into northern and southern denominations created by an antebellum split. Excell and Vincent were affiliated with the northern branch known as the Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1885 he met Sam P. Jones, a Georgia evangelist of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was invited to join him as vocalist the following year, which included a campaign in Toronto during October 1886.\n\nJones' musical director at that time was Marcellus J. Maxwell of Oxford, Georgia. He was also a capable singer and songwriter, though more reserved than Excell. They became an effective musical team known informally as \"Ex and Max\". At some point prior to 1895, Excell became the principal song leader and vocalist Jones referred to as \"this big-hearted, noble soul ..., my chorister, Brother Excell.\" The respect was mutual and good natured. In 1887 Excell wrote and published a spiritualized rendition of \"one of the trite sayings of the Reverend Sam P. Jones\" titled You Better Quit Your Meanness. It was dedicated to Jones by \"his Co-Worker, E. O. Excell\". They worked together throughout the United States and Canada until Jones' death in 1906. Though their twenty-year partnership was not exclusive, it was one of the most significant influences on Excell's career.\n\nWhile serving as Jones' chorister, Excell became adept at crafting large volunteer choirs out of recruits from multiple local churches that had never sung together before. These combined revival and evangelistic meeting choirs typically had fewer than 400 participants. However, William Shaw of Christian Endeavor listed Excell among Ira Sankey, Homer Rodeheaver, and other distinguished musicians who had led choirs in the range of one thousand to four thousand voices at their conventions.\n\nExcell assisted a number of other evangelists and religious conference leaders in various musical capacities. He worked as a vocalist for William E. Biederwolf, a Presbyterian minister active with the Winona Lake Bible Conference and its related chautauqua, with whom he also collaborated on a number of hymnbooks. During the final decade of his life he assisted with the music program of British evangelist Gipsy Smith.\n\nMusic publisher, compiler and editor\n\nExcell compiled a collection of hymns and gospel songs around 1880 which was published as Sacred Echoes by John J. Hood of Philadelphia in 1881, the year he marked as his start in the business. Sing the Gospel, published around the time of the move to Chicago, was issued under the \"E. O. Excell\" imprint. Echoes of Eden followed two years later in 1884. An archetype of later \"combined\" song books was produced in 1885 when contents of Sing the Gospel, Echoes of Eden and limited new material were repackaged into The Gospel in Song, a hymnbook later advertised to contain the songs and solos sung by Excell at Sam Jones' Gospel meetings.\n\nSam Jones Influence\n\nThe working relationship initiated with Jones in 1886 proved to be a pattern of the age. A contemporary writer explained that prominent evangelists always \"had their leading singers, they were billed on the hoardings of the cities after the manner of theatrical companies – Moody and Sankey; Sam Jones and Excell; Chapman and Alexander; Torrey and Towner; and so on.\" The promotional benefit for a sacred music publisher was enormous. Excell's books were used in Jones' revivals and the contents revised over time to suit changing preferences and the needs of the campaigns.\n\nThree song books aimed at different applications were published in 1886 and 1887. All three became series that ran through most of the years Excell was affiliated with Jones' ministry:\n Excell's Anthems (1886) for choirs was followed by volumes 2 through 6 and three combined editions of which Excell's Anthems, Vols. 5 & 6 Combined (1899) was the last.\n Excell's School Songs (1887) for school, class, and home use was followed by numbers 2 through 4 and two combined editions ending with Excell's School Songs, Nos. 3 & 4 Combined (1903).\n Triumphant Songs (1887) for Sunday schools and revivals was followed by numbers 2 through 5 and two combined editions (Nos. 1 & 2 and Nos. 3 & 4). The last book in this series was Triumphant Songs No. 5 (1896).\n\nMake His Praise Glorious, published in 1900 as the Triumphant Songs series was approaching its end, contained Excell's initial arrangement of Amazing Grace based upon the tune New Britain. He compiled and published at least another six song books with the E. O. Excell imprint during his final years with Jones. Excell and his song books received significant exposure in the majority of U.S. states and Canadian provinces of his day during the twenty years they worked together.\n\nCollaborations\nOnly about seven new song books were published by Excell under his own imprint in the years following Jones' death, though the annual quantity of books sold still managed to more than double during that time. The business changed to involve a greater number of collaborations destined for other publishers and private label printing of denominational hymnals. Some of the most substantial were:\n\n Methodist Episcopal – Early collaborations were established through Excell's Methodist connections. Two hymnbooks were compiled for the Book Concerns of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1897 and 1899. Unfortunately his relationships with the publishing authorities within this northern branch of American Methodism were irreconcilably damaged in 1900 by the aftermath of a book contract he allegedly negotiated directly with the General Secretary of the Epworth League. However, opportunities with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South were unaffected and at least four hymn books were produced between 1909 and 1918 with W. C. Everett, manager of the Methodist Publishing House in Dallas, Texas.\n Charles Reign Scoville – At least three hymnbooks were compiled with this evangelist of the Christian Church and director of the Winona Assembly and Summer School Association for his C. R. Scoville imprint between 1909 and about 1915.\n W. E. M. Hackleman – Five or more hymn collections were produced between 1910 and 1914 with this Christian Church musician and published by the Christian Board of Publication or Hackleman Music Company. Hackleman also worked on another three collections credited to Excell that were published posthumously.\n William E. Biederwolf – Three hymn collections and a combined edition were developed with this Presbyterian evangelist between 1912 and 1917 for Glad Tidings Publishing Company. Excell had also been listed earlier as a special contributor on Hymns of His Praise No. 2 that Biederwolf compiled in 1906 with assistance from Homer Rodeheaver. One other hymn book, \"Songs of the Evangelist\" crediting both Biederwolf and Excell as contributors, was published posthumously in 1925.\n Hope Publishing Company – Joy to the World was compiled in 1915 for this publishing firm of another Chicago Methodist, Henry S. Date. While Excell continued to publish collections under his own imprint, he worked on another three Hope hymnbooks with Date's successors through 1919.\n Single song book collaborations – Excell worked on one-book projects with a diverse number of his contemporaries. Some of the more notable included:\nWilliam Shaw – Treasurer of Christian Endeavor on Jubilant Praise (1900).\nJ. Wilbur Chapman – Evangelist known for his work with singer Charles Alexander and moderator of the Presbyterian General Assembly on Winona Hymns (1906).\nD. B. Towner – Vocalist and musician with D. L. Moody's organization on Famous Gospel Hymns (1907).\nFrench E. Oliver – Presbyterian evangelist and protégé of Charles Alexander on Oliver's Songs of Deliverance (1910).\nTheodore M. Hammond – Congregational founder of Hammond Publishing of Milwaukee and regent of University of Wisconsin on The Very Best Songs for Sunday School (1911).\nMarion Lawrance – Congregational Sunday school superintendent (laity) and general secretary of the International Sunday School Association on Eternal Praise (1917).\n\nThe portfolios of copyrights for contemporary songs and plates for classic hymns that Excell accumulated as a publisher and composer also led to printing work on denominational hymnals. He produced the 1909 edition of Spiritual Hymns of Brethren in Christ in which he held copyrights for about one third of the six hundred songs selected by the hymnal committee. Another example was the original edition of Great Songs of the Church which he produced for the Churches of Christ in 1921.\n\nE. O. Excell Company\n\nExcell developed approximately fifty song books and contributed to at least another thirty-eight over his forty-year publishing career. By 1914, his company had produced close to 10 million books and was selling them at a rate of nearly a half million per year. Annual output had grown to more than a million books by 1921, though with margins at wholesale levels.\n\nExcell's only child, William Alonzo, participated in both the musical event and publishing businesses. At least one publication, Chorus Choir Selections (1918), bore the \"E. O. Excell & Son\" imprint. \"E. O. Excell Company\" was utilized on publications created after the founder's death. Excell's grandson, known as E. O. Excell, Jr, was also engaged in the family publishing business by 1927.\n\nLyricist, composer and arranger\n\nEstimates of the number of songs authored, composed, or arranged by Excell range from two to three thousand. Two that remain well known are his 1909 arrangement of John Newton's Amazing Grace and the tune he composed for Johnson Oatman's Count Your Blessings.\n\nDeath and legacy\n\nExcell fell ill while assisting Gipsy Smith with a revival in Louisville, Kentucky and returned to Chicago to be hospitalized. He died on June 10, 1921, after more than thirty weeks in Wesley Memorial Hospital. Colleagues at the International Sunday School Association, where he had served for thirty-six years, said the following of him at their next convention:\n\nAt least five books listing him as a contributor were published posthumously. One of these was The Excell Hymnal published by his company in 1925; it was completed by his long-time collaborators Hamp Sewell and W. E. M. Hackleman as \"a fitting climax to its long line of illustrious predecessors\".\n\nHeirs sold the large E. O. Excell Company copyright portfolio to the Hope Publishing Company in 1931 which they combined with their prior acquisition of a former Ira Sankey firm to create the Biglow-Main-Excell Company. The most popular Excell compositions at the time of the sale were I'll Be a Sunbeam and Count Your Blessings.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1851 births\n1921 deaths\nAmerican Christian hymnwriters\nAmerican male composers\nAmerican composers\nAmerican Methodist hymnwriters\nAmerican gospel singers\nAmerican Methodists\nComposers of Christian music\nGospel music composers\nAmerican music publishers (people)\nMusicians from Chicago\nPeople from Uniontown, Ohio\n19th-century American writers\nSingers from Ohio\n19th-century American male singers\nSongwriters from Ohio\nSongwriters from Illinois",
"Sidney Excell (23 December 1906 – December 1990) was a British Army major during World War II. He is remembered for the 1945 arrest of Nazi Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in Bremervörde, Germany.\n\nEarly life\nEducated at marine school in Chatham, Excell worked as an apprenticed shoe maker before joining the metropolitan police and then volunteering for the Palestine Police, in which he served in the 1930s. There he met his wife, Lisa, a Russian-Polish immigrant. They then left Palestine and went to England (British police were not allowed to fraternise with Jews or Arabs in Palestine). They were then married in Epping Essex.\n\nArrest of Himmler\n\nOn 22 May 1945, the British Army were manning a checkpoint at the Bremervorde Bridge in West Germany when three men were brought in for questioning and their documents examined. One, claiming to be \"Heinrich Hitzinger\", raised suspicion, and Excell arrested all three. British soldier Arthur Britton soon identified \"Hitzinger\" as Heinrich Luitpold Himmler. The next day, while in custody in Lüneburg, Himmler committed suicide by poison, biting into a capsule of potassium cyanide before he could be interrogated.\n\nLife after World War II\nExcell continued to serve in the British Army. He was medically discharged from the army after contracting rheumatoid arthritis in his hands. He then went on to serve in the British Mandate Police in Palestine. Later, he worked for the London Electricity Board as an electrical engineer until he retired.\n\nHe died from heart failure in 1990 and is survived by two sons, four grandsons and three granddaughters, all of whom still carry his surname.\n\nReferences\n\nHeinrich Himmler\nBritish Army personnel of World War II\nBritish Army officers\n1906 births\n1990 deaths\nPeople from Chatham, Kent\nBritish colonial police officers"
] |
[
"Tippi Hedren",
"The Birds (1963)"
] |
C_c860e15022e34b1dad7537f92a040eb3_0
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What can you tell me about The Birds?
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What can you tell me about The Birds?
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Tippi Hedren
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The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance." During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying there was nobody but her to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director. Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protegee, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first forty-five minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere magazine as one of the greatest movie characters of all time. CANNOTANSWER
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The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making
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Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren (born January 19, 1930) is an American actress, animal rights activist, and former fashion model. She achieved worldwide recognition for her work in two of Alfred Hitchcock's classics: The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Hedren is noted as one of the most famous 'Hitchcock Blondes' and is now one of the last surviving leading stars from Hitchcock's filmography.
A successful fashion model who appeared on the front covers of Life and Glamour magazines, among others, Hedren became an actress after she was discovered by director Alfred Hitchcock while appearing on a television commercial in 1961. She achieved great praise for her work in two of his films: the suspense-thriller The Birds (1963), for which she won a Golden Globe, and the psychological drama Marnie (1964). She has appeared in over 80 films and television shows, including Charlie Chaplin's final film A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), the political satire Citizen Ruth (1996), and the existential comedy I Heart Huckabees (2004). Among other honors, her contributions to world cinema have been recognized with the Jules Verne Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Hedren's strong commitment to animal rescue began in 1969 while she was shooting two films in Africa and was introduced to the plight of African lions. In an attempt to raise awareness for wildlife, she spent over a decade bringing Roar (1981) to the screen. She started her own nonprofit organization, the Roar Foundation, in 1983; it supports the Shambala Preserve, an wildlife habitat that enables her to continue her work in the care and preservation of lions and tigers. Hedren has also set up relief programs worldwide following earthquakes, hurricanes, famine and war. She was also instrumental in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons.
Early life
Nathalie Kay Hedren was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, on January 19, 1930, to Bernard Carl and Dorothea Henrietta (née Eckhardt) Hedren. For much of her career, her year of birth was reported as 1935. In 2004, however, she acknowledged that she was actually born in 1930 (which is consistent with the birth registration index at the Minnesota Historical Society). Her paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants, while her mother was of German and Norwegian descent. Her father ran a small general store in Lafayette, Minnesota, and gave her the nickname "Tippi". When she was four, she moved with her parents to Minneapolis; she has an older sister, Patricia. As a teenager, she took part in department store fashion shows. Her parents relocated to California while she was a high school student at West High School in Minneapolis.
Career
Modeling success (1950–1960)
On reaching her 20th birthday, Hedren bought a ticket to New York City, where she joined the Eileen Ford Agency. Within a year, she made her unofficial film debut as "Miss Ice Box" in the musical comedy The Petty Girl. In interviews, she referred to The Birds, her first credited role, as her first film. Although she received several film offers during that time, Hedren had no interest in acting, as she knew it was very difficult to succeed.
She had a highly successful modeling career during the 1950s and early 1960s, appearing on the covers of Life, The Saturday Evening Post, McCall's, and Glamour, among others. In 1961, after seven years of marriage to the actor Peter Griffith, Hedren divorced and returned to California with her daughter, Melanie, and rented an expensive home in Sherman Oaks. She later said, "I thought I could continue my career as it had been in New York. I thought everything would be just fine, and it wasn't. So I thought, 'well, I don't type, what shall I do?'"
Transition to acting and collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock (1961–1966)
On October 13, 1961, she received a call from an agent who told her a producer was interested in working with her. When she was told it was Alfred Hitchcock, who while watching The Today Show, saw her in a commercial for a diet drink called Sego, she agreed to sign a seven-year contract. During their first meeting, the two talked about everything except the role for which he was considering her. Hedren was convinced for several weeks it was for his television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Hitchcock later said, "I was not primarily concerned with how she looked in person. Most important was her appearance on the screen, and I liked that immediately. She has a touch of that high-style, lady-like quality which was once well-represented in films by actresses like Irene Dunne, Grace Kelly, Claudette Colbert, and others, but which is now quite rare."
Being an unknown actress with little training, Hitchcock put Hedren through an extensive color screen test that lasted two days and cost $25,000, doing scenes from his previous films, such as Rebecca, Notorious, and To Catch a Thief with actor Martin Balsam. According to Balsam, Hedren was very nervous, but studied every line, did every move she was asked to, and tried to do everything right. Hitchcock asked costume designer Edith Head to design clothes for Hedren's private life and he personally advised her about wine and food. He also insisted for publicity purposes that her name should be printed only in single quotes, 'Tippi'. The press mostly ignored this directive from the director, who felt that the single quotes added distinction and mystery to her name. Hitchcock was impressed with Hedren. As production designer Robert F. Boyle explained, "Hitch always liked women who behaved like well-bred ladies. Tippi generated that quality."
Afterward, Hedren was invited to lunch with Hitchcock, his wife, Alma, and Lew Wasserman, head of Universal, at one of Hitchcock's favorite restaurants, Chasen's. There, she was presented with a golden pin of three birds in flight, adorned by three tiny seed pearls, and was asked by Hitchcock to play the leading role in his upcoming film The Birds. "I was so stunned. It never occurred to me that I would be given a leading role in a major motion picture. I had great big tears in my eyes", Hedren later recalled.
The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making, as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music, or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance."
During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying nobody but her was left to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director.
Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protégée, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Varietys review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first 45-minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere as one of the greatest movie characters of all time.
Hitchcock was so impressed with Hedren's acting abilities, he decided to offer her the leading role of his next film, Marnie (1964), a romantic drama and psychological thriller from the novel by Winston Graham, during the filming of The Birds. Hedren was stunned and felt extremely fortunate to be offered to play "such a complicated, sad, tragic woman", and later said, "I consider my acting, while not necessarily being method acting, but one that draws upon my own feelings. I thought Marnie was an extremely interesting role to play and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity". She voiced doubts about her ability to play the demanding role, but Hitchcock assured her she could do it. As opposed to The Birds, where she had received little acting guidance, for this film Hedren studied every scene with Hitchcock.
Hedren recalled Marnie as her favorite of the two films she did with Hitchcock for the challenge of playing an emotionally battered young woman who travels from city to city assuming various guises to rob her employers. During the filming, Hitchcock was quoted as saying about Hedren, "an Academy Award performance is in the making". On release, the film was greeted by mixed reviews and indifferent box-office returns, and received no Oscar nominations. Variety wrote, "Hedren returns in a particularly demanding role. Miss Hedren, undertaking a role originally offered Grace Kelly for a resumption of her screen career, lends credence to a part never sympathetic. It's a difficult assignment which she fulfills satisfactorily." Hedren later said that Marnie was "ahead of its time" because "people didn't talk about childhood and its effects on adult life. It was taboo to discuss sexuality and psychology and to put all that into a film was shocking." Despite its original lukewarm reception, the film was later acclaimed and described as a "masterpiece" and Hedren's performance is now regarded as one of the finest in any Hitchcock film. Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote in his 2016 review of the film "Hedren's performance is one of the greatest in the history of cinema."
Marnie was the second and last collaboration between Hedren and Hitchcock. In 1973, she admitted that a major lifestyle difference caused a split in their relationship. "He was too possessive and too demanding. I cannot be possessed by anyone. But, then, that's my own hangup". In 1983, author Donald Spoto published his second book about Hitchcock, The Dark Side of Genius, for which Hedren agreed to talk for the first time in detail about her relationship with the director.
The book was controversial, as several of Hitchcock's friends claimed the Hitchcock portrayed in the book was not the man they knew. For years after its release, Hedren was not keen to talk about it in interviews, but thought the chapter devoted to her story was "accurate as to just what he was". Hedren later explained her long silence before telling her story, "It was embarrassing and insulting—there were a lot of reasons why I didn't want to tell the story. I didn't want it to be taken advantage of, twisted, turned, and made into an even uglier situation than it was".
According to Spoto's book, Hitchcock brought in two members of his crew during the filming of The Birds and asked them to keep careful watch on the activities of Hedren, "when she left the set—where she went, who she visited, how she spent her free time". He then advised her on what she should eat, whom she should see, and how she should live. He told the cast and crew they were not allowed to talk to her. Hedren's co-star in The Birds, Rod Taylor, later remembered, "Hitch was becoming very domineering and covetous of 'Tippi', and it was very difficult for her. No one was permitted to come physically close to her during the production. 'Don't touch the girl after I call "Cut!"' he said to me repeatedly". Hitchcock also attempted, on one occasion, to grab and violently kiss Hedren in the back of a car as they drove onto the set. Hedren told his assistant, Peggy Robertson, and the studio chief, Lew Wasserman, that she was becoming very unhappy about the whole situation. "But he was Alfred Hitchcock, the great and famous director, and I was Tippi Hedren, an inexperienced actress who had no clout". She decided she could not quit her contract because she was afraid to be blacklisted and unable to find work. Hedren's own daughter, Melanie Griffith, remembered that while Hedren was doing The Birds, she thought Hitchcock was taking her mother away from her. "Suddenly, I wasn't allowed even to visit my mom at the studio".
During the filming of Marnie, Hedren found Hitchcock's behavior toward her increasingly difficult to bear as filming progressed. "Everyone—I mean everyone—knew he was obsessed with me. He always wanted a glass of wine or champagne, with me alone, at the end of the day. He was really isolating me from everyone". Hedren's co-star in Marnie, Diane Baker, later recalled, "She was never allowed to gather around with the rest of us, and he demanded that every conversation between her and Hitch be held in private... Nothing could have been more horrible for me than to arrive on that movie set and to see her being treated the way she was".
Hitchcock revealed to Hedren one day he had a recurring dream where she came up to him and said, "Hitch, I love you—I'll always love you". When she heard this, Hedren replied "But it was a dream. Just a dream", and excused herself from his presence. She believed Hitchcock had no consideration for her feelings and remembered she was humiliated after he asked her to touch him, just before shooting a scene. "He made sure no one else could hear, and his tone and glance made it clear exactly what he meant". Hedren asked Hitchcock's permission one day to travel to New York to appear on The Tonight Show, where she was supposed to be presented an award as the "Most Promising New Star". Hitchcock refused, according to his biographer, because he claimed the break would affect her performance. During that meeting, he apparently "made an overt sexual proposition" that Hedren "could neither ignore nor answer casually, as she could his previous gestures". In Spoto's third book about Hitchcock, Spellbound by Beauty (2008), Hedren revealed that Hitchcock actually made offensive demands on her. "He stared at me and simply said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that from this time on, he expected me to make myself sexually available and accessible to him—however and whenever and wherever he wanted". Hitchcock's demands led to a "horrible, horrible fight", according to Hedren. "He made these demands on me, and no way could I acquiesce to them".
Hedren then told him Marnie would be their last film together and later recalled how Hitchcock told her he would destroy her career. "I said I wanted to get out of my contract. He said: 'You can't. You have your daughter to support, and your parents are getting older'. I said: 'Nobody would want me to be in this situation, I want to get out'. And he said: 'I'll ruin your career'. I said: 'Do what you have to do'. And he did ruin my career. He kept me under contract, paid me to do nothing for close on two years". Hedren felt so humiliated, she called the director a "fat pig" in front of people on the set. Hitchcock made only a comment about it to his biographer, John Russell Taylor: "She did what no one is permitted to do. She referred to my weight". The two communicated only through a third party for the rest of the film. According to Marnie'''s screenwriter, Jay Presson Allen, Hitchcock was "mad" for Hedren. She felt unhappy for both and described the situation as "an old man's cri de coeur", adding that Hitchcock had a "Pygmalion complex about Tippi". She advised Hedren to finish the film and then get on with her life and be happy. Hedren's hairdresser, Virginia Darcy, even told Hitchcock he should not be possessive with Hedren. "Tippi felt rightly that she was not his property, but he'd say, 'You are, I have a contract'". Although Hitchcock thought he might mend fences with Hedren and make another film with her, she refused to reconsider her decision. Hedren's contract terms gave Hitchcock the final say as to any work she could take on and he used that power to turn down several film roles on her behalf. She was particularly disappointed when French director François Truffaut told her he had wanted her for one of them. In 1966, Hitchcock finally sold her contract to Universal Studios after Hedren appeared in two of their TV shows, Kraft Suspense Theatre (1965) and Run for Your Life (id.). The studio ultimately released her from her contract after she refused to appear on a television Western for them.
In 2012, The Girl, an HBO/BBC film about Hedren and Hitchcock's relationship, based on Donald Spoto's 2009 book Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, was released. When she was first told about the project, Hedren said she had mixed feelings about it, "To be still alive and have a film made about you is an awesome and incredibly frightening experience". Hedren and Hitchcock were respectively portrayed by Sienna Miller and Toby Jones.
Although she was thrilled with the choice of Miller, Hedren was worried she would not be portrayed "as strong a character as I was—and still am. I had to be extremely strong to fight off Mr. Hitchcock". She described the moment she saw the film as "probably one of the most involved, emotionally tense 90 minutes that I have ever lived". Upon the film's release, Hedren said although she believed the film accurately portrays Hitchcock's behavior towards her, the time constraints of a 90-minute film prevented telling the entire story of her career with him. "It wasn't a constant barrage of harassment. If it had been constantly the way we have had to do it in this film, I would have been long gone". She recalled there were times she described as "absolutely delightful and wonderful”, and insisted that “Hitchcock had a charm about him. He was very funny at times. He was incredibly brilliant in his field". The film was controversial, as others who knew and worked with Hitchcock responded to it negatively. Kim Novak, who worked on Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), disputed Hitchcock's portrayal as a sexual predator in The Girl: "I never saw him make a pass at anybody or act strange to anybody. And wouldn't you think if he was that way, I would've seen it or at least seen him with somebody? I think it's unfortunate when someone's no longer around and can't defend themselves". Novak previously described Hitchcock as a gentleman, and when asked about reports of his behavior, she said, "Maybe I just wasn't his type". Novak also stated, "I won't dispute Tippi if that's what she saw."
Hedren herself was asked why her account of sexual harassment contrasted with the many interviews she gave about her time with Hitchcock, her presence at the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony honoring him in 1979, and her presence at his funeral. She explained that, "He ruined my career, but he didn't ruin my life. That time of my life was over. I still admire the man for who he was". She also said, "I've been able to separate the two. The man who was the artist. I mean, what he gave to the motion picture industry can never be taken away from him and I certainly wouldn't want to try. But on the other side, there is that dark side that was really awful".
Career setbacks (1967–1973)
Hedren's first feature film appearance after Marnie was in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. She was told by writer-director Charlie Chaplin that she was offered a major supporting role as Brando's estranged wife and had to accept the role without reading the script. However, when she arrived in England where the filming took place, she finally received the script and realized that her part was little more than a cameo. She asked Chaplin why he lied to her. "Every actor in the world was asking if they could do this film, to just do a walk-on, without even being paid for it. When I said, 'Why didn't you just tell me that it was a cameo? I would have done this film anyway,' he said, 'I didn't think you would come,' which was very sweet. He was a very clever man." Hedren asked Chaplin to expand the role, and although he tried to accommodate her, he could not, as the story mostly takes place on a ship, which Hedren's character boards near the end of the film. In the end, she remained in the film and later said that it was both amusing and strange to work with Chaplin. She found him to be a very serious man and loved his approach to directing. She later said, "I wish someone would have been allowed to do a documentary. The way he directed was unlike anyone I ever saw. He acted out all the parts himself. He did Sophia's part, then Marlon's part, then mine, and then he'd say, 'Okay, now you can do it.' Which would be impossible, to mimic the master. It was incredible. None of us believed it. Marlon hated it."
After the release of A Countess from Hong Kong, Hedren's career was described as "spectacular" by the press. She told a reporter at the time, "I don't want to wait myself out of this business, but working for Hitch and Charlie has been very special to me, and now I'm going to wait for something special to come along". In 1968, she signed on to do the American Civil War drama Five Against Kansas with Farley Granger and Jeffrey Hunter, but the project was never realized. In 1968, Hedren returned to film as a socialite who helps her boyfriend (played by George Armstrong) catch a killer, in Tiger by the Tail. From 1970 to 1971, she guest-starred twice on The Courtship of Eddie's Father. She agreed to take part in Satan's Harvest (1970) and Mister Kingstreet's War (1973)—which were shot back-to-back despite the discrepancy in their release dates—for the sole reason that they were being filmed in Africa. In 1973, Hedren played a teacher of an experimental sex school in The Harrad Experiment, which starred James Whitmore and Don Johnson—the latter who later became the husband of her daughter, Melanie Griffith. Hedren felt that the film "deals with vital themes—themes like the decline in importance of ideas like possession and jealousy and, by inference, marriage. I have four teenaged children and I think this picture says some valuable things to them." She confessed at the time she was occasionally depressed because she was not doing any major films and told a magazine, "My husband just cancelled all the trade magazines because he felt I should cut off the source of my discontent. He's the type who won't stand for sustained down feelings".
Roar (1974–1981)
Hedren and husband Noel Marshall watched a pride of lions move into a house after a game warden moved out in 1969, during the filming of Satan's Harvest in Africa. She said, "We were delighted with the way they adapted themselves to living there. And they were so funny we knew we had an idea for a picture." Marshall wrote a script titled Lions, Lions and More Lions based on their experience; it was retitled Roar and centered on a family's misadventures in a research park filled with lions, tigers, and other wild cats.
Hedren played the lead role and co-starred with her daughter Melanie, husband Marshall, and his own sons Jerry and John. They attempted to rent Hollywood animals for a nine-month shoot, but upon approaching animal trainers for support, they were discouraged and nobody would rent them 30 or 40 lions, as the script required, because of their natural tendency to fight. They were encouraged to start collecting and training their own exotic beasts. Animal trainer Ron Oxley told them, "to get to know about lions, you've got to live with them for a while". They started to raise a lion cub named Neil in their Sherman Oaks house and made sure that the animal slept in their bed. Life photographer Michael Rougier documented their life in 1971 and photographed the lion with the whole family inside and outside the house, from Hedren's daughter's bed to the living room to the swimming pool. After complaints from their neighbors, Hedren and Marshall bought a ranch outside of Los Angeles in Acton that would serve as the set for Roar. They got permission there to rescue and raise several lions, tigers, African elephants, and other exotic felines.
Filming started in 1974 and took five years just to complete the photography. Every scene involving lions was improvised and shot with four or sometimes eight cameras. More than 100 people worked on the film, as well as more than 150 untrained lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs. During production, no animals were hurt, but more than 70 members of the cast and crew were mauled. Hedren fractured a leg and also had scalp wounds when an elephant bucked her off its back while she was riding it. She was also bitten in the neck by a lion and required 38 stitches; this incident can be seen in the film. Melanie Griffith was also attacked, receiving 50 stitches to her face; it was feared that she would lose an eye, but she recovered and was not disfigured. Marshall was attacked so many times that he eventually was diagnosed with gangrene. In one of those incidents, he was clawed by a cheetah when protecting the animals during a bushfire that occurred in 1979. All animals were evacuated, and several years were needed for him to recover from his injuries. In 1978, a flood destroyed the movie sets and killed three of the lions. The project was set back several years. Hedren said that they were all determined to finish the film: "We were so sure the film was going to be a success that we thought everything (financing the ranch and the lions, etc.) would take care of itself."Roar was released worldwide in 1981 with the exception of the United States, because according to Hedren, "The United States distributors wanted the lion's share of the profits, and we thought it ought to go to the beautiful animals that made the movie." The film cost $17 million and grossed only $2 million, but it was a turning point in Hedren's life. In 1983, she established the nonprofit The Roar Foundation to take care of the big cats. "After our movie was over," she explained, "it was unconscionable to see the animals go any place else." Roar was re-released in 2015, but Hedren declined to discuss it, as she felt that promotion for the film was filled with "inaccuracies".
Later career (1982–present)
After Roar, Hedren accepted any low-budget television or cinema role that could help bring funds to her foundation to provide protection, shelter, care, and maintenance for the animals at the Shambala Preserve. In 1982, she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen in Foxfire Light. She appeared in several television series, including Hart to Hart in 1983 and the late-night horror series Tales from the Darkside in 1984. In the 1985 pilot episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, she made a brief appearance as a waitress in a bar who berates a customer, played by her daughter Melanie Griffith. In 1990, she had a nonspeaking, minor part as a wealthy widow romanced by Michael Keaton in the film Pacific Heights (1990), which also starred her daughter. That same year, she had a role on The Bold and the Beautiful, a daytime soap opera she said she was "proud to have in my resume".
In 1994, Hedren appeared in the made-for-cable sequel, The Birds II: Land's End, in a role different from the one she had played in the original. She was, however, disappointed that she did not get a starring role and admitted before the film's release, "I wish that it was more than a cameo. I think they made a mistake by not doing that, but it has helped me to feed my lions and tigers." When asked about what could have been Hitchcock's opinion on the film, she answered: "I'd hate to think what he would say!" In a 2007 interview, Hedren said of the film, "It's absolutely horrible, it embarrasses me horribly."
From 1994 to 1996, Hedren had a guest-starring role in Dream On. The sitcom gave her "the opportunity to do comedy. I'd never done comedy before and it was just wonderful for me to be able to do that. Everybody just thought of me as a serious actress, so I owe that to John Landis (the executive producer), giving me that opportunity." In 1996, she played an abortion rights activist in Alexander Payne's political satire Citizen Ruth with Laura Dern. In 1998, she co-starred alongside Billy Zane and Christina Ricci in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, a film she felt was "incredible". "I must say I really love that film. It was a unique kind of film to do also, because of the fact that it had no dialogue in it. It was very, very different". That same year, she guest-starred in a special episode titled "Psychodrama" of the television series Chicago Hope, that paid tribute to the Hitchcock movies. Hedren's character, Alfreda Perkins, was a reference to Alfred Hitchcock and actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in the director's 1960 film Psycho.
After appearing in a number of little-exposed films between 1999 and 2003, Hedren had a small but showy role in the 2004 David O. Russell comedy I Heart Huckabees, as a foul-mouthed attractive older woman who slaps Jude Law in an elevator. She felt that the director, who had a reputation for being difficult, was "totally crazy", but also "very interesting. I was able to work well with him." She also added it was a strange experience as, "... all of a sudden, he'd be like, 'Now I'm going to do it this way,' and you'd think, 'How is he going to edit this? How is this going to work?' But he made it work." In 2006, Hedren was a cast member of the short-lived primetime soap opera Fashion House with Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild, and continued to guest-star in television series such as The 4400 (2006) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008). In 2012, Hedren and her daughter guest-starred together on an episode of Raising Hope. That same year, she appeared in Free Samples, an indie film where she had a supporting role as an old movie star. In 2013, she made an appearance as herself in the fourth-season finale of Cougar Town.
Hedren published her autobiography, Tippi: A Memoir, co-written with Lindsay Harrison, in 2016 through William Morrow and Company, as she felt it was "about time I stop letting everyone else tell my story and finally tell it myself." In 2018, at age 88, Hedren became the new face of Gucci's timepieces and jewelry and starred as a mysterious fortune teller in the brand's commercial ad, The Fortune Teller.
Influence
A Louis Vuitton ad campaign in 2006 paid tribute to Hedren and Hitchcock with a modern-day interpretation of the deserted railway station opening sequence of Marnie. Her look from The Birds (1963) inspired designer Bill Gaytten to design for John Galliano Pre-Fall 2012 collection.
Naomi Watts stated that her character interpretation in Mulholland Drive (2001) was influenced by the look and performances of Hedren in Hitchcock films. Watts and Hedren both appeared in I ♥ Huckabees (2004), but did not share any scenes together. Off screen, the film's director David O. Russell introduced them both, and Watts said of Hedren: "I was pretty fascinated by her then, because people have often said we're alike." Watts dressed up as Hedren's title character from Marnie for a photo shoot for March 2008 issue of Vanity Fair. In the same issue, Jodie Foster dressed up as Hedren's character, Melanie Daniels, from The Birds.
Shambala Preserve
In 1981, Hedren produced Roar, an 11-year project that ended up costing $17 million and starred dozens of African lions. "This was probably one of the most dangerous films that Hollywood has ever seen", remarked the actress. "It's amazing no one was killed." During the production of Roar, Hedren, her husband at the time, Noel Marshall, and daughter Melanie were attacked by lions; Jan de Bont, the director of photography, was scalped. Hedren later co-wrote Cats of Shambala (1985) about the experience. Roar made only $2 million worldwide. Hedren ended her marriage to Marshall a year later in 1982. The film directly led to the 1983 establishment of the nonprofit The Roar Foundation and Hedren's Shambala Preserve, located at the edge of the Mojave Desert in Acton, California, between the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley, northeast of Los Angeles. Shambala houses some 70 animals. Hedren lives on the Shambala site and conducts monthly tours of the preserve for the public. In a 2015 interview with magazine Ability, Hedren emphasized that there is no human contact with the animals and that all of the cats are spayed and neutered, since they are being raised in captivity. Hedren was the founding president of the American Sanctuary Association, a post she still holds.
She took in and cared for Togar, a lion that belonged to Anton LaVey, after he was told by San Francisco officials that he could not keep a fully grown lion as a house pet. Shambala became the new home for Michael Jackson's two Bengal tigers, Sabu and Thriller, after he decided to close his zoo at his Neverland Valley Ranch in Los Olivos. Thriller died in June 2012 of lung cancer.
On December 3, 2007, Shambala Preserve made headlines when Chris Orr, a caretaker for the animals, was mauled by a tiger named Alexander. Several documentaries have focused on Shambala Preserve, including the 30-minute Lions: Kings of the Serengeti (1995), narrated by Melanie Griffith, and Animal Planet's Life with Big Cats (1998), which won the Genesis Award for best documentary in 1999. The animals at the preserve served as the initial inspiration for the life's work of artist A.E. London, who started her career working for Hedren.
As of 2020, Hedren still maintains more than a dozen lions and tigers; her granddaughter Dakota Johnson is involved in their care.
Personal life
In 1952, Hedren met and married 18-year-old future advertising executive Peter Griffith. Their daughter, actress Melanie Griffith, was born on August 9, 1957. They were divorced in 1961. On September 27, 1964, Hedren married her then-agent Noel Marshall, who later produced three of her films; they divorced in 1982. In 1985, she married steel manufacturer Luis Barrenechea, but they divorced in 1992. Hedren was engaged to veterinarian Martin Dinnes from 2002 until their breakup in mid-2008. In September 2008, Hedren told The Sunday Times "I'm waiting for someone to sweep me off my feet." Hedren's granddaughter Dakota Johnson is also an actress.
Hedren played a role in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons in the United States. In 1975, while an international relief coordinator with Food for the Hungry, she began visiting with refugees at Hope Village outside Sacramento, California. When she learned the women were interested in her manicured nails, she employed her manicurist to teach them the skills of the trade and worked with a local beauty school to help them find jobs. Hedren's work with the Vietnamese-Americans was the subject of several documentaries: Happy Hands, directed by Honey Lauren, which won Best Documentary Short at the Sonoma International Film Festival in 2014Sonoma International Film Festival website, sonomaportal.com; accessed March 10, 2015. and "Nailedit:
Vietnamese and the Nail Industry" which won the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) 2014 Documentary Fund Award. CND and Beauty Changes Lives Foundation (BCL) have announced the BCL CND Tippi Hedren Nail Scholarship Fund to support professional nail education and will be administered starting January 1, 2014.
Hedren was instrumental in helping a desperate Nguyen Thi Chinh to enter the US after the fall of the South Vietnam government in 1975, she arranged for an air ticket and a visa for her then invited her to stay in her house.
Hedren suffered from severe and persistent headaches for a long time, which rendered her unable to accept several projects, including a television series produced by and starring Betty White. After she got a titanium plate put in her neck, she improved and then agreed, with the blessing of her doctor, to take the part of a dying woman in the soap opera Fashion House. While she was rehearsing a scene, a gallon of water fell from the ceiling onto her head. The headaches returned after the incident and persisted. Hedren filed a suit to receive recompense following her inability to work. Hedren's lawyer, Joseph Allen, made a mistake in his discussions with the defendants that allowed them to block him from filing suit. Hedren sued Allen for malpractice. In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Hedren had been awarded a $1.5 million settlement, including $213,400 for past lost earnings and $440,308 for future lost earnings, against her former lawyer. Hedren was hurt by the report since she had not collected the award. She gave an interview to explain that her former lawyer does not have the money to pay her, and discussed how the report put her in a difficult situation since her foundation was in dire need of funds. She explained that she has to raise $75,000 monthly just to keep it going. "Chances are I won't ever even see the money, and that's what hurts so badly, that in all of this pain and suffering that publication ran with a swift and not researched story, which told people around the world who have been so gracious and thoughtful about sending donations, that I no longer needed them."
Filmography
Film
Television
Honours and awards
1964: Most Promising Newcomer Award by Photoplay
1964: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress (shared with Ursula Andress and Elke Sommer)
1994: Life Achievement Award in France at The Beauvais Film Festival Cinemalia
1995: Life Achievement Award in Spain, La Fundación Municipal de Cine
1995: The Helen Woodward Animal Center's Annual Humane Award
1996: Founder's Award from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
1997: Lion and Lamb Award from Wildhaven
1999: Woman of Vision Award from Women of Film and Video in Washington, D.C.
1999: Presidential Medal for her work in film from Hofstra University
1999: Humanitarian Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival
2000: Best Actress in a Comedy Short Award in the short film Mulligans! at the Method Fest, Independent Film Festival
2002: Best Actress Award for the short film Tea with Grandma from the New York International Independent Film Festival
2003: Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2003: Women of Los Angeles Annual Hope is a Woman Honor
2004: PAWS Companion for Life Award
2004: Best Actress Award for the short film Rose's Garden from the Los Angeles TV Short Film Festival
2004: Animal Rights Advocacy Award at Artivist Film Festival
2005: Living Legacy Award
2006: Conservationist of the Year—Dino Award from the Las Vegas Natural History Museum
2007: Lifetime Achievement Award—Riverside Film Festival
2007: Jules Verne "Nature" Award — the 1st Annual Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival of Los Angeles
2008: Academy of Art University's 2nd Epidemic Film Festival Award
2008: Jules Verne Legendaire Award
2008: Thespian Award - LA Femme Film Festival
2009: "When a Woman Wills She Will!" Award by the Woman's Club of Hollywood
2009: Workhouse's first Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award
2009: Received the First Star on the Orinda Theater Walk of Fame
2010: Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Genesis Awards show from the Humane Society
2010: BraveHeart Award
2010: Who-Manitarian Award
2011: Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce at its 90th Annual Installation & Awards Luncheon
2011: "The Women Together Award" from the United Nations
2011: Vietnamese-American Marton Saint Award from the Boat People SOS Organization
2011: Omni Youth Humanitarian/Career Achievement Award
2012: Honorary Masters of Fine Arts Degree from the New York Film Academy
2012: Mayor Career Achievement Award from Starz Denver Film Festival
2013: Legacy of Style Award
2013: "People Helping People" Award by the Touching Live TV Award Show, broadwayworld.com; accessed November 14, 2015.
2014: Lifetime Achievement Award from Bel-Air Film Festival
2014: Special Recognition Award from Acton Women's Club
2014:The Women's International Film & Television Showcase Foundation International Visionary Award, thewifts.org; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Choreography of Desire (A Tribute to Tippi Hedren) by the Vienna International Film Festival, viennale.at; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Believe, Achieve, Empower Award
2017: Waggy Award recipient from the Tailwaggers Foundation
2017: The Icon Award
2018: "Friend for Life Award" from The Palm Springs Animal Shelter
Notes
References
Hedren, Tippi. Tippi: A Memoir, William Morrow, 2016, 288 p.
McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, It Books, 2004 (Reprint), 864 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 340 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 224 p.
Taylor, John Russell. Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock, Bloomsbury Reader, 2013, 318 p. ASIN B00BWL8L0C
Spoto, Donald. Spellbound by Beauty, Three Rivers Press, 2009, 368 p.
Paul, Louis. Tales from the Cult Film Trenches: Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema, McFarland, 2007, 336 p.
Gambin, Lee. Massacred By Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film'', Midnight Marquee Press, Inc., October 8, 2012
External links
1930 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Minnesota
American film actresses
New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
American people of German descent
American people of Norwegian descent
American people of Swedish descent
Big cat attack victims
Keepers of animal sanctuaries
Apex Records artists
Challenge Records artists
Female models from Minnesota
People from New Ulm, Minnesota
Griffith family
| true |
[
"\"Tell Me What You Want\" is the fourth single by English R&B band Loose Ends from their first studio album, A Little Spice, and was released in February 1984 by Virgin Records. The single reached number 74 in the UK Singles Chart.\n\nTrack listing\n7” Single: VS658\n \"Tell Me What You Want) 3.35\n \"Tell Me What You Want (Dub Mix)\" 3.34\n\n12” Single: VS658-12\n \"Tell Me What You Want (Extended Version)\" 6.11\n \"Tell Me What You Want (Extended Dub Mix)\" 5.41\n\nU.S. only release - 12” Single: MCA23596 (released 1985)\n \"Tell Me What You Want (U.S. Extended Remix)\" 6.08 *\n \"Tell Me What You Want (U.S. Dub Version)\" 5.18\n\n* The U.S. Extended Remix version was released on CD on the U.S. Version of the 'A Little Spice' album (MCAD27141).\n\nThe Extended Version also featured on Side D of the limited gatefold sleeve version of 'Magic Touch'\n\nChart performance\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Tell Me What You Want at Discogs.\n\n1984 singles\nLoose Ends (band) songs\nSong recordings produced by Nick Martinelli\nSongs written by Carl McIntosh (musician)\nSongs written by Steve Nichol\n1984 songs\nVirgin Records singles",
"\"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" is the title of a number-one R&B single by singer Tevin Campbell. To date, the single is Campbell's biggest hit peaking at number 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spending one week at number-one on the US R&B chart. The hit song is also Tevin's one and only Adult Contemporary hit, where it peaked at number 43. The song showcases Campbell's four-octave vocal range from a low note of E2 to a D#6 during the bridge of the song.\n\nTrack listings\nUS 7\" vinyl\nA \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" (edit) – 4:16\t\nB \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" (instrumental) – 5:00\n\n12\" vinyl\nA \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" (edit) – 4:16\t\nB \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" (album version) – 5:02\n\nUK CD\n \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" – 4:16\n \"Goodbye\" (7\" Remix Edit) – 3:48\n \"Goodbye\" (Sidub and Listen) – 4:58\n \"Goodbye\" (Tevin's Dub Pt 1 & 2) – 6:53\n\nJapan CD\n \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" – 4:10\n \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" (instrumental version) – 4:10\n\nGermany CD\n \"Tell Me What You Want Me to Do\" (edit) – 4:10\n \"Just Ask Me\" (featuring Chubb Rock) – 4:07\n \"Tomorrow\" (A Better You, Better Me) – 4:46\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nSee also\nList of number-one R&B singles of 1992 (U.S.)\n\nReferences\n\nTevin Campbell songs\n1991 singles\n1991 songs\nSongs written by Tevin Campbell\nSongs written by Narada Michael Walden\nSong recordings produced by Narada Michael Walden\nWarner Records singles\nContemporary R&B ballads\nPop ballads\nSoul ballads\n1990s ballads"
] |
[
"Tippi Hedren",
"The Birds (1963)",
"What can you tell me about The Birds?",
"The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making"
] |
C_c860e15022e34b1dad7537f92a040eb3_0
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Was it successful?
| 2 |
Was the film The Birds successful?
|
Tippi Hedren
|
The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance." During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying there was nobody but her to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director. Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protegee, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first forty-five minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere magazine as one of the greatest movie characters of all time. CANNOTANSWER
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were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable".
|
Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren (born January 19, 1930) is an American actress, animal rights activist, and former fashion model. She achieved worldwide recognition for her work in two of Alfred Hitchcock's classics: The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Hedren is noted as one of the most famous 'Hitchcock Blondes' and is now one of the last surviving leading stars from Hitchcock's filmography.
A successful fashion model who appeared on the front covers of Life and Glamour magazines, among others, Hedren became an actress after she was discovered by director Alfred Hitchcock while appearing on a television commercial in 1961. She achieved great praise for her work in two of his films: the suspense-thriller The Birds (1963), for which she won a Golden Globe, and the psychological drama Marnie (1964). She has appeared in over 80 films and television shows, including Charlie Chaplin's final film A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), the political satire Citizen Ruth (1996), and the existential comedy I Heart Huckabees (2004). Among other honors, her contributions to world cinema have been recognized with the Jules Verne Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Hedren's strong commitment to animal rescue began in 1969 while she was shooting two films in Africa and was introduced to the plight of African lions. In an attempt to raise awareness for wildlife, she spent over a decade bringing Roar (1981) to the screen. She started her own nonprofit organization, the Roar Foundation, in 1983; it supports the Shambala Preserve, an wildlife habitat that enables her to continue her work in the care and preservation of lions and tigers. Hedren has also set up relief programs worldwide following earthquakes, hurricanes, famine and war. She was also instrumental in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons.
Early life
Nathalie Kay Hedren was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, on January 19, 1930, to Bernard Carl and Dorothea Henrietta (née Eckhardt) Hedren. For much of her career, her year of birth was reported as 1935. In 2004, however, she acknowledged that she was actually born in 1930 (which is consistent with the birth registration index at the Minnesota Historical Society). Her paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants, while her mother was of German and Norwegian descent. Her father ran a small general store in Lafayette, Minnesota, and gave her the nickname "Tippi". When she was four, she moved with her parents to Minneapolis; she has an older sister, Patricia. As a teenager, she took part in department store fashion shows. Her parents relocated to California while she was a high school student at West High School in Minneapolis.
Career
Modeling success (1950–1960)
On reaching her 20th birthday, Hedren bought a ticket to New York City, where she joined the Eileen Ford Agency. Within a year, she made her unofficial film debut as "Miss Ice Box" in the musical comedy The Petty Girl. In interviews, she referred to The Birds, her first credited role, as her first film. Although she received several film offers during that time, Hedren had no interest in acting, as she knew it was very difficult to succeed.
She had a highly successful modeling career during the 1950s and early 1960s, appearing on the covers of Life, The Saturday Evening Post, McCall's, and Glamour, among others. In 1961, after seven years of marriage to the actor Peter Griffith, Hedren divorced and returned to California with her daughter, Melanie, and rented an expensive home in Sherman Oaks. She later said, "I thought I could continue my career as it had been in New York. I thought everything would be just fine, and it wasn't. So I thought, 'well, I don't type, what shall I do?'"
Transition to acting and collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock (1961–1966)
On October 13, 1961, she received a call from an agent who told her a producer was interested in working with her. When she was told it was Alfred Hitchcock, who while watching The Today Show, saw her in a commercial for a diet drink called Sego, she agreed to sign a seven-year contract. During their first meeting, the two talked about everything except the role for which he was considering her. Hedren was convinced for several weeks it was for his television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Hitchcock later said, "I was not primarily concerned with how she looked in person. Most important was her appearance on the screen, and I liked that immediately. She has a touch of that high-style, lady-like quality which was once well-represented in films by actresses like Irene Dunne, Grace Kelly, Claudette Colbert, and others, but which is now quite rare."
Being an unknown actress with little training, Hitchcock put Hedren through an extensive color screen test that lasted two days and cost $25,000, doing scenes from his previous films, such as Rebecca, Notorious, and To Catch a Thief with actor Martin Balsam. According to Balsam, Hedren was very nervous, but studied every line, did every move she was asked to, and tried to do everything right. Hitchcock asked costume designer Edith Head to design clothes for Hedren's private life and he personally advised her about wine and food. He also insisted for publicity purposes that her name should be printed only in single quotes, 'Tippi'. The press mostly ignored this directive from the director, who felt that the single quotes added distinction and mystery to her name. Hitchcock was impressed with Hedren. As production designer Robert F. Boyle explained, "Hitch always liked women who behaved like well-bred ladies. Tippi generated that quality."
Afterward, Hedren was invited to lunch with Hitchcock, his wife, Alma, and Lew Wasserman, head of Universal, at one of Hitchcock's favorite restaurants, Chasen's. There, she was presented with a golden pin of three birds in flight, adorned by three tiny seed pearls, and was asked by Hitchcock to play the leading role in his upcoming film The Birds. "I was so stunned. It never occurred to me that I would be given a leading role in a major motion picture. I had great big tears in my eyes", Hedren later recalled.
The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making, as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music, or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance."
During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying nobody but her was left to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director.
Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protégée, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Varietys review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first 45-minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere as one of the greatest movie characters of all time.
Hitchcock was so impressed with Hedren's acting abilities, he decided to offer her the leading role of his next film, Marnie (1964), a romantic drama and psychological thriller from the novel by Winston Graham, during the filming of The Birds. Hedren was stunned and felt extremely fortunate to be offered to play "such a complicated, sad, tragic woman", and later said, "I consider my acting, while not necessarily being method acting, but one that draws upon my own feelings. I thought Marnie was an extremely interesting role to play and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity". She voiced doubts about her ability to play the demanding role, but Hitchcock assured her she could do it. As opposed to The Birds, where she had received little acting guidance, for this film Hedren studied every scene with Hitchcock.
Hedren recalled Marnie as her favorite of the two films she did with Hitchcock for the challenge of playing an emotionally battered young woman who travels from city to city assuming various guises to rob her employers. During the filming, Hitchcock was quoted as saying about Hedren, "an Academy Award performance is in the making". On release, the film was greeted by mixed reviews and indifferent box-office returns, and received no Oscar nominations. Variety wrote, "Hedren returns in a particularly demanding role. Miss Hedren, undertaking a role originally offered Grace Kelly for a resumption of her screen career, lends credence to a part never sympathetic. It's a difficult assignment which she fulfills satisfactorily." Hedren later said that Marnie was "ahead of its time" because "people didn't talk about childhood and its effects on adult life. It was taboo to discuss sexuality and psychology and to put all that into a film was shocking." Despite its original lukewarm reception, the film was later acclaimed and described as a "masterpiece" and Hedren's performance is now regarded as one of the finest in any Hitchcock film. Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote in his 2016 review of the film "Hedren's performance is one of the greatest in the history of cinema."
Marnie was the second and last collaboration between Hedren and Hitchcock. In 1973, she admitted that a major lifestyle difference caused a split in their relationship. "He was too possessive and too demanding. I cannot be possessed by anyone. But, then, that's my own hangup". In 1983, author Donald Spoto published his second book about Hitchcock, The Dark Side of Genius, for which Hedren agreed to talk for the first time in detail about her relationship with the director.
The book was controversial, as several of Hitchcock's friends claimed the Hitchcock portrayed in the book was not the man they knew. For years after its release, Hedren was not keen to talk about it in interviews, but thought the chapter devoted to her story was "accurate as to just what he was". Hedren later explained her long silence before telling her story, "It was embarrassing and insulting—there were a lot of reasons why I didn't want to tell the story. I didn't want it to be taken advantage of, twisted, turned, and made into an even uglier situation than it was".
According to Spoto's book, Hitchcock brought in two members of his crew during the filming of The Birds and asked them to keep careful watch on the activities of Hedren, "when she left the set—where she went, who she visited, how she spent her free time". He then advised her on what she should eat, whom she should see, and how she should live. He told the cast and crew they were not allowed to talk to her. Hedren's co-star in The Birds, Rod Taylor, later remembered, "Hitch was becoming very domineering and covetous of 'Tippi', and it was very difficult for her. No one was permitted to come physically close to her during the production. 'Don't touch the girl after I call "Cut!"' he said to me repeatedly". Hitchcock also attempted, on one occasion, to grab and violently kiss Hedren in the back of a car as they drove onto the set. Hedren told his assistant, Peggy Robertson, and the studio chief, Lew Wasserman, that she was becoming very unhappy about the whole situation. "But he was Alfred Hitchcock, the great and famous director, and I was Tippi Hedren, an inexperienced actress who had no clout". She decided she could not quit her contract because she was afraid to be blacklisted and unable to find work. Hedren's own daughter, Melanie Griffith, remembered that while Hedren was doing The Birds, she thought Hitchcock was taking her mother away from her. "Suddenly, I wasn't allowed even to visit my mom at the studio".
During the filming of Marnie, Hedren found Hitchcock's behavior toward her increasingly difficult to bear as filming progressed. "Everyone—I mean everyone—knew he was obsessed with me. He always wanted a glass of wine or champagne, with me alone, at the end of the day. He was really isolating me from everyone". Hedren's co-star in Marnie, Diane Baker, later recalled, "She was never allowed to gather around with the rest of us, and he demanded that every conversation between her and Hitch be held in private... Nothing could have been more horrible for me than to arrive on that movie set and to see her being treated the way she was".
Hitchcock revealed to Hedren one day he had a recurring dream where she came up to him and said, "Hitch, I love you—I'll always love you". When she heard this, Hedren replied "But it was a dream. Just a dream", and excused herself from his presence. She believed Hitchcock had no consideration for her feelings and remembered she was humiliated after he asked her to touch him, just before shooting a scene. "He made sure no one else could hear, and his tone and glance made it clear exactly what he meant". Hedren asked Hitchcock's permission one day to travel to New York to appear on The Tonight Show, where she was supposed to be presented an award as the "Most Promising New Star". Hitchcock refused, according to his biographer, because he claimed the break would affect her performance. During that meeting, he apparently "made an overt sexual proposition" that Hedren "could neither ignore nor answer casually, as she could his previous gestures". In Spoto's third book about Hitchcock, Spellbound by Beauty (2008), Hedren revealed that Hitchcock actually made offensive demands on her. "He stared at me and simply said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that from this time on, he expected me to make myself sexually available and accessible to him—however and whenever and wherever he wanted". Hitchcock's demands led to a "horrible, horrible fight", according to Hedren. "He made these demands on me, and no way could I acquiesce to them".
Hedren then told him Marnie would be their last film together and later recalled how Hitchcock told her he would destroy her career. "I said I wanted to get out of my contract. He said: 'You can't. You have your daughter to support, and your parents are getting older'. I said: 'Nobody would want me to be in this situation, I want to get out'. And he said: 'I'll ruin your career'. I said: 'Do what you have to do'. And he did ruin my career. He kept me under contract, paid me to do nothing for close on two years". Hedren felt so humiliated, she called the director a "fat pig" in front of people on the set. Hitchcock made only a comment about it to his biographer, John Russell Taylor: "She did what no one is permitted to do. She referred to my weight". The two communicated only through a third party for the rest of the film. According to Marnie'''s screenwriter, Jay Presson Allen, Hitchcock was "mad" for Hedren. She felt unhappy for both and described the situation as "an old man's cri de coeur", adding that Hitchcock had a "Pygmalion complex about Tippi". She advised Hedren to finish the film and then get on with her life and be happy. Hedren's hairdresser, Virginia Darcy, even told Hitchcock he should not be possessive with Hedren. "Tippi felt rightly that she was not his property, but he'd say, 'You are, I have a contract'". Although Hitchcock thought he might mend fences with Hedren and make another film with her, she refused to reconsider her decision. Hedren's contract terms gave Hitchcock the final say as to any work she could take on and he used that power to turn down several film roles on her behalf. She was particularly disappointed when French director François Truffaut told her he had wanted her for one of them. In 1966, Hitchcock finally sold her contract to Universal Studios after Hedren appeared in two of their TV shows, Kraft Suspense Theatre (1965) and Run for Your Life (id.). The studio ultimately released her from her contract after she refused to appear on a television Western for them.
In 2012, The Girl, an HBO/BBC film about Hedren and Hitchcock's relationship, based on Donald Spoto's 2009 book Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, was released. When she was first told about the project, Hedren said she had mixed feelings about it, "To be still alive and have a film made about you is an awesome and incredibly frightening experience". Hedren and Hitchcock were respectively portrayed by Sienna Miller and Toby Jones.
Although she was thrilled with the choice of Miller, Hedren was worried she would not be portrayed "as strong a character as I was—and still am. I had to be extremely strong to fight off Mr. Hitchcock". She described the moment she saw the film as "probably one of the most involved, emotionally tense 90 minutes that I have ever lived". Upon the film's release, Hedren said although she believed the film accurately portrays Hitchcock's behavior towards her, the time constraints of a 90-minute film prevented telling the entire story of her career with him. "It wasn't a constant barrage of harassment. If it had been constantly the way we have had to do it in this film, I would have been long gone". She recalled there were times she described as "absolutely delightful and wonderful”, and insisted that “Hitchcock had a charm about him. He was very funny at times. He was incredibly brilliant in his field". The film was controversial, as others who knew and worked with Hitchcock responded to it negatively. Kim Novak, who worked on Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), disputed Hitchcock's portrayal as a sexual predator in The Girl: "I never saw him make a pass at anybody or act strange to anybody. And wouldn't you think if he was that way, I would've seen it or at least seen him with somebody? I think it's unfortunate when someone's no longer around and can't defend themselves". Novak previously described Hitchcock as a gentleman, and when asked about reports of his behavior, she said, "Maybe I just wasn't his type". Novak also stated, "I won't dispute Tippi if that's what she saw."
Hedren herself was asked why her account of sexual harassment contrasted with the many interviews she gave about her time with Hitchcock, her presence at the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony honoring him in 1979, and her presence at his funeral. She explained that, "He ruined my career, but he didn't ruin my life. That time of my life was over. I still admire the man for who he was". She also said, "I've been able to separate the two. The man who was the artist. I mean, what he gave to the motion picture industry can never be taken away from him and I certainly wouldn't want to try. But on the other side, there is that dark side that was really awful".
Career setbacks (1967–1973)
Hedren's first feature film appearance after Marnie was in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. She was told by writer-director Charlie Chaplin that she was offered a major supporting role as Brando's estranged wife and had to accept the role without reading the script. However, when she arrived in England where the filming took place, she finally received the script and realized that her part was little more than a cameo. She asked Chaplin why he lied to her. "Every actor in the world was asking if they could do this film, to just do a walk-on, without even being paid for it. When I said, 'Why didn't you just tell me that it was a cameo? I would have done this film anyway,' he said, 'I didn't think you would come,' which was very sweet. He was a very clever man." Hedren asked Chaplin to expand the role, and although he tried to accommodate her, he could not, as the story mostly takes place on a ship, which Hedren's character boards near the end of the film. In the end, she remained in the film and later said that it was both amusing and strange to work with Chaplin. She found him to be a very serious man and loved his approach to directing. She later said, "I wish someone would have been allowed to do a documentary. The way he directed was unlike anyone I ever saw. He acted out all the parts himself. He did Sophia's part, then Marlon's part, then mine, and then he'd say, 'Okay, now you can do it.' Which would be impossible, to mimic the master. It was incredible. None of us believed it. Marlon hated it."
After the release of A Countess from Hong Kong, Hedren's career was described as "spectacular" by the press. She told a reporter at the time, "I don't want to wait myself out of this business, but working for Hitch and Charlie has been very special to me, and now I'm going to wait for something special to come along". In 1968, she signed on to do the American Civil War drama Five Against Kansas with Farley Granger and Jeffrey Hunter, but the project was never realized. In 1968, Hedren returned to film as a socialite who helps her boyfriend (played by George Armstrong) catch a killer, in Tiger by the Tail. From 1970 to 1971, she guest-starred twice on The Courtship of Eddie's Father. She agreed to take part in Satan's Harvest (1970) and Mister Kingstreet's War (1973)—which were shot back-to-back despite the discrepancy in their release dates—for the sole reason that they were being filmed in Africa. In 1973, Hedren played a teacher of an experimental sex school in The Harrad Experiment, which starred James Whitmore and Don Johnson—the latter who later became the husband of her daughter, Melanie Griffith. Hedren felt that the film "deals with vital themes—themes like the decline in importance of ideas like possession and jealousy and, by inference, marriage. I have four teenaged children and I think this picture says some valuable things to them." She confessed at the time she was occasionally depressed because she was not doing any major films and told a magazine, "My husband just cancelled all the trade magazines because he felt I should cut off the source of my discontent. He's the type who won't stand for sustained down feelings".
Roar (1974–1981)
Hedren and husband Noel Marshall watched a pride of lions move into a house after a game warden moved out in 1969, during the filming of Satan's Harvest in Africa. She said, "We were delighted with the way they adapted themselves to living there. And they were so funny we knew we had an idea for a picture." Marshall wrote a script titled Lions, Lions and More Lions based on their experience; it was retitled Roar and centered on a family's misadventures in a research park filled with lions, tigers, and other wild cats.
Hedren played the lead role and co-starred with her daughter Melanie, husband Marshall, and his own sons Jerry and John. They attempted to rent Hollywood animals for a nine-month shoot, but upon approaching animal trainers for support, they were discouraged and nobody would rent them 30 or 40 lions, as the script required, because of their natural tendency to fight. They were encouraged to start collecting and training their own exotic beasts. Animal trainer Ron Oxley told them, "to get to know about lions, you've got to live with them for a while". They started to raise a lion cub named Neil in their Sherman Oaks house and made sure that the animal slept in their bed. Life photographer Michael Rougier documented their life in 1971 and photographed the lion with the whole family inside and outside the house, from Hedren's daughter's bed to the living room to the swimming pool. After complaints from their neighbors, Hedren and Marshall bought a ranch outside of Los Angeles in Acton that would serve as the set for Roar. They got permission there to rescue and raise several lions, tigers, African elephants, and other exotic felines.
Filming started in 1974 and took five years just to complete the photography. Every scene involving lions was improvised and shot with four or sometimes eight cameras. More than 100 people worked on the film, as well as more than 150 untrained lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs. During production, no animals were hurt, but more than 70 members of the cast and crew were mauled. Hedren fractured a leg and also had scalp wounds when an elephant bucked her off its back while she was riding it. She was also bitten in the neck by a lion and required 38 stitches; this incident can be seen in the film. Melanie Griffith was also attacked, receiving 50 stitches to her face; it was feared that she would lose an eye, but she recovered and was not disfigured. Marshall was attacked so many times that he eventually was diagnosed with gangrene. In one of those incidents, he was clawed by a cheetah when protecting the animals during a bushfire that occurred in 1979. All animals were evacuated, and several years were needed for him to recover from his injuries. In 1978, a flood destroyed the movie sets and killed three of the lions. The project was set back several years. Hedren said that they were all determined to finish the film: "We were so sure the film was going to be a success that we thought everything (financing the ranch and the lions, etc.) would take care of itself."Roar was released worldwide in 1981 with the exception of the United States, because according to Hedren, "The United States distributors wanted the lion's share of the profits, and we thought it ought to go to the beautiful animals that made the movie." The film cost $17 million and grossed only $2 million, but it was a turning point in Hedren's life. In 1983, she established the nonprofit The Roar Foundation to take care of the big cats. "After our movie was over," she explained, "it was unconscionable to see the animals go any place else." Roar was re-released in 2015, but Hedren declined to discuss it, as she felt that promotion for the film was filled with "inaccuracies".
Later career (1982–present)
After Roar, Hedren accepted any low-budget television or cinema role that could help bring funds to her foundation to provide protection, shelter, care, and maintenance for the animals at the Shambala Preserve. In 1982, she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen in Foxfire Light. She appeared in several television series, including Hart to Hart in 1983 and the late-night horror series Tales from the Darkside in 1984. In the 1985 pilot episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, she made a brief appearance as a waitress in a bar who berates a customer, played by her daughter Melanie Griffith. In 1990, she had a nonspeaking, minor part as a wealthy widow romanced by Michael Keaton in the film Pacific Heights (1990), which also starred her daughter. That same year, she had a role on The Bold and the Beautiful, a daytime soap opera she said she was "proud to have in my resume".
In 1994, Hedren appeared in the made-for-cable sequel, The Birds II: Land's End, in a role different from the one she had played in the original. She was, however, disappointed that she did not get a starring role and admitted before the film's release, "I wish that it was more than a cameo. I think they made a mistake by not doing that, but it has helped me to feed my lions and tigers." When asked about what could have been Hitchcock's opinion on the film, she answered: "I'd hate to think what he would say!" In a 2007 interview, Hedren said of the film, "It's absolutely horrible, it embarrasses me horribly."
From 1994 to 1996, Hedren had a guest-starring role in Dream On. The sitcom gave her "the opportunity to do comedy. I'd never done comedy before and it was just wonderful for me to be able to do that. Everybody just thought of me as a serious actress, so I owe that to John Landis (the executive producer), giving me that opportunity." In 1996, she played an abortion rights activist in Alexander Payne's political satire Citizen Ruth with Laura Dern. In 1998, she co-starred alongside Billy Zane and Christina Ricci in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, a film she felt was "incredible". "I must say I really love that film. It was a unique kind of film to do also, because of the fact that it had no dialogue in it. It was very, very different". That same year, she guest-starred in a special episode titled "Psychodrama" of the television series Chicago Hope, that paid tribute to the Hitchcock movies. Hedren's character, Alfreda Perkins, was a reference to Alfred Hitchcock and actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in the director's 1960 film Psycho.
After appearing in a number of little-exposed films between 1999 and 2003, Hedren had a small but showy role in the 2004 David O. Russell comedy I Heart Huckabees, as a foul-mouthed attractive older woman who slaps Jude Law in an elevator. She felt that the director, who had a reputation for being difficult, was "totally crazy", but also "very interesting. I was able to work well with him." She also added it was a strange experience as, "... all of a sudden, he'd be like, 'Now I'm going to do it this way,' and you'd think, 'How is he going to edit this? How is this going to work?' But he made it work." In 2006, Hedren was a cast member of the short-lived primetime soap opera Fashion House with Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild, and continued to guest-star in television series such as The 4400 (2006) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008). In 2012, Hedren and her daughter guest-starred together on an episode of Raising Hope. That same year, she appeared in Free Samples, an indie film where she had a supporting role as an old movie star. In 2013, she made an appearance as herself in the fourth-season finale of Cougar Town.
Hedren published her autobiography, Tippi: A Memoir, co-written with Lindsay Harrison, in 2016 through William Morrow and Company, as she felt it was "about time I stop letting everyone else tell my story and finally tell it myself." In 2018, at age 88, Hedren became the new face of Gucci's timepieces and jewelry and starred as a mysterious fortune teller in the brand's commercial ad, The Fortune Teller.
Influence
A Louis Vuitton ad campaign in 2006 paid tribute to Hedren and Hitchcock with a modern-day interpretation of the deserted railway station opening sequence of Marnie. Her look from The Birds (1963) inspired designer Bill Gaytten to design for John Galliano Pre-Fall 2012 collection.
Naomi Watts stated that her character interpretation in Mulholland Drive (2001) was influenced by the look and performances of Hedren in Hitchcock films. Watts and Hedren both appeared in I ♥ Huckabees (2004), but did not share any scenes together. Off screen, the film's director David O. Russell introduced them both, and Watts said of Hedren: "I was pretty fascinated by her then, because people have often said we're alike." Watts dressed up as Hedren's title character from Marnie for a photo shoot for March 2008 issue of Vanity Fair. In the same issue, Jodie Foster dressed up as Hedren's character, Melanie Daniels, from The Birds.
Shambala Preserve
In 1981, Hedren produced Roar, an 11-year project that ended up costing $17 million and starred dozens of African lions. "This was probably one of the most dangerous films that Hollywood has ever seen", remarked the actress. "It's amazing no one was killed." During the production of Roar, Hedren, her husband at the time, Noel Marshall, and daughter Melanie were attacked by lions; Jan de Bont, the director of photography, was scalped. Hedren later co-wrote Cats of Shambala (1985) about the experience. Roar made only $2 million worldwide. Hedren ended her marriage to Marshall a year later in 1982. The film directly led to the 1983 establishment of the nonprofit The Roar Foundation and Hedren's Shambala Preserve, located at the edge of the Mojave Desert in Acton, California, between the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley, northeast of Los Angeles. Shambala houses some 70 animals. Hedren lives on the Shambala site and conducts monthly tours of the preserve for the public. In a 2015 interview with magazine Ability, Hedren emphasized that there is no human contact with the animals and that all of the cats are spayed and neutered, since they are being raised in captivity. Hedren was the founding president of the American Sanctuary Association, a post she still holds.
She took in and cared for Togar, a lion that belonged to Anton LaVey, after he was told by San Francisco officials that he could not keep a fully grown lion as a house pet. Shambala became the new home for Michael Jackson's two Bengal tigers, Sabu and Thriller, after he decided to close his zoo at his Neverland Valley Ranch in Los Olivos. Thriller died in June 2012 of lung cancer.
On December 3, 2007, Shambala Preserve made headlines when Chris Orr, a caretaker for the animals, was mauled by a tiger named Alexander. Several documentaries have focused on Shambala Preserve, including the 30-minute Lions: Kings of the Serengeti (1995), narrated by Melanie Griffith, and Animal Planet's Life with Big Cats (1998), which won the Genesis Award for best documentary in 1999. The animals at the preserve served as the initial inspiration for the life's work of artist A.E. London, who started her career working for Hedren.
As of 2020, Hedren still maintains more than a dozen lions and tigers; her granddaughter Dakota Johnson is involved in their care.
Personal life
In 1952, Hedren met and married 18-year-old future advertising executive Peter Griffith. Their daughter, actress Melanie Griffith, was born on August 9, 1957. They were divorced in 1961. On September 27, 1964, Hedren married her then-agent Noel Marshall, who later produced three of her films; they divorced in 1982. In 1985, she married steel manufacturer Luis Barrenechea, but they divorced in 1992. Hedren was engaged to veterinarian Martin Dinnes from 2002 until their breakup in mid-2008. In September 2008, Hedren told The Sunday Times "I'm waiting for someone to sweep me off my feet." Hedren's granddaughter Dakota Johnson is also an actress.
Hedren played a role in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons in the United States. In 1975, while an international relief coordinator with Food for the Hungry, she began visiting with refugees at Hope Village outside Sacramento, California. When she learned the women were interested in her manicured nails, she employed her manicurist to teach them the skills of the trade and worked with a local beauty school to help them find jobs. Hedren's work with the Vietnamese-Americans was the subject of several documentaries: Happy Hands, directed by Honey Lauren, which won Best Documentary Short at the Sonoma International Film Festival in 2014Sonoma International Film Festival website, sonomaportal.com; accessed March 10, 2015. and "Nailedit:
Vietnamese and the Nail Industry" which won the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) 2014 Documentary Fund Award. CND and Beauty Changes Lives Foundation (BCL) have announced the BCL CND Tippi Hedren Nail Scholarship Fund to support professional nail education and will be administered starting January 1, 2014.
Hedren was instrumental in helping a desperate Nguyen Thi Chinh to enter the US after the fall of the South Vietnam government in 1975, she arranged for an air ticket and a visa for her then invited her to stay in her house.
Hedren suffered from severe and persistent headaches for a long time, which rendered her unable to accept several projects, including a television series produced by and starring Betty White. After she got a titanium plate put in her neck, she improved and then agreed, with the blessing of her doctor, to take the part of a dying woman in the soap opera Fashion House. While she was rehearsing a scene, a gallon of water fell from the ceiling onto her head. The headaches returned after the incident and persisted. Hedren filed a suit to receive recompense following her inability to work. Hedren's lawyer, Joseph Allen, made a mistake in his discussions with the defendants that allowed them to block him from filing suit. Hedren sued Allen for malpractice. In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Hedren had been awarded a $1.5 million settlement, including $213,400 for past lost earnings and $440,308 for future lost earnings, against her former lawyer. Hedren was hurt by the report since she had not collected the award. She gave an interview to explain that her former lawyer does not have the money to pay her, and discussed how the report put her in a difficult situation since her foundation was in dire need of funds. She explained that she has to raise $75,000 monthly just to keep it going. "Chances are I won't ever even see the money, and that's what hurts so badly, that in all of this pain and suffering that publication ran with a swift and not researched story, which told people around the world who have been so gracious and thoughtful about sending donations, that I no longer needed them."
Filmography
Film
Television
Honours and awards
1964: Most Promising Newcomer Award by Photoplay
1964: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress (shared with Ursula Andress and Elke Sommer)
1994: Life Achievement Award in France at The Beauvais Film Festival Cinemalia
1995: Life Achievement Award in Spain, La Fundación Municipal de Cine
1995: The Helen Woodward Animal Center's Annual Humane Award
1996: Founder's Award from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
1997: Lion and Lamb Award from Wildhaven
1999: Woman of Vision Award from Women of Film and Video in Washington, D.C.
1999: Presidential Medal for her work in film from Hofstra University
1999: Humanitarian Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival
2000: Best Actress in a Comedy Short Award in the short film Mulligans! at the Method Fest, Independent Film Festival
2002: Best Actress Award for the short film Tea with Grandma from the New York International Independent Film Festival
2003: Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2003: Women of Los Angeles Annual Hope is a Woman Honor
2004: PAWS Companion for Life Award
2004: Best Actress Award for the short film Rose's Garden from the Los Angeles TV Short Film Festival
2004: Animal Rights Advocacy Award at Artivist Film Festival
2005: Living Legacy Award
2006: Conservationist of the Year—Dino Award from the Las Vegas Natural History Museum
2007: Lifetime Achievement Award—Riverside Film Festival
2007: Jules Verne "Nature" Award — the 1st Annual Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival of Los Angeles
2008: Academy of Art University's 2nd Epidemic Film Festival Award
2008: Jules Verne Legendaire Award
2008: Thespian Award - LA Femme Film Festival
2009: "When a Woman Wills She Will!" Award by the Woman's Club of Hollywood
2009: Workhouse's first Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award
2009: Received the First Star on the Orinda Theater Walk of Fame
2010: Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Genesis Awards show from the Humane Society
2010: BraveHeart Award
2010: Who-Manitarian Award
2011: Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce at its 90th Annual Installation & Awards Luncheon
2011: "The Women Together Award" from the United Nations
2011: Vietnamese-American Marton Saint Award from the Boat People SOS Organization
2011: Omni Youth Humanitarian/Career Achievement Award
2012: Honorary Masters of Fine Arts Degree from the New York Film Academy
2012: Mayor Career Achievement Award from Starz Denver Film Festival
2013: Legacy of Style Award
2013: "People Helping People" Award by the Touching Live TV Award Show, broadwayworld.com; accessed November 14, 2015.
2014: Lifetime Achievement Award from Bel-Air Film Festival
2014: Special Recognition Award from Acton Women's Club
2014:The Women's International Film & Television Showcase Foundation International Visionary Award, thewifts.org; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Choreography of Desire (A Tribute to Tippi Hedren) by the Vienna International Film Festival, viennale.at; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Believe, Achieve, Empower Award
2017: Waggy Award recipient from the Tailwaggers Foundation
2017: The Icon Award
2018: "Friend for Life Award" from The Palm Springs Animal Shelter
Notes
References
Hedren, Tippi. Tippi: A Memoir, William Morrow, 2016, 288 p.
McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, It Books, 2004 (Reprint), 864 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 340 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 224 p.
Taylor, John Russell. Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock, Bloomsbury Reader, 2013, 318 p. ASIN B00BWL8L0C
Spoto, Donald. Spellbound by Beauty, Three Rivers Press, 2009, 368 p.
Paul, Louis. Tales from the Cult Film Trenches: Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema, McFarland, 2007, 336 p.
Gambin, Lee. Massacred By Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film'', Midnight Marquee Press, Inc., October 8, 2012
External links
1930 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Minnesota
American film actresses
New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
American people of German descent
American people of Norwegian descent
American people of Swedish descent
Big cat attack victims
Keepers of animal sanctuaries
Apex Records artists
Challenge Records artists
Female models from Minnesota
People from New Ulm, Minnesota
Griffith family
| true |
[
"Merry Legs (1911-1932) was a Tennessee Walking Horse mare who was given foundation registration for her influence as a broodmare. She was also a successful show horse.\n\nLife\nMerry Legs was foaled in April 1911. She was a bay with sabino markings. She was sired by the foundation stallion Black Allan F-1, out of the American Saddlebred mare Nell Dement, registration number F-3, and bred by the early breeder Albert Dement. She was a large mare at maturity, standing high and weighing . Merry Legs was a successful show horse; as a three-year-old, she won the stake class at the Tennessee State Fair. She was also successful as a broodmare, giving birth to 13 foals, among them the well-known Bud Allen, Last Chance, Major Allen, and Merry Boy. For her influence on the breed, she was given the foundation number F-4 when the TWHBEA was formed in 1935. She died in 1932.\n\nReferences\n\nIndividual Tennessee Walking Horses\n1911 animal births\n1932 animal deaths",
"The UCI Road World Championships – Men's team time trial was a world championship for road bicycle racing in the discipline of team time trial (TTT). It is organized by the world governing body, the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI).\n\nNational teams (1962–1994)\nA championship for national teams was introduced in 1962 and held until 1994. It was held annually, except that from 1972 onward, the TTT was not held in Olympic years. There were 4 riders per team on a route around 100 kilometres long. Italy is the most successful nation with seven victories.\n\nMedal winners\n\nMedals by nation\n\nMost successful riders\n\nUCI teams (2012–2018)\nThere was a long break until a championship for trade teams was introduced in 2012. There were 6 riders per team. The championship was held up to 2018.\n\nMedal winners\n\nMost successful teams\n\nMost successful riders\n\nReferences \n \n \n\n \nMen's Team Time Trial\nRecurring sporting events established in 1962\nUCI World Tour races\nMen's road bicycle races\nLists of UCI Road World Championships medalists\nRecurring sporting events disestablished in 2018"
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"Tippi Hedren",
"The Birds (1963)",
"What can you tell me about The Birds?",
"The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making",
"Was it successful?",
"were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as \"remarkable\"."
] |
C_c860e15022e34b1dad7537f92a040eb3_0
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Did she gain any further recognition for this?
| 3 |
Did Hedren gain any further recognition for her performance in The Birds?
|
Tippi Hedren
|
The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance." During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying there was nobody but her to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director. Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protegee, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first forty-five minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere magazine as one of the greatest movie characters of all time. CANNOTANSWER
|
Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review:
|
Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren (born January 19, 1930) is an American actress, animal rights activist, and former fashion model. She achieved worldwide recognition for her work in two of Alfred Hitchcock's classics: The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Hedren is noted as one of the most famous 'Hitchcock Blondes' and is now one of the last surviving leading stars from Hitchcock's filmography.
A successful fashion model who appeared on the front covers of Life and Glamour magazines, among others, Hedren became an actress after she was discovered by director Alfred Hitchcock while appearing on a television commercial in 1961. She achieved great praise for her work in two of his films: the suspense-thriller The Birds (1963), for which she won a Golden Globe, and the psychological drama Marnie (1964). She has appeared in over 80 films and television shows, including Charlie Chaplin's final film A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), the political satire Citizen Ruth (1996), and the existential comedy I Heart Huckabees (2004). Among other honors, her contributions to world cinema have been recognized with the Jules Verne Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Hedren's strong commitment to animal rescue began in 1969 while she was shooting two films in Africa and was introduced to the plight of African lions. In an attempt to raise awareness for wildlife, she spent over a decade bringing Roar (1981) to the screen. She started her own nonprofit organization, the Roar Foundation, in 1983; it supports the Shambala Preserve, an wildlife habitat that enables her to continue her work in the care and preservation of lions and tigers. Hedren has also set up relief programs worldwide following earthquakes, hurricanes, famine and war. She was also instrumental in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons.
Early life
Nathalie Kay Hedren was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, on January 19, 1930, to Bernard Carl and Dorothea Henrietta (née Eckhardt) Hedren. For much of her career, her year of birth was reported as 1935. In 2004, however, she acknowledged that she was actually born in 1930 (which is consistent with the birth registration index at the Minnesota Historical Society). Her paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants, while her mother was of German and Norwegian descent. Her father ran a small general store in Lafayette, Minnesota, and gave her the nickname "Tippi". When she was four, she moved with her parents to Minneapolis; she has an older sister, Patricia. As a teenager, she took part in department store fashion shows. Her parents relocated to California while she was a high school student at West High School in Minneapolis.
Career
Modeling success (1950–1960)
On reaching her 20th birthday, Hedren bought a ticket to New York City, where she joined the Eileen Ford Agency. Within a year, she made her unofficial film debut as "Miss Ice Box" in the musical comedy The Petty Girl. In interviews, she referred to The Birds, her first credited role, as her first film. Although she received several film offers during that time, Hedren had no interest in acting, as she knew it was very difficult to succeed.
She had a highly successful modeling career during the 1950s and early 1960s, appearing on the covers of Life, The Saturday Evening Post, McCall's, and Glamour, among others. In 1961, after seven years of marriage to the actor Peter Griffith, Hedren divorced and returned to California with her daughter, Melanie, and rented an expensive home in Sherman Oaks. She later said, "I thought I could continue my career as it had been in New York. I thought everything would be just fine, and it wasn't. So I thought, 'well, I don't type, what shall I do?'"
Transition to acting and collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock (1961–1966)
On October 13, 1961, she received a call from an agent who told her a producer was interested in working with her. When she was told it was Alfred Hitchcock, who while watching The Today Show, saw her in a commercial for a diet drink called Sego, she agreed to sign a seven-year contract. During their first meeting, the two talked about everything except the role for which he was considering her. Hedren was convinced for several weeks it was for his television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Hitchcock later said, "I was not primarily concerned with how she looked in person. Most important was her appearance on the screen, and I liked that immediately. She has a touch of that high-style, lady-like quality which was once well-represented in films by actresses like Irene Dunne, Grace Kelly, Claudette Colbert, and others, but which is now quite rare."
Being an unknown actress with little training, Hitchcock put Hedren through an extensive color screen test that lasted two days and cost $25,000, doing scenes from his previous films, such as Rebecca, Notorious, and To Catch a Thief with actor Martin Balsam. According to Balsam, Hedren was very nervous, but studied every line, did every move she was asked to, and tried to do everything right. Hitchcock asked costume designer Edith Head to design clothes for Hedren's private life and he personally advised her about wine and food. He also insisted for publicity purposes that her name should be printed only in single quotes, 'Tippi'. The press mostly ignored this directive from the director, who felt that the single quotes added distinction and mystery to her name. Hitchcock was impressed with Hedren. As production designer Robert F. Boyle explained, "Hitch always liked women who behaved like well-bred ladies. Tippi generated that quality."
Afterward, Hedren was invited to lunch with Hitchcock, his wife, Alma, and Lew Wasserman, head of Universal, at one of Hitchcock's favorite restaurants, Chasen's. There, she was presented with a golden pin of three birds in flight, adorned by three tiny seed pearls, and was asked by Hitchcock to play the leading role in his upcoming film The Birds. "I was so stunned. It never occurred to me that I would be given a leading role in a major motion picture. I had great big tears in my eyes", Hedren later recalled.
The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making, as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music, or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance."
During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying nobody but her was left to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director.
Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protégée, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Varietys review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first 45-minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere as one of the greatest movie characters of all time.
Hitchcock was so impressed with Hedren's acting abilities, he decided to offer her the leading role of his next film, Marnie (1964), a romantic drama and psychological thriller from the novel by Winston Graham, during the filming of The Birds. Hedren was stunned and felt extremely fortunate to be offered to play "such a complicated, sad, tragic woman", and later said, "I consider my acting, while not necessarily being method acting, but one that draws upon my own feelings. I thought Marnie was an extremely interesting role to play and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity". She voiced doubts about her ability to play the demanding role, but Hitchcock assured her she could do it. As opposed to The Birds, where she had received little acting guidance, for this film Hedren studied every scene with Hitchcock.
Hedren recalled Marnie as her favorite of the two films she did with Hitchcock for the challenge of playing an emotionally battered young woman who travels from city to city assuming various guises to rob her employers. During the filming, Hitchcock was quoted as saying about Hedren, "an Academy Award performance is in the making". On release, the film was greeted by mixed reviews and indifferent box-office returns, and received no Oscar nominations. Variety wrote, "Hedren returns in a particularly demanding role. Miss Hedren, undertaking a role originally offered Grace Kelly for a resumption of her screen career, lends credence to a part never sympathetic. It's a difficult assignment which she fulfills satisfactorily." Hedren later said that Marnie was "ahead of its time" because "people didn't talk about childhood and its effects on adult life. It was taboo to discuss sexuality and psychology and to put all that into a film was shocking." Despite its original lukewarm reception, the film was later acclaimed and described as a "masterpiece" and Hedren's performance is now regarded as one of the finest in any Hitchcock film. Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote in his 2016 review of the film "Hedren's performance is one of the greatest in the history of cinema."
Marnie was the second and last collaboration between Hedren and Hitchcock. In 1973, she admitted that a major lifestyle difference caused a split in their relationship. "He was too possessive and too demanding. I cannot be possessed by anyone. But, then, that's my own hangup". In 1983, author Donald Spoto published his second book about Hitchcock, The Dark Side of Genius, for which Hedren agreed to talk for the first time in detail about her relationship with the director.
The book was controversial, as several of Hitchcock's friends claimed the Hitchcock portrayed in the book was not the man they knew. For years after its release, Hedren was not keen to talk about it in interviews, but thought the chapter devoted to her story was "accurate as to just what he was". Hedren later explained her long silence before telling her story, "It was embarrassing and insulting—there were a lot of reasons why I didn't want to tell the story. I didn't want it to be taken advantage of, twisted, turned, and made into an even uglier situation than it was".
According to Spoto's book, Hitchcock brought in two members of his crew during the filming of The Birds and asked them to keep careful watch on the activities of Hedren, "when she left the set—where she went, who she visited, how she spent her free time". He then advised her on what she should eat, whom she should see, and how she should live. He told the cast and crew they were not allowed to talk to her. Hedren's co-star in The Birds, Rod Taylor, later remembered, "Hitch was becoming very domineering and covetous of 'Tippi', and it was very difficult for her. No one was permitted to come physically close to her during the production. 'Don't touch the girl after I call "Cut!"' he said to me repeatedly". Hitchcock also attempted, on one occasion, to grab and violently kiss Hedren in the back of a car as they drove onto the set. Hedren told his assistant, Peggy Robertson, and the studio chief, Lew Wasserman, that she was becoming very unhappy about the whole situation. "But he was Alfred Hitchcock, the great and famous director, and I was Tippi Hedren, an inexperienced actress who had no clout". She decided she could not quit her contract because she was afraid to be blacklisted and unable to find work. Hedren's own daughter, Melanie Griffith, remembered that while Hedren was doing The Birds, she thought Hitchcock was taking her mother away from her. "Suddenly, I wasn't allowed even to visit my mom at the studio".
During the filming of Marnie, Hedren found Hitchcock's behavior toward her increasingly difficult to bear as filming progressed. "Everyone—I mean everyone—knew he was obsessed with me. He always wanted a glass of wine or champagne, with me alone, at the end of the day. He was really isolating me from everyone". Hedren's co-star in Marnie, Diane Baker, later recalled, "She was never allowed to gather around with the rest of us, and he demanded that every conversation between her and Hitch be held in private... Nothing could have been more horrible for me than to arrive on that movie set and to see her being treated the way she was".
Hitchcock revealed to Hedren one day he had a recurring dream where she came up to him and said, "Hitch, I love you—I'll always love you". When she heard this, Hedren replied "But it was a dream. Just a dream", and excused herself from his presence. She believed Hitchcock had no consideration for her feelings and remembered she was humiliated after he asked her to touch him, just before shooting a scene. "He made sure no one else could hear, and his tone and glance made it clear exactly what he meant". Hedren asked Hitchcock's permission one day to travel to New York to appear on The Tonight Show, where she was supposed to be presented an award as the "Most Promising New Star". Hitchcock refused, according to his biographer, because he claimed the break would affect her performance. During that meeting, he apparently "made an overt sexual proposition" that Hedren "could neither ignore nor answer casually, as she could his previous gestures". In Spoto's third book about Hitchcock, Spellbound by Beauty (2008), Hedren revealed that Hitchcock actually made offensive demands on her. "He stared at me and simply said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that from this time on, he expected me to make myself sexually available and accessible to him—however and whenever and wherever he wanted". Hitchcock's demands led to a "horrible, horrible fight", according to Hedren. "He made these demands on me, and no way could I acquiesce to them".
Hedren then told him Marnie would be their last film together and later recalled how Hitchcock told her he would destroy her career. "I said I wanted to get out of my contract. He said: 'You can't. You have your daughter to support, and your parents are getting older'. I said: 'Nobody would want me to be in this situation, I want to get out'. And he said: 'I'll ruin your career'. I said: 'Do what you have to do'. And he did ruin my career. He kept me under contract, paid me to do nothing for close on two years". Hedren felt so humiliated, she called the director a "fat pig" in front of people on the set. Hitchcock made only a comment about it to his biographer, John Russell Taylor: "She did what no one is permitted to do. She referred to my weight". The two communicated only through a third party for the rest of the film. According to Marnie'''s screenwriter, Jay Presson Allen, Hitchcock was "mad" for Hedren. She felt unhappy for both and described the situation as "an old man's cri de coeur", adding that Hitchcock had a "Pygmalion complex about Tippi". She advised Hedren to finish the film and then get on with her life and be happy. Hedren's hairdresser, Virginia Darcy, even told Hitchcock he should not be possessive with Hedren. "Tippi felt rightly that she was not his property, but he'd say, 'You are, I have a contract'". Although Hitchcock thought he might mend fences with Hedren and make another film with her, she refused to reconsider her decision. Hedren's contract terms gave Hitchcock the final say as to any work she could take on and he used that power to turn down several film roles on her behalf. She was particularly disappointed when French director François Truffaut told her he had wanted her for one of them. In 1966, Hitchcock finally sold her contract to Universal Studios after Hedren appeared in two of their TV shows, Kraft Suspense Theatre (1965) and Run for Your Life (id.). The studio ultimately released her from her contract after she refused to appear on a television Western for them.
In 2012, The Girl, an HBO/BBC film about Hedren and Hitchcock's relationship, based on Donald Spoto's 2009 book Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, was released. When she was first told about the project, Hedren said she had mixed feelings about it, "To be still alive and have a film made about you is an awesome and incredibly frightening experience". Hedren and Hitchcock were respectively portrayed by Sienna Miller and Toby Jones.
Although she was thrilled with the choice of Miller, Hedren was worried she would not be portrayed "as strong a character as I was—and still am. I had to be extremely strong to fight off Mr. Hitchcock". She described the moment she saw the film as "probably one of the most involved, emotionally tense 90 minutes that I have ever lived". Upon the film's release, Hedren said although she believed the film accurately portrays Hitchcock's behavior towards her, the time constraints of a 90-minute film prevented telling the entire story of her career with him. "It wasn't a constant barrage of harassment. If it had been constantly the way we have had to do it in this film, I would have been long gone". She recalled there were times she described as "absolutely delightful and wonderful”, and insisted that “Hitchcock had a charm about him. He was very funny at times. He was incredibly brilliant in his field". The film was controversial, as others who knew and worked with Hitchcock responded to it negatively. Kim Novak, who worked on Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), disputed Hitchcock's portrayal as a sexual predator in The Girl: "I never saw him make a pass at anybody or act strange to anybody. And wouldn't you think if he was that way, I would've seen it or at least seen him with somebody? I think it's unfortunate when someone's no longer around and can't defend themselves". Novak previously described Hitchcock as a gentleman, and when asked about reports of his behavior, she said, "Maybe I just wasn't his type". Novak also stated, "I won't dispute Tippi if that's what she saw."
Hedren herself was asked why her account of sexual harassment contrasted with the many interviews she gave about her time with Hitchcock, her presence at the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony honoring him in 1979, and her presence at his funeral. She explained that, "He ruined my career, but he didn't ruin my life. That time of my life was over. I still admire the man for who he was". She also said, "I've been able to separate the two. The man who was the artist. I mean, what he gave to the motion picture industry can never be taken away from him and I certainly wouldn't want to try. But on the other side, there is that dark side that was really awful".
Career setbacks (1967–1973)
Hedren's first feature film appearance after Marnie was in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. She was told by writer-director Charlie Chaplin that she was offered a major supporting role as Brando's estranged wife and had to accept the role without reading the script. However, when she arrived in England where the filming took place, she finally received the script and realized that her part was little more than a cameo. She asked Chaplin why he lied to her. "Every actor in the world was asking if they could do this film, to just do a walk-on, without even being paid for it. When I said, 'Why didn't you just tell me that it was a cameo? I would have done this film anyway,' he said, 'I didn't think you would come,' which was very sweet. He was a very clever man." Hedren asked Chaplin to expand the role, and although he tried to accommodate her, he could not, as the story mostly takes place on a ship, which Hedren's character boards near the end of the film. In the end, she remained in the film and later said that it was both amusing and strange to work with Chaplin. She found him to be a very serious man and loved his approach to directing. She later said, "I wish someone would have been allowed to do a documentary. The way he directed was unlike anyone I ever saw. He acted out all the parts himself. He did Sophia's part, then Marlon's part, then mine, and then he'd say, 'Okay, now you can do it.' Which would be impossible, to mimic the master. It was incredible. None of us believed it. Marlon hated it."
After the release of A Countess from Hong Kong, Hedren's career was described as "spectacular" by the press. She told a reporter at the time, "I don't want to wait myself out of this business, but working for Hitch and Charlie has been very special to me, and now I'm going to wait for something special to come along". In 1968, she signed on to do the American Civil War drama Five Against Kansas with Farley Granger and Jeffrey Hunter, but the project was never realized. In 1968, Hedren returned to film as a socialite who helps her boyfriend (played by George Armstrong) catch a killer, in Tiger by the Tail. From 1970 to 1971, she guest-starred twice on The Courtship of Eddie's Father. She agreed to take part in Satan's Harvest (1970) and Mister Kingstreet's War (1973)—which were shot back-to-back despite the discrepancy in their release dates—for the sole reason that they were being filmed in Africa. In 1973, Hedren played a teacher of an experimental sex school in The Harrad Experiment, which starred James Whitmore and Don Johnson—the latter who later became the husband of her daughter, Melanie Griffith. Hedren felt that the film "deals with vital themes—themes like the decline in importance of ideas like possession and jealousy and, by inference, marriage. I have four teenaged children and I think this picture says some valuable things to them." She confessed at the time she was occasionally depressed because she was not doing any major films and told a magazine, "My husband just cancelled all the trade magazines because he felt I should cut off the source of my discontent. He's the type who won't stand for sustained down feelings".
Roar (1974–1981)
Hedren and husband Noel Marshall watched a pride of lions move into a house after a game warden moved out in 1969, during the filming of Satan's Harvest in Africa. She said, "We were delighted with the way they adapted themselves to living there. And they were so funny we knew we had an idea for a picture." Marshall wrote a script titled Lions, Lions and More Lions based on their experience; it was retitled Roar and centered on a family's misadventures in a research park filled with lions, tigers, and other wild cats.
Hedren played the lead role and co-starred with her daughter Melanie, husband Marshall, and his own sons Jerry and John. They attempted to rent Hollywood animals for a nine-month shoot, but upon approaching animal trainers for support, they were discouraged and nobody would rent them 30 or 40 lions, as the script required, because of their natural tendency to fight. They were encouraged to start collecting and training their own exotic beasts. Animal trainer Ron Oxley told them, "to get to know about lions, you've got to live with them for a while". They started to raise a lion cub named Neil in their Sherman Oaks house and made sure that the animal slept in their bed. Life photographer Michael Rougier documented their life in 1971 and photographed the lion with the whole family inside and outside the house, from Hedren's daughter's bed to the living room to the swimming pool. After complaints from their neighbors, Hedren and Marshall bought a ranch outside of Los Angeles in Acton that would serve as the set for Roar. They got permission there to rescue and raise several lions, tigers, African elephants, and other exotic felines.
Filming started in 1974 and took five years just to complete the photography. Every scene involving lions was improvised and shot with four or sometimes eight cameras. More than 100 people worked on the film, as well as more than 150 untrained lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs. During production, no animals were hurt, but more than 70 members of the cast and crew were mauled. Hedren fractured a leg and also had scalp wounds when an elephant bucked her off its back while she was riding it. She was also bitten in the neck by a lion and required 38 stitches; this incident can be seen in the film. Melanie Griffith was also attacked, receiving 50 stitches to her face; it was feared that she would lose an eye, but she recovered and was not disfigured. Marshall was attacked so many times that he eventually was diagnosed with gangrene. In one of those incidents, he was clawed by a cheetah when protecting the animals during a bushfire that occurred in 1979. All animals were evacuated, and several years were needed for him to recover from his injuries. In 1978, a flood destroyed the movie sets and killed three of the lions. The project was set back several years. Hedren said that they were all determined to finish the film: "We were so sure the film was going to be a success that we thought everything (financing the ranch and the lions, etc.) would take care of itself."Roar was released worldwide in 1981 with the exception of the United States, because according to Hedren, "The United States distributors wanted the lion's share of the profits, and we thought it ought to go to the beautiful animals that made the movie." The film cost $17 million and grossed only $2 million, but it was a turning point in Hedren's life. In 1983, she established the nonprofit The Roar Foundation to take care of the big cats. "After our movie was over," she explained, "it was unconscionable to see the animals go any place else." Roar was re-released in 2015, but Hedren declined to discuss it, as she felt that promotion for the film was filled with "inaccuracies".
Later career (1982–present)
After Roar, Hedren accepted any low-budget television or cinema role that could help bring funds to her foundation to provide protection, shelter, care, and maintenance for the animals at the Shambala Preserve. In 1982, she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen in Foxfire Light. She appeared in several television series, including Hart to Hart in 1983 and the late-night horror series Tales from the Darkside in 1984. In the 1985 pilot episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, she made a brief appearance as a waitress in a bar who berates a customer, played by her daughter Melanie Griffith. In 1990, she had a nonspeaking, minor part as a wealthy widow romanced by Michael Keaton in the film Pacific Heights (1990), which also starred her daughter. That same year, she had a role on The Bold and the Beautiful, a daytime soap opera she said she was "proud to have in my resume".
In 1994, Hedren appeared in the made-for-cable sequel, The Birds II: Land's End, in a role different from the one she had played in the original. She was, however, disappointed that she did not get a starring role and admitted before the film's release, "I wish that it was more than a cameo. I think they made a mistake by not doing that, but it has helped me to feed my lions and tigers." When asked about what could have been Hitchcock's opinion on the film, she answered: "I'd hate to think what he would say!" In a 2007 interview, Hedren said of the film, "It's absolutely horrible, it embarrasses me horribly."
From 1994 to 1996, Hedren had a guest-starring role in Dream On. The sitcom gave her "the opportunity to do comedy. I'd never done comedy before and it was just wonderful for me to be able to do that. Everybody just thought of me as a serious actress, so I owe that to John Landis (the executive producer), giving me that opportunity." In 1996, she played an abortion rights activist in Alexander Payne's political satire Citizen Ruth with Laura Dern. In 1998, she co-starred alongside Billy Zane and Christina Ricci in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, a film she felt was "incredible". "I must say I really love that film. It was a unique kind of film to do also, because of the fact that it had no dialogue in it. It was very, very different". That same year, she guest-starred in a special episode titled "Psychodrama" of the television series Chicago Hope, that paid tribute to the Hitchcock movies. Hedren's character, Alfreda Perkins, was a reference to Alfred Hitchcock and actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in the director's 1960 film Psycho.
After appearing in a number of little-exposed films between 1999 and 2003, Hedren had a small but showy role in the 2004 David O. Russell comedy I Heart Huckabees, as a foul-mouthed attractive older woman who slaps Jude Law in an elevator. She felt that the director, who had a reputation for being difficult, was "totally crazy", but also "very interesting. I was able to work well with him." She also added it was a strange experience as, "... all of a sudden, he'd be like, 'Now I'm going to do it this way,' and you'd think, 'How is he going to edit this? How is this going to work?' But he made it work." In 2006, Hedren was a cast member of the short-lived primetime soap opera Fashion House with Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild, and continued to guest-star in television series such as The 4400 (2006) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008). In 2012, Hedren and her daughter guest-starred together on an episode of Raising Hope. That same year, she appeared in Free Samples, an indie film where she had a supporting role as an old movie star. In 2013, she made an appearance as herself in the fourth-season finale of Cougar Town.
Hedren published her autobiography, Tippi: A Memoir, co-written with Lindsay Harrison, in 2016 through William Morrow and Company, as she felt it was "about time I stop letting everyone else tell my story and finally tell it myself." In 2018, at age 88, Hedren became the new face of Gucci's timepieces and jewelry and starred as a mysterious fortune teller in the brand's commercial ad, The Fortune Teller.
Influence
A Louis Vuitton ad campaign in 2006 paid tribute to Hedren and Hitchcock with a modern-day interpretation of the deserted railway station opening sequence of Marnie. Her look from The Birds (1963) inspired designer Bill Gaytten to design for John Galliano Pre-Fall 2012 collection.
Naomi Watts stated that her character interpretation in Mulholland Drive (2001) was influenced by the look and performances of Hedren in Hitchcock films. Watts and Hedren both appeared in I ♥ Huckabees (2004), but did not share any scenes together. Off screen, the film's director David O. Russell introduced them both, and Watts said of Hedren: "I was pretty fascinated by her then, because people have often said we're alike." Watts dressed up as Hedren's title character from Marnie for a photo shoot for March 2008 issue of Vanity Fair. In the same issue, Jodie Foster dressed up as Hedren's character, Melanie Daniels, from The Birds.
Shambala Preserve
In 1981, Hedren produced Roar, an 11-year project that ended up costing $17 million and starred dozens of African lions. "This was probably one of the most dangerous films that Hollywood has ever seen", remarked the actress. "It's amazing no one was killed." During the production of Roar, Hedren, her husband at the time, Noel Marshall, and daughter Melanie were attacked by lions; Jan de Bont, the director of photography, was scalped. Hedren later co-wrote Cats of Shambala (1985) about the experience. Roar made only $2 million worldwide. Hedren ended her marriage to Marshall a year later in 1982. The film directly led to the 1983 establishment of the nonprofit The Roar Foundation and Hedren's Shambala Preserve, located at the edge of the Mojave Desert in Acton, California, between the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley, northeast of Los Angeles. Shambala houses some 70 animals. Hedren lives on the Shambala site and conducts monthly tours of the preserve for the public. In a 2015 interview with magazine Ability, Hedren emphasized that there is no human contact with the animals and that all of the cats are spayed and neutered, since they are being raised in captivity. Hedren was the founding president of the American Sanctuary Association, a post she still holds.
She took in and cared for Togar, a lion that belonged to Anton LaVey, after he was told by San Francisco officials that he could not keep a fully grown lion as a house pet. Shambala became the new home for Michael Jackson's two Bengal tigers, Sabu and Thriller, after he decided to close his zoo at his Neverland Valley Ranch in Los Olivos. Thriller died in June 2012 of lung cancer.
On December 3, 2007, Shambala Preserve made headlines when Chris Orr, a caretaker for the animals, was mauled by a tiger named Alexander. Several documentaries have focused on Shambala Preserve, including the 30-minute Lions: Kings of the Serengeti (1995), narrated by Melanie Griffith, and Animal Planet's Life with Big Cats (1998), which won the Genesis Award for best documentary in 1999. The animals at the preserve served as the initial inspiration for the life's work of artist A.E. London, who started her career working for Hedren.
As of 2020, Hedren still maintains more than a dozen lions and tigers; her granddaughter Dakota Johnson is involved in their care.
Personal life
In 1952, Hedren met and married 18-year-old future advertising executive Peter Griffith. Their daughter, actress Melanie Griffith, was born on August 9, 1957. They were divorced in 1961. On September 27, 1964, Hedren married her then-agent Noel Marshall, who later produced three of her films; they divorced in 1982. In 1985, she married steel manufacturer Luis Barrenechea, but they divorced in 1992. Hedren was engaged to veterinarian Martin Dinnes from 2002 until their breakup in mid-2008. In September 2008, Hedren told The Sunday Times "I'm waiting for someone to sweep me off my feet." Hedren's granddaughter Dakota Johnson is also an actress.
Hedren played a role in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons in the United States. In 1975, while an international relief coordinator with Food for the Hungry, she began visiting with refugees at Hope Village outside Sacramento, California. When she learned the women were interested in her manicured nails, she employed her manicurist to teach them the skills of the trade and worked with a local beauty school to help them find jobs. Hedren's work with the Vietnamese-Americans was the subject of several documentaries: Happy Hands, directed by Honey Lauren, which won Best Documentary Short at the Sonoma International Film Festival in 2014Sonoma International Film Festival website, sonomaportal.com; accessed March 10, 2015. and "Nailedit:
Vietnamese and the Nail Industry" which won the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) 2014 Documentary Fund Award. CND and Beauty Changes Lives Foundation (BCL) have announced the BCL CND Tippi Hedren Nail Scholarship Fund to support professional nail education and will be administered starting January 1, 2014.
Hedren was instrumental in helping a desperate Nguyen Thi Chinh to enter the US after the fall of the South Vietnam government in 1975, she arranged for an air ticket and a visa for her then invited her to stay in her house.
Hedren suffered from severe and persistent headaches for a long time, which rendered her unable to accept several projects, including a television series produced by and starring Betty White. After she got a titanium plate put in her neck, she improved and then agreed, with the blessing of her doctor, to take the part of a dying woman in the soap opera Fashion House. While she was rehearsing a scene, a gallon of water fell from the ceiling onto her head. The headaches returned after the incident and persisted. Hedren filed a suit to receive recompense following her inability to work. Hedren's lawyer, Joseph Allen, made a mistake in his discussions with the defendants that allowed them to block him from filing suit. Hedren sued Allen for malpractice. In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Hedren had been awarded a $1.5 million settlement, including $213,400 for past lost earnings and $440,308 for future lost earnings, against her former lawyer. Hedren was hurt by the report since she had not collected the award. She gave an interview to explain that her former lawyer does not have the money to pay her, and discussed how the report put her in a difficult situation since her foundation was in dire need of funds. She explained that she has to raise $75,000 monthly just to keep it going. "Chances are I won't ever even see the money, and that's what hurts so badly, that in all of this pain and suffering that publication ran with a swift and not researched story, which told people around the world who have been so gracious and thoughtful about sending donations, that I no longer needed them."
Filmography
Film
Television
Honours and awards
1964: Most Promising Newcomer Award by Photoplay
1964: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress (shared with Ursula Andress and Elke Sommer)
1994: Life Achievement Award in France at The Beauvais Film Festival Cinemalia
1995: Life Achievement Award in Spain, La Fundación Municipal de Cine
1995: The Helen Woodward Animal Center's Annual Humane Award
1996: Founder's Award from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
1997: Lion and Lamb Award from Wildhaven
1999: Woman of Vision Award from Women of Film and Video in Washington, D.C.
1999: Presidential Medal for her work in film from Hofstra University
1999: Humanitarian Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival
2000: Best Actress in a Comedy Short Award in the short film Mulligans! at the Method Fest, Independent Film Festival
2002: Best Actress Award for the short film Tea with Grandma from the New York International Independent Film Festival
2003: Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2003: Women of Los Angeles Annual Hope is a Woman Honor
2004: PAWS Companion for Life Award
2004: Best Actress Award for the short film Rose's Garden from the Los Angeles TV Short Film Festival
2004: Animal Rights Advocacy Award at Artivist Film Festival
2005: Living Legacy Award
2006: Conservationist of the Year—Dino Award from the Las Vegas Natural History Museum
2007: Lifetime Achievement Award—Riverside Film Festival
2007: Jules Verne "Nature" Award — the 1st Annual Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival of Los Angeles
2008: Academy of Art University's 2nd Epidemic Film Festival Award
2008: Jules Verne Legendaire Award
2008: Thespian Award - LA Femme Film Festival
2009: "When a Woman Wills She Will!" Award by the Woman's Club of Hollywood
2009: Workhouse's first Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award
2009: Received the First Star on the Orinda Theater Walk of Fame
2010: Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Genesis Awards show from the Humane Society
2010: BraveHeart Award
2010: Who-Manitarian Award
2011: Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce at its 90th Annual Installation & Awards Luncheon
2011: "The Women Together Award" from the United Nations
2011: Vietnamese-American Marton Saint Award from the Boat People SOS Organization
2011: Omni Youth Humanitarian/Career Achievement Award
2012: Honorary Masters of Fine Arts Degree from the New York Film Academy
2012: Mayor Career Achievement Award from Starz Denver Film Festival
2013: Legacy of Style Award
2013: "People Helping People" Award by the Touching Live TV Award Show, broadwayworld.com; accessed November 14, 2015.
2014: Lifetime Achievement Award from Bel-Air Film Festival
2014: Special Recognition Award from Acton Women's Club
2014:The Women's International Film & Television Showcase Foundation International Visionary Award, thewifts.org; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Choreography of Desire (A Tribute to Tippi Hedren) by the Vienna International Film Festival, viennale.at; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Believe, Achieve, Empower Award
2017: Waggy Award recipient from the Tailwaggers Foundation
2017: The Icon Award
2018: "Friend for Life Award" from The Palm Springs Animal Shelter
Notes
References
Hedren, Tippi. Tippi: A Memoir, William Morrow, 2016, 288 p.
McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, It Books, 2004 (Reprint), 864 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 340 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 224 p.
Taylor, John Russell. Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock, Bloomsbury Reader, 2013, 318 p. ASIN B00BWL8L0C
Spoto, Donald. Spellbound by Beauty, Three Rivers Press, 2009, 368 p.
Paul, Louis. Tales from the Cult Film Trenches: Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema, McFarland, 2007, 336 p.
Gambin, Lee. Massacred By Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film'', Midnight Marquee Press, Inc., October 8, 2012
External links
1930 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Minnesota
American film actresses
New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
American people of German descent
American people of Norwegian descent
American people of Swedish descent
Big cat attack victims
Keepers of animal sanctuaries
Apex Records artists
Challenge Records artists
Female models from Minnesota
People from New Ulm, Minnesota
Griffith family
| false |
[
"In U.S. Federal income tax law, recognition is among a series of prerequisites to the manifestation of gains and losses used to determine tax liability. First, in the series for manifesting gain and loss, a taxpayer must \"realize\" gain and loss. This word \"realize\" is a term of art that refers to the realization requirement where the taxpayer must receive or lose something of monetary value. Once the realization requirement is met, gains and losses are taken into account only to the extent that they are also \"recognized.\"\n\nInternal Revenue Code section 1001(c) provides that gains and losses, if realized, are also recognized unless otherwise provided in the Code. This default rule has several exceptions, called \"nonrecognition\" rules, which are scattered throughout the Code. These exceptions often apply in situations in which a taxpayer shifts his investment from one piece of property to another piece of property. In such cases, where the taxpayer is merely continuing his investment, it makes sense to defer the recognition of any gain or loss realized until the taxpayer truly ends the investment.\n\nInternal Revenue Code sections 1031 through 1045 provide the most commonly implicated nonrecognition rules, including the section 1031 rule for Like-Kind Exchanges.\n\nImpact\nRecognition is mostly a matter of timing; the issue is not whether income or loss is taken into account, but when. The time of recognition may matter for a number of reasons, including the time value of money and the section 1211(b) limitation on capital losses in a single year.\n\nReferences\n\nTaxation in the United States",
"Antonia Tarrago was a feminist, activist and educator who is known for her efforts to expand women's access to education in Chile.\n\nEarly life and death \nAntonia Tarrago was born in Chile in the year 1832. She was an educator and feminist activist most known for her efforts to expand education for women giving them the right to attend college. She died in 1916.\n\nCareer \nAntonia Tarrago founded the Santa Teresa school in Santiago de Chile in 1864 to give women the opportunity to attend high school and continue their education. Tarrago wanted women to further develop their intelligence and their psychological skills. Tarrago was motivated by her feeling that the level of education for women was scarce mainly because the Chilean government did not provide sufficient funds, as the Chilean society did not see women's education as important. In 1872, Tarrago attempted to gain the government’s approval for the recognition of high school exams in order for girl's to apply to the University of Chile. Her pursuits were unsuccessful at this time. There was mass controversy inside the government as to whether they wanted women to pursue higher education and to remain in the role of homemakers. However, in 1877 with the joint efforts of Isabel Le Brun another educator, they founded the “Colegio de la Recoleta,” a school for women and with the change of government, the efforts of Antonia Tarrago were victorious. On February 5, 1877, the Secretary of Justice and Public Education, Miguel Luis Amunátegui signed the decree that allowed women to attend college. The Amunátegui Decree declared that women should be allowed to present tests to be admitted for college, following the same dispositions established for men.\n\nSee also \nAntonia Tarrago\n\nThe Amunátegui Decree\n\nReferences\n\nChilean women\nChilean educators\nChilean feminists"
] |
[
"Tippi Hedren",
"The Birds (1963)",
"What can you tell me about The Birds?",
"The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making",
"Was it successful?",
"were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as \"remarkable\".",
"Did she gain any further recognition for this?",
"Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review:"
] |
C_c860e15022e34b1dad7537f92a040eb3_0
|
What did Variety have to say?
| 4 |
What did Variety have to say about Hedren's performance in The Birds?
|
Tippi Hedren
|
The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance." During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying there was nobody but her to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director. Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protegee, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first forty-five minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere magazine as one of the greatest movie characters of all time. CANNOTANSWER
|
"Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow.
|
Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren (born January 19, 1930) is an American actress, animal rights activist, and former fashion model. She achieved worldwide recognition for her work in two of Alfred Hitchcock's classics: The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Hedren is noted as one of the most famous 'Hitchcock Blondes' and is now one of the last surviving leading stars from Hitchcock's filmography.
A successful fashion model who appeared on the front covers of Life and Glamour magazines, among others, Hedren became an actress after she was discovered by director Alfred Hitchcock while appearing on a television commercial in 1961. She achieved great praise for her work in two of his films: the suspense-thriller The Birds (1963), for which she won a Golden Globe, and the psychological drama Marnie (1964). She has appeared in over 80 films and television shows, including Charlie Chaplin's final film A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), the political satire Citizen Ruth (1996), and the existential comedy I Heart Huckabees (2004). Among other honors, her contributions to world cinema have been recognized with the Jules Verne Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Hedren's strong commitment to animal rescue began in 1969 while she was shooting two films in Africa and was introduced to the plight of African lions. In an attempt to raise awareness for wildlife, she spent over a decade bringing Roar (1981) to the screen. She started her own nonprofit organization, the Roar Foundation, in 1983; it supports the Shambala Preserve, an wildlife habitat that enables her to continue her work in the care and preservation of lions and tigers. Hedren has also set up relief programs worldwide following earthquakes, hurricanes, famine and war. She was also instrumental in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons.
Early life
Nathalie Kay Hedren was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, on January 19, 1930, to Bernard Carl and Dorothea Henrietta (née Eckhardt) Hedren. For much of her career, her year of birth was reported as 1935. In 2004, however, she acknowledged that she was actually born in 1930 (which is consistent with the birth registration index at the Minnesota Historical Society). Her paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants, while her mother was of German and Norwegian descent. Her father ran a small general store in Lafayette, Minnesota, and gave her the nickname "Tippi". When she was four, she moved with her parents to Minneapolis; she has an older sister, Patricia. As a teenager, she took part in department store fashion shows. Her parents relocated to California while she was a high school student at West High School in Minneapolis.
Career
Modeling success (1950–1960)
On reaching her 20th birthday, Hedren bought a ticket to New York City, where she joined the Eileen Ford Agency. Within a year, she made her unofficial film debut as "Miss Ice Box" in the musical comedy The Petty Girl. In interviews, she referred to The Birds, her first credited role, as her first film. Although she received several film offers during that time, Hedren had no interest in acting, as she knew it was very difficult to succeed.
She had a highly successful modeling career during the 1950s and early 1960s, appearing on the covers of Life, The Saturday Evening Post, McCall's, and Glamour, among others. In 1961, after seven years of marriage to the actor Peter Griffith, Hedren divorced and returned to California with her daughter, Melanie, and rented an expensive home in Sherman Oaks. She later said, "I thought I could continue my career as it had been in New York. I thought everything would be just fine, and it wasn't. So I thought, 'well, I don't type, what shall I do?'"
Transition to acting and collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock (1961–1966)
On October 13, 1961, she received a call from an agent who told her a producer was interested in working with her. When she was told it was Alfred Hitchcock, who while watching The Today Show, saw her in a commercial for a diet drink called Sego, she agreed to sign a seven-year contract. During their first meeting, the two talked about everything except the role for which he was considering her. Hedren was convinced for several weeks it was for his television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Hitchcock later said, "I was not primarily concerned with how she looked in person. Most important was her appearance on the screen, and I liked that immediately. She has a touch of that high-style, lady-like quality which was once well-represented in films by actresses like Irene Dunne, Grace Kelly, Claudette Colbert, and others, but which is now quite rare."
Being an unknown actress with little training, Hitchcock put Hedren through an extensive color screen test that lasted two days and cost $25,000, doing scenes from his previous films, such as Rebecca, Notorious, and To Catch a Thief with actor Martin Balsam. According to Balsam, Hedren was very nervous, but studied every line, did every move she was asked to, and tried to do everything right. Hitchcock asked costume designer Edith Head to design clothes for Hedren's private life and he personally advised her about wine and food. He also insisted for publicity purposes that her name should be printed only in single quotes, 'Tippi'. The press mostly ignored this directive from the director, who felt that the single quotes added distinction and mystery to her name. Hitchcock was impressed with Hedren. As production designer Robert F. Boyle explained, "Hitch always liked women who behaved like well-bred ladies. Tippi generated that quality."
Afterward, Hedren was invited to lunch with Hitchcock, his wife, Alma, and Lew Wasserman, head of Universal, at one of Hitchcock's favorite restaurants, Chasen's. There, she was presented with a golden pin of three birds in flight, adorned by three tiny seed pearls, and was asked by Hitchcock to play the leading role in his upcoming film The Birds. "I was so stunned. It never occurred to me that I would be given a leading role in a major motion picture. I had great big tears in my eyes", Hedren later recalled.
The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making, as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music, or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance."
During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying nobody but her was left to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director.
Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protégée, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Varietys review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first 45-minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere as one of the greatest movie characters of all time.
Hitchcock was so impressed with Hedren's acting abilities, he decided to offer her the leading role of his next film, Marnie (1964), a romantic drama and psychological thriller from the novel by Winston Graham, during the filming of The Birds. Hedren was stunned and felt extremely fortunate to be offered to play "such a complicated, sad, tragic woman", and later said, "I consider my acting, while not necessarily being method acting, but one that draws upon my own feelings. I thought Marnie was an extremely interesting role to play and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity". She voiced doubts about her ability to play the demanding role, but Hitchcock assured her she could do it. As opposed to The Birds, where she had received little acting guidance, for this film Hedren studied every scene with Hitchcock.
Hedren recalled Marnie as her favorite of the two films she did with Hitchcock for the challenge of playing an emotionally battered young woman who travels from city to city assuming various guises to rob her employers. During the filming, Hitchcock was quoted as saying about Hedren, "an Academy Award performance is in the making". On release, the film was greeted by mixed reviews and indifferent box-office returns, and received no Oscar nominations. Variety wrote, "Hedren returns in a particularly demanding role. Miss Hedren, undertaking a role originally offered Grace Kelly for a resumption of her screen career, lends credence to a part never sympathetic. It's a difficult assignment which she fulfills satisfactorily." Hedren later said that Marnie was "ahead of its time" because "people didn't talk about childhood and its effects on adult life. It was taboo to discuss sexuality and psychology and to put all that into a film was shocking." Despite its original lukewarm reception, the film was later acclaimed and described as a "masterpiece" and Hedren's performance is now regarded as one of the finest in any Hitchcock film. Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote in his 2016 review of the film "Hedren's performance is one of the greatest in the history of cinema."
Marnie was the second and last collaboration between Hedren and Hitchcock. In 1973, she admitted that a major lifestyle difference caused a split in their relationship. "He was too possessive and too demanding. I cannot be possessed by anyone. But, then, that's my own hangup". In 1983, author Donald Spoto published his second book about Hitchcock, The Dark Side of Genius, for which Hedren agreed to talk for the first time in detail about her relationship with the director.
The book was controversial, as several of Hitchcock's friends claimed the Hitchcock portrayed in the book was not the man they knew. For years after its release, Hedren was not keen to talk about it in interviews, but thought the chapter devoted to her story was "accurate as to just what he was". Hedren later explained her long silence before telling her story, "It was embarrassing and insulting—there were a lot of reasons why I didn't want to tell the story. I didn't want it to be taken advantage of, twisted, turned, and made into an even uglier situation than it was".
According to Spoto's book, Hitchcock brought in two members of his crew during the filming of The Birds and asked them to keep careful watch on the activities of Hedren, "when she left the set—where she went, who she visited, how she spent her free time". He then advised her on what she should eat, whom she should see, and how she should live. He told the cast and crew they were not allowed to talk to her. Hedren's co-star in The Birds, Rod Taylor, later remembered, "Hitch was becoming very domineering and covetous of 'Tippi', and it was very difficult for her. No one was permitted to come physically close to her during the production. 'Don't touch the girl after I call "Cut!"' he said to me repeatedly". Hitchcock also attempted, on one occasion, to grab and violently kiss Hedren in the back of a car as they drove onto the set. Hedren told his assistant, Peggy Robertson, and the studio chief, Lew Wasserman, that she was becoming very unhappy about the whole situation. "But he was Alfred Hitchcock, the great and famous director, and I was Tippi Hedren, an inexperienced actress who had no clout". She decided she could not quit her contract because she was afraid to be blacklisted and unable to find work. Hedren's own daughter, Melanie Griffith, remembered that while Hedren was doing The Birds, she thought Hitchcock was taking her mother away from her. "Suddenly, I wasn't allowed even to visit my mom at the studio".
During the filming of Marnie, Hedren found Hitchcock's behavior toward her increasingly difficult to bear as filming progressed. "Everyone—I mean everyone—knew he was obsessed with me. He always wanted a glass of wine or champagne, with me alone, at the end of the day. He was really isolating me from everyone". Hedren's co-star in Marnie, Diane Baker, later recalled, "She was never allowed to gather around with the rest of us, and he demanded that every conversation between her and Hitch be held in private... Nothing could have been more horrible for me than to arrive on that movie set and to see her being treated the way she was".
Hitchcock revealed to Hedren one day he had a recurring dream where she came up to him and said, "Hitch, I love you—I'll always love you". When she heard this, Hedren replied "But it was a dream. Just a dream", and excused herself from his presence. She believed Hitchcock had no consideration for her feelings and remembered she was humiliated after he asked her to touch him, just before shooting a scene. "He made sure no one else could hear, and his tone and glance made it clear exactly what he meant". Hedren asked Hitchcock's permission one day to travel to New York to appear on The Tonight Show, where she was supposed to be presented an award as the "Most Promising New Star". Hitchcock refused, according to his biographer, because he claimed the break would affect her performance. During that meeting, he apparently "made an overt sexual proposition" that Hedren "could neither ignore nor answer casually, as she could his previous gestures". In Spoto's third book about Hitchcock, Spellbound by Beauty (2008), Hedren revealed that Hitchcock actually made offensive demands on her. "He stared at me and simply said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that from this time on, he expected me to make myself sexually available and accessible to him—however and whenever and wherever he wanted". Hitchcock's demands led to a "horrible, horrible fight", according to Hedren. "He made these demands on me, and no way could I acquiesce to them".
Hedren then told him Marnie would be their last film together and later recalled how Hitchcock told her he would destroy her career. "I said I wanted to get out of my contract. He said: 'You can't. You have your daughter to support, and your parents are getting older'. I said: 'Nobody would want me to be in this situation, I want to get out'. And he said: 'I'll ruin your career'. I said: 'Do what you have to do'. And he did ruin my career. He kept me under contract, paid me to do nothing for close on two years". Hedren felt so humiliated, she called the director a "fat pig" in front of people on the set. Hitchcock made only a comment about it to his biographer, John Russell Taylor: "She did what no one is permitted to do. She referred to my weight". The two communicated only through a third party for the rest of the film. According to Marnie'''s screenwriter, Jay Presson Allen, Hitchcock was "mad" for Hedren. She felt unhappy for both and described the situation as "an old man's cri de coeur", adding that Hitchcock had a "Pygmalion complex about Tippi". She advised Hedren to finish the film and then get on with her life and be happy. Hedren's hairdresser, Virginia Darcy, even told Hitchcock he should not be possessive with Hedren. "Tippi felt rightly that she was not his property, but he'd say, 'You are, I have a contract'". Although Hitchcock thought he might mend fences with Hedren and make another film with her, she refused to reconsider her decision. Hedren's contract terms gave Hitchcock the final say as to any work she could take on and he used that power to turn down several film roles on her behalf. She was particularly disappointed when French director François Truffaut told her he had wanted her for one of them. In 1966, Hitchcock finally sold her contract to Universal Studios after Hedren appeared in two of their TV shows, Kraft Suspense Theatre (1965) and Run for Your Life (id.). The studio ultimately released her from her contract after she refused to appear on a television Western for them.
In 2012, The Girl, an HBO/BBC film about Hedren and Hitchcock's relationship, based on Donald Spoto's 2009 book Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, was released. When she was first told about the project, Hedren said she had mixed feelings about it, "To be still alive and have a film made about you is an awesome and incredibly frightening experience". Hedren and Hitchcock were respectively portrayed by Sienna Miller and Toby Jones.
Although she was thrilled with the choice of Miller, Hedren was worried she would not be portrayed "as strong a character as I was—and still am. I had to be extremely strong to fight off Mr. Hitchcock". She described the moment she saw the film as "probably one of the most involved, emotionally tense 90 minutes that I have ever lived". Upon the film's release, Hedren said although she believed the film accurately portrays Hitchcock's behavior towards her, the time constraints of a 90-minute film prevented telling the entire story of her career with him. "It wasn't a constant barrage of harassment. If it had been constantly the way we have had to do it in this film, I would have been long gone". She recalled there were times she described as "absolutely delightful and wonderful”, and insisted that “Hitchcock had a charm about him. He was very funny at times. He was incredibly brilliant in his field". The film was controversial, as others who knew and worked with Hitchcock responded to it negatively. Kim Novak, who worked on Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), disputed Hitchcock's portrayal as a sexual predator in The Girl: "I never saw him make a pass at anybody or act strange to anybody. And wouldn't you think if he was that way, I would've seen it or at least seen him with somebody? I think it's unfortunate when someone's no longer around and can't defend themselves". Novak previously described Hitchcock as a gentleman, and when asked about reports of his behavior, she said, "Maybe I just wasn't his type". Novak also stated, "I won't dispute Tippi if that's what she saw."
Hedren herself was asked why her account of sexual harassment contrasted with the many interviews she gave about her time with Hitchcock, her presence at the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony honoring him in 1979, and her presence at his funeral. She explained that, "He ruined my career, but he didn't ruin my life. That time of my life was over. I still admire the man for who he was". She also said, "I've been able to separate the two. The man who was the artist. I mean, what he gave to the motion picture industry can never be taken away from him and I certainly wouldn't want to try. But on the other side, there is that dark side that was really awful".
Career setbacks (1967–1973)
Hedren's first feature film appearance after Marnie was in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. She was told by writer-director Charlie Chaplin that she was offered a major supporting role as Brando's estranged wife and had to accept the role without reading the script. However, when she arrived in England where the filming took place, she finally received the script and realized that her part was little more than a cameo. She asked Chaplin why he lied to her. "Every actor in the world was asking if they could do this film, to just do a walk-on, without even being paid for it. When I said, 'Why didn't you just tell me that it was a cameo? I would have done this film anyway,' he said, 'I didn't think you would come,' which was very sweet. He was a very clever man." Hedren asked Chaplin to expand the role, and although he tried to accommodate her, he could not, as the story mostly takes place on a ship, which Hedren's character boards near the end of the film. In the end, she remained in the film and later said that it was both amusing and strange to work with Chaplin. She found him to be a very serious man and loved his approach to directing. She later said, "I wish someone would have been allowed to do a documentary. The way he directed was unlike anyone I ever saw. He acted out all the parts himself. He did Sophia's part, then Marlon's part, then mine, and then he'd say, 'Okay, now you can do it.' Which would be impossible, to mimic the master. It was incredible. None of us believed it. Marlon hated it."
After the release of A Countess from Hong Kong, Hedren's career was described as "spectacular" by the press. She told a reporter at the time, "I don't want to wait myself out of this business, but working for Hitch and Charlie has been very special to me, and now I'm going to wait for something special to come along". In 1968, she signed on to do the American Civil War drama Five Against Kansas with Farley Granger and Jeffrey Hunter, but the project was never realized. In 1968, Hedren returned to film as a socialite who helps her boyfriend (played by George Armstrong) catch a killer, in Tiger by the Tail. From 1970 to 1971, she guest-starred twice on The Courtship of Eddie's Father. She agreed to take part in Satan's Harvest (1970) and Mister Kingstreet's War (1973)—which were shot back-to-back despite the discrepancy in their release dates—for the sole reason that they were being filmed in Africa. In 1973, Hedren played a teacher of an experimental sex school in The Harrad Experiment, which starred James Whitmore and Don Johnson—the latter who later became the husband of her daughter, Melanie Griffith. Hedren felt that the film "deals with vital themes—themes like the decline in importance of ideas like possession and jealousy and, by inference, marriage. I have four teenaged children and I think this picture says some valuable things to them." She confessed at the time she was occasionally depressed because she was not doing any major films and told a magazine, "My husband just cancelled all the trade magazines because he felt I should cut off the source of my discontent. He's the type who won't stand for sustained down feelings".
Roar (1974–1981)
Hedren and husband Noel Marshall watched a pride of lions move into a house after a game warden moved out in 1969, during the filming of Satan's Harvest in Africa. She said, "We were delighted with the way they adapted themselves to living there. And they were so funny we knew we had an idea for a picture." Marshall wrote a script titled Lions, Lions and More Lions based on their experience; it was retitled Roar and centered on a family's misadventures in a research park filled with lions, tigers, and other wild cats.
Hedren played the lead role and co-starred with her daughter Melanie, husband Marshall, and his own sons Jerry and John. They attempted to rent Hollywood animals for a nine-month shoot, but upon approaching animal trainers for support, they were discouraged and nobody would rent them 30 or 40 lions, as the script required, because of their natural tendency to fight. They were encouraged to start collecting and training their own exotic beasts. Animal trainer Ron Oxley told them, "to get to know about lions, you've got to live with them for a while". They started to raise a lion cub named Neil in their Sherman Oaks house and made sure that the animal slept in their bed. Life photographer Michael Rougier documented their life in 1971 and photographed the lion with the whole family inside and outside the house, from Hedren's daughter's bed to the living room to the swimming pool. After complaints from their neighbors, Hedren and Marshall bought a ranch outside of Los Angeles in Acton that would serve as the set for Roar. They got permission there to rescue and raise several lions, tigers, African elephants, and other exotic felines.
Filming started in 1974 and took five years just to complete the photography. Every scene involving lions was improvised and shot with four or sometimes eight cameras. More than 100 people worked on the film, as well as more than 150 untrained lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs. During production, no animals were hurt, but more than 70 members of the cast and crew were mauled. Hedren fractured a leg and also had scalp wounds when an elephant bucked her off its back while she was riding it. She was also bitten in the neck by a lion and required 38 stitches; this incident can be seen in the film. Melanie Griffith was also attacked, receiving 50 stitches to her face; it was feared that she would lose an eye, but she recovered and was not disfigured. Marshall was attacked so many times that he eventually was diagnosed with gangrene. In one of those incidents, he was clawed by a cheetah when protecting the animals during a bushfire that occurred in 1979. All animals were evacuated, and several years were needed for him to recover from his injuries. In 1978, a flood destroyed the movie sets and killed three of the lions. The project was set back several years. Hedren said that they were all determined to finish the film: "We were so sure the film was going to be a success that we thought everything (financing the ranch and the lions, etc.) would take care of itself."Roar was released worldwide in 1981 with the exception of the United States, because according to Hedren, "The United States distributors wanted the lion's share of the profits, and we thought it ought to go to the beautiful animals that made the movie." The film cost $17 million and grossed only $2 million, but it was a turning point in Hedren's life. In 1983, she established the nonprofit The Roar Foundation to take care of the big cats. "After our movie was over," she explained, "it was unconscionable to see the animals go any place else." Roar was re-released in 2015, but Hedren declined to discuss it, as she felt that promotion for the film was filled with "inaccuracies".
Later career (1982–present)
After Roar, Hedren accepted any low-budget television or cinema role that could help bring funds to her foundation to provide protection, shelter, care, and maintenance for the animals at the Shambala Preserve. In 1982, she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen in Foxfire Light. She appeared in several television series, including Hart to Hart in 1983 and the late-night horror series Tales from the Darkside in 1984. In the 1985 pilot episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, she made a brief appearance as a waitress in a bar who berates a customer, played by her daughter Melanie Griffith. In 1990, she had a nonspeaking, minor part as a wealthy widow romanced by Michael Keaton in the film Pacific Heights (1990), which also starred her daughter. That same year, she had a role on The Bold and the Beautiful, a daytime soap opera she said she was "proud to have in my resume".
In 1994, Hedren appeared in the made-for-cable sequel, The Birds II: Land's End, in a role different from the one she had played in the original. She was, however, disappointed that she did not get a starring role and admitted before the film's release, "I wish that it was more than a cameo. I think they made a mistake by not doing that, but it has helped me to feed my lions and tigers." When asked about what could have been Hitchcock's opinion on the film, she answered: "I'd hate to think what he would say!" In a 2007 interview, Hedren said of the film, "It's absolutely horrible, it embarrasses me horribly."
From 1994 to 1996, Hedren had a guest-starring role in Dream On. The sitcom gave her "the opportunity to do comedy. I'd never done comedy before and it was just wonderful for me to be able to do that. Everybody just thought of me as a serious actress, so I owe that to John Landis (the executive producer), giving me that opportunity." In 1996, she played an abortion rights activist in Alexander Payne's political satire Citizen Ruth with Laura Dern. In 1998, she co-starred alongside Billy Zane and Christina Ricci in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, a film she felt was "incredible". "I must say I really love that film. It was a unique kind of film to do also, because of the fact that it had no dialogue in it. It was very, very different". That same year, she guest-starred in a special episode titled "Psychodrama" of the television series Chicago Hope, that paid tribute to the Hitchcock movies. Hedren's character, Alfreda Perkins, was a reference to Alfred Hitchcock and actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in the director's 1960 film Psycho.
After appearing in a number of little-exposed films between 1999 and 2003, Hedren had a small but showy role in the 2004 David O. Russell comedy I Heart Huckabees, as a foul-mouthed attractive older woman who slaps Jude Law in an elevator. She felt that the director, who had a reputation for being difficult, was "totally crazy", but also "very interesting. I was able to work well with him." She also added it was a strange experience as, "... all of a sudden, he'd be like, 'Now I'm going to do it this way,' and you'd think, 'How is he going to edit this? How is this going to work?' But he made it work." In 2006, Hedren was a cast member of the short-lived primetime soap opera Fashion House with Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild, and continued to guest-star in television series such as The 4400 (2006) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008). In 2012, Hedren and her daughter guest-starred together on an episode of Raising Hope. That same year, she appeared in Free Samples, an indie film where she had a supporting role as an old movie star. In 2013, she made an appearance as herself in the fourth-season finale of Cougar Town.
Hedren published her autobiography, Tippi: A Memoir, co-written with Lindsay Harrison, in 2016 through William Morrow and Company, as she felt it was "about time I stop letting everyone else tell my story and finally tell it myself." In 2018, at age 88, Hedren became the new face of Gucci's timepieces and jewelry and starred as a mysterious fortune teller in the brand's commercial ad, The Fortune Teller.
Influence
A Louis Vuitton ad campaign in 2006 paid tribute to Hedren and Hitchcock with a modern-day interpretation of the deserted railway station opening sequence of Marnie. Her look from The Birds (1963) inspired designer Bill Gaytten to design for John Galliano Pre-Fall 2012 collection.
Naomi Watts stated that her character interpretation in Mulholland Drive (2001) was influenced by the look and performances of Hedren in Hitchcock films. Watts and Hedren both appeared in I ♥ Huckabees (2004), but did not share any scenes together. Off screen, the film's director David O. Russell introduced them both, and Watts said of Hedren: "I was pretty fascinated by her then, because people have often said we're alike." Watts dressed up as Hedren's title character from Marnie for a photo shoot for March 2008 issue of Vanity Fair. In the same issue, Jodie Foster dressed up as Hedren's character, Melanie Daniels, from The Birds.
Shambala Preserve
In 1981, Hedren produced Roar, an 11-year project that ended up costing $17 million and starred dozens of African lions. "This was probably one of the most dangerous films that Hollywood has ever seen", remarked the actress. "It's amazing no one was killed." During the production of Roar, Hedren, her husband at the time, Noel Marshall, and daughter Melanie were attacked by lions; Jan de Bont, the director of photography, was scalped. Hedren later co-wrote Cats of Shambala (1985) about the experience. Roar made only $2 million worldwide. Hedren ended her marriage to Marshall a year later in 1982. The film directly led to the 1983 establishment of the nonprofit The Roar Foundation and Hedren's Shambala Preserve, located at the edge of the Mojave Desert in Acton, California, between the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley, northeast of Los Angeles. Shambala houses some 70 animals. Hedren lives on the Shambala site and conducts monthly tours of the preserve for the public. In a 2015 interview with magazine Ability, Hedren emphasized that there is no human contact with the animals and that all of the cats are spayed and neutered, since they are being raised in captivity. Hedren was the founding president of the American Sanctuary Association, a post she still holds.
She took in and cared for Togar, a lion that belonged to Anton LaVey, after he was told by San Francisco officials that he could not keep a fully grown lion as a house pet. Shambala became the new home for Michael Jackson's two Bengal tigers, Sabu and Thriller, after he decided to close his zoo at his Neverland Valley Ranch in Los Olivos. Thriller died in June 2012 of lung cancer.
On December 3, 2007, Shambala Preserve made headlines when Chris Orr, a caretaker for the animals, was mauled by a tiger named Alexander. Several documentaries have focused on Shambala Preserve, including the 30-minute Lions: Kings of the Serengeti (1995), narrated by Melanie Griffith, and Animal Planet's Life with Big Cats (1998), which won the Genesis Award for best documentary in 1999. The animals at the preserve served as the initial inspiration for the life's work of artist A.E. London, who started her career working for Hedren.
As of 2020, Hedren still maintains more than a dozen lions and tigers; her granddaughter Dakota Johnson is involved in their care.
Personal life
In 1952, Hedren met and married 18-year-old future advertising executive Peter Griffith. Their daughter, actress Melanie Griffith, was born on August 9, 1957. They were divorced in 1961. On September 27, 1964, Hedren married her then-agent Noel Marshall, who later produced three of her films; they divorced in 1982. In 1985, she married steel manufacturer Luis Barrenechea, but they divorced in 1992. Hedren was engaged to veterinarian Martin Dinnes from 2002 until their breakup in mid-2008. In September 2008, Hedren told The Sunday Times "I'm waiting for someone to sweep me off my feet." Hedren's granddaughter Dakota Johnson is also an actress.
Hedren played a role in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons in the United States. In 1975, while an international relief coordinator with Food for the Hungry, she began visiting with refugees at Hope Village outside Sacramento, California. When she learned the women were interested in her manicured nails, she employed her manicurist to teach them the skills of the trade and worked with a local beauty school to help them find jobs. Hedren's work with the Vietnamese-Americans was the subject of several documentaries: Happy Hands, directed by Honey Lauren, which won Best Documentary Short at the Sonoma International Film Festival in 2014Sonoma International Film Festival website, sonomaportal.com; accessed March 10, 2015. and "Nailedit:
Vietnamese and the Nail Industry" which won the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) 2014 Documentary Fund Award. CND and Beauty Changes Lives Foundation (BCL) have announced the BCL CND Tippi Hedren Nail Scholarship Fund to support professional nail education and will be administered starting January 1, 2014.
Hedren was instrumental in helping a desperate Nguyen Thi Chinh to enter the US after the fall of the South Vietnam government in 1975, she arranged for an air ticket and a visa for her then invited her to stay in her house.
Hedren suffered from severe and persistent headaches for a long time, which rendered her unable to accept several projects, including a television series produced by and starring Betty White. After she got a titanium plate put in her neck, she improved and then agreed, with the blessing of her doctor, to take the part of a dying woman in the soap opera Fashion House. While she was rehearsing a scene, a gallon of water fell from the ceiling onto her head. The headaches returned after the incident and persisted. Hedren filed a suit to receive recompense following her inability to work. Hedren's lawyer, Joseph Allen, made a mistake in his discussions with the defendants that allowed them to block him from filing suit. Hedren sued Allen for malpractice. In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Hedren had been awarded a $1.5 million settlement, including $213,400 for past lost earnings and $440,308 for future lost earnings, against her former lawyer. Hedren was hurt by the report since she had not collected the award. She gave an interview to explain that her former lawyer does not have the money to pay her, and discussed how the report put her in a difficult situation since her foundation was in dire need of funds. She explained that she has to raise $75,000 monthly just to keep it going. "Chances are I won't ever even see the money, and that's what hurts so badly, that in all of this pain and suffering that publication ran with a swift and not researched story, which told people around the world who have been so gracious and thoughtful about sending donations, that I no longer needed them."
Filmography
Film
Television
Honours and awards
1964: Most Promising Newcomer Award by Photoplay
1964: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress (shared with Ursula Andress and Elke Sommer)
1994: Life Achievement Award in France at The Beauvais Film Festival Cinemalia
1995: Life Achievement Award in Spain, La Fundación Municipal de Cine
1995: The Helen Woodward Animal Center's Annual Humane Award
1996: Founder's Award from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
1997: Lion and Lamb Award from Wildhaven
1999: Woman of Vision Award from Women of Film and Video in Washington, D.C.
1999: Presidential Medal for her work in film from Hofstra University
1999: Humanitarian Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival
2000: Best Actress in a Comedy Short Award in the short film Mulligans! at the Method Fest, Independent Film Festival
2002: Best Actress Award for the short film Tea with Grandma from the New York International Independent Film Festival
2003: Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2003: Women of Los Angeles Annual Hope is a Woman Honor
2004: PAWS Companion for Life Award
2004: Best Actress Award for the short film Rose's Garden from the Los Angeles TV Short Film Festival
2004: Animal Rights Advocacy Award at Artivist Film Festival
2005: Living Legacy Award
2006: Conservationist of the Year—Dino Award from the Las Vegas Natural History Museum
2007: Lifetime Achievement Award—Riverside Film Festival
2007: Jules Verne "Nature" Award — the 1st Annual Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival of Los Angeles
2008: Academy of Art University's 2nd Epidemic Film Festival Award
2008: Jules Verne Legendaire Award
2008: Thespian Award - LA Femme Film Festival
2009: "When a Woman Wills She Will!" Award by the Woman's Club of Hollywood
2009: Workhouse's first Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award
2009: Received the First Star on the Orinda Theater Walk of Fame
2010: Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Genesis Awards show from the Humane Society
2010: BraveHeart Award
2010: Who-Manitarian Award
2011: Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce at its 90th Annual Installation & Awards Luncheon
2011: "The Women Together Award" from the United Nations
2011: Vietnamese-American Marton Saint Award from the Boat People SOS Organization
2011: Omni Youth Humanitarian/Career Achievement Award
2012: Honorary Masters of Fine Arts Degree from the New York Film Academy
2012: Mayor Career Achievement Award from Starz Denver Film Festival
2013: Legacy of Style Award
2013: "People Helping People" Award by the Touching Live TV Award Show, broadwayworld.com; accessed November 14, 2015.
2014: Lifetime Achievement Award from Bel-Air Film Festival
2014: Special Recognition Award from Acton Women's Club
2014:The Women's International Film & Television Showcase Foundation International Visionary Award, thewifts.org; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Choreography of Desire (A Tribute to Tippi Hedren) by the Vienna International Film Festival, viennale.at; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Believe, Achieve, Empower Award
2017: Waggy Award recipient from the Tailwaggers Foundation
2017: The Icon Award
2018: "Friend for Life Award" from The Palm Springs Animal Shelter
Notes
References
Hedren, Tippi. Tippi: A Memoir, William Morrow, 2016, 288 p.
McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, It Books, 2004 (Reprint), 864 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 340 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 224 p.
Taylor, John Russell. Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock, Bloomsbury Reader, 2013, 318 p. ASIN B00BWL8L0C
Spoto, Donald. Spellbound by Beauty, Three Rivers Press, 2009, 368 p.
Paul, Louis. Tales from the Cult Film Trenches: Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema, McFarland, 2007, 336 p.
Gambin, Lee. Massacred By Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film'', Midnight Marquee Press, Inc., October 8, 2012
External links
1930 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Minnesota
American film actresses
New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
American people of German descent
American people of Norwegian descent
American people of Swedish descent
Big cat attack victims
Keepers of animal sanctuaries
Apex Records artists
Challenge Records artists
Female models from Minnesota
People from New Ulm, Minnesota
Griffith family
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"What Can I Say may refer to:\n\n What Can I Say (Carrie Underwood song)\n What Can I Say (Dead by April song)\n \"What Can I Say\", a 1976 song by Boz Scaggs\n\nSee also\n \"(What Can I Say) To Make You Love Me\", a song by Alexander O'Neal",
"\n\nTrack listing\n Opening Overture\n \"I Get a Kick Out of You\" (Cole Porter)\n \"You Are the Sunshine of My Life\" (Stevie Wonder)\n \"You Will Be My Music\" (Joe Raposo)\n \"Don't Worry 'bout Me\" (Ted Koehler, Rube Bloom)\n \"If\" (David Gates)\n \"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown\" (Jim Croce)\n \"Ol' Man River\" (Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II)\n Famous Monologue\n Saloon Trilogy: \"Last Night When We Were Young\"/\"Violets for Your Furs\"/\"Here's That Rainy Day\" (Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg)/(Matt Dennis, Tom Adair)/(Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke)\n \"I've Got You Under My Skin\" (Porter)\n \"My Kind of Town\" (Sammy Cahn, Van Heusen)\n \"Let Me Try Again\" (Paul Anka, Cahn, Michel Jourdan)\n \"The Lady Is a Tramp\" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)\n \"My Way\" (Anka, Claude Francois, Jacques Revaux, Gilles Thibaut)\n\nFrank Sinatra's Monologue About the Australian Press\nI do believe this is my interval, as we say... We've been having a marvelous time being chased around the country for three days. You know, I think it's worth mentioning because it's so idiotic, it's so ridiculous what's been happening. We came all the way to Australia because I chose to come here. I haven't been here for a long time and I wanted to come back for a few days. Wait now, wait. I'm not buttering anybody at all. I don't have to. I really don't have to. I like coming here. I like the people. I love your attitude. I like the booze and the beer and everything else that comes into the scene. I also like the way the country's growing and it's a swinging place.\n\nSo we come here and what happens? We gotta run all day long because of the parasites who chase us with automobiles. That's dangerous, too, on the road, you know. Might cause an accident. They won't quit. They wonder why I won't talk to them. I wouldn't drink their water, let alone talk to them. And if any of you folks in the press are in the audience, please quote me properly. Don't mix it up, do it exactly as I'm saying it, please. Write it down very clearly. One idiot called me up and he wanted to know what I had for breakfast. What the hell does he care what I had for breakfast? I was about to tell him what I did after breakfast. Oh, boy, they're murder! We have a name in the States for their counterparts: They're called parasites. Because they take and take and take and never give, absolutely, never give. I don't care what you think about any press in the world, I say they're bums and they'll always be bums, everyone of them. There are just a few exceptions to the rule. Some good editorial writers who don't go out in the street and chase people around. Critics don't bother me, because if I do badly, I know I'm bad before they even write it, and if I'm good, I know I'm good before they write it. It's true. I know best about myself. So, a critic is a critic. He doesn't anger me. It's the scandal man who bugs you, drives you crazy. It's the two-bit-type work that they do. They're pimps. They're just crazy, you know. And the broads who work in the press are the hookers of the press. Need I explain that to you? I might offer them a buck and a half... I'm not sure. I once gave a chick in Washington $2 and I overpaid her, I found out. She didn't even bathe. Imagine what that was like, ha, ha.\n\nNow, it's a good thing I'm not angry. Really. It's a good thing I'm not angry. I couldn't care less. The press of the world never made a person a star who was untalented, nor did they ever hurt any artist who was talented. So we, who have God-given talent, say, \"To hell with them.\" It doesn't make any difference, you know. And I want to say one more thing. From what I see what's happened since I was last here... what, 16 years ago? Twelve years ago. From what I've seen to happen with the type of news that they print in this town shocked me. And do you know what is devastating? It's old-fashioned. It was done in America and England twenty years ago. And they're catching up with it now, with the scandal sheet. They're rags, that's what they are. You use them to train your dog and your parrot. What else do I have to say? Oh, I guess that's it. That'll keep them talking to themselves for a while. I think most of them are a bunch of fags anyway. Never did a hard day's work in their life. I love when they say, \"What do you mean, you won't stand still when I take your picture?\" All of a sudden, they're God. We gotta do what they want us to do. It's incredible. A pox on them... Now, let's get down to some serious business here...\n\nSee also\nConcerts of Frank Sinatra\n\nFrank Sinatra"
] |
[
"Tippi Hedren",
"The Birds (1963)",
"What can you tell me about The Birds?",
"The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making",
"Was it successful?",
"were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as \"remarkable\".",
"Did she gain any further recognition for this?",
"Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review:",
"What did Variety have to say?",
"\"Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow."
] |
C_c860e15022e34b1dad7537f92a040eb3_0
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How long did she work on The Birds?
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How long did Hedren work on the film The Birds?
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Tippi Hedren
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The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance." During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying there was nobody but her to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director. Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protegee, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first forty-five minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere magazine as one of the greatest movie characters of all time. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren (born January 19, 1930) is an American actress, animal rights activist, and former fashion model. She achieved worldwide recognition for her work in two of Alfred Hitchcock's classics: The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Hedren is noted as one of the most famous 'Hitchcock Blondes' and is now one of the last surviving leading stars from Hitchcock's filmography.
A successful fashion model who appeared on the front covers of Life and Glamour magazines, among others, Hedren became an actress after she was discovered by director Alfred Hitchcock while appearing on a television commercial in 1961. She achieved great praise for her work in two of his films: the suspense-thriller The Birds (1963), for which she won a Golden Globe, and the psychological drama Marnie (1964). She has appeared in over 80 films and television shows, including Charlie Chaplin's final film A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), the political satire Citizen Ruth (1996), and the existential comedy I Heart Huckabees (2004). Among other honors, her contributions to world cinema have been recognized with the Jules Verne Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Hedren's strong commitment to animal rescue began in 1969 while she was shooting two films in Africa and was introduced to the plight of African lions. In an attempt to raise awareness for wildlife, she spent over a decade bringing Roar (1981) to the screen. She started her own nonprofit organization, the Roar Foundation, in 1983; it supports the Shambala Preserve, an wildlife habitat that enables her to continue her work in the care and preservation of lions and tigers. Hedren has also set up relief programs worldwide following earthquakes, hurricanes, famine and war. She was also instrumental in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons.
Early life
Nathalie Kay Hedren was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, on January 19, 1930, to Bernard Carl and Dorothea Henrietta (née Eckhardt) Hedren. For much of her career, her year of birth was reported as 1935. In 2004, however, she acknowledged that she was actually born in 1930 (which is consistent with the birth registration index at the Minnesota Historical Society). Her paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants, while her mother was of German and Norwegian descent. Her father ran a small general store in Lafayette, Minnesota, and gave her the nickname "Tippi". When she was four, she moved with her parents to Minneapolis; she has an older sister, Patricia. As a teenager, she took part in department store fashion shows. Her parents relocated to California while she was a high school student at West High School in Minneapolis.
Career
Modeling success (1950–1960)
On reaching her 20th birthday, Hedren bought a ticket to New York City, where she joined the Eileen Ford Agency. Within a year, she made her unofficial film debut as "Miss Ice Box" in the musical comedy The Petty Girl. In interviews, she referred to The Birds, her first credited role, as her first film. Although she received several film offers during that time, Hedren had no interest in acting, as she knew it was very difficult to succeed.
She had a highly successful modeling career during the 1950s and early 1960s, appearing on the covers of Life, The Saturday Evening Post, McCall's, and Glamour, among others. In 1961, after seven years of marriage to the actor Peter Griffith, Hedren divorced and returned to California with her daughter, Melanie, and rented an expensive home in Sherman Oaks. She later said, "I thought I could continue my career as it had been in New York. I thought everything would be just fine, and it wasn't. So I thought, 'well, I don't type, what shall I do?'"
Transition to acting and collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock (1961–1966)
On October 13, 1961, she received a call from an agent who told her a producer was interested in working with her. When she was told it was Alfred Hitchcock, who while watching The Today Show, saw her in a commercial for a diet drink called Sego, she agreed to sign a seven-year contract. During their first meeting, the two talked about everything except the role for which he was considering her. Hedren was convinced for several weeks it was for his television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Hitchcock later said, "I was not primarily concerned with how she looked in person. Most important was her appearance on the screen, and I liked that immediately. She has a touch of that high-style, lady-like quality which was once well-represented in films by actresses like Irene Dunne, Grace Kelly, Claudette Colbert, and others, but which is now quite rare."
Being an unknown actress with little training, Hitchcock put Hedren through an extensive color screen test that lasted two days and cost $25,000, doing scenes from his previous films, such as Rebecca, Notorious, and To Catch a Thief with actor Martin Balsam. According to Balsam, Hedren was very nervous, but studied every line, did every move she was asked to, and tried to do everything right. Hitchcock asked costume designer Edith Head to design clothes for Hedren's private life and he personally advised her about wine and food. He also insisted for publicity purposes that her name should be printed only in single quotes, 'Tippi'. The press mostly ignored this directive from the director, who felt that the single quotes added distinction and mystery to her name. Hitchcock was impressed with Hedren. As production designer Robert F. Boyle explained, "Hitch always liked women who behaved like well-bred ladies. Tippi generated that quality."
Afterward, Hedren was invited to lunch with Hitchcock, his wife, Alma, and Lew Wasserman, head of Universal, at one of Hitchcock's favorite restaurants, Chasen's. There, she was presented with a golden pin of three birds in flight, adorned by three tiny seed pearls, and was asked by Hitchcock to play the leading role in his upcoming film The Birds. "I was so stunned. It never occurred to me that I would be given a leading role in a major motion picture. I had great big tears in my eyes", Hedren later recalled.
The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making, as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music, or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance."
During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying nobody but her was left to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director.
Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protégée, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Varietys review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first 45-minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere as one of the greatest movie characters of all time.
Hitchcock was so impressed with Hedren's acting abilities, he decided to offer her the leading role of his next film, Marnie (1964), a romantic drama and psychological thriller from the novel by Winston Graham, during the filming of The Birds. Hedren was stunned and felt extremely fortunate to be offered to play "such a complicated, sad, tragic woman", and later said, "I consider my acting, while not necessarily being method acting, but one that draws upon my own feelings. I thought Marnie was an extremely interesting role to play and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity". She voiced doubts about her ability to play the demanding role, but Hitchcock assured her she could do it. As opposed to The Birds, where she had received little acting guidance, for this film Hedren studied every scene with Hitchcock.
Hedren recalled Marnie as her favorite of the two films she did with Hitchcock for the challenge of playing an emotionally battered young woman who travels from city to city assuming various guises to rob her employers. During the filming, Hitchcock was quoted as saying about Hedren, "an Academy Award performance is in the making". On release, the film was greeted by mixed reviews and indifferent box-office returns, and received no Oscar nominations. Variety wrote, "Hedren returns in a particularly demanding role. Miss Hedren, undertaking a role originally offered Grace Kelly for a resumption of her screen career, lends credence to a part never sympathetic. It's a difficult assignment which she fulfills satisfactorily." Hedren later said that Marnie was "ahead of its time" because "people didn't talk about childhood and its effects on adult life. It was taboo to discuss sexuality and psychology and to put all that into a film was shocking." Despite its original lukewarm reception, the film was later acclaimed and described as a "masterpiece" and Hedren's performance is now regarded as one of the finest in any Hitchcock film. Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote in his 2016 review of the film "Hedren's performance is one of the greatest in the history of cinema."
Marnie was the second and last collaboration between Hedren and Hitchcock. In 1973, she admitted that a major lifestyle difference caused a split in their relationship. "He was too possessive and too demanding. I cannot be possessed by anyone. But, then, that's my own hangup". In 1983, author Donald Spoto published his second book about Hitchcock, The Dark Side of Genius, for which Hedren agreed to talk for the first time in detail about her relationship with the director.
The book was controversial, as several of Hitchcock's friends claimed the Hitchcock portrayed in the book was not the man they knew. For years after its release, Hedren was not keen to talk about it in interviews, but thought the chapter devoted to her story was "accurate as to just what he was". Hedren later explained her long silence before telling her story, "It was embarrassing and insulting—there were a lot of reasons why I didn't want to tell the story. I didn't want it to be taken advantage of, twisted, turned, and made into an even uglier situation than it was".
According to Spoto's book, Hitchcock brought in two members of his crew during the filming of The Birds and asked them to keep careful watch on the activities of Hedren, "when she left the set—where she went, who she visited, how she spent her free time". He then advised her on what she should eat, whom she should see, and how she should live. He told the cast and crew they were not allowed to talk to her. Hedren's co-star in The Birds, Rod Taylor, later remembered, "Hitch was becoming very domineering and covetous of 'Tippi', and it was very difficult for her. No one was permitted to come physically close to her during the production. 'Don't touch the girl after I call "Cut!"' he said to me repeatedly". Hitchcock also attempted, on one occasion, to grab and violently kiss Hedren in the back of a car as they drove onto the set. Hedren told his assistant, Peggy Robertson, and the studio chief, Lew Wasserman, that she was becoming very unhappy about the whole situation. "But he was Alfred Hitchcock, the great and famous director, and I was Tippi Hedren, an inexperienced actress who had no clout". She decided she could not quit her contract because she was afraid to be blacklisted and unable to find work. Hedren's own daughter, Melanie Griffith, remembered that while Hedren was doing The Birds, she thought Hitchcock was taking her mother away from her. "Suddenly, I wasn't allowed even to visit my mom at the studio".
During the filming of Marnie, Hedren found Hitchcock's behavior toward her increasingly difficult to bear as filming progressed. "Everyone—I mean everyone—knew he was obsessed with me. He always wanted a glass of wine or champagne, with me alone, at the end of the day. He was really isolating me from everyone". Hedren's co-star in Marnie, Diane Baker, later recalled, "She was never allowed to gather around with the rest of us, and he demanded that every conversation between her and Hitch be held in private... Nothing could have been more horrible for me than to arrive on that movie set and to see her being treated the way she was".
Hitchcock revealed to Hedren one day he had a recurring dream where she came up to him and said, "Hitch, I love you—I'll always love you". When she heard this, Hedren replied "But it was a dream. Just a dream", and excused herself from his presence. She believed Hitchcock had no consideration for her feelings and remembered she was humiliated after he asked her to touch him, just before shooting a scene. "He made sure no one else could hear, and his tone and glance made it clear exactly what he meant". Hedren asked Hitchcock's permission one day to travel to New York to appear on The Tonight Show, where she was supposed to be presented an award as the "Most Promising New Star". Hitchcock refused, according to his biographer, because he claimed the break would affect her performance. During that meeting, he apparently "made an overt sexual proposition" that Hedren "could neither ignore nor answer casually, as she could his previous gestures". In Spoto's third book about Hitchcock, Spellbound by Beauty (2008), Hedren revealed that Hitchcock actually made offensive demands on her. "He stared at me and simply said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that from this time on, he expected me to make myself sexually available and accessible to him—however and whenever and wherever he wanted". Hitchcock's demands led to a "horrible, horrible fight", according to Hedren. "He made these demands on me, and no way could I acquiesce to them".
Hedren then told him Marnie would be their last film together and later recalled how Hitchcock told her he would destroy her career. "I said I wanted to get out of my contract. He said: 'You can't. You have your daughter to support, and your parents are getting older'. I said: 'Nobody would want me to be in this situation, I want to get out'. And he said: 'I'll ruin your career'. I said: 'Do what you have to do'. And he did ruin my career. He kept me under contract, paid me to do nothing for close on two years". Hedren felt so humiliated, she called the director a "fat pig" in front of people on the set. Hitchcock made only a comment about it to his biographer, John Russell Taylor: "She did what no one is permitted to do. She referred to my weight". The two communicated only through a third party for the rest of the film. According to Marnie'''s screenwriter, Jay Presson Allen, Hitchcock was "mad" for Hedren. She felt unhappy for both and described the situation as "an old man's cri de coeur", adding that Hitchcock had a "Pygmalion complex about Tippi". She advised Hedren to finish the film and then get on with her life and be happy. Hedren's hairdresser, Virginia Darcy, even told Hitchcock he should not be possessive with Hedren. "Tippi felt rightly that she was not his property, but he'd say, 'You are, I have a contract'". Although Hitchcock thought he might mend fences with Hedren and make another film with her, she refused to reconsider her decision. Hedren's contract terms gave Hitchcock the final say as to any work she could take on and he used that power to turn down several film roles on her behalf. She was particularly disappointed when French director François Truffaut told her he had wanted her for one of them. In 1966, Hitchcock finally sold her contract to Universal Studios after Hedren appeared in two of their TV shows, Kraft Suspense Theatre (1965) and Run for Your Life (id.). The studio ultimately released her from her contract after she refused to appear on a television Western for them.
In 2012, The Girl, an HBO/BBC film about Hedren and Hitchcock's relationship, based on Donald Spoto's 2009 book Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, was released. When she was first told about the project, Hedren said she had mixed feelings about it, "To be still alive and have a film made about you is an awesome and incredibly frightening experience". Hedren and Hitchcock were respectively portrayed by Sienna Miller and Toby Jones.
Although she was thrilled with the choice of Miller, Hedren was worried she would not be portrayed "as strong a character as I was—and still am. I had to be extremely strong to fight off Mr. Hitchcock". She described the moment she saw the film as "probably one of the most involved, emotionally tense 90 minutes that I have ever lived". Upon the film's release, Hedren said although she believed the film accurately portrays Hitchcock's behavior towards her, the time constraints of a 90-minute film prevented telling the entire story of her career with him. "It wasn't a constant barrage of harassment. If it had been constantly the way we have had to do it in this film, I would have been long gone". She recalled there were times she described as "absolutely delightful and wonderful”, and insisted that “Hitchcock had a charm about him. He was very funny at times. He was incredibly brilliant in his field". The film was controversial, as others who knew and worked with Hitchcock responded to it negatively. Kim Novak, who worked on Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), disputed Hitchcock's portrayal as a sexual predator in The Girl: "I never saw him make a pass at anybody or act strange to anybody. And wouldn't you think if he was that way, I would've seen it or at least seen him with somebody? I think it's unfortunate when someone's no longer around and can't defend themselves". Novak previously described Hitchcock as a gentleman, and when asked about reports of his behavior, she said, "Maybe I just wasn't his type". Novak also stated, "I won't dispute Tippi if that's what she saw."
Hedren herself was asked why her account of sexual harassment contrasted with the many interviews she gave about her time with Hitchcock, her presence at the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony honoring him in 1979, and her presence at his funeral. She explained that, "He ruined my career, but he didn't ruin my life. That time of my life was over. I still admire the man for who he was". She also said, "I've been able to separate the two. The man who was the artist. I mean, what he gave to the motion picture industry can never be taken away from him and I certainly wouldn't want to try. But on the other side, there is that dark side that was really awful".
Career setbacks (1967–1973)
Hedren's first feature film appearance after Marnie was in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. She was told by writer-director Charlie Chaplin that she was offered a major supporting role as Brando's estranged wife and had to accept the role without reading the script. However, when she arrived in England where the filming took place, she finally received the script and realized that her part was little more than a cameo. She asked Chaplin why he lied to her. "Every actor in the world was asking if they could do this film, to just do a walk-on, without even being paid for it. When I said, 'Why didn't you just tell me that it was a cameo? I would have done this film anyway,' he said, 'I didn't think you would come,' which was very sweet. He was a very clever man." Hedren asked Chaplin to expand the role, and although he tried to accommodate her, he could not, as the story mostly takes place on a ship, which Hedren's character boards near the end of the film. In the end, she remained in the film and later said that it was both amusing and strange to work with Chaplin. She found him to be a very serious man and loved his approach to directing. She later said, "I wish someone would have been allowed to do a documentary. The way he directed was unlike anyone I ever saw. He acted out all the parts himself. He did Sophia's part, then Marlon's part, then mine, and then he'd say, 'Okay, now you can do it.' Which would be impossible, to mimic the master. It was incredible. None of us believed it. Marlon hated it."
After the release of A Countess from Hong Kong, Hedren's career was described as "spectacular" by the press. She told a reporter at the time, "I don't want to wait myself out of this business, but working for Hitch and Charlie has been very special to me, and now I'm going to wait for something special to come along". In 1968, she signed on to do the American Civil War drama Five Against Kansas with Farley Granger and Jeffrey Hunter, but the project was never realized. In 1968, Hedren returned to film as a socialite who helps her boyfriend (played by George Armstrong) catch a killer, in Tiger by the Tail. From 1970 to 1971, she guest-starred twice on The Courtship of Eddie's Father. She agreed to take part in Satan's Harvest (1970) and Mister Kingstreet's War (1973)—which were shot back-to-back despite the discrepancy in their release dates—for the sole reason that they were being filmed in Africa. In 1973, Hedren played a teacher of an experimental sex school in The Harrad Experiment, which starred James Whitmore and Don Johnson—the latter who later became the husband of her daughter, Melanie Griffith. Hedren felt that the film "deals with vital themes—themes like the decline in importance of ideas like possession and jealousy and, by inference, marriage. I have four teenaged children and I think this picture says some valuable things to them." She confessed at the time she was occasionally depressed because she was not doing any major films and told a magazine, "My husband just cancelled all the trade magazines because he felt I should cut off the source of my discontent. He's the type who won't stand for sustained down feelings".
Roar (1974–1981)
Hedren and husband Noel Marshall watched a pride of lions move into a house after a game warden moved out in 1969, during the filming of Satan's Harvest in Africa. She said, "We were delighted with the way they adapted themselves to living there. And they were so funny we knew we had an idea for a picture." Marshall wrote a script titled Lions, Lions and More Lions based on their experience; it was retitled Roar and centered on a family's misadventures in a research park filled with lions, tigers, and other wild cats.
Hedren played the lead role and co-starred with her daughter Melanie, husband Marshall, and his own sons Jerry and John. They attempted to rent Hollywood animals for a nine-month shoot, but upon approaching animal trainers for support, they were discouraged and nobody would rent them 30 or 40 lions, as the script required, because of their natural tendency to fight. They were encouraged to start collecting and training their own exotic beasts. Animal trainer Ron Oxley told them, "to get to know about lions, you've got to live with them for a while". They started to raise a lion cub named Neil in their Sherman Oaks house and made sure that the animal slept in their bed. Life photographer Michael Rougier documented their life in 1971 and photographed the lion with the whole family inside and outside the house, from Hedren's daughter's bed to the living room to the swimming pool. After complaints from their neighbors, Hedren and Marshall bought a ranch outside of Los Angeles in Acton that would serve as the set for Roar. They got permission there to rescue and raise several lions, tigers, African elephants, and other exotic felines.
Filming started in 1974 and took five years just to complete the photography. Every scene involving lions was improvised and shot with four or sometimes eight cameras. More than 100 people worked on the film, as well as more than 150 untrained lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs. During production, no animals were hurt, but more than 70 members of the cast and crew were mauled. Hedren fractured a leg and also had scalp wounds when an elephant bucked her off its back while she was riding it. She was also bitten in the neck by a lion and required 38 stitches; this incident can be seen in the film. Melanie Griffith was also attacked, receiving 50 stitches to her face; it was feared that she would lose an eye, but she recovered and was not disfigured. Marshall was attacked so many times that he eventually was diagnosed with gangrene. In one of those incidents, he was clawed by a cheetah when protecting the animals during a bushfire that occurred in 1979. All animals were evacuated, and several years were needed for him to recover from his injuries. In 1978, a flood destroyed the movie sets and killed three of the lions. The project was set back several years. Hedren said that they were all determined to finish the film: "We were so sure the film was going to be a success that we thought everything (financing the ranch and the lions, etc.) would take care of itself."Roar was released worldwide in 1981 with the exception of the United States, because according to Hedren, "The United States distributors wanted the lion's share of the profits, and we thought it ought to go to the beautiful animals that made the movie." The film cost $17 million and grossed only $2 million, but it was a turning point in Hedren's life. In 1983, she established the nonprofit The Roar Foundation to take care of the big cats. "After our movie was over," she explained, "it was unconscionable to see the animals go any place else." Roar was re-released in 2015, but Hedren declined to discuss it, as she felt that promotion for the film was filled with "inaccuracies".
Later career (1982–present)
After Roar, Hedren accepted any low-budget television or cinema role that could help bring funds to her foundation to provide protection, shelter, care, and maintenance for the animals at the Shambala Preserve. In 1982, she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen in Foxfire Light. She appeared in several television series, including Hart to Hart in 1983 and the late-night horror series Tales from the Darkside in 1984. In the 1985 pilot episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, she made a brief appearance as a waitress in a bar who berates a customer, played by her daughter Melanie Griffith. In 1990, she had a nonspeaking, minor part as a wealthy widow romanced by Michael Keaton in the film Pacific Heights (1990), which also starred her daughter. That same year, she had a role on The Bold and the Beautiful, a daytime soap opera she said she was "proud to have in my resume".
In 1994, Hedren appeared in the made-for-cable sequel, The Birds II: Land's End, in a role different from the one she had played in the original. She was, however, disappointed that she did not get a starring role and admitted before the film's release, "I wish that it was more than a cameo. I think they made a mistake by not doing that, but it has helped me to feed my lions and tigers." When asked about what could have been Hitchcock's opinion on the film, she answered: "I'd hate to think what he would say!" In a 2007 interview, Hedren said of the film, "It's absolutely horrible, it embarrasses me horribly."
From 1994 to 1996, Hedren had a guest-starring role in Dream On. The sitcom gave her "the opportunity to do comedy. I'd never done comedy before and it was just wonderful for me to be able to do that. Everybody just thought of me as a serious actress, so I owe that to John Landis (the executive producer), giving me that opportunity." In 1996, she played an abortion rights activist in Alexander Payne's political satire Citizen Ruth with Laura Dern. In 1998, she co-starred alongside Billy Zane and Christina Ricci in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, a film she felt was "incredible". "I must say I really love that film. It was a unique kind of film to do also, because of the fact that it had no dialogue in it. It was very, very different". That same year, she guest-starred in a special episode titled "Psychodrama" of the television series Chicago Hope, that paid tribute to the Hitchcock movies. Hedren's character, Alfreda Perkins, was a reference to Alfred Hitchcock and actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in the director's 1960 film Psycho.
After appearing in a number of little-exposed films between 1999 and 2003, Hedren had a small but showy role in the 2004 David O. Russell comedy I Heart Huckabees, as a foul-mouthed attractive older woman who slaps Jude Law in an elevator. She felt that the director, who had a reputation for being difficult, was "totally crazy", but also "very interesting. I was able to work well with him." She also added it was a strange experience as, "... all of a sudden, he'd be like, 'Now I'm going to do it this way,' and you'd think, 'How is he going to edit this? How is this going to work?' But he made it work." In 2006, Hedren was a cast member of the short-lived primetime soap opera Fashion House with Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild, and continued to guest-star in television series such as The 4400 (2006) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008). In 2012, Hedren and her daughter guest-starred together on an episode of Raising Hope. That same year, she appeared in Free Samples, an indie film where she had a supporting role as an old movie star. In 2013, she made an appearance as herself in the fourth-season finale of Cougar Town.
Hedren published her autobiography, Tippi: A Memoir, co-written with Lindsay Harrison, in 2016 through William Morrow and Company, as she felt it was "about time I stop letting everyone else tell my story and finally tell it myself." In 2018, at age 88, Hedren became the new face of Gucci's timepieces and jewelry and starred as a mysterious fortune teller in the brand's commercial ad, The Fortune Teller.
Influence
A Louis Vuitton ad campaign in 2006 paid tribute to Hedren and Hitchcock with a modern-day interpretation of the deserted railway station opening sequence of Marnie. Her look from The Birds (1963) inspired designer Bill Gaytten to design for John Galliano Pre-Fall 2012 collection.
Naomi Watts stated that her character interpretation in Mulholland Drive (2001) was influenced by the look and performances of Hedren in Hitchcock films. Watts and Hedren both appeared in I ♥ Huckabees (2004), but did not share any scenes together. Off screen, the film's director David O. Russell introduced them both, and Watts said of Hedren: "I was pretty fascinated by her then, because people have often said we're alike." Watts dressed up as Hedren's title character from Marnie for a photo shoot for March 2008 issue of Vanity Fair. In the same issue, Jodie Foster dressed up as Hedren's character, Melanie Daniels, from The Birds.
Shambala Preserve
In 1981, Hedren produced Roar, an 11-year project that ended up costing $17 million and starred dozens of African lions. "This was probably one of the most dangerous films that Hollywood has ever seen", remarked the actress. "It's amazing no one was killed." During the production of Roar, Hedren, her husband at the time, Noel Marshall, and daughter Melanie were attacked by lions; Jan de Bont, the director of photography, was scalped. Hedren later co-wrote Cats of Shambala (1985) about the experience. Roar made only $2 million worldwide. Hedren ended her marriage to Marshall a year later in 1982. The film directly led to the 1983 establishment of the nonprofit The Roar Foundation and Hedren's Shambala Preserve, located at the edge of the Mojave Desert in Acton, California, between the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley, northeast of Los Angeles. Shambala houses some 70 animals. Hedren lives on the Shambala site and conducts monthly tours of the preserve for the public. In a 2015 interview with magazine Ability, Hedren emphasized that there is no human contact with the animals and that all of the cats are spayed and neutered, since they are being raised in captivity. Hedren was the founding president of the American Sanctuary Association, a post she still holds.
She took in and cared for Togar, a lion that belonged to Anton LaVey, after he was told by San Francisco officials that he could not keep a fully grown lion as a house pet. Shambala became the new home for Michael Jackson's two Bengal tigers, Sabu and Thriller, after he decided to close his zoo at his Neverland Valley Ranch in Los Olivos. Thriller died in June 2012 of lung cancer.
On December 3, 2007, Shambala Preserve made headlines when Chris Orr, a caretaker for the animals, was mauled by a tiger named Alexander. Several documentaries have focused on Shambala Preserve, including the 30-minute Lions: Kings of the Serengeti (1995), narrated by Melanie Griffith, and Animal Planet's Life with Big Cats (1998), which won the Genesis Award for best documentary in 1999. The animals at the preserve served as the initial inspiration for the life's work of artist A.E. London, who started her career working for Hedren.
As of 2020, Hedren still maintains more than a dozen lions and tigers; her granddaughter Dakota Johnson is involved in their care.
Personal life
In 1952, Hedren met and married 18-year-old future advertising executive Peter Griffith. Their daughter, actress Melanie Griffith, was born on August 9, 1957. They were divorced in 1961. On September 27, 1964, Hedren married her then-agent Noel Marshall, who later produced three of her films; they divorced in 1982. In 1985, she married steel manufacturer Luis Barrenechea, but they divorced in 1992. Hedren was engaged to veterinarian Martin Dinnes from 2002 until their breakup in mid-2008. In September 2008, Hedren told The Sunday Times "I'm waiting for someone to sweep me off my feet." Hedren's granddaughter Dakota Johnson is also an actress.
Hedren played a role in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons in the United States. In 1975, while an international relief coordinator with Food for the Hungry, she began visiting with refugees at Hope Village outside Sacramento, California. When she learned the women were interested in her manicured nails, she employed her manicurist to teach them the skills of the trade and worked with a local beauty school to help them find jobs. Hedren's work with the Vietnamese-Americans was the subject of several documentaries: Happy Hands, directed by Honey Lauren, which won Best Documentary Short at the Sonoma International Film Festival in 2014Sonoma International Film Festival website, sonomaportal.com; accessed March 10, 2015. and "Nailedit:
Vietnamese and the Nail Industry" which won the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) 2014 Documentary Fund Award. CND and Beauty Changes Lives Foundation (BCL) have announced the BCL CND Tippi Hedren Nail Scholarship Fund to support professional nail education and will be administered starting January 1, 2014.
Hedren was instrumental in helping a desperate Nguyen Thi Chinh to enter the US after the fall of the South Vietnam government in 1975, she arranged for an air ticket and a visa for her then invited her to stay in her house.
Hedren suffered from severe and persistent headaches for a long time, which rendered her unable to accept several projects, including a television series produced by and starring Betty White. After she got a titanium plate put in her neck, she improved and then agreed, with the blessing of her doctor, to take the part of a dying woman in the soap opera Fashion House. While she was rehearsing a scene, a gallon of water fell from the ceiling onto her head. The headaches returned after the incident and persisted. Hedren filed a suit to receive recompense following her inability to work. Hedren's lawyer, Joseph Allen, made a mistake in his discussions with the defendants that allowed them to block him from filing suit. Hedren sued Allen for malpractice. In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Hedren had been awarded a $1.5 million settlement, including $213,400 for past lost earnings and $440,308 for future lost earnings, against her former lawyer. Hedren was hurt by the report since she had not collected the award. She gave an interview to explain that her former lawyer does not have the money to pay her, and discussed how the report put her in a difficult situation since her foundation was in dire need of funds. She explained that she has to raise $75,000 monthly just to keep it going. "Chances are I won't ever even see the money, and that's what hurts so badly, that in all of this pain and suffering that publication ran with a swift and not researched story, which told people around the world who have been so gracious and thoughtful about sending donations, that I no longer needed them."
Filmography
Film
Television
Honours and awards
1964: Most Promising Newcomer Award by Photoplay
1964: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress (shared with Ursula Andress and Elke Sommer)
1994: Life Achievement Award in France at The Beauvais Film Festival Cinemalia
1995: Life Achievement Award in Spain, La Fundación Municipal de Cine
1995: The Helen Woodward Animal Center's Annual Humane Award
1996: Founder's Award from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
1997: Lion and Lamb Award from Wildhaven
1999: Woman of Vision Award from Women of Film and Video in Washington, D.C.
1999: Presidential Medal for her work in film from Hofstra University
1999: Humanitarian Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival
2000: Best Actress in a Comedy Short Award in the short film Mulligans! at the Method Fest, Independent Film Festival
2002: Best Actress Award for the short film Tea with Grandma from the New York International Independent Film Festival
2003: Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2003: Women of Los Angeles Annual Hope is a Woman Honor
2004: PAWS Companion for Life Award
2004: Best Actress Award for the short film Rose's Garden from the Los Angeles TV Short Film Festival
2004: Animal Rights Advocacy Award at Artivist Film Festival
2005: Living Legacy Award
2006: Conservationist of the Year—Dino Award from the Las Vegas Natural History Museum
2007: Lifetime Achievement Award—Riverside Film Festival
2007: Jules Verne "Nature" Award — the 1st Annual Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival of Los Angeles
2008: Academy of Art University's 2nd Epidemic Film Festival Award
2008: Jules Verne Legendaire Award
2008: Thespian Award - LA Femme Film Festival
2009: "When a Woman Wills She Will!" Award by the Woman's Club of Hollywood
2009: Workhouse's first Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award
2009: Received the First Star on the Orinda Theater Walk of Fame
2010: Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Genesis Awards show from the Humane Society
2010: BraveHeart Award
2010: Who-Manitarian Award
2011: Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce at its 90th Annual Installation & Awards Luncheon
2011: "The Women Together Award" from the United Nations
2011: Vietnamese-American Marton Saint Award from the Boat People SOS Organization
2011: Omni Youth Humanitarian/Career Achievement Award
2012: Honorary Masters of Fine Arts Degree from the New York Film Academy
2012: Mayor Career Achievement Award from Starz Denver Film Festival
2013: Legacy of Style Award
2013: "People Helping People" Award by the Touching Live TV Award Show, broadwayworld.com; accessed November 14, 2015.
2014: Lifetime Achievement Award from Bel-Air Film Festival
2014: Special Recognition Award from Acton Women's Club
2014:The Women's International Film & Television Showcase Foundation International Visionary Award, thewifts.org; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Choreography of Desire (A Tribute to Tippi Hedren) by the Vienna International Film Festival, viennale.at; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Believe, Achieve, Empower Award
2017: Waggy Award recipient from the Tailwaggers Foundation
2017: The Icon Award
2018: "Friend for Life Award" from The Palm Springs Animal Shelter
Notes
References
Hedren, Tippi. Tippi: A Memoir, William Morrow, 2016, 288 p.
McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, It Books, 2004 (Reprint), 864 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 340 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 224 p.
Taylor, John Russell. Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock, Bloomsbury Reader, 2013, 318 p. ASIN B00BWL8L0C
Spoto, Donald. Spellbound by Beauty, Three Rivers Press, 2009, 368 p.
Paul, Louis. Tales from the Cult Film Trenches: Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema, McFarland, 2007, 336 p.
Gambin, Lee. Massacred By Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film'', Midnight Marquee Press, Inc., October 8, 2012
External links
1930 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Minnesota
American film actresses
New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
American people of German descent
American people of Norwegian descent
American people of Swedish descent
Big cat attack victims
Keepers of animal sanctuaries
Apex Records artists
Challenge Records artists
Female models from Minnesota
People from New Ulm, Minnesota
Griffith family
| false |
[
"\"She Taught Me How to Fly\" is a song by English rock band Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. Written by frontman Noel Gallagher, it was released on 25 May 2018 as the third single from the band's third studio album Who Built the Moon? (2017).\n\nMusic video\nThe official video for \"She Taught Me How to Fly\", directed by Ollie Murray. The video has a psychedelic feel and features Gallagher taking center stage as he performs the song. The video also features a series of silhouettes. \"She Taught Me How to Fly\" was released on the band's Vevo account on 6 April 2018.\n\nTrack listing\n12\"\n\nDigital\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2017 songs\nNoel Gallagher's High Flying Birds songs\nSongs written by Noel Gallagher",
"Christy Ann Morrissey is a Canadian ecotoxicologist. She is a Professor of biology at the University of Saskatchewan and was elected to the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.\n\nEarly life and education\nMorrissey was born and raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, where she envisioned becoming a veterinarian. While attending the University of British Columbia, she was inspired by ornithologist Jamie Smith to pursue a career in wildlife. Following graduation, she volunteered for the Canadian Wildlife Service to study raptors and carbamates, which was the basis of her PhD at Simon Fraser University.\n\nCareer\nMorrissey joined the faculty at the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) in 2010 as a professor of biology in their College of Arts and Science and the School of Environment and Sustainability. During her early years at U of S, she began to study neonicotinoids, a type of insecticide, upon the advice of research scientist Pierre Mineau. Morrissey subsequently found that neonicotinoids were being increasingly used on crops in Western Canada, which then had detrimental effects on insects and birds. Her research was also featured in the 2015 documentary The Messenger which focused on the protection of multiple types of songbirds throughout the world. However, Mark Hanson of the University of Manitoba said her research was theoretical and lacked science to prove her hypothesis and Ray McAllister of CropLife America said \"the levels are well below those of concern established by EPA.\" In response, Morrissey argued that the EPA guidelines were too high and out of date.\n\nWhile simultaneously studying neonicotinoids, Morrissey also conducted research at Chaplin Lake studying the migratory shorebirds there. With funding from the U of S, she began recruiting and training locals of Chaplin, Saskatchewan, to gather data on the birds. Alongside a graduate student, she studied how heavy industrial pollutants affected how shorebirds migrated from South America to the Arctic. By 2016, Morrissey was the principal applicant for U of S' Facility for Applied Avian Research, one of two such facilities in Canada capable of advanced research on birds.\n\nIn 2019, Morrissey published data that one type of neonicinsecticide causes sparrows to lose weight and delay migration. In the first study to combine field and lab work, she captured white-crowned sparrows in the spring and tried to mimic the amount of the pesticide the birds might naturally encounter. While the birds did not originally seem sick, they ended up losing six per cent of their body weight over six hours and ate up to 70 per cent less. As a result, she openly criticized the EPAs approval of sulfoxaflor as an alternative pesticide by saying it \"lingers a long time in water bodies, exposing aquatic insects to low but long-term doses of the chemical.\" Overall, Morrissey's research showed that 500 million boreal forest birds have been lost since 1970, a 33 per cent decline in populations. In an effort to combat neonicinsecticides, she formed the Canadian Prairie Agroecosystem Resilience Network with 30 university researchers, nine international organizations, and more than 30 partners from government, non-government agencies, agriculture industry groups and First Nations.\n\nIn 2020, Morrissey was elected to the Royal Society of Canada's College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nLiving people\nUniversity of British Columbia alumni\nSimon Fraser University alumni\nUniversity of Saskatchewan faculty\nCanadian women biologists\nScientists from Vancouver\nYear of birth missing (living people)\n21st-century Canadian biologists\n21st-century Canadian women scientists"
] |
[
"Tippi Hedren",
"The Birds (1963)",
"What can you tell me about The Birds?",
"The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making",
"Was it successful?",
"were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as \"remarkable\".",
"Did she gain any further recognition for this?",
"Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review:",
"What did Variety have to say?",
"\"Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow.",
"How long did she work on The Birds?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_c860e15022e34b1dad7537f92a040eb3_0
|
Was The Birds well received by the public?
| 6 |
Was the film The Birds well received by the public?
|
Tippi Hedren
|
The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance." During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying there was nobody but her to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director. Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protegee, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first forty-five minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere magazine as one of the greatest movie characters of all time. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren (born January 19, 1930) is an American actress, animal rights activist, and former fashion model. She achieved worldwide recognition for her work in two of Alfred Hitchcock's classics: The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Hedren is noted as one of the most famous 'Hitchcock Blondes' and is now one of the last surviving leading stars from Hitchcock's filmography.
A successful fashion model who appeared on the front covers of Life and Glamour magazines, among others, Hedren became an actress after she was discovered by director Alfred Hitchcock while appearing on a television commercial in 1961. She achieved great praise for her work in two of his films: the suspense-thriller The Birds (1963), for which she won a Golden Globe, and the psychological drama Marnie (1964). She has appeared in over 80 films and television shows, including Charlie Chaplin's final film A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), the political satire Citizen Ruth (1996), and the existential comedy I Heart Huckabees (2004). Among other honors, her contributions to world cinema have been recognized with the Jules Verne Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Hedren's strong commitment to animal rescue began in 1969 while she was shooting two films in Africa and was introduced to the plight of African lions. In an attempt to raise awareness for wildlife, she spent over a decade bringing Roar (1981) to the screen. She started her own nonprofit organization, the Roar Foundation, in 1983; it supports the Shambala Preserve, an wildlife habitat that enables her to continue her work in the care and preservation of lions and tigers. Hedren has also set up relief programs worldwide following earthquakes, hurricanes, famine and war. She was also instrumental in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons.
Early life
Nathalie Kay Hedren was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, on January 19, 1930, to Bernard Carl and Dorothea Henrietta (née Eckhardt) Hedren. For much of her career, her year of birth was reported as 1935. In 2004, however, she acknowledged that she was actually born in 1930 (which is consistent with the birth registration index at the Minnesota Historical Society). Her paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants, while her mother was of German and Norwegian descent. Her father ran a small general store in Lafayette, Minnesota, and gave her the nickname "Tippi". When she was four, she moved with her parents to Minneapolis; she has an older sister, Patricia. As a teenager, she took part in department store fashion shows. Her parents relocated to California while she was a high school student at West High School in Minneapolis.
Career
Modeling success (1950–1960)
On reaching her 20th birthday, Hedren bought a ticket to New York City, where she joined the Eileen Ford Agency. Within a year, she made her unofficial film debut as "Miss Ice Box" in the musical comedy The Petty Girl. In interviews, she referred to The Birds, her first credited role, as her first film. Although she received several film offers during that time, Hedren had no interest in acting, as she knew it was very difficult to succeed.
She had a highly successful modeling career during the 1950s and early 1960s, appearing on the covers of Life, The Saturday Evening Post, McCall's, and Glamour, among others. In 1961, after seven years of marriage to the actor Peter Griffith, Hedren divorced and returned to California with her daughter, Melanie, and rented an expensive home in Sherman Oaks. She later said, "I thought I could continue my career as it had been in New York. I thought everything would be just fine, and it wasn't. So I thought, 'well, I don't type, what shall I do?'"
Transition to acting and collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock (1961–1966)
On October 13, 1961, she received a call from an agent who told her a producer was interested in working with her. When she was told it was Alfred Hitchcock, who while watching The Today Show, saw her in a commercial for a diet drink called Sego, she agreed to sign a seven-year contract. During their first meeting, the two talked about everything except the role for which he was considering her. Hedren was convinced for several weeks it was for his television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Hitchcock later said, "I was not primarily concerned with how she looked in person. Most important was her appearance on the screen, and I liked that immediately. She has a touch of that high-style, lady-like quality which was once well-represented in films by actresses like Irene Dunne, Grace Kelly, Claudette Colbert, and others, but which is now quite rare."
Being an unknown actress with little training, Hitchcock put Hedren through an extensive color screen test that lasted two days and cost $25,000, doing scenes from his previous films, such as Rebecca, Notorious, and To Catch a Thief with actor Martin Balsam. According to Balsam, Hedren was very nervous, but studied every line, did every move she was asked to, and tried to do everything right. Hitchcock asked costume designer Edith Head to design clothes for Hedren's private life and he personally advised her about wine and food. He also insisted for publicity purposes that her name should be printed only in single quotes, 'Tippi'. The press mostly ignored this directive from the director, who felt that the single quotes added distinction and mystery to her name. Hitchcock was impressed with Hedren. As production designer Robert F. Boyle explained, "Hitch always liked women who behaved like well-bred ladies. Tippi generated that quality."
Afterward, Hedren was invited to lunch with Hitchcock, his wife, Alma, and Lew Wasserman, head of Universal, at one of Hitchcock's favorite restaurants, Chasen's. There, she was presented with a golden pin of three birds in flight, adorned by three tiny seed pearls, and was asked by Hitchcock to play the leading role in his upcoming film The Birds. "I was so stunned. It never occurred to me that I would be given a leading role in a major motion picture. I had great big tears in my eyes", Hedren later recalled.
The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making, as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music, or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance."
During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying nobody but her was left to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director.
Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protégée, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Varietys review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first 45-minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere as one of the greatest movie characters of all time.
Hitchcock was so impressed with Hedren's acting abilities, he decided to offer her the leading role of his next film, Marnie (1964), a romantic drama and psychological thriller from the novel by Winston Graham, during the filming of The Birds. Hedren was stunned and felt extremely fortunate to be offered to play "such a complicated, sad, tragic woman", and later said, "I consider my acting, while not necessarily being method acting, but one that draws upon my own feelings. I thought Marnie was an extremely interesting role to play and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity". She voiced doubts about her ability to play the demanding role, but Hitchcock assured her she could do it. As opposed to The Birds, where she had received little acting guidance, for this film Hedren studied every scene with Hitchcock.
Hedren recalled Marnie as her favorite of the two films she did with Hitchcock for the challenge of playing an emotionally battered young woman who travels from city to city assuming various guises to rob her employers. During the filming, Hitchcock was quoted as saying about Hedren, "an Academy Award performance is in the making". On release, the film was greeted by mixed reviews and indifferent box-office returns, and received no Oscar nominations. Variety wrote, "Hedren returns in a particularly demanding role. Miss Hedren, undertaking a role originally offered Grace Kelly for a resumption of her screen career, lends credence to a part never sympathetic. It's a difficult assignment which she fulfills satisfactorily." Hedren later said that Marnie was "ahead of its time" because "people didn't talk about childhood and its effects on adult life. It was taboo to discuss sexuality and psychology and to put all that into a film was shocking." Despite its original lukewarm reception, the film was later acclaimed and described as a "masterpiece" and Hedren's performance is now regarded as one of the finest in any Hitchcock film. Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote in his 2016 review of the film "Hedren's performance is one of the greatest in the history of cinema."
Marnie was the second and last collaboration between Hedren and Hitchcock. In 1973, she admitted that a major lifestyle difference caused a split in their relationship. "He was too possessive and too demanding. I cannot be possessed by anyone. But, then, that's my own hangup". In 1983, author Donald Spoto published his second book about Hitchcock, The Dark Side of Genius, for which Hedren agreed to talk for the first time in detail about her relationship with the director.
The book was controversial, as several of Hitchcock's friends claimed the Hitchcock portrayed in the book was not the man they knew. For years after its release, Hedren was not keen to talk about it in interviews, but thought the chapter devoted to her story was "accurate as to just what he was". Hedren later explained her long silence before telling her story, "It was embarrassing and insulting—there were a lot of reasons why I didn't want to tell the story. I didn't want it to be taken advantage of, twisted, turned, and made into an even uglier situation than it was".
According to Spoto's book, Hitchcock brought in two members of his crew during the filming of The Birds and asked them to keep careful watch on the activities of Hedren, "when she left the set—where she went, who she visited, how she spent her free time". He then advised her on what she should eat, whom she should see, and how she should live. He told the cast and crew they were not allowed to talk to her. Hedren's co-star in The Birds, Rod Taylor, later remembered, "Hitch was becoming very domineering and covetous of 'Tippi', and it was very difficult for her. No one was permitted to come physically close to her during the production. 'Don't touch the girl after I call "Cut!"' he said to me repeatedly". Hitchcock also attempted, on one occasion, to grab and violently kiss Hedren in the back of a car as they drove onto the set. Hedren told his assistant, Peggy Robertson, and the studio chief, Lew Wasserman, that she was becoming very unhappy about the whole situation. "But he was Alfred Hitchcock, the great and famous director, and I was Tippi Hedren, an inexperienced actress who had no clout". She decided she could not quit her contract because she was afraid to be blacklisted and unable to find work. Hedren's own daughter, Melanie Griffith, remembered that while Hedren was doing The Birds, she thought Hitchcock was taking her mother away from her. "Suddenly, I wasn't allowed even to visit my mom at the studio".
During the filming of Marnie, Hedren found Hitchcock's behavior toward her increasingly difficult to bear as filming progressed. "Everyone—I mean everyone—knew he was obsessed with me. He always wanted a glass of wine or champagne, with me alone, at the end of the day. He was really isolating me from everyone". Hedren's co-star in Marnie, Diane Baker, later recalled, "She was never allowed to gather around with the rest of us, and he demanded that every conversation between her and Hitch be held in private... Nothing could have been more horrible for me than to arrive on that movie set and to see her being treated the way she was".
Hitchcock revealed to Hedren one day he had a recurring dream where she came up to him and said, "Hitch, I love you—I'll always love you". When she heard this, Hedren replied "But it was a dream. Just a dream", and excused herself from his presence. She believed Hitchcock had no consideration for her feelings and remembered she was humiliated after he asked her to touch him, just before shooting a scene. "He made sure no one else could hear, and his tone and glance made it clear exactly what he meant". Hedren asked Hitchcock's permission one day to travel to New York to appear on The Tonight Show, where she was supposed to be presented an award as the "Most Promising New Star". Hitchcock refused, according to his biographer, because he claimed the break would affect her performance. During that meeting, he apparently "made an overt sexual proposition" that Hedren "could neither ignore nor answer casually, as she could his previous gestures". In Spoto's third book about Hitchcock, Spellbound by Beauty (2008), Hedren revealed that Hitchcock actually made offensive demands on her. "He stared at me and simply said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that from this time on, he expected me to make myself sexually available and accessible to him—however and whenever and wherever he wanted". Hitchcock's demands led to a "horrible, horrible fight", according to Hedren. "He made these demands on me, and no way could I acquiesce to them".
Hedren then told him Marnie would be their last film together and later recalled how Hitchcock told her he would destroy her career. "I said I wanted to get out of my contract. He said: 'You can't. You have your daughter to support, and your parents are getting older'. I said: 'Nobody would want me to be in this situation, I want to get out'. And he said: 'I'll ruin your career'. I said: 'Do what you have to do'. And he did ruin my career. He kept me under contract, paid me to do nothing for close on two years". Hedren felt so humiliated, she called the director a "fat pig" in front of people on the set. Hitchcock made only a comment about it to his biographer, John Russell Taylor: "She did what no one is permitted to do. She referred to my weight". The two communicated only through a third party for the rest of the film. According to Marnie'''s screenwriter, Jay Presson Allen, Hitchcock was "mad" for Hedren. She felt unhappy for both and described the situation as "an old man's cri de coeur", adding that Hitchcock had a "Pygmalion complex about Tippi". She advised Hedren to finish the film and then get on with her life and be happy. Hedren's hairdresser, Virginia Darcy, even told Hitchcock he should not be possessive with Hedren. "Tippi felt rightly that she was not his property, but he'd say, 'You are, I have a contract'". Although Hitchcock thought he might mend fences with Hedren and make another film with her, she refused to reconsider her decision. Hedren's contract terms gave Hitchcock the final say as to any work she could take on and he used that power to turn down several film roles on her behalf. She was particularly disappointed when French director François Truffaut told her he had wanted her for one of them. In 1966, Hitchcock finally sold her contract to Universal Studios after Hedren appeared in two of their TV shows, Kraft Suspense Theatre (1965) and Run for Your Life (id.). The studio ultimately released her from her contract after she refused to appear on a television Western for them.
In 2012, The Girl, an HBO/BBC film about Hedren and Hitchcock's relationship, based on Donald Spoto's 2009 book Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, was released. When she was first told about the project, Hedren said she had mixed feelings about it, "To be still alive and have a film made about you is an awesome and incredibly frightening experience". Hedren and Hitchcock were respectively portrayed by Sienna Miller and Toby Jones.
Although she was thrilled with the choice of Miller, Hedren was worried she would not be portrayed "as strong a character as I was—and still am. I had to be extremely strong to fight off Mr. Hitchcock". She described the moment she saw the film as "probably one of the most involved, emotionally tense 90 minutes that I have ever lived". Upon the film's release, Hedren said although she believed the film accurately portrays Hitchcock's behavior towards her, the time constraints of a 90-minute film prevented telling the entire story of her career with him. "It wasn't a constant barrage of harassment. If it had been constantly the way we have had to do it in this film, I would have been long gone". She recalled there were times she described as "absolutely delightful and wonderful”, and insisted that “Hitchcock had a charm about him. He was very funny at times. He was incredibly brilliant in his field". The film was controversial, as others who knew and worked with Hitchcock responded to it negatively. Kim Novak, who worked on Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), disputed Hitchcock's portrayal as a sexual predator in The Girl: "I never saw him make a pass at anybody or act strange to anybody. And wouldn't you think if he was that way, I would've seen it or at least seen him with somebody? I think it's unfortunate when someone's no longer around and can't defend themselves". Novak previously described Hitchcock as a gentleman, and when asked about reports of his behavior, she said, "Maybe I just wasn't his type". Novak also stated, "I won't dispute Tippi if that's what she saw."
Hedren herself was asked why her account of sexual harassment contrasted with the many interviews she gave about her time with Hitchcock, her presence at the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony honoring him in 1979, and her presence at his funeral. She explained that, "He ruined my career, but he didn't ruin my life. That time of my life was over. I still admire the man for who he was". She also said, "I've been able to separate the two. The man who was the artist. I mean, what he gave to the motion picture industry can never be taken away from him and I certainly wouldn't want to try. But on the other side, there is that dark side that was really awful".
Career setbacks (1967–1973)
Hedren's first feature film appearance after Marnie was in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. She was told by writer-director Charlie Chaplin that she was offered a major supporting role as Brando's estranged wife and had to accept the role without reading the script. However, when she arrived in England where the filming took place, she finally received the script and realized that her part was little more than a cameo. She asked Chaplin why he lied to her. "Every actor in the world was asking if they could do this film, to just do a walk-on, without even being paid for it. When I said, 'Why didn't you just tell me that it was a cameo? I would have done this film anyway,' he said, 'I didn't think you would come,' which was very sweet. He was a very clever man." Hedren asked Chaplin to expand the role, and although he tried to accommodate her, he could not, as the story mostly takes place on a ship, which Hedren's character boards near the end of the film. In the end, she remained in the film and later said that it was both amusing and strange to work with Chaplin. She found him to be a very serious man and loved his approach to directing. She later said, "I wish someone would have been allowed to do a documentary. The way he directed was unlike anyone I ever saw. He acted out all the parts himself. He did Sophia's part, then Marlon's part, then mine, and then he'd say, 'Okay, now you can do it.' Which would be impossible, to mimic the master. It was incredible. None of us believed it. Marlon hated it."
After the release of A Countess from Hong Kong, Hedren's career was described as "spectacular" by the press. She told a reporter at the time, "I don't want to wait myself out of this business, but working for Hitch and Charlie has been very special to me, and now I'm going to wait for something special to come along". In 1968, she signed on to do the American Civil War drama Five Against Kansas with Farley Granger and Jeffrey Hunter, but the project was never realized. In 1968, Hedren returned to film as a socialite who helps her boyfriend (played by George Armstrong) catch a killer, in Tiger by the Tail. From 1970 to 1971, she guest-starred twice on The Courtship of Eddie's Father. She agreed to take part in Satan's Harvest (1970) and Mister Kingstreet's War (1973)—which were shot back-to-back despite the discrepancy in their release dates—for the sole reason that they were being filmed in Africa. In 1973, Hedren played a teacher of an experimental sex school in The Harrad Experiment, which starred James Whitmore and Don Johnson—the latter who later became the husband of her daughter, Melanie Griffith. Hedren felt that the film "deals with vital themes—themes like the decline in importance of ideas like possession and jealousy and, by inference, marriage. I have four teenaged children and I think this picture says some valuable things to them." She confessed at the time she was occasionally depressed because she was not doing any major films and told a magazine, "My husband just cancelled all the trade magazines because he felt I should cut off the source of my discontent. He's the type who won't stand for sustained down feelings".
Roar (1974–1981)
Hedren and husband Noel Marshall watched a pride of lions move into a house after a game warden moved out in 1969, during the filming of Satan's Harvest in Africa. She said, "We were delighted with the way they adapted themselves to living there. And they were so funny we knew we had an idea for a picture." Marshall wrote a script titled Lions, Lions and More Lions based on their experience; it was retitled Roar and centered on a family's misadventures in a research park filled with lions, tigers, and other wild cats.
Hedren played the lead role and co-starred with her daughter Melanie, husband Marshall, and his own sons Jerry and John. They attempted to rent Hollywood animals for a nine-month shoot, but upon approaching animal trainers for support, they were discouraged and nobody would rent them 30 or 40 lions, as the script required, because of their natural tendency to fight. They were encouraged to start collecting and training their own exotic beasts. Animal trainer Ron Oxley told them, "to get to know about lions, you've got to live with them for a while". They started to raise a lion cub named Neil in their Sherman Oaks house and made sure that the animal slept in their bed. Life photographer Michael Rougier documented their life in 1971 and photographed the lion with the whole family inside and outside the house, from Hedren's daughter's bed to the living room to the swimming pool. After complaints from their neighbors, Hedren and Marshall bought a ranch outside of Los Angeles in Acton that would serve as the set for Roar. They got permission there to rescue and raise several lions, tigers, African elephants, and other exotic felines.
Filming started in 1974 and took five years just to complete the photography. Every scene involving lions was improvised and shot with four or sometimes eight cameras. More than 100 people worked on the film, as well as more than 150 untrained lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs. During production, no animals were hurt, but more than 70 members of the cast and crew were mauled. Hedren fractured a leg and also had scalp wounds when an elephant bucked her off its back while she was riding it. She was also bitten in the neck by a lion and required 38 stitches; this incident can be seen in the film. Melanie Griffith was also attacked, receiving 50 stitches to her face; it was feared that she would lose an eye, but she recovered and was not disfigured. Marshall was attacked so many times that he eventually was diagnosed with gangrene. In one of those incidents, he was clawed by a cheetah when protecting the animals during a bushfire that occurred in 1979. All animals were evacuated, and several years were needed for him to recover from his injuries. In 1978, a flood destroyed the movie sets and killed three of the lions. The project was set back several years. Hedren said that they were all determined to finish the film: "We were so sure the film was going to be a success that we thought everything (financing the ranch and the lions, etc.) would take care of itself."Roar was released worldwide in 1981 with the exception of the United States, because according to Hedren, "The United States distributors wanted the lion's share of the profits, and we thought it ought to go to the beautiful animals that made the movie." The film cost $17 million and grossed only $2 million, but it was a turning point in Hedren's life. In 1983, she established the nonprofit The Roar Foundation to take care of the big cats. "After our movie was over," she explained, "it was unconscionable to see the animals go any place else." Roar was re-released in 2015, but Hedren declined to discuss it, as she felt that promotion for the film was filled with "inaccuracies".
Later career (1982–present)
After Roar, Hedren accepted any low-budget television or cinema role that could help bring funds to her foundation to provide protection, shelter, care, and maintenance for the animals at the Shambala Preserve. In 1982, she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen in Foxfire Light. She appeared in several television series, including Hart to Hart in 1983 and the late-night horror series Tales from the Darkside in 1984. In the 1985 pilot episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, she made a brief appearance as a waitress in a bar who berates a customer, played by her daughter Melanie Griffith. In 1990, she had a nonspeaking, minor part as a wealthy widow romanced by Michael Keaton in the film Pacific Heights (1990), which also starred her daughter. That same year, she had a role on The Bold and the Beautiful, a daytime soap opera she said she was "proud to have in my resume".
In 1994, Hedren appeared in the made-for-cable sequel, The Birds II: Land's End, in a role different from the one she had played in the original. She was, however, disappointed that she did not get a starring role and admitted before the film's release, "I wish that it was more than a cameo. I think they made a mistake by not doing that, but it has helped me to feed my lions and tigers." When asked about what could have been Hitchcock's opinion on the film, she answered: "I'd hate to think what he would say!" In a 2007 interview, Hedren said of the film, "It's absolutely horrible, it embarrasses me horribly."
From 1994 to 1996, Hedren had a guest-starring role in Dream On. The sitcom gave her "the opportunity to do comedy. I'd never done comedy before and it was just wonderful for me to be able to do that. Everybody just thought of me as a serious actress, so I owe that to John Landis (the executive producer), giving me that opportunity." In 1996, she played an abortion rights activist in Alexander Payne's political satire Citizen Ruth with Laura Dern. In 1998, she co-starred alongside Billy Zane and Christina Ricci in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, a film she felt was "incredible". "I must say I really love that film. It was a unique kind of film to do also, because of the fact that it had no dialogue in it. It was very, very different". That same year, she guest-starred in a special episode titled "Psychodrama" of the television series Chicago Hope, that paid tribute to the Hitchcock movies. Hedren's character, Alfreda Perkins, was a reference to Alfred Hitchcock and actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in the director's 1960 film Psycho.
After appearing in a number of little-exposed films between 1999 and 2003, Hedren had a small but showy role in the 2004 David O. Russell comedy I Heart Huckabees, as a foul-mouthed attractive older woman who slaps Jude Law in an elevator. She felt that the director, who had a reputation for being difficult, was "totally crazy", but also "very interesting. I was able to work well with him." She also added it was a strange experience as, "... all of a sudden, he'd be like, 'Now I'm going to do it this way,' and you'd think, 'How is he going to edit this? How is this going to work?' But he made it work." In 2006, Hedren was a cast member of the short-lived primetime soap opera Fashion House with Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild, and continued to guest-star in television series such as The 4400 (2006) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008). In 2012, Hedren and her daughter guest-starred together on an episode of Raising Hope. That same year, she appeared in Free Samples, an indie film where she had a supporting role as an old movie star. In 2013, she made an appearance as herself in the fourth-season finale of Cougar Town.
Hedren published her autobiography, Tippi: A Memoir, co-written with Lindsay Harrison, in 2016 through William Morrow and Company, as she felt it was "about time I stop letting everyone else tell my story and finally tell it myself." In 2018, at age 88, Hedren became the new face of Gucci's timepieces and jewelry and starred as a mysterious fortune teller in the brand's commercial ad, The Fortune Teller.
Influence
A Louis Vuitton ad campaign in 2006 paid tribute to Hedren and Hitchcock with a modern-day interpretation of the deserted railway station opening sequence of Marnie. Her look from The Birds (1963) inspired designer Bill Gaytten to design for John Galliano Pre-Fall 2012 collection.
Naomi Watts stated that her character interpretation in Mulholland Drive (2001) was influenced by the look and performances of Hedren in Hitchcock films. Watts and Hedren both appeared in I ♥ Huckabees (2004), but did not share any scenes together. Off screen, the film's director David O. Russell introduced them both, and Watts said of Hedren: "I was pretty fascinated by her then, because people have often said we're alike." Watts dressed up as Hedren's title character from Marnie for a photo shoot for March 2008 issue of Vanity Fair. In the same issue, Jodie Foster dressed up as Hedren's character, Melanie Daniels, from The Birds.
Shambala Preserve
In 1981, Hedren produced Roar, an 11-year project that ended up costing $17 million and starred dozens of African lions. "This was probably one of the most dangerous films that Hollywood has ever seen", remarked the actress. "It's amazing no one was killed." During the production of Roar, Hedren, her husband at the time, Noel Marshall, and daughter Melanie were attacked by lions; Jan de Bont, the director of photography, was scalped. Hedren later co-wrote Cats of Shambala (1985) about the experience. Roar made only $2 million worldwide. Hedren ended her marriage to Marshall a year later in 1982. The film directly led to the 1983 establishment of the nonprofit The Roar Foundation and Hedren's Shambala Preserve, located at the edge of the Mojave Desert in Acton, California, between the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley, northeast of Los Angeles. Shambala houses some 70 animals. Hedren lives on the Shambala site and conducts monthly tours of the preserve for the public. In a 2015 interview with magazine Ability, Hedren emphasized that there is no human contact with the animals and that all of the cats are spayed and neutered, since they are being raised in captivity. Hedren was the founding president of the American Sanctuary Association, a post she still holds.
She took in and cared for Togar, a lion that belonged to Anton LaVey, after he was told by San Francisco officials that he could not keep a fully grown lion as a house pet. Shambala became the new home for Michael Jackson's two Bengal tigers, Sabu and Thriller, after he decided to close his zoo at his Neverland Valley Ranch in Los Olivos. Thriller died in June 2012 of lung cancer.
On December 3, 2007, Shambala Preserve made headlines when Chris Orr, a caretaker for the animals, was mauled by a tiger named Alexander. Several documentaries have focused on Shambala Preserve, including the 30-minute Lions: Kings of the Serengeti (1995), narrated by Melanie Griffith, and Animal Planet's Life with Big Cats (1998), which won the Genesis Award for best documentary in 1999. The animals at the preserve served as the initial inspiration for the life's work of artist A.E. London, who started her career working for Hedren.
As of 2020, Hedren still maintains more than a dozen lions and tigers; her granddaughter Dakota Johnson is involved in their care.
Personal life
In 1952, Hedren met and married 18-year-old future advertising executive Peter Griffith. Their daughter, actress Melanie Griffith, was born on August 9, 1957. They were divorced in 1961. On September 27, 1964, Hedren married her then-agent Noel Marshall, who later produced three of her films; they divorced in 1982. In 1985, she married steel manufacturer Luis Barrenechea, but they divorced in 1992. Hedren was engaged to veterinarian Martin Dinnes from 2002 until their breakup in mid-2008. In September 2008, Hedren told The Sunday Times "I'm waiting for someone to sweep me off my feet." Hedren's granddaughter Dakota Johnson is also an actress.
Hedren played a role in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons in the United States. In 1975, while an international relief coordinator with Food for the Hungry, she began visiting with refugees at Hope Village outside Sacramento, California. When she learned the women were interested in her manicured nails, she employed her manicurist to teach them the skills of the trade and worked with a local beauty school to help them find jobs. Hedren's work with the Vietnamese-Americans was the subject of several documentaries: Happy Hands, directed by Honey Lauren, which won Best Documentary Short at the Sonoma International Film Festival in 2014Sonoma International Film Festival website, sonomaportal.com; accessed March 10, 2015. and "Nailedit:
Vietnamese and the Nail Industry" which won the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) 2014 Documentary Fund Award. CND and Beauty Changes Lives Foundation (BCL) have announced the BCL CND Tippi Hedren Nail Scholarship Fund to support professional nail education and will be administered starting January 1, 2014.
Hedren was instrumental in helping a desperate Nguyen Thi Chinh to enter the US after the fall of the South Vietnam government in 1975, she arranged for an air ticket and a visa for her then invited her to stay in her house.
Hedren suffered from severe and persistent headaches for a long time, which rendered her unable to accept several projects, including a television series produced by and starring Betty White. After she got a titanium plate put in her neck, she improved and then agreed, with the blessing of her doctor, to take the part of a dying woman in the soap opera Fashion House. While she was rehearsing a scene, a gallon of water fell from the ceiling onto her head. The headaches returned after the incident and persisted. Hedren filed a suit to receive recompense following her inability to work. Hedren's lawyer, Joseph Allen, made a mistake in his discussions with the defendants that allowed them to block him from filing suit. Hedren sued Allen for malpractice. In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Hedren had been awarded a $1.5 million settlement, including $213,400 for past lost earnings and $440,308 for future lost earnings, against her former lawyer. Hedren was hurt by the report since she had not collected the award. She gave an interview to explain that her former lawyer does not have the money to pay her, and discussed how the report put her in a difficult situation since her foundation was in dire need of funds. She explained that she has to raise $75,000 monthly just to keep it going. "Chances are I won't ever even see the money, and that's what hurts so badly, that in all of this pain and suffering that publication ran with a swift and not researched story, which told people around the world who have been so gracious and thoughtful about sending donations, that I no longer needed them."
Filmography
Film
Television
Honours and awards
1964: Most Promising Newcomer Award by Photoplay
1964: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress (shared with Ursula Andress and Elke Sommer)
1994: Life Achievement Award in France at The Beauvais Film Festival Cinemalia
1995: Life Achievement Award in Spain, La Fundación Municipal de Cine
1995: The Helen Woodward Animal Center's Annual Humane Award
1996: Founder's Award from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
1997: Lion and Lamb Award from Wildhaven
1999: Woman of Vision Award from Women of Film and Video in Washington, D.C.
1999: Presidential Medal for her work in film from Hofstra University
1999: Humanitarian Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival
2000: Best Actress in a Comedy Short Award in the short film Mulligans! at the Method Fest, Independent Film Festival
2002: Best Actress Award for the short film Tea with Grandma from the New York International Independent Film Festival
2003: Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2003: Women of Los Angeles Annual Hope is a Woman Honor
2004: PAWS Companion for Life Award
2004: Best Actress Award for the short film Rose's Garden from the Los Angeles TV Short Film Festival
2004: Animal Rights Advocacy Award at Artivist Film Festival
2005: Living Legacy Award
2006: Conservationist of the Year—Dino Award from the Las Vegas Natural History Museum
2007: Lifetime Achievement Award—Riverside Film Festival
2007: Jules Verne "Nature" Award — the 1st Annual Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival of Los Angeles
2008: Academy of Art University's 2nd Epidemic Film Festival Award
2008: Jules Verne Legendaire Award
2008: Thespian Award - LA Femme Film Festival
2009: "When a Woman Wills She Will!" Award by the Woman's Club of Hollywood
2009: Workhouse's first Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award
2009: Received the First Star on the Orinda Theater Walk of Fame
2010: Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Genesis Awards show from the Humane Society
2010: BraveHeart Award
2010: Who-Manitarian Award
2011: Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce at its 90th Annual Installation & Awards Luncheon
2011: "The Women Together Award" from the United Nations
2011: Vietnamese-American Marton Saint Award from the Boat People SOS Organization
2011: Omni Youth Humanitarian/Career Achievement Award
2012: Honorary Masters of Fine Arts Degree from the New York Film Academy
2012: Mayor Career Achievement Award from Starz Denver Film Festival
2013: Legacy of Style Award
2013: "People Helping People" Award by the Touching Live TV Award Show, broadwayworld.com; accessed November 14, 2015.
2014: Lifetime Achievement Award from Bel-Air Film Festival
2014: Special Recognition Award from Acton Women's Club
2014:The Women's International Film & Television Showcase Foundation International Visionary Award, thewifts.org; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Choreography of Desire (A Tribute to Tippi Hedren) by the Vienna International Film Festival, viennale.at; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Believe, Achieve, Empower Award
2017: Waggy Award recipient from the Tailwaggers Foundation
2017: The Icon Award
2018: "Friend for Life Award" from The Palm Springs Animal Shelter
Notes
References
Hedren, Tippi. Tippi: A Memoir, William Morrow, 2016, 288 p.
McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, It Books, 2004 (Reprint), 864 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 340 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 224 p.
Taylor, John Russell. Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock, Bloomsbury Reader, 2013, 318 p. ASIN B00BWL8L0C
Spoto, Donald. Spellbound by Beauty, Three Rivers Press, 2009, 368 p.
Paul, Louis. Tales from the Cult Film Trenches: Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema, McFarland, 2007, 336 p.
Gambin, Lee. Massacred By Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film'', Midnight Marquee Press, Inc., October 8, 2012
External links
1930 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Minnesota
American film actresses
New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
American people of German descent
American people of Norwegian descent
American people of Swedish descent
Big cat attack victims
Keepers of animal sanctuaries
Apex Records artists
Challenge Records artists
Female models from Minnesota
People from New Ulm, Minnesota
Griffith family
| false |
[
"Wingspan is a board game for 1 to 5 players designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and published by Stonemaier Games in 2019. It is a card-driven, engine-building board game in which players compete to attract birds to their wildlife reserves. Wingspan has been met with critical and commercial acclaim for its gameplay, accurate theme, and artwork.The game also won numerous awards including the 2019 Kennerspiel des Jahres for best connoisseur game of the year.\n\nGameplay\nIn Wingspan, players assign birds, which are represented by 170 individually illustrated cards, to the forest, grassland, and wetland habitats. Over the course of four rounds, players put birds in the three different habitats, which are represented by rows on each player's board with space for five birds each.\n\nPlayers can take a limited number of four types of action each round: drawing new birds, placing birds from their hand into their habitat, collecting food, and laying eggs, which have to be spent to play the birds. The strength of each action depends on how many cards are already in that habitat, and additional bonus actions are activated by the birds which are already in the habitat which represents that action.\n\nIn addition to putting birds into their habitats, players score points for objectives achieved during each round and throughout the whole game, eggs accumulated, and food and cards stored on other cards, which represent food collection and predation by a player's birds.\n\nBackground and theme\nThe game was inspired by Hargrave's visits to Lake Artemesia close to where she lives in Maryland, where she would create personal charts of the birds she observed there, with the size of the dataset reaching almost 600 rows by 100 columns. The special powers afforded by the birds in the game closely resemble the unique characteristics of the real birds documented by Hargrave's efforts. During the early stages of the design, Wingspan was initially described as a game in which players are placing and drawing birds with the objective of being the first to place eight birds, but the engine building mechanism was added due to that the designer found that \"there was no arc to the gameplay\".\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nReception\n\nCritical Reviews\nWingspan received widespread acclaim upon release. The game's action system was praised by Matt Thrower from IGN, who described it as \"an excruciating balance between adding birds, feeding them and scoring points\" despite the limited selection of only four in total. The review also positively commented on the replayability due to that each bird card is unique. Nature agreed, noting the replay value of each game due to the unique powers of bird cards and bonus cards. In addition, the strategic decisions for the game were also praised. The diverse interconnections of the bird abilities was commented on by Slate, which stated that the birds were \"knitted together into a web of complex, mutually beneficial relationships\" as the game progresses. New Scientist listed Wingspan as one of the nine the best science-themed board games and described the game containing \"hundreds of beautifully illustrated bird cards with special abilities that synergise as they inhabit a range of environments\". \n\nWingspan's accessibility was strongly praised, with Said Al-Azzawi of the Los Angeles Times also stated that the game's accessibility, stating that it \"strikes the perfect balance between strategy and ease\". The Guardian, in a review of STEM-based games, noted the game's accessibility, stating that \"it deserves to be a hit\". The game's theme was also positively received as increasing accessibility, with Slate noting its appeal with a wide variety of demographics. Similarly, Nature also praised the game's accessibility.\n\nThe component quality of Wingspan and its theme were also well received. Nature described it as \"an obvious labour of love\", stating that the egg components were \"dainty, pastel-hued\" and that the bird cards were \"superbly drawn\". Vox also praised the quality, describing the art as \"field guide-caliber illustrations\" and praised the \"tactile elements\" of the birdfeeder. Ars Technica agreed, praising the components and artwork as \"lavishly produced\". The game's theme was also described to \"flow elegantly from the biology\" by Nature and \"committed to scientific integrity\" by Vox, which also commented on the game's use from well-known bird guides and the database from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The New York Times also wrote on the \"scientific integrity\" of the game.\n\nSales\nWingspan was positively received commercially and sold 44,000 copies worldwide over three printings in its first two months of release, with the publisher issuing a public apology for not having more copies available. The game had sold around 200,000 copies worldwide by the end of 2019. By March 2021, sales of Wingspan had reached 600,000 and 1.3 million by September 2021, which is the highest amount of copies sold for Stonemaier Games.\n\nExpansions \nWingspan European Expansion, the first expansion for Wingspan, was published in 2019 and added 81 new and unique bird cards to the total pool of available bird cards, ten new end of round goals, and five bonus cards. This expansion also included new mechanisms and bird powers, such as birds which benefit from extra food and powers which trigger at the end of the round. Wingspan European Expansion won the 2019 Golden Geek award for best expansion. \n\nThe second expansion, Wingspan Oceania Expansion, was published in late 2020. The Oceania Expansion included 95 bird cards, eight end of round goals, five new player mats, and a new food type called nectar. It won the Golden Geek 2020 award for best expansion. \n\nBeginning with its seventh printing (version STM910), the Swift-Start Promo Pack was included in the base game, a previous promotional package which serves as early walkthrough guides and also includes ten added bird cards, with a goal of helping new players.\n\nDigital Versions \nThe first digital version of the game was released on January 4, 2019 on Tabletopia. Later on February 27, 2019, the game was also released on Steam. According to Slate, Wingspan has sold 125,000 combined copies of digital editions on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox, and iOS. On December 13, 2019, Wingspan European Expansion was also released on Tabletopia and later became available on Steam on January 8, 2020. The adaptation received generally favourable reviews and was praised for its visuals and soundtrack.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal Links\n \n\nBiology-themed board games\nBirds in popular culture\nBoard games introduced in 2019\nKennerspiel des Jahres winners",
"Little Birds is the fourth single by American indie rock band Neutral Milk Hotel. It was written in 1998 but remained officially unreleased until 2011, when it was released as part of Neutral Milk Hotel's Walking Wall of Words compilation package.\nBoth the studio version and the live version were performed solely by Jeff Mangum. The studio version of the song was recorded by friend and regular collaborator Robert Schneider and engineered by Craig Morris, while the live version of the song was recorded by filmmaker and cinematographer Lance Bangs. The album art was designed by Mangum and Mark Ohe.\n\nBackground\n\"Little Birds\" is the only known song by Neutral Milk Hotel written after the release of In the Aeroplane over the Sea of which a recorded version exists. It is also the only post-Aeroplane song that has been performed in public. \nMangum described the song thus:\n\nThe song was also inspired by the murder of Matthew Shepard.\n\nTrack listing\nA-Side\n\"Little Birds\"\n\nB-Side\n\"Little Birds\" (Live)\n\nReferences\n\nNeutral Milk Hotel songs\n2011 singles\n1999 songs\nSongs in memory of Matthew Shepard"
] |
[
"Tippi Hedren",
"The Birds (1963)",
"What can you tell me about The Birds?",
"The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making",
"Was it successful?",
"were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as \"remarkable\".",
"Did she gain any further recognition for this?",
"Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review:",
"What did Variety have to say?",
"\"Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow.",
"How long did she work on The Birds?",
"I don't know.",
"Was The Birds well received by the public?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_c860e15022e34b1dad7537f92a040eb3_0
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
| 7 |
Are there any other interesting aspects about this article, other than Hedren's successful performance in The Birds?
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Tippi Hedren
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The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance." During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying there was nobody but her to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director. Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protegee, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first forty-five minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere magazine as one of the greatest movie characters of all time. CANNOTANSWER
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Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress.
|
Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren (born January 19, 1930) is an American actress, animal rights activist, and former fashion model. She achieved worldwide recognition for her work in two of Alfred Hitchcock's classics: The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Hedren is noted as one of the most famous 'Hitchcock Blondes' and is now one of the last surviving leading stars from Hitchcock's filmography.
A successful fashion model who appeared on the front covers of Life and Glamour magazines, among others, Hedren became an actress after she was discovered by director Alfred Hitchcock while appearing on a television commercial in 1961. She achieved great praise for her work in two of his films: the suspense-thriller The Birds (1963), for which she won a Golden Globe, and the psychological drama Marnie (1964). She has appeared in over 80 films and television shows, including Charlie Chaplin's final film A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), the political satire Citizen Ruth (1996), and the existential comedy I Heart Huckabees (2004). Among other honors, her contributions to world cinema have been recognized with the Jules Verne Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Hedren's strong commitment to animal rescue began in 1969 while she was shooting two films in Africa and was introduced to the plight of African lions. In an attempt to raise awareness for wildlife, she spent over a decade bringing Roar (1981) to the screen. She started her own nonprofit organization, the Roar Foundation, in 1983; it supports the Shambala Preserve, an wildlife habitat that enables her to continue her work in the care and preservation of lions and tigers. Hedren has also set up relief programs worldwide following earthquakes, hurricanes, famine and war. She was also instrumental in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons.
Early life
Nathalie Kay Hedren was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, on January 19, 1930, to Bernard Carl and Dorothea Henrietta (née Eckhardt) Hedren. For much of her career, her year of birth was reported as 1935. In 2004, however, she acknowledged that she was actually born in 1930 (which is consistent with the birth registration index at the Minnesota Historical Society). Her paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants, while her mother was of German and Norwegian descent. Her father ran a small general store in Lafayette, Minnesota, and gave her the nickname "Tippi". When she was four, she moved with her parents to Minneapolis; she has an older sister, Patricia. As a teenager, she took part in department store fashion shows. Her parents relocated to California while she was a high school student at West High School in Minneapolis.
Career
Modeling success (1950–1960)
On reaching her 20th birthday, Hedren bought a ticket to New York City, where she joined the Eileen Ford Agency. Within a year, she made her unofficial film debut as "Miss Ice Box" in the musical comedy The Petty Girl. In interviews, she referred to The Birds, her first credited role, as her first film. Although she received several film offers during that time, Hedren had no interest in acting, as she knew it was very difficult to succeed.
She had a highly successful modeling career during the 1950s and early 1960s, appearing on the covers of Life, The Saturday Evening Post, McCall's, and Glamour, among others. In 1961, after seven years of marriage to the actor Peter Griffith, Hedren divorced and returned to California with her daughter, Melanie, and rented an expensive home in Sherman Oaks. She later said, "I thought I could continue my career as it had been in New York. I thought everything would be just fine, and it wasn't. So I thought, 'well, I don't type, what shall I do?'"
Transition to acting and collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock (1961–1966)
On October 13, 1961, she received a call from an agent who told her a producer was interested in working with her. When she was told it was Alfred Hitchcock, who while watching The Today Show, saw her in a commercial for a diet drink called Sego, she agreed to sign a seven-year contract. During their first meeting, the two talked about everything except the role for which he was considering her. Hedren was convinced for several weeks it was for his television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Hitchcock later said, "I was not primarily concerned with how she looked in person. Most important was her appearance on the screen, and I liked that immediately. She has a touch of that high-style, lady-like quality which was once well-represented in films by actresses like Irene Dunne, Grace Kelly, Claudette Colbert, and others, but which is now quite rare."
Being an unknown actress with little training, Hitchcock put Hedren through an extensive color screen test that lasted two days and cost $25,000, doing scenes from his previous films, such as Rebecca, Notorious, and To Catch a Thief with actor Martin Balsam. According to Balsam, Hedren was very nervous, but studied every line, did every move she was asked to, and tried to do everything right. Hitchcock asked costume designer Edith Head to design clothes for Hedren's private life and he personally advised her about wine and food. He also insisted for publicity purposes that her name should be printed only in single quotes, 'Tippi'. The press mostly ignored this directive from the director, who felt that the single quotes added distinction and mystery to her name. Hitchcock was impressed with Hedren. As production designer Robert F. Boyle explained, "Hitch always liked women who behaved like well-bred ladies. Tippi generated that quality."
Afterward, Hedren was invited to lunch with Hitchcock, his wife, Alma, and Lew Wasserman, head of Universal, at one of Hitchcock's favorite restaurants, Chasen's. There, she was presented with a golden pin of three birds in flight, adorned by three tiny seed pearls, and was asked by Hitchcock to play the leading role in his upcoming film The Birds. "I was so stunned. It never occurred to me that I would be given a leading role in a major motion picture. I had great big tears in my eyes", Hedren later recalled.
The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making, as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music, or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance."
During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying nobody but her was left to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director.
Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protégée, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Varietys review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first 45-minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere as one of the greatest movie characters of all time.
Hitchcock was so impressed with Hedren's acting abilities, he decided to offer her the leading role of his next film, Marnie (1964), a romantic drama and psychological thriller from the novel by Winston Graham, during the filming of The Birds. Hedren was stunned and felt extremely fortunate to be offered to play "such a complicated, sad, tragic woman", and later said, "I consider my acting, while not necessarily being method acting, but one that draws upon my own feelings. I thought Marnie was an extremely interesting role to play and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity". She voiced doubts about her ability to play the demanding role, but Hitchcock assured her she could do it. As opposed to The Birds, where she had received little acting guidance, for this film Hedren studied every scene with Hitchcock.
Hedren recalled Marnie as her favorite of the two films she did with Hitchcock for the challenge of playing an emotionally battered young woman who travels from city to city assuming various guises to rob her employers. During the filming, Hitchcock was quoted as saying about Hedren, "an Academy Award performance is in the making". On release, the film was greeted by mixed reviews and indifferent box-office returns, and received no Oscar nominations. Variety wrote, "Hedren returns in a particularly demanding role. Miss Hedren, undertaking a role originally offered Grace Kelly for a resumption of her screen career, lends credence to a part never sympathetic. It's a difficult assignment which she fulfills satisfactorily." Hedren later said that Marnie was "ahead of its time" because "people didn't talk about childhood and its effects on adult life. It was taboo to discuss sexuality and psychology and to put all that into a film was shocking." Despite its original lukewarm reception, the film was later acclaimed and described as a "masterpiece" and Hedren's performance is now regarded as one of the finest in any Hitchcock film. Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote in his 2016 review of the film "Hedren's performance is one of the greatest in the history of cinema."
Marnie was the second and last collaboration between Hedren and Hitchcock. In 1973, she admitted that a major lifestyle difference caused a split in their relationship. "He was too possessive and too demanding. I cannot be possessed by anyone. But, then, that's my own hangup". In 1983, author Donald Spoto published his second book about Hitchcock, The Dark Side of Genius, for which Hedren agreed to talk for the first time in detail about her relationship with the director.
The book was controversial, as several of Hitchcock's friends claimed the Hitchcock portrayed in the book was not the man they knew. For years after its release, Hedren was not keen to talk about it in interviews, but thought the chapter devoted to her story was "accurate as to just what he was". Hedren later explained her long silence before telling her story, "It was embarrassing and insulting—there were a lot of reasons why I didn't want to tell the story. I didn't want it to be taken advantage of, twisted, turned, and made into an even uglier situation than it was".
According to Spoto's book, Hitchcock brought in two members of his crew during the filming of The Birds and asked them to keep careful watch on the activities of Hedren, "when she left the set—where she went, who she visited, how she spent her free time". He then advised her on what she should eat, whom she should see, and how she should live. He told the cast and crew they were not allowed to talk to her. Hedren's co-star in The Birds, Rod Taylor, later remembered, "Hitch was becoming very domineering and covetous of 'Tippi', and it was very difficult for her. No one was permitted to come physically close to her during the production. 'Don't touch the girl after I call "Cut!"' he said to me repeatedly". Hitchcock also attempted, on one occasion, to grab and violently kiss Hedren in the back of a car as they drove onto the set. Hedren told his assistant, Peggy Robertson, and the studio chief, Lew Wasserman, that she was becoming very unhappy about the whole situation. "But he was Alfred Hitchcock, the great and famous director, and I was Tippi Hedren, an inexperienced actress who had no clout". She decided she could not quit her contract because she was afraid to be blacklisted and unable to find work. Hedren's own daughter, Melanie Griffith, remembered that while Hedren was doing The Birds, she thought Hitchcock was taking her mother away from her. "Suddenly, I wasn't allowed even to visit my mom at the studio".
During the filming of Marnie, Hedren found Hitchcock's behavior toward her increasingly difficult to bear as filming progressed. "Everyone—I mean everyone—knew he was obsessed with me. He always wanted a glass of wine or champagne, with me alone, at the end of the day. He was really isolating me from everyone". Hedren's co-star in Marnie, Diane Baker, later recalled, "She was never allowed to gather around with the rest of us, and he demanded that every conversation between her and Hitch be held in private... Nothing could have been more horrible for me than to arrive on that movie set and to see her being treated the way she was".
Hitchcock revealed to Hedren one day he had a recurring dream where she came up to him and said, "Hitch, I love you—I'll always love you". When she heard this, Hedren replied "But it was a dream. Just a dream", and excused herself from his presence. She believed Hitchcock had no consideration for her feelings and remembered she was humiliated after he asked her to touch him, just before shooting a scene. "He made sure no one else could hear, and his tone and glance made it clear exactly what he meant". Hedren asked Hitchcock's permission one day to travel to New York to appear on The Tonight Show, where she was supposed to be presented an award as the "Most Promising New Star". Hitchcock refused, according to his biographer, because he claimed the break would affect her performance. During that meeting, he apparently "made an overt sexual proposition" that Hedren "could neither ignore nor answer casually, as she could his previous gestures". In Spoto's third book about Hitchcock, Spellbound by Beauty (2008), Hedren revealed that Hitchcock actually made offensive demands on her. "He stared at me and simply said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that from this time on, he expected me to make myself sexually available and accessible to him—however and whenever and wherever he wanted". Hitchcock's demands led to a "horrible, horrible fight", according to Hedren. "He made these demands on me, and no way could I acquiesce to them".
Hedren then told him Marnie would be their last film together and later recalled how Hitchcock told her he would destroy her career. "I said I wanted to get out of my contract. He said: 'You can't. You have your daughter to support, and your parents are getting older'. I said: 'Nobody would want me to be in this situation, I want to get out'. And he said: 'I'll ruin your career'. I said: 'Do what you have to do'. And he did ruin my career. He kept me under contract, paid me to do nothing for close on two years". Hedren felt so humiliated, she called the director a "fat pig" in front of people on the set. Hitchcock made only a comment about it to his biographer, John Russell Taylor: "She did what no one is permitted to do. She referred to my weight". The two communicated only through a third party for the rest of the film. According to Marnie'''s screenwriter, Jay Presson Allen, Hitchcock was "mad" for Hedren. She felt unhappy for both and described the situation as "an old man's cri de coeur", adding that Hitchcock had a "Pygmalion complex about Tippi". She advised Hedren to finish the film and then get on with her life and be happy. Hedren's hairdresser, Virginia Darcy, even told Hitchcock he should not be possessive with Hedren. "Tippi felt rightly that she was not his property, but he'd say, 'You are, I have a contract'". Although Hitchcock thought he might mend fences with Hedren and make another film with her, she refused to reconsider her decision. Hedren's contract terms gave Hitchcock the final say as to any work she could take on and he used that power to turn down several film roles on her behalf. She was particularly disappointed when French director François Truffaut told her he had wanted her for one of them. In 1966, Hitchcock finally sold her contract to Universal Studios after Hedren appeared in two of their TV shows, Kraft Suspense Theatre (1965) and Run for Your Life (id.). The studio ultimately released her from her contract after she refused to appear on a television Western for them.
In 2012, The Girl, an HBO/BBC film about Hedren and Hitchcock's relationship, based on Donald Spoto's 2009 book Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, was released. When she was first told about the project, Hedren said she had mixed feelings about it, "To be still alive and have a film made about you is an awesome and incredibly frightening experience". Hedren and Hitchcock were respectively portrayed by Sienna Miller and Toby Jones.
Although she was thrilled with the choice of Miller, Hedren was worried she would not be portrayed "as strong a character as I was—and still am. I had to be extremely strong to fight off Mr. Hitchcock". She described the moment she saw the film as "probably one of the most involved, emotionally tense 90 minutes that I have ever lived". Upon the film's release, Hedren said although she believed the film accurately portrays Hitchcock's behavior towards her, the time constraints of a 90-minute film prevented telling the entire story of her career with him. "It wasn't a constant barrage of harassment. If it had been constantly the way we have had to do it in this film, I would have been long gone". She recalled there were times she described as "absolutely delightful and wonderful”, and insisted that “Hitchcock had a charm about him. He was very funny at times. He was incredibly brilliant in his field". The film was controversial, as others who knew and worked with Hitchcock responded to it negatively. Kim Novak, who worked on Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), disputed Hitchcock's portrayal as a sexual predator in The Girl: "I never saw him make a pass at anybody or act strange to anybody. And wouldn't you think if he was that way, I would've seen it or at least seen him with somebody? I think it's unfortunate when someone's no longer around and can't defend themselves". Novak previously described Hitchcock as a gentleman, and when asked about reports of his behavior, she said, "Maybe I just wasn't his type". Novak also stated, "I won't dispute Tippi if that's what she saw."
Hedren herself was asked why her account of sexual harassment contrasted with the many interviews she gave about her time with Hitchcock, her presence at the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony honoring him in 1979, and her presence at his funeral. She explained that, "He ruined my career, but he didn't ruin my life. That time of my life was over. I still admire the man for who he was". She also said, "I've been able to separate the two. The man who was the artist. I mean, what he gave to the motion picture industry can never be taken away from him and I certainly wouldn't want to try. But on the other side, there is that dark side that was really awful".
Career setbacks (1967–1973)
Hedren's first feature film appearance after Marnie was in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. She was told by writer-director Charlie Chaplin that she was offered a major supporting role as Brando's estranged wife and had to accept the role without reading the script. However, when she arrived in England where the filming took place, she finally received the script and realized that her part was little more than a cameo. She asked Chaplin why he lied to her. "Every actor in the world was asking if they could do this film, to just do a walk-on, without even being paid for it. When I said, 'Why didn't you just tell me that it was a cameo? I would have done this film anyway,' he said, 'I didn't think you would come,' which was very sweet. He was a very clever man." Hedren asked Chaplin to expand the role, and although he tried to accommodate her, he could not, as the story mostly takes place on a ship, which Hedren's character boards near the end of the film. In the end, she remained in the film and later said that it was both amusing and strange to work with Chaplin. She found him to be a very serious man and loved his approach to directing. She later said, "I wish someone would have been allowed to do a documentary. The way he directed was unlike anyone I ever saw. He acted out all the parts himself. He did Sophia's part, then Marlon's part, then mine, and then he'd say, 'Okay, now you can do it.' Which would be impossible, to mimic the master. It was incredible. None of us believed it. Marlon hated it."
After the release of A Countess from Hong Kong, Hedren's career was described as "spectacular" by the press. She told a reporter at the time, "I don't want to wait myself out of this business, but working for Hitch and Charlie has been very special to me, and now I'm going to wait for something special to come along". In 1968, she signed on to do the American Civil War drama Five Against Kansas with Farley Granger and Jeffrey Hunter, but the project was never realized. In 1968, Hedren returned to film as a socialite who helps her boyfriend (played by George Armstrong) catch a killer, in Tiger by the Tail. From 1970 to 1971, she guest-starred twice on The Courtship of Eddie's Father. She agreed to take part in Satan's Harvest (1970) and Mister Kingstreet's War (1973)—which were shot back-to-back despite the discrepancy in their release dates—for the sole reason that they were being filmed in Africa. In 1973, Hedren played a teacher of an experimental sex school in The Harrad Experiment, which starred James Whitmore and Don Johnson—the latter who later became the husband of her daughter, Melanie Griffith. Hedren felt that the film "deals with vital themes—themes like the decline in importance of ideas like possession and jealousy and, by inference, marriage. I have four teenaged children and I think this picture says some valuable things to them." She confessed at the time she was occasionally depressed because she was not doing any major films and told a magazine, "My husband just cancelled all the trade magazines because he felt I should cut off the source of my discontent. He's the type who won't stand for sustained down feelings".
Roar (1974–1981)
Hedren and husband Noel Marshall watched a pride of lions move into a house after a game warden moved out in 1969, during the filming of Satan's Harvest in Africa. She said, "We were delighted with the way they adapted themselves to living there. And they were so funny we knew we had an idea for a picture." Marshall wrote a script titled Lions, Lions and More Lions based on their experience; it was retitled Roar and centered on a family's misadventures in a research park filled with lions, tigers, and other wild cats.
Hedren played the lead role and co-starred with her daughter Melanie, husband Marshall, and his own sons Jerry and John. They attempted to rent Hollywood animals for a nine-month shoot, but upon approaching animal trainers for support, they were discouraged and nobody would rent them 30 or 40 lions, as the script required, because of their natural tendency to fight. They were encouraged to start collecting and training their own exotic beasts. Animal trainer Ron Oxley told them, "to get to know about lions, you've got to live with them for a while". They started to raise a lion cub named Neil in their Sherman Oaks house and made sure that the animal slept in their bed. Life photographer Michael Rougier documented their life in 1971 and photographed the lion with the whole family inside and outside the house, from Hedren's daughter's bed to the living room to the swimming pool. After complaints from their neighbors, Hedren and Marshall bought a ranch outside of Los Angeles in Acton that would serve as the set for Roar. They got permission there to rescue and raise several lions, tigers, African elephants, and other exotic felines.
Filming started in 1974 and took five years just to complete the photography. Every scene involving lions was improvised and shot with four or sometimes eight cameras. More than 100 people worked on the film, as well as more than 150 untrained lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs. During production, no animals were hurt, but more than 70 members of the cast and crew were mauled. Hedren fractured a leg and also had scalp wounds when an elephant bucked her off its back while she was riding it. She was also bitten in the neck by a lion and required 38 stitches; this incident can be seen in the film. Melanie Griffith was also attacked, receiving 50 stitches to her face; it was feared that she would lose an eye, but she recovered and was not disfigured. Marshall was attacked so many times that he eventually was diagnosed with gangrene. In one of those incidents, he was clawed by a cheetah when protecting the animals during a bushfire that occurred in 1979. All animals were evacuated, and several years were needed for him to recover from his injuries. In 1978, a flood destroyed the movie sets and killed three of the lions. The project was set back several years. Hedren said that they were all determined to finish the film: "We were so sure the film was going to be a success that we thought everything (financing the ranch and the lions, etc.) would take care of itself."Roar was released worldwide in 1981 with the exception of the United States, because according to Hedren, "The United States distributors wanted the lion's share of the profits, and we thought it ought to go to the beautiful animals that made the movie." The film cost $17 million and grossed only $2 million, but it was a turning point in Hedren's life. In 1983, she established the nonprofit The Roar Foundation to take care of the big cats. "After our movie was over," she explained, "it was unconscionable to see the animals go any place else." Roar was re-released in 2015, but Hedren declined to discuss it, as she felt that promotion for the film was filled with "inaccuracies".
Later career (1982–present)
After Roar, Hedren accepted any low-budget television or cinema role that could help bring funds to her foundation to provide protection, shelter, care, and maintenance for the animals at the Shambala Preserve. In 1982, she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen in Foxfire Light. She appeared in several television series, including Hart to Hart in 1983 and the late-night horror series Tales from the Darkside in 1984. In the 1985 pilot episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, she made a brief appearance as a waitress in a bar who berates a customer, played by her daughter Melanie Griffith. In 1990, she had a nonspeaking, minor part as a wealthy widow romanced by Michael Keaton in the film Pacific Heights (1990), which also starred her daughter. That same year, she had a role on The Bold and the Beautiful, a daytime soap opera she said she was "proud to have in my resume".
In 1994, Hedren appeared in the made-for-cable sequel, The Birds II: Land's End, in a role different from the one she had played in the original. She was, however, disappointed that she did not get a starring role and admitted before the film's release, "I wish that it was more than a cameo. I think they made a mistake by not doing that, but it has helped me to feed my lions and tigers." When asked about what could have been Hitchcock's opinion on the film, she answered: "I'd hate to think what he would say!" In a 2007 interview, Hedren said of the film, "It's absolutely horrible, it embarrasses me horribly."
From 1994 to 1996, Hedren had a guest-starring role in Dream On. The sitcom gave her "the opportunity to do comedy. I'd never done comedy before and it was just wonderful for me to be able to do that. Everybody just thought of me as a serious actress, so I owe that to John Landis (the executive producer), giving me that opportunity." In 1996, she played an abortion rights activist in Alexander Payne's political satire Citizen Ruth with Laura Dern. In 1998, she co-starred alongside Billy Zane and Christina Ricci in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, a film she felt was "incredible". "I must say I really love that film. It was a unique kind of film to do also, because of the fact that it had no dialogue in it. It was very, very different". That same year, she guest-starred in a special episode titled "Psychodrama" of the television series Chicago Hope, that paid tribute to the Hitchcock movies. Hedren's character, Alfreda Perkins, was a reference to Alfred Hitchcock and actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in the director's 1960 film Psycho.
After appearing in a number of little-exposed films between 1999 and 2003, Hedren had a small but showy role in the 2004 David O. Russell comedy I Heart Huckabees, as a foul-mouthed attractive older woman who slaps Jude Law in an elevator. She felt that the director, who had a reputation for being difficult, was "totally crazy", but also "very interesting. I was able to work well with him." She also added it was a strange experience as, "... all of a sudden, he'd be like, 'Now I'm going to do it this way,' and you'd think, 'How is he going to edit this? How is this going to work?' But he made it work." In 2006, Hedren was a cast member of the short-lived primetime soap opera Fashion House with Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild, and continued to guest-star in television series such as The 4400 (2006) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008). In 2012, Hedren and her daughter guest-starred together on an episode of Raising Hope. That same year, she appeared in Free Samples, an indie film where she had a supporting role as an old movie star. In 2013, she made an appearance as herself in the fourth-season finale of Cougar Town.
Hedren published her autobiography, Tippi: A Memoir, co-written with Lindsay Harrison, in 2016 through William Morrow and Company, as she felt it was "about time I stop letting everyone else tell my story and finally tell it myself." In 2018, at age 88, Hedren became the new face of Gucci's timepieces and jewelry and starred as a mysterious fortune teller in the brand's commercial ad, The Fortune Teller.
Influence
A Louis Vuitton ad campaign in 2006 paid tribute to Hedren and Hitchcock with a modern-day interpretation of the deserted railway station opening sequence of Marnie. Her look from The Birds (1963) inspired designer Bill Gaytten to design for John Galliano Pre-Fall 2012 collection.
Naomi Watts stated that her character interpretation in Mulholland Drive (2001) was influenced by the look and performances of Hedren in Hitchcock films. Watts and Hedren both appeared in I ♥ Huckabees (2004), but did not share any scenes together. Off screen, the film's director David O. Russell introduced them both, and Watts said of Hedren: "I was pretty fascinated by her then, because people have often said we're alike." Watts dressed up as Hedren's title character from Marnie for a photo shoot for March 2008 issue of Vanity Fair. In the same issue, Jodie Foster dressed up as Hedren's character, Melanie Daniels, from The Birds.
Shambala Preserve
In 1981, Hedren produced Roar, an 11-year project that ended up costing $17 million and starred dozens of African lions. "This was probably one of the most dangerous films that Hollywood has ever seen", remarked the actress. "It's amazing no one was killed." During the production of Roar, Hedren, her husband at the time, Noel Marshall, and daughter Melanie were attacked by lions; Jan de Bont, the director of photography, was scalped. Hedren later co-wrote Cats of Shambala (1985) about the experience. Roar made only $2 million worldwide. Hedren ended her marriage to Marshall a year later in 1982. The film directly led to the 1983 establishment of the nonprofit The Roar Foundation and Hedren's Shambala Preserve, located at the edge of the Mojave Desert in Acton, California, between the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley, northeast of Los Angeles. Shambala houses some 70 animals. Hedren lives on the Shambala site and conducts monthly tours of the preserve for the public. In a 2015 interview with magazine Ability, Hedren emphasized that there is no human contact with the animals and that all of the cats are spayed and neutered, since they are being raised in captivity. Hedren was the founding president of the American Sanctuary Association, a post she still holds.
She took in and cared for Togar, a lion that belonged to Anton LaVey, after he was told by San Francisco officials that he could not keep a fully grown lion as a house pet. Shambala became the new home for Michael Jackson's two Bengal tigers, Sabu and Thriller, after he decided to close his zoo at his Neverland Valley Ranch in Los Olivos. Thriller died in June 2012 of lung cancer.
On December 3, 2007, Shambala Preserve made headlines when Chris Orr, a caretaker for the animals, was mauled by a tiger named Alexander. Several documentaries have focused on Shambala Preserve, including the 30-minute Lions: Kings of the Serengeti (1995), narrated by Melanie Griffith, and Animal Planet's Life with Big Cats (1998), which won the Genesis Award for best documentary in 1999. The animals at the preserve served as the initial inspiration for the life's work of artist A.E. London, who started her career working for Hedren.
As of 2020, Hedren still maintains more than a dozen lions and tigers; her granddaughter Dakota Johnson is involved in their care.
Personal life
In 1952, Hedren met and married 18-year-old future advertising executive Peter Griffith. Their daughter, actress Melanie Griffith, was born on August 9, 1957. They were divorced in 1961. On September 27, 1964, Hedren married her then-agent Noel Marshall, who later produced three of her films; they divorced in 1982. In 1985, she married steel manufacturer Luis Barrenechea, but they divorced in 1992. Hedren was engaged to veterinarian Martin Dinnes from 2002 until their breakup in mid-2008. In September 2008, Hedren told The Sunday Times "I'm waiting for someone to sweep me off my feet." Hedren's granddaughter Dakota Johnson is also an actress.
Hedren played a role in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons in the United States. In 1975, while an international relief coordinator with Food for the Hungry, she began visiting with refugees at Hope Village outside Sacramento, California. When she learned the women were interested in her manicured nails, she employed her manicurist to teach them the skills of the trade and worked with a local beauty school to help them find jobs. Hedren's work with the Vietnamese-Americans was the subject of several documentaries: Happy Hands, directed by Honey Lauren, which won Best Documentary Short at the Sonoma International Film Festival in 2014Sonoma International Film Festival website, sonomaportal.com; accessed March 10, 2015. and "Nailedit:
Vietnamese and the Nail Industry" which won the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) 2014 Documentary Fund Award. CND and Beauty Changes Lives Foundation (BCL) have announced the BCL CND Tippi Hedren Nail Scholarship Fund to support professional nail education and will be administered starting January 1, 2014.
Hedren was instrumental in helping a desperate Nguyen Thi Chinh to enter the US after the fall of the South Vietnam government in 1975, she arranged for an air ticket and a visa for her then invited her to stay in her house.
Hedren suffered from severe and persistent headaches for a long time, which rendered her unable to accept several projects, including a television series produced by and starring Betty White. After she got a titanium plate put in her neck, she improved and then agreed, with the blessing of her doctor, to take the part of a dying woman in the soap opera Fashion House. While she was rehearsing a scene, a gallon of water fell from the ceiling onto her head. The headaches returned after the incident and persisted. Hedren filed a suit to receive recompense following her inability to work. Hedren's lawyer, Joseph Allen, made a mistake in his discussions with the defendants that allowed them to block him from filing suit. Hedren sued Allen for malpractice. In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Hedren had been awarded a $1.5 million settlement, including $213,400 for past lost earnings and $440,308 for future lost earnings, against her former lawyer. Hedren was hurt by the report since she had not collected the award. She gave an interview to explain that her former lawyer does not have the money to pay her, and discussed how the report put her in a difficult situation since her foundation was in dire need of funds. She explained that she has to raise $75,000 monthly just to keep it going. "Chances are I won't ever even see the money, and that's what hurts so badly, that in all of this pain and suffering that publication ran with a swift and not researched story, which told people around the world who have been so gracious and thoughtful about sending donations, that I no longer needed them."
Filmography
Film
Television
Honours and awards
1964: Most Promising Newcomer Award by Photoplay
1964: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress (shared with Ursula Andress and Elke Sommer)
1994: Life Achievement Award in France at The Beauvais Film Festival Cinemalia
1995: Life Achievement Award in Spain, La Fundación Municipal de Cine
1995: The Helen Woodward Animal Center's Annual Humane Award
1996: Founder's Award from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
1997: Lion and Lamb Award from Wildhaven
1999: Woman of Vision Award from Women of Film and Video in Washington, D.C.
1999: Presidential Medal for her work in film from Hofstra University
1999: Humanitarian Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival
2000: Best Actress in a Comedy Short Award in the short film Mulligans! at the Method Fest, Independent Film Festival
2002: Best Actress Award for the short film Tea with Grandma from the New York International Independent Film Festival
2003: Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2003: Women of Los Angeles Annual Hope is a Woman Honor
2004: PAWS Companion for Life Award
2004: Best Actress Award for the short film Rose's Garden from the Los Angeles TV Short Film Festival
2004: Animal Rights Advocacy Award at Artivist Film Festival
2005: Living Legacy Award
2006: Conservationist of the Year—Dino Award from the Las Vegas Natural History Museum
2007: Lifetime Achievement Award—Riverside Film Festival
2007: Jules Verne "Nature" Award — the 1st Annual Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival of Los Angeles
2008: Academy of Art University's 2nd Epidemic Film Festival Award
2008: Jules Verne Legendaire Award
2008: Thespian Award - LA Femme Film Festival
2009: "When a Woman Wills She Will!" Award by the Woman's Club of Hollywood
2009: Workhouse's first Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award
2009: Received the First Star on the Orinda Theater Walk of Fame
2010: Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Genesis Awards show from the Humane Society
2010: BraveHeart Award
2010: Who-Manitarian Award
2011: Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce at its 90th Annual Installation & Awards Luncheon
2011: "The Women Together Award" from the United Nations
2011: Vietnamese-American Marton Saint Award from the Boat People SOS Organization
2011: Omni Youth Humanitarian/Career Achievement Award
2012: Honorary Masters of Fine Arts Degree from the New York Film Academy
2012: Mayor Career Achievement Award from Starz Denver Film Festival
2013: Legacy of Style Award
2013: "People Helping People" Award by the Touching Live TV Award Show, broadwayworld.com; accessed November 14, 2015.
2014: Lifetime Achievement Award from Bel-Air Film Festival
2014: Special Recognition Award from Acton Women's Club
2014:The Women's International Film & Television Showcase Foundation International Visionary Award, thewifts.org; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Choreography of Desire (A Tribute to Tippi Hedren) by the Vienna International Film Festival, viennale.at; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Believe, Achieve, Empower Award
2017: Waggy Award recipient from the Tailwaggers Foundation
2017: The Icon Award
2018: "Friend for Life Award" from The Palm Springs Animal Shelter
Notes
References
Hedren, Tippi. Tippi: A Memoir, William Morrow, 2016, 288 p.
McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, It Books, 2004 (Reprint), 864 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 340 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 224 p.
Taylor, John Russell. Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock, Bloomsbury Reader, 2013, 318 p. ASIN B00BWL8L0C
Spoto, Donald. Spellbound by Beauty, Three Rivers Press, 2009, 368 p.
Paul, Louis. Tales from the Cult Film Trenches: Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema, McFarland, 2007, 336 p.
Gambin, Lee. Massacred By Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film'', Midnight Marquee Press, Inc., October 8, 2012
External links
1930 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Minnesota
American film actresses
New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
American people of German descent
American people of Norwegian descent
American people of Swedish descent
Big cat attack victims
Keepers of animal sanctuaries
Apex Records artists
Challenge Records artists
Female models from Minnesota
People from New Ulm, Minnesota
Griffith family
| 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"
] |
[
"Tippi Hedren",
"The Birds (1963)",
"What can you tell me about The Birds?",
"The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making",
"Was it successful?",
"were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as \"remarkable\".",
"Did she gain any further recognition for this?",
"Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review:",
"What did Variety have to say?",
"\"Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow.",
"How long did she work on The Birds?",
"I don't know.",
"Was The Birds well received by the public?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress."
] |
C_c860e15022e34b1dad7537f92a040eb3_0
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Did she receive any other awards?
| 8 |
Did Hedren receive any awards other than the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year?
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Tippi Hedren
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The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance." During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying there was nobody but her to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director. Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protegee, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Variety's review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first forty-five minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere magazine as one of the greatest movie characters of all time. CANNOTANSWER
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Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere magazine as one of the greatest movie characters of all time.
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Nathalie Kay "Tippi" Hedren (born January 19, 1930) is an American actress, animal rights activist, and former fashion model. She achieved worldwide recognition for her work in two of Alfred Hitchcock's classics: The Birds (1963) and Marnie (1964). Hedren is noted as one of the most famous 'Hitchcock Blondes' and is now one of the last surviving leading stars from Hitchcock's filmography.
A successful fashion model who appeared on the front covers of Life and Glamour magazines, among others, Hedren became an actress after she was discovered by director Alfred Hitchcock while appearing on a television commercial in 1961. She achieved great praise for her work in two of his films: the suspense-thriller The Birds (1963), for which she won a Golden Globe, and the psychological drama Marnie (1964). She has appeared in over 80 films and television shows, including Charlie Chaplin's final film A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), the political satire Citizen Ruth (1996), and the existential comedy I Heart Huckabees (2004). Among other honors, her contributions to world cinema have been recognized with the Jules Verne Award and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Hedren's strong commitment to animal rescue began in 1969 while she was shooting two films in Africa and was introduced to the plight of African lions. In an attempt to raise awareness for wildlife, she spent over a decade bringing Roar (1981) to the screen. She started her own nonprofit organization, the Roar Foundation, in 1983; it supports the Shambala Preserve, an wildlife habitat that enables her to continue her work in the care and preservation of lions and tigers. Hedren has also set up relief programs worldwide following earthquakes, hurricanes, famine and war. She was also instrumental in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons.
Early life
Nathalie Kay Hedren was born in New Ulm, Minnesota, on January 19, 1930, to Bernard Carl and Dorothea Henrietta (née Eckhardt) Hedren. For much of her career, her year of birth was reported as 1935. In 2004, however, she acknowledged that she was actually born in 1930 (which is consistent with the birth registration index at the Minnesota Historical Society). Her paternal grandparents were Swedish immigrants, while her mother was of German and Norwegian descent. Her father ran a small general store in Lafayette, Minnesota, and gave her the nickname "Tippi". When she was four, she moved with her parents to Minneapolis; she has an older sister, Patricia. As a teenager, she took part in department store fashion shows. Her parents relocated to California while she was a high school student at West High School in Minneapolis.
Career
Modeling success (1950–1960)
On reaching her 20th birthday, Hedren bought a ticket to New York City, where she joined the Eileen Ford Agency. Within a year, she made her unofficial film debut as "Miss Ice Box" in the musical comedy The Petty Girl. In interviews, she referred to The Birds, her first credited role, as her first film. Although she received several film offers during that time, Hedren had no interest in acting, as she knew it was very difficult to succeed.
She had a highly successful modeling career during the 1950s and early 1960s, appearing on the covers of Life, The Saturday Evening Post, McCall's, and Glamour, among others. In 1961, after seven years of marriage to the actor Peter Griffith, Hedren divorced and returned to California with her daughter, Melanie, and rented an expensive home in Sherman Oaks. She later said, "I thought I could continue my career as it had been in New York. I thought everything would be just fine, and it wasn't. So I thought, 'well, I don't type, what shall I do?'"
Transition to acting and collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock (1961–1966)
On October 13, 1961, she received a call from an agent who told her a producer was interested in working with her. When she was told it was Alfred Hitchcock, who while watching The Today Show, saw her in a commercial for a diet drink called Sego, she agreed to sign a seven-year contract. During their first meeting, the two talked about everything except the role for which he was considering her. Hedren was convinced for several weeks it was for his television series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Hitchcock later said, "I was not primarily concerned with how she looked in person. Most important was her appearance on the screen, and I liked that immediately. She has a touch of that high-style, lady-like quality which was once well-represented in films by actresses like Irene Dunne, Grace Kelly, Claudette Colbert, and others, but which is now quite rare."
Being an unknown actress with little training, Hitchcock put Hedren through an extensive color screen test that lasted two days and cost $25,000, doing scenes from his previous films, such as Rebecca, Notorious, and To Catch a Thief with actor Martin Balsam. According to Balsam, Hedren was very nervous, but studied every line, did every move she was asked to, and tried to do everything right. Hitchcock asked costume designer Edith Head to design clothes for Hedren's private life and he personally advised her about wine and food. He also insisted for publicity purposes that her name should be printed only in single quotes, 'Tippi'. The press mostly ignored this directive from the director, who felt that the single quotes added distinction and mystery to her name. Hitchcock was impressed with Hedren. As production designer Robert F. Boyle explained, "Hitch always liked women who behaved like well-bred ladies. Tippi generated that quality."
Afterward, Hedren was invited to lunch with Hitchcock, his wife, Alma, and Lew Wasserman, head of Universal, at one of Hitchcock's favorite restaurants, Chasen's. There, she was presented with a golden pin of three birds in flight, adorned by three tiny seed pearls, and was asked by Hitchcock to play the leading role in his upcoming film The Birds. "I was so stunned. It never occurred to me that I would be given a leading role in a major motion picture. I had great big tears in my eyes", Hedren later recalled.
The Birds (1963) was Hedren's screen debut. Hitchcock became her drama coach, and gave her an education in film-making, as she attended many of the production meetings such as script, music, or photography conferences. Hedren said, "I probably learned in three years what it would have taken me 15 years to learn otherwise." She learned how to break down a script, to become another character, and to study the relationship of different characters. Hedren portrayed her role of Melanie Daniels as Hitchcock requested. She said, "He gives his actors very little leeway. He'll listen, but he has a very definite plan in mind as to how he wants his characters to act. With me, it was understandable, because I was not an actress of stature. I welcomed his guidance."
During the six months of principal photography, Hedren's schedule was tight, as she was only given one afternoon off a week. At first, she found the shooting "wonderful". Hitchcock told a reporter, after a few weeks of filming, that she was remarkable, and said, "She's already reaching the lows and highs of terror." Nonetheless, Hedren recalled the week she did the final bird attack scene in a second-floor bedroom as the worst of her life. Before filming it, she asked Hitchcock about her character's motivations to go upstairs, and his response was, "Because I tell you to." She was then assured that the crew would use mechanical birds. Instead, Hedren endured five solid days of prop men, protected by thick leather gloves, flinging dozens of live gulls, ravens and crows at her (their beaks clamped shut with elastic bands). In a state of exhaustion, when one of the birds gouged her cheek and narrowly missed her eye, Hedren sat down on the set and began crying. A physician ordered a week's rest. Hitchcock protested, according to Hedren, saying nobody but her was left to film. The doctor's reply was, "Are you trying to kill her?" She said the week also appeared to be an ordeal for the director.
Universal's executives, who did not back Hitchcock's decision to hire Hedren in the first place, were impressed with her performance and Wasserman described it as "remarkable". While promoting The Birds, Hitchcock was full of praise for his new protégée, and compared her to Grace Kelly. "Tippi has a faster tempo, city glibness, more humor [than Grace Kelly]. She displayed jaunty assuredness, pertness, an attractive throw of the head. And she memorized and read lines extraordinarily well and is sharper in expression." The film was screened out of competition in May at a prestigious invitational showing at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. Hedren's performance was praised in Varietys review: "Aside from the birds, the film belongs to Hedren, who makes an auspicious screen bow. She virtually has to carry the picture alone for the first 45-minute stretch, prior to the advent of the first wave of organized attackers from the sky. Miss Hedren has a star quality and Hitchcock has provided her with a potent vehicle to launch her career". Hedren received the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year, tied with Elke Sommer and Ursula Andress. Her role as Melanie Daniels was named by Premiere as one of the greatest movie characters of all time.
Hitchcock was so impressed with Hedren's acting abilities, he decided to offer her the leading role of his next film, Marnie (1964), a romantic drama and psychological thriller from the novel by Winston Graham, during the filming of The Birds. Hedren was stunned and felt extremely fortunate to be offered to play "such a complicated, sad, tragic woman", and later said, "I consider my acting, while not necessarily being method acting, but one that draws upon my own feelings. I thought Marnie was an extremely interesting role to play and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity". She voiced doubts about her ability to play the demanding role, but Hitchcock assured her she could do it. As opposed to The Birds, where she had received little acting guidance, for this film Hedren studied every scene with Hitchcock.
Hedren recalled Marnie as her favorite of the two films she did with Hitchcock for the challenge of playing an emotionally battered young woman who travels from city to city assuming various guises to rob her employers. During the filming, Hitchcock was quoted as saying about Hedren, "an Academy Award performance is in the making". On release, the film was greeted by mixed reviews and indifferent box-office returns, and received no Oscar nominations. Variety wrote, "Hedren returns in a particularly demanding role. Miss Hedren, undertaking a role originally offered Grace Kelly for a resumption of her screen career, lends credence to a part never sympathetic. It's a difficult assignment which she fulfills satisfactorily." Hedren later said that Marnie was "ahead of its time" because "people didn't talk about childhood and its effects on adult life. It was taboo to discuss sexuality and psychology and to put all that into a film was shocking." Despite its original lukewarm reception, the film was later acclaimed and described as a "masterpiece" and Hedren's performance is now regarded as one of the finest in any Hitchcock film. Richard Brody of The New Yorker wrote in his 2016 review of the film "Hedren's performance is one of the greatest in the history of cinema."
Marnie was the second and last collaboration between Hedren and Hitchcock. In 1973, she admitted that a major lifestyle difference caused a split in their relationship. "He was too possessive and too demanding. I cannot be possessed by anyone. But, then, that's my own hangup". In 1983, author Donald Spoto published his second book about Hitchcock, The Dark Side of Genius, for which Hedren agreed to talk for the first time in detail about her relationship with the director.
The book was controversial, as several of Hitchcock's friends claimed the Hitchcock portrayed in the book was not the man they knew. For years after its release, Hedren was not keen to talk about it in interviews, but thought the chapter devoted to her story was "accurate as to just what he was". Hedren later explained her long silence before telling her story, "It was embarrassing and insulting—there were a lot of reasons why I didn't want to tell the story. I didn't want it to be taken advantage of, twisted, turned, and made into an even uglier situation than it was".
According to Spoto's book, Hitchcock brought in two members of his crew during the filming of The Birds and asked them to keep careful watch on the activities of Hedren, "when she left the set—where she went, who she visited, how she spent her free time". He then advised her on what she should eat, whom she should see, and how she should live. He told the cast and crew they were not allowed to talk to her. Hedren's co-star in The Birds, Rod Taylor, later remembered, "Hitch was becoming very domineering and covetous of 'Tippi', and it was very difficult for her. No one was permitted to come physically close to her during the production. 'Don't touch the girl after I call "Cut!"' he said to me repeatedly". Hitchcock also attempted, on one occasion, to grab and violently kiss Hedren in the back of a car as they drove onto the set. Hedren told his assistant, Peggy Robertson, and the studio chief, Lew Wasserman, that she was becoming very unhappy about the whole situation. "But he was Alfred Hitchcock, the great and famous director, and I was Tippi Hedren, an inexperienced actress who had no clout". She decided she could not quit her contract because she was afraid to be blacklisted and unable to find work. Hedren's own daughter, Melanie Griffith, remembered that while Hedren was doing The Birds, she thought Hitchcock was taking her mother away from her. "Suddenly, I wasn't allowed even to visit my mom at the studio".
During the filming of Marnie, Hedren found Hitchcock's behavior toward her increasingly difficult to bear as filming progressed. "Everyone—I mean everyone—knew he was obsessed with me. He always wanted a glass of wine or champagne, with me alone, at the end of the day. He was really isolating me from everyone". Hedren's co-star in Marnie, Diane Baker, later recalled, "She was never allowed to gather around with the rest of us, and he demanded that every conversation between her and Hitch be held in private... Nothing could have been more horrible for me than to arrive on that movie set and to see her being treated the way she was".
Hitchcock revealed to Hedren one day he had a recurring dream where she came up to him and said, "Hitch, I love you—I'll always love you". When she heard this, Hedren replied "But it was a dream. Just a dream", and excused herself from his presence. She believed Hitchcock had no consideration for her feelings and remembered she was humiliated after he asked her to touch him, just before shooting a scene. "He made sure no one else could hear, and his tone and glance made it clear exactly what he meant". Hedren asked Hitchcock's permission one day to travel to New York to appear on The Tonight Show, where she was supposed to be presented an award as the "Most Promising New Star". Hitchcock refused, according to his biographer, because he claimed the break would affect her performance. During that meeting, he apparently "made an overt sexual proposition" that Hedren "could neither ignore nor answer casually, as she could his previous gestures". In Spoto's third book about Hitchcock, Spellbound by Beauty (2008), Hedren revealed that Hitchcock actually made offensive demands on her. "He stared at me and simply said, as if it was the most natural thing in the world, that from this time on, he expected me to make myself sexually available and accessible to him—however and whenever and wherever he wanted". Hitchcock's demands led to a "horrible, horrible fight", according to Hedren. "He made these demands on me, and no way could I acquiesce to them".
Hedren then told him Marnie would be their last film together and later recalled how Hitchcock told her he would destroy her career. "I said I wanted to get out of my contract. He said: 'You can't. You have your daughter to support, and your parents are getting older'. I said: 'Nobody would want me to be in this situation, I want to get out'. And he said: 'I'll ruin your career'. I said: 'Do what you have to do'. And he did ruin my career. He kept me under contract, paid me to do nothing for close on two years". Hedren felt so humiliated, she called the director a "fat pig" in front of people on the set. Hitchcock made only a comment about it to his biographer, John Russell Taylor: "She did what no one is permitted to do. She referred to my weight". The two communicated only through a third party for the rest of the film. According to Marnie'''s screenwriter, Jay Presson Allen, Hitchcock was "mad" for Hedren. She felt unhappy for both and described the situation as "an old man's cri de coeur", adding that Hitchcock had a "Pygmalion complex about Tippi". She advised Hedren to finish the film and then get on with her life and be happy. Hedren's hairdresser, Virginia Darcy, even told Hitchcock he should not be possessive with Hedren. "Tippi felt rightly that she was not his property, but he'd say, 'You are, I have a contract'". Although Hitchcock thought he might mend fences with Hedren and make another film with her, she refused to reconsider her decision. Hedren's contract terms gave Hitchcock the final say as to any work she could take on and he used that power to turn down several film roles on her behalf. She was particularly disappointed when French director François Truffaut told her he had wanted her for one of them. In 1966, Hitchcock finally sold her contract to Universal Studios after Hedren appeared in two of their TV shows, Kraft Suspense Theatre (1965) and Run for Your Life (id.). The studio ultimately released her from her contract after she refused to appear on a television Western for them.
In 2012, The Girl, an HBO/BBC film about Hedren and Hitchcock's relationship, based on Donald Spoto's 2009 book Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies, was released. When she was first told about the project, Hedren said she had mixed feelings about it, "To be still alive and have a film made about you is an awesome and incredibly frightening experience". Hedren and Hitchcock were respectively portrayed by Sienna Miller and Toby Jones.
Although she was thrilled with the choice of Miller, Hedren was worried she would not be portrayed "as strong a character as I was—and still am. I had to be extremely strong to fight off Mr. Hitchcock". She described the moment she saw the film as "probably one of the most involved, emotionally tense 90 minutes that I have ever lived". Upon the film's release, Hedren said although she believed the film accurately portrays Hitchcock's behavior towards her, the time constraints of a 90-minute film prevented telling the entire story of her career with him. "It wasn't a constant barrage of harassment. If it had been constantly the way we have had to do it in this film, I would have been long gone". She recalled there were times she described as "absolutely delightful and wonderful”, and insisted that “Hitchcock had a charm about him. He was very funny at times. He was incredibly brilliant in his field". The film was controversial, as others who knew and worked with Hitchcock responded to it negatively. Kim Novak, who worked on Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958), disputed Hitchcock's portrayal as a sexual predator in The Girl: "I never saw him make a pass at anybody or act strange to anybody. And wouldn't you think if he was that way, I would've seen it or at least seen him with somebody? I think it's unfortunate when someone's no longer around and can't defend themselves". Novak previously described Hitchcock as a gentleman, and when asked about reports of his behavior, she said, "Maybe I just wasn't his type". Novak also stated, "I won't dispute Tippi if that's what she saw."
Hedren herself was asked why her account of sexual harassment contrasted with the many interviews she gave about her time with Hitchcock, her presence at the AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony honoring him in 1979, and her presence at his funeral. She explained that, "He ruined my career, but he didn't ruin my life. That time of my life was over. I still admire the man for who he was". She also said, "I've been able to separate the two. The man who was the artist. I mean, what he gave to the motion picture industry can never be taken away from him and I certainly wouldn't want to try. But on the other side, there is that dark side that was really awful".
Career setbacks (1967–1973)
Hedren's first feature film appearance after Marnie was in A Countess from Hong Kong (1967), starring Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren. She was told by writer-director Charlie Chaplin that she was offered a major supporting role as Brando's estranged wife and had to accept the role without reading the script. However, when she arrived in England where the filming took place, she finally received the script and realized that her part was little more than a cameo. She asked Chaplin why he lied to her. "Every actor in the world was asking if they could do this film, to just do a walk-on, without even being paid for it. When I said, 'Why didn't you just tell me that it was a cameo? I would have done this film anyway,' he said, 'I didn't think you would come,' which was very sweet. He was a very clever man." Hedren asked Chaplin to expand the role, and although he tried to accommodate her, he could not, as the story mostly takes place on a ship, which Hedren's character boards near the end of the film. In the end, she remained in the film and later said that it was both amusing and strange to work with Chaplin. She found him to be a very serious man and loved his approach to directing. She later said, "I wish someone would have been allowed to do a documentary. The way he directed was unlike anyone I ever saw. He acted out all the parts himself. He did Sophia's part, then Marlon's part, then mine, and then he'd say, 'Okay, now you can do it.' Which would be impossible, to mimic the master. It was incredible. None of us believed it. Marlon hated it."
After the release of A Countess from Hong Kong, Hedren's career was described as "spectacular" by the press. She told a reporter at the time, "I don't want to wait myself out of this business, but working for Hitch and Charlie has been very special to me, and now I'm going to wait for something special to come along". In 1968, she signed on to do the American Civil War drama Five Against Kansas with Farley Granger and Jeffrey Hunter, but the project was never realized. In 1968, Hedren returned to film as a socialite who helps her boyfriend (played by George Armstrong) catch a killer, in Tiger by the Tail. From 1970 to 1971, she guest-starred twice on The Courtship of Eddie's Father. She agreed to take part in Satan's Harvest (1970) and Mister Kingstreet's War (1973)—which were shot back-to-back despite the discrepancy in their release dates—for the sole reason that they were being filmed in Africa. In 1973, Hedren played a teacher of an experimental sex school in The Harrad Experiment, which starred James Whitmore and Don Johnson—the latter who later became the husband of her daughter, Melanie Griffith. Hedren felt that the film "deals with vital themes—themes like the decline in importance of ideas like possession and jealousy and, by inference, marriage. I have four teenaged children and I think this picture says some valuable things to them." She confessed at the time she was occasionally depressed because she was not doing any major films and told a magazine, "My husband just cancelled all the trade magazines because he felt I should cut off the source of my discontent. He's the type who won't stand for sustained down feelings".
Roar (1974–1981)
Hedren and husband Noel Marshall watched a pride of lions move into a house after a game warden moved out in 1969, during the filming of Satan's Harvest in Africa. She said, "We were delighted with the way they adapted themselves to living there. And they were so funny we knew we had an idea for a picture." Marshall wrote a script titled Lions, Lions and More Lions based on their experience; it was retitled Roar and centered on a family's misadventures in a research park filled with lions, tigers, and other wild cats.
Hedren played the lead role and co-starred with her daughter Melanie, husband Marshall, and his own sons Jerry and John. They attempted to rent Hollywood animals for a nine-month shoot, but upon approaching animal trainers for support, they were discouraged and nobody would rent them 30 or 40 lions, as the script required, because of their natural tendency to fight. They were encouraged to start collecting and training their own exotic beasts. Animal trainer Ron Oxley told them, "to get to know about lions, you've got to live with them for a while". They started to raise a lion cub named Neil in their Sherman Oaks house and made sure that the animal slept in their bed. Life photographer Michael Rougier documented their life in 1971 and photographed the lion with the whole family inside and outside the house, from Hedren's daughter's bed to the living room to the swimming pool. After complaints from their neighbors, Hedren and Marshall bought a ranch outside of Los Angeles in Acton that would serve as the set for Roar. They got permission there to rescue and raise several lions, tigers, African elephants, and other exotic felines.
Filming started in 1974 and took five years just to complete the photography. Every scene involving lions was improvised and shot with four or sometimes eight cameras. More than 100 people worked on the film, as well as more than 150 untrained lions, tigers, leopards, and cheetahs. During production, no animals were hurt, but more than 70 members of the cast and crew were mauled. Hedren fractured a leg and also had scalp wounds when an elephant bucked her off its back while she was riding it. She was also bitten in the neck by a lion and required 38 stitches; this incident can be seen in the film. Melanie Griffith was also attacked, receiving 50 stitches to her face; it was feared that she would lose an eye, but she recovered and was not disfigured. Marshall was attacked so many times that he eventually was diagnosed with gangrene. In one of those incidents, he was clawed by a cheetah when protecting the animals during a bushfire that occurred in 1979. All animals were evacuated, and several years were needed for him to recover from his injuries. In 1978, a flood destroyed the movie sets and killed three of the lions. The project was set back several years. Hedren said that they were all determined to finish the film: "We were so sure the film was going to be a success that we thought everything (financing the ranch and the lions, etc.) would take care of itself."Roar was released worldwide in 1981 with the exception of the United States, because according to Hedren, "The United States distributors wanted the lion's share of the profits, and we thought it ought to go to the beautiful animals that made the movie." The film cost $17 million and grossed only $2 million, but it was a turning point in Hedren's life. In 1983, she established the nonprofit The Roar Foundation to take care of the big cats. "After our movie was over," she explained, "it was unconscionable to see the animals go any place else." Roar was re-released in 2015, but Hedren declined to discuss it, as she felt that promotion for the film was filled with "inaccuracies".
Later career (1982–present)
After Roar, Hedren accepted any low-budget television or cinema role that could help bring funds to her foundation to provide protection, shelter, care, and maintenance for the animals at the Shambala Preserve. In 1982, she co-starred with Leslie Nielsen in Foxfire Light. She appeared in several television series, including Hart to Hart in 1983 and the late-night horror series Tales from the Darkside in 1984. In the 1985 pilot episode of The New Alfred Hitchcock Presents, she made a brief appearance as a waitress in a bar who berates a customer, played by her daughter Melanie Griffith. In 1990, she had a nonspeaking, minor part as a wealthy widow romanced by Michael Keaton in the film Pacific Heights (1990), which also starred her daughter. That same year, she had a role on The Bold and the Beautiful, a daytime soap opera she said she was "proud to have in my resume".
In 1994, Hedren appeared in the made-for-cable sequel, The Birds II: Land's End, in a role different from the one she had played in the original. She was, however, disappointed that she did not get a starring role and admitted before the film's release, "I wish that it was more than a cameo. I think they made a mistake by not doing that, but it has helped me to feed my lions and tigers." When asked about what could have been Hitchcock's opinion on the film, she answered: "I'd hate to think what he would say!" In a 2007 interview, Hedren said of the film, "It's absolutely horrible, it embarrasses me horribly."
From 1994 to 1996, Hedren had a guest-starring role in Dream On. The sitcom gave her "the opportunity to do comedy. I'd never done comedy before and it was just wonderful for me to be able to do that. Everybody just thought of me as a serious actress, so I owe that to John Landis (the executive producer), giving me that opportunity." In 1996, she played an abortion rights activist in Alexander Payne's political satire Citizen Ruth with Laura Dern. In 1998, she co-starred alongside Billy Zane and Christina Ricci in I Woke Up Early the Day I Died, a film she felt was "incredible". "I must say I really love that film. It was a unique kind of film to do also, because of the fact that it had no dialogue in it. It was very, very different". That same year, she guest-starred in a special episode titled "Psychodrama" of the television series Chicago Hope, that paid tribute to the Hitchcock movies. Hedren's character, Alfreda Perkins, was a reference to Alfred Hitchcock and actor Anthony Perkins, who starred in the director's 1960 film Psycho.
After appearing in a number of little-exposed films between 1999 and 2003, Hedren had a small but showy role in the 2004 David O. Russell comedy I Heart Huckabees, as a foul-mouthed attractive older woman who slaps Jude Law in an elevator. She felt that the director, who had a reputation for being difficult, was "totally crazy", but also "very interesting. I was able to work well with him." She also added it was a strange experience as, "... all of a sudden, he'd be like, 'Now I'm going to do it this way,' and you'd think, 'How is he going to edit this? How is this going to work?' But he made it work." In 2006, Hedren was a cast member of the short-lived primetime soap opera Fashion House with Bo Derek and Morgan Fairchild, and continued to guest-star in television series such as The 4400 (2006) and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2008). In 2012, Hedren and her daughter guest-starred together on an episode of Raising Hope. That same year, she appeared in Free Samples, an indie film where she had a supporting role as an old movie star. In 2013, she made an appearance as herself in the fourth-season finale of Cougar Town.
Hedren published her autobiography, Tippi: A Memoir, co-written with Lindsay Harrison, in 2016 through William Morrow and Company, as she felt it was "about time I stop letting everyone else tell my story and finally tell it myself." In 2018, at age 88, Hedren became the new face of Gucci's timepieces and jewelry and starred as a mysterious fortune teller in the brand's commercial ad, The Fortune Teller.
Influence
A Louis Vuitton ad campaign in 2006 paid tribute to Hedren and Hitchcock with a modern-day interpretation of the deserted railway station opening sequence of Marnie. Her look from The Birds (1963) inspired designer Bill Gaytten to design for John Galliano Pre-Fall 2012 collection.
Naomi Watts stated that her character interpretation in Mulholland Drive (2001) was influenced by the look and performances of Hedren in Hitchcock films. Watts and Hedren both appeared in I ♥ Huckabees (2004), but did not share any scenes together. Off screen, the film's director David O. Russell introduced them both, and Watts said of Hedren: "I was pretty fascinated by her then, because people have often said we're alike." Watts dressed up as Hedren's title character from Marnie for a photo shoot for March 2008 issue of Vanity Fair. In the same issue, Jodie Foster dressed up as Hedren's character, Melanie Daniels, from The Birds.
Shambala Preserve
In 1981, Hedren produced Roar, an 11-year project that ended up costing $17 million and starred dozens of African lions. "This was probably one of the most dangerous films that Hollywood has ever seen", remarked the actress. "It's amazing no one was killed." During the production of Roar, Hedren, her husband at the time, Noel Marshall, and daughter Melanie were attacked by lions; Jan de Bont, the director of photography, was scalped. Hedren later co-wrote Cats of Shambala (1985) about the experience. Roar made only $2 million worldwide. Hedren ended her marriage to Marshall a year later in 1982. The film directly led to the 1983 establishment of the nonprofit The Roar Foundation and Hedren's Shambala Preserve, located at the edge of the Mojave Desert in Acton, California, between the Antelope Valley and the Santa Clarita Valley, northeast of Los Angeles. Shambala houses some 70 animals. Hedren lives on the Shambala site and conducts monthly tours of the preserve for the public. In a 2015 interview with magazine Ability, Hedren emphasized that there is no human contact with the animals and that all of the cats are spayed and neutered, since they are being raised in captivity. Hedren was the founding president of the American Sanctuary Association, a post she still holds.
She took in and cared for Togar, a lion that belonged to Anton LaVey, after he was told by San Francisco officials that he could not keep a fully grown lion as a house pet. Shambala became the new home for Michael Jackson's two Bengal tigers, Sabu and Thriller, after he decided to close his zoo at his Neverland Valley Ranch in Los Olivos. Thriller died in June 2012 of lung cancer.
On December 3, 2007, Shambala Preserve made headlines when Chris Orr, a caretaker for the animals, was mauled by a tiger named Alexander. Several documentaries have focused on Shambala Preserve, including the 30-minute Lions: Kings of the Serengeti (1995), narrated by Melanie Griffith, and Animal Planet's Life with Big Cats (1998), which won the Genesis Award for best documentary in 1999. The animals at the preserve served as the initial inspiration for the life's work of artist A.E. London, who started her career working for Hedren.
As of 2020, Hedren still maintains more than a dozen lions and tigers; her granddaughter Dakota Johnson is involved in their care.
Personal life
In 1952, Hedren met and married 18-year-old future advertising executive Peter Griffith. Their daughter, actress Melanie Griffith, was born on August 9, 1957. They were divorced in 1961. On September 27, 1964, Hedren married her then-agent Noel Marshall, who later produced three of her films; they divorced in 1982. In 1985, she married steel manufacturer Luis Barrenechea, but they divorced in 1992. Hedren was engaged to veterinarian Martin Dinnes from 2002 until their breakup in mid-2008. In September 2008, Hedren told The Sunday Times "I'm waiting for someone to sweep me off my feet." Hedren's granddaughter Dakota Johnson is also an actress.
Hedren played a role in the development of Vietnamese-American nail salons in the United States. In 1975, while an international relief coordinator with Food for the Hungry, she began visiting with refugees at Hope Village outside Sacramento, California. When she learned the women were interested in her manicured nails, she employed her manicurist to teach them the skills of the trade and worked with a local beauty school to help them find jobs. Hedren's work with the Vietnamese-Americans was the subject of several documentaries: Happy Hands, directed by Honey Lauren, which won Best Documentary Short at the Sonoma International Film Festival in 2014Sonoma International Film Festival website, sonomaportal.com; accessed March 10, 2015. and "Nailedit:
Vietnamese and the Nail Industry" which won the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) 2014 Documentary Fund Award. CND and Beauty Changes Lives Foundation (BCL) have announced the BCL CND Tippi Hedren Nail Scholarship Fund to support professional nail education and will be administered starting January 1, 2014.
Hedren was instrumental in helping a desperate Nguyen Thi Chinh to enter the US after the fall of the South Vietnam government in 1975, she arranged for an air ticket and a visa for her then invited her to stay in her house.
Hedren suffered from severe and persistent headaches for a long time, which rendered her unable to accept several projects, including a television series produced by and starring Betty White. After she got a titanium plate put in her neck, she improved and then agreed, with the blessing of her doctor, to take the part of a dying woman in the soap opera Fashion House. While she was rehearsing a scene, a gallon of water fell from the ceiling onto her head. The headaches returned after the incident and persisted. Hedren filed a suit to receive recompense following her inability to work. Hedren's lawyer, Joseph Allen, made a mistake in his discussions with the defendants that allowed them to block him from filing suit. Hedren sued Allen for malpractice. In 2013, The Hollywood Reporter reported that Hedren had been awarded a $1.5 million settlement, including $213,400 for past lost earnings and $440,308 for future lost earnings, against her former lawyer. Hedren was hurt by the report since she had not collected the award. She gave an interview to explain that her former lawyer does not have the money to pay her, and discussed how the report put her in a difficult situation since her foundation was in dire need of funds. She explained that she has to raise $75,000 monthly just to keep it going. "Chances are I won't ever even see the money, and that's what hurts so badly, that in all of this pain and suffering that publication ran with a swift and not researched story, which told people around the world who have been so gracious and thoughtful about sending donations, that I no longer needed them."
Filmography
Film
Television
Honours and awards
1964: Most Promising Newcomer Award by Photoplay
1964: Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year - Actress (shared with Ursula Andress and Elke Sommer)
1994: Life Achievement Award in France at The Beauvais Film Festival Cinemalia
1995: Life Achievement Award in Spain, La Fundación Municipal de Cine
1995: The Helen Woodward Animal Center's Annual Humane Award
1996: Founder's Award from the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
1997: Lion and Lamb Award from Wildhaven
1999: Woman of Vision Award from Women of Film and Video in Washington, D.C.
1999: Presidential Medal for her work in film from Hofstra University
1999: Humanitarian Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival
2000: Best Actress in a Comedy Short Award in the short film Mulligans! at the Method Fest, Independent Film Festival
2002: Best Actress Award for the short film Tea with Grandma from the New York International Independent Film Festival
2003: Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
2003: Women of Los Angeles Annual Hope is a Woman Honor
2004: PAWS Companion for Life Award
2004: Best Actress Award for the short film Rose's Garden from the Los Angeles TV Short Film Festival
2004: Animal Rights Advocacy Award at Artivist Film Festival
2005: Living Legacy Award
2006: Conservationist of the Year—Dino Award from the Las Vegas Natural History Museum
2007: Lifetime Achievement Award—Riverside Film Festival
2007: Jules Verne "Nature" Award — the 1st Annual Jules Verne Adventure Film Festival of Los Angeles
2008: Academy of Art University's 2nd Epidemic Film Festival Award
2008: Jules Verne Legendaire Award
2008: Thespian Award - LA Femme Film Festival
2009: "When a Woman Wills She Will!" Award by the Woman's Club of Hollywood
2009: Workhouse's first Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award
2009: Received the First Star on the Orinda Theater Walk of Fame
2010: Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Genesis Awards show from the Humane Society
2010: BraveHeart Award
2010: Who-Manitarian Award
2011: Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce at its 90th Annual Installation & Awards Luncheon
2011: "The Women Together Award" from the United Nations
2011: Vietnamese-American Marton Saint Award from the Boat People SOS Organization
2011: Omni Youth Humanitarian/Career Achievement Award
2012: Honorary Masters of Fine Arts Degree from the New York Film Academy
2012: Mayor Career Achievement Award from Starz Denver Film Festival
2013: Legacy of Style Award
2013: "People Helping People" Award by the Touching Live TV Award Show, broadwayworld.com; accessed November 14, 2015.
2014: Lifetime Achievement Award from Bel-Air Film Festival
2014: Special Recognition Award from Acton Women's Club
2014:The Women's International Film & Television Showcase Foundation International Visionary Award, thewifts.org; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Choreography of Desire (A Tribute to Tippi Hedren) by the Vienna International Film Festival, viennale.at; accessed November 14, 2015.
2015: Believe, Achieve, Empower Award
2017: Waggy Award recipient from the Tailwaggers Foundation
2017: The Icon Award
2018: "Friend for Life Award" from The Palm Springs Animal Shelter
Notes
References
Hedren, Tippi. Tippi: A Memoir, William Morrow, 2016, 288 p.
McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light, It Books, 2004 (Reprint), 864 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 340 p.
Moral, Tony Lee. The Making of Hitchcock's The Birds, Scarecrow Pres, 2013 (Revised Edition), 224 p.
Taylor, John Russell. Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock, Bloomsbury Reader, 2013, 318 p. ASIN B00BWL8L0C
Spoto, Donald. Spellbound by Beauty, Three Rivers Press, 2009, 368 p.
Paul, Louis. Tales from the Cult Film Trenches: Interviews with 36 Actors from Horror, Science Fiction and Exploitation Cinema, McFarland, 2007, 336 p.
Gambin, Lee. Massacred By Mother Nature: Exploring the Natural Horror Film'', Midnight Marquee Press, Inc., October 8, 2012
External links
1930 births
Living people
20th-century American actresses
21st-century American actresses
Actresses from Minnesota
American film actresses
New Star of the Year (Actress) Golden Globe winners
American people of German descent
American people of Norwegian descent
American people of Swedish descent
Big cat attack victims
Keepers of animal sanctuaries
Apex Records artists
Challenge Records artists
Female models from Minnesota
People from New Ulm, Minnesota
Griffith family
| false |
[
"Mame Bineta Sane (born 3 February 2000), also known as Mama Sané, is a Senegalese actress. She is best known for the role as 'Ada' in the supernatural romantic drama film Atlantics.\n\nPersonal life\nShe grew up in Thiaroye, a suburb of Dakar, Senegal. She did not receive a regular education from school. She started to work as an apprentice tailor in Thiaroye.\n\nCareer\nShe has not acted in any kind of drama before when she was selected for the lead role in 2019 film Atlantics directed by Mati Diop as her first feature film. Sane didn't really attend school either when Diop invite her to play the role. In the film, Sane played the lead role 'Ada', who is haunted by her lover, Souleiman, along with a boatload of other young men, is lost at sea.\n\nThe film had its premier in the capital of Dakar before its release in Senegal. The film had mainly positive reviews from critics and screened at several film festivals. The film later won the Grand Prix Award at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. For her role, Sane later received a César nomination for Most Promising Actress in the 2020 César awards and was also nominated for the Lumières Award for Most Promising Actress in the 2020 Lumières awards and for the Black Reel Award for Female Outstanding Breakthrough Performance in the Black Reel Awards of 2020.\n\nFilmography\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nLiving people\nPeople from Dakar Region\n2000 births\nSenegalese actresses",
"Below is a list of awards received by Twins since they were formed in 2001 as a cantopop girl group. They average to receive about 2-3 awards in each Hong Kong music awards. Their major accomplishment is in 2007 when they received the Asia Pacific Most Popular Female Artist Award from Jade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards.\n\nBecause of the Edison Chen photo scandal in 2008, Gillian took a short leave from the group. And thus the group did not record any songs or receive any awards between March 2008 to 2009.\n\nCommercial Radio Hong Kong Ultimate Song Chart Awards\nThe Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation (叱咤樂壇流行榜頒獎典禮) is a cantopop award ceremony from one of the famous channel in Commercial Radio Hong Kong known as Ultimate 903 (FM 90.3). Unlike other cantopop award ceremonies, this one is judged based on the popularity of the song/artist on the actual radio show.\n\nGlobal Chinese Music Awards\n\nIFPI Hong Kong Sales Awards\nIFPI Awards is given to artists base on the sales in Hong Kong at the end of the year.\n\nJade Solid Gold Top 10 Awards\nThe Jade Solid Gold Songs Awards Ceremony(十大勁歌金曲頒獎典禮) is held annually in Hong Kong since 1984. The awards are based on Jade Solid Gold show on TVB.\n\nMetro Radio Mandarin Music Awards\n\nMetro Showbiz Hit Awards\nThe Metro Showbiz Hit Awards (新城勁爆頒獎禮) is held in Hong Kong annually by Metro Showbiz radio station. It focus mostly in cantopop music.\n\nRTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards\nThe RTHK Top 10 Gold Songs Awards Ceremony(十大中文金曲頒獎音樂會) is held annually in Hong Kong since 1978. The awards are determined by Radio and Television Hong Kong based on the work of all Asian artists (mostly cantopop) for the previous year.\n\nSprite Music Awards\nThe Sprite Music Awards Ceremony is an annual event given by Sprite China for work artists performed in previous years; awards received on 2008 are actually for the work and accomplishment for 2007.\n\nReferences\n\nTwins\nCantopop"
] |
[
"Pinball Clemons",
"Coaching career"
] |
C_f607cf12cd4645c796e5f5ea9b15fd5a_0
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Where did he coach?
| 1 |
Where did Pinball Clemons coach?
|
Pinball Clemons
|
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1-6-1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November, 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry. When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis for the remainder of the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time. In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin". Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67-54-1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6-5 playoff record (including 1-0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he was vice chairman with Toronto in 2008. CANNOTANSWER
|
The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home.
|
Michael Lutrell "Pinball" Clemons (born January 15, 1965) is an American-Canadian sports executive and former running back and return specialist who serves as general manager for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Clemons played with the Argonauts for twelve seasons where he was a two-time All-Star and a three-time Grey Cup Champion, and twice served as their head coach before becoming an administrator, since winning three more Grey Cups. His no. 31 jersey is one of only four that have been retired by the Argonauts. He is one of the most famous former Argos players, and is also one of the most popular professional athletes in the history of Toronto. Clemons has stated that he feels CFL football is the best football in the world. Clemons is 5 ft 6 in (167 cm) tall and weighs 170 pounds (77 kg).
Early life
Clemons was born and raised in Dunedin, Florida to an 18-year-old single mother, Anna Marie Bryant, who had just graduated from a segregated high school. His father, Willie Clemons, lived an hour and a half away from them while finishing up his university education and later became a school teacher.
Clemons started playing football at age 8 with the Dunedin Golden Eagles, a youth organization co-ordinated by the Police Athletic League.
Clemons and his mother lived in public housing across the street from the city's sewer plant until he was 14 years old. At this point in Clemons' life, his mother married his stepfather and would also become the first African-American to get an administrative job for the City of Dunedin.
Clemons's mother was also a heavy influence in him becoming a devout Christian as she was also a clerk at a Baptist church in Dunedin. Clemons and his family currently attend the Meeting House in Oakville, Ontario.
Clemons later formed a relationship with his father, Willie, during his college years. Even then, the relationship between him and his father was more like a nephew to an uncle, being limited to visits during his family vacations down in Florida and regular phone calls. Willie was also invited to the 2003 CFL Eastern Division semi-final game his son was coaching in Toronto vs. the B.C. Lions, marking the first time his father had actually seen him in any capacity with the Argonauts. Shortly afterwards, his father died.
College career
Clemons graduated with a degree in economics from the College of William & Mary where he played running back and return specialist on the football team, as well as playing varsity soccer for a year. In his four-year college football career, he compiled 4,778 all-purpose yards and was named a Division I-AA all-American.
Professional football career
In 1987, Clemons was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. During the 1987 NFL season, Clemons played in eight games, predominantly as a punt returner, where he collected 19 returns for 162 yards.
When Clemons first joined the Toronto Argonauts in 1989, guest running backs coach Tom Cudney nicknamed him "Pinball" because of his running style. His diminutive size and extraordinary balance allowed him to bounce between defensive players much like a pinball inside a pinball machine. During home games, The Who song "Pinball Wizard" would play on the P.A. each time Clemons was involved in a great play. In his first game with the Argonauts, Clemons was named the player of the game. In 1990, Clemons received the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award after setting a single season record for all-purpose yards (3,300). The following year, Clemons won his very first football championship as his Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders to win the Grey Cup. Clemons went on to win two more Grey Cups as a player when Doug Flutie led Argonauts won back-to-back titles during the 1996 & 1997 seasons. In 1997, Clemons surpassed his own single season all-purpose yards record from 1990 by recording 3,840 all-purpose yards. This mark stood until 2012, when it was broken by Chad Owens. On September 15, 2000, Clemons played his last ever game as an Argonaut. During his 12-year playing career with the Argonauts he set many team records including career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300). He also set single season single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997). Clemons also amassed a career 25,438 combined yards during the regular season, a CFL record.
In 2008, Clemons was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. And in 2009, Clemons was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Coaching career
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1–6–1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry.
When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis with 6 games remaining in the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time.
In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to be the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin".
Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67–54–1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6–5 playoff record (including 1–0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he became the team's chief executive officer in 2008.
Sports administrator
From November 2001 to September 2002, Clemons served as the Toronto Argonauts President. He ended his tenure as President to resume his second stint as the team's head coach. In 2003, Clemons shared both responsibilities as the team's head coach & general manager. Though he was the de facto GM of the Argonauts as a result of an administrative shake up of the team, much of the player roster management duties were deferred to Greg Mohns, the team's director of football operations & player personnel. Clemons would relinquish his GM title to Adam Rita at the end of the season. On December 4, 2007, Clemons stepped down as head coach of the Argonauts to become their new Chief Executive Officer. At the end of the 2008 Toronto Argonauts season, Clemons announced that he would no longer act in the day-to-day business of the organization and on May 6, 2009, Bob Nicholson was announced as the new president and chief executive officer of the Argonauts. On that same day, Clemons was appointed the Vice-Chair of the team. In his new role, Clemons advises the president & C.E.O. on key sales and corporate partner programs, significant community initiatives, and brand and media relations. On October 8, 2019, Clemons was named as the new general manager of the team, replacing Jim Popp who was relieved of his GM duties with 4 games remaining in the 2019 Toronto Argonauts season. Clemons would also work closely with John Murphy, the team's vice president of player personnel, in assembling the roster.
Personal life
Clemons is also a motivational speaker, making frequent public appearances throughout the community. He is also a partner of the children's brand Simply Kids, a line of diapers, baby food and healthcare products found in supermarkets across Canada and the United States.
Currently, Clemons resides in Oakville, Ontario with his wife, Diane (a native Floridian), and three daughters (who were all born in Canada). His oldest daughter, Rachel, is 22, his middle daughter Raven is 19, and his youngest daughter Rylie is now 17. Clemons has described himself (borrowing a quote from C.D. Howe) as an "American by birth but Canadian by choice". In 2000, Clemons became a permanent resident of Canada. It had once been suggested that Clemons had remained an American citizen to rebuff any calls for him to run for political office, such as for mayor of Toronto. Clemons was the subject of Pinball: The Making of a Canadian Hero () a biography written by Perry Lefko published in 2006.
In April 2007, he visited Calderstone Middle School in Brampton to help start a reading program.
On August 21, 2007, Clemons founded the "Michael 'Pinball' Clemons Foundation" which is dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth.
On March 23, 2009, Clemons appeared on the CTV News @ 6 as a celebrity guest host to do the weather in celebration of Dave Devall's retirement.
He is currently working with Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger, founders of Free the Children, in an initiative to build schools and clean water systems in Africa.
On November 14, 2012, Clemons visited and gave a speech about life topics in Markham, Ontario for York Regional District School Board's annual QUEST Forum to promote Student Achievement and Well-Being.
On February 28, 2014, Clemons visited the Scouts Canada National Leadership summit to speak about teamwork and working as one team to kick off the new program and strategic plan announcement.
On April 28, 2015, Clemons officially became a naturalized citizen of Canada.
Clemons was recognized on February 10, 2017 by the College of William and Mary, his alma mater, with an honorary degree during Charter Day ceremonies, where he also was principal speaker.
From February 10–26, 2017, Clemons partnered with Global Pet Foods and Air Miles for the "Show Us Your Heart" event. Its goal is to raise money for homeless pets, rescue groups, and animal shelters across Canada through donations made at Global Pet Food stores.
Achievements
CFL record for most all-purpose yards, All-Time Regular Season: 25,396 (1989–2000)
Recorded over 5,000 career yards in rushing (5,232), pass receptions (7,015), kickoff returns (6,349), and punt returns (6,025)
Argonauts team records for career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300)
Argonauts team records for single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997)
Argonauts team record for single-game kickoff returns (8) on August 21, 1990, versus Edmonton Eskimos
CFL most outstanding player (1990)
Three-time Grey Cup champion as a player (1991, 1996, 1997)
One-time Grey Cup champion as a head coach (2004)
Two-time Grey Cup champion as a Vice chairman (2012, 2017)
First black head coach to reach & win a Grey Cup championship (2004)
Two-time CFL All-Star (1990, 1997)
Two-time Tom Pate Award winner (1993, 1996)
1995 John Candy Memorial Award
One-time Eastern Division Most Outstanding Player Trophy winner (1990)
Four-time Eastern Division All-Star (1990, 1993, 1994, 1997)
Voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#31) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.
Was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Retired number by the Toronto Argonauts (#31)
Honours
He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Ontario in 2001, giving Him the Post Nominal Letters "O.Ont" for Life. In 2011, he was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine.
Honorary Degrees
Michael "Pinball" Clemons has received honorary degrees from several universities. These include:
Legacy
In 2012 in honour of the 100th Grey Cup, Canada Post used his image on a series of commemorative postage stamps. The image was also used on presentation posters and other materials to promote the Grey Cup game and other celebrations associated with the centennial.
CFL coaching record
CFL GM record
Coaching tree
Assistants under Clemons that became NFL, CFL, or NCAA head coaches:
Aaron Best: Eastern Washington (2017–present)
References
Further reading
Q & A with Pinball Clemons for Now Magazine (July 12–18, 2007)
Interview with The Good Point (Oct. 7, 2008)
Liberal senator likes Clemons' 'politics of hope' (Toronto Star Column, Oct. 26, 2008)
External links
Michael "Pinball" Clemons Foundation website
Toronto Argonauts profile
CFL.ca stats
CFLapedia bio
DatabaseFootball.com stats
1965 births
Living people
African-American Christians
African-American coaches of Canadian football
African-American players of Canadian football
African-American sports executives and administrators
American sports executives and administrators
American football running backs
American emigrants to Canada
American motivational speakers
American Protestants
Black Canadian players of Canadian football
Canadian Protestants
Canadian people of African-American descent
Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Award winners
Canadian football return specialists
Canadian football running backs
Canadian motivational speakers
Dunedin High School alumni
Kansas City Chiefs players
Members of the Order of Ontario
Naturalized citizens of Canada
People from Dunedin, Florida
Players of American football from Florida
Sportspeople from Pinellas County, Florida
Sportspeople from Oakville, Ontario
Toronto Argonauts coaches
Toronto Argonauts general managers
Toronto Argonauts players
Toronto Argonauts team presidents
William & Mary Tribe football players
William & Mary Tribe men's soccer players
Association footballers not categorized by position
Association football players not categorized by nationality
| true |
[
"Sergio Santos Hernández (born November 1, 1963) is an Argentine professional basketball coach who most recently served as the head coach of the Argentina national basketball team and Casademont Zaragoza of the Spanish Liga ACB.\n\nHead coaching career\n\nPro clubs\nAs a head coach, Hernández has won numerous titles over his career. They include: 6 Argentine League championships (2000, 2001, 2004, 2010, 2011, 2012), the South American League championship (2001), 3 Argentine Cups (2003, 2004, 2010), the Top 4 Tournament (2004), the South American Club Championship (2004), and 2 FIBA Americas League championships (2008, 2010).\n\nOn November 3, 2020, he has signed with Casademont Zaragoza of the Spanish Liga ACB.\n\nArgentina national team\nHernández was the head coach the senior men's Argentina national basketball team from 2005 to 2010. He succeeded Rubén Magnano in the position, and was the team's head coach at the 2006 FIBA World Championship, the 2008 FIBA Diamond Ball (where the team won the gold medal), the 2008 Summer Olympics (where the team won a bronze medal), and at the 2010 FIBA World Championship (where Argentina finished in 5th place).\n\nAfter his contract to coach the Argentina national team expired in 2010, Hernández did not accept the 4–6 years renewal offered by the Argentine Basketball Federation, therefore ending his tenure as the national team's head coach. He did, however, return to the team as an assistant coach for the 2012 Summer Olympics.\n\nHe then returned as the head coach of Argentina for the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship, where he led Argentina to a silver medal. He was also the head coach of Argentina at the 2016 Summer Olympics.\n\nIn 2019, he coached the Argentina´s team that won the 2019 Pan American gold medal in Lima.\n\nIn 2019, Hernandez coached the men's Argentina national basketball team at the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup, where he led Argentina to a silver medal; securing them a spot in the 2020 Summer Olympics.\n\nReferences\n\n1963 births\nLiving people\nArgentine basketball coaches\nArgentine expatriate basketball people in Brazil\nOlympic coaches\nSportspeople from Bahía Blanca",
"Dan Arnold Killian (February 5, 1880 – January 15, 1953) was an American football and baseball coach. He served as the head football coach at Louisiana State University (LSU) from 1904 to 1906, compiling a record of 8–6–2. Killian was also the head coach of the LSU baseball team from 1905 to 1906 (tallying a mark of 14–9), as well as head coach of the LSU Tigers track and field team from 1905 to 1906. He also served as athletic director.\n\nKillian was a graduate of the University of Michigan, where he lettered as a shortstop in baseball in 1902. He also reportedly played quarterback on the football team, but if he did, he apparently did not qualify for a letter.\n\nIn 1906 he left coaching \"to do sporting work for a newspaper\" in Chicago.\n\nHe died in Lansing, Michigan in 1953.\n\nHead coaching record\n\nFootball\n\nBaseball\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1880 births\n1953 deaths\nCollege track and field coaches in the United States\nLSU Tigers football coaches\nLSU Tigers baseball coaches\nLSU Tigers and Lady Tigers track and field coaches\nLSU Tigers and Lady Tigers athletic directors\nUniversity of Michigan alumni\nPeople from Allegan, Michigan\nCoaches of American football from Michigan\nBaseball coaches from Michigan"
] |
[
"Pinball Clemons",
"Coaching career",
"Where did he coach?",
"The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home."
] |
C_f607cf12cd4645c796e5f5ea9b15fd5a_0
|
Where did he live in Canada?
| 2 |
Where did Pinball Clemons live in Canada?
|
Pinball Clemons
|
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1-6-1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November, 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry. When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis for the remainder of the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time. In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin". Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67-54-1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6-5 playoff record (including 1-0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he was vice chairman with Toronto in 2008. CANNOTANSWER
|
Toronto
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Michael Lutrell "Pinball" Clemons (born January 15, 1965) is an American-Canadian sports executive and former running back and return specialist who serves as general manager for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Clemons played with the Argonauts for twelve seasons where he was a two-time All-Star and a three-time Grey Cup Champion, and twice served as their head coach before becoming an administrator, since winning three more Grey Cups. His no. 31 jersey is one of only four that have been retired by the Argonauts. He is one of the most famous former Argos players, and is also one of the most popular professional athletes in the history of Toronto. Clemons has stated that he feels CFL football is the best football in the world. Clemons is 5 ft 6 in (167 cm) tall and weighs 170 pounds (77 kg).
Early life
Clemons was born and raised in Dunedin, Florida to an 18-year-old single mother, Anna Marie Bryant, who had just graduated from a segregated high school. His father, Willie Clemons, lived an hour and a half away from them while finishing up his university education and later became a school teacher.
Clemons started playing football at age 8 with the Dunedin Golden Eagles, a youth organization co-ordinated by the Police Athletic League.
Clemons and his mother lived in public housing across the street from the city's sewer plant until he was 14 years old. At this point in Clemons' life, his mother married his stepfather and would also become the first African-American to get an administrative job for the City of Dunedin.
Clemons's mother was also a heavy influence in him becoming a devout Christian as she was also a clerk at a Baptist church in Dunedin. Clemons and his family currently attend the Meeting House in Oakville, Ontario.
Clemons later formed a relationship with his father, Willie, during his college years. Even then, the relationship between him and his father was more like a nephew to an uncle, being limited to visits during his family vacations down in Florida and regular phone calls. Willie was also invited to the 2003 CFL Eastern Division semi-final game his son was coaching in Toronto vs. the B.C. Lions, marking the first time his father had actually seen him in any capacity with the Argonauts. Shortly afterwards, his father died.
College career
Clemons graduated with a degree in economics from the College of William & Mary where he played running back and return specialist on the football team, as well as playing varsity soccer for a year. In his four-year college football career, he compiled 4,778 all-purpose yards and was named a Division I-AA all-American.
Professional football career
In 1987, Clemons was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. During the 1987 NFL season, Clemons played in eight games, predominantly as a punt returner, where he collected 19 returns for 162 yards.
When Clemons first joined the Toronto Argonauts in 1989, guest running backs coach Tom Cudney nicknamed him "Pinball" because of his running style. His diminutive size and extraordinary balance allowed him to bounce between defensive players much like a pinball inside a pinball machine. During home games, The Who song "Pinball Wizard" would play on the P.A. each time Clemons was involved in a great play. In his first game with the Argonauts, Clemons was named the player of the game. In 1990, Clemons received the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award after setting a single season record for all-purpose yards (3,300). The following year, Clemons won his very first football championship as his Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders to win the Grey Cup. Clemons went on to win two more Grey Cups as a player when Doug Flutie led Argonauts won back-to-back titles during the 1996 & 1997 seasons. In 1997, Clemons surpassed his own single season all-purpose yards record from 1990 by recording 3,840 all-purpose yards. This mark stood until 2012, when it was broken by Chad Owens. On September 15, 2000, Clemons played his last ever game as an Argonaut. During his 12-year playing career with the Argonauts he set many team records including career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300). He also set single season single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997). Clemons also amassed a career 25,438 combined yards during the regular season, a CFL record.
In 2008, Clemons was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. And in 2009, Clemons was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Coaching career
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1–6–1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry.
When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis with 6 games remaining in the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time.
In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to be the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin".
Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67–54–1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6–5 playoff record (including 1–0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he became the team's chief executive officer in 2008.
Sports administrator
From November 2001 to September 2002, Clemons served as the Toronto Argonauts President. He ended his tenure as President to resume his second stint as the team's head coach. In 2003, Clemons shared both responsibilities as the team's head coach & general manager. Though he was the de facto GM of the Argonauts as a result of an administrative shake up of the team, much of the player roster management duties were deferred to Greg Mohns, the team's director of football operations & player personnel. Clemons would relinquish his GM title to Adam Rita at the end of the season. On December 4, 2007, Clemons stepped down as head coach of the Argonauts to become their new Chief Executive Officer. At the end of the 2008 Toronto Argonauts season, Clemons announced that he would no longer act in the day-to-day business of the organization and on May 6, 2009, Bob Nicholson was announced as the new president and chief executive officer of the Argonauts. On that same day, Clemons was appointed the Vice-Chair of the team. In his new role, Clemons advises the president & C.E.O. on key sales and corporate partner programs, significant community initiatives, and brand and media relations. On October 8, 2019, Clemons was named as the new general manager of the team, replacing Jim Popp who was relieved of his GM duties with 4 games remaining in the 2019 Toronto Argonauts season. Clemons would also work closely with John Murphy, the team's vice president of player personnel, in assembling the roster.
Personal life
Clemons is also a motivational speaker, making frequent public appearances throughout the community. He is also a partner of the children's brand Simply Kids, a line of diapers, baby food and healthcare products found in supermarkets across Canada and the United States.
Currently, Clemons resides in Oakville, Ontario with his wife, Diane (a native Floridian), and three daughters (who were all born in Canada). His oldest daughter, Rachel, is 22, his middle daughter Raven is 19, and his youngest daughter Rylie is now 17. Clemons has described himself (borrowing a quote from C.D. Howe) as an "American by birth but Canadian by choice". In 2000, Clemons became a permanent resident of Canada. It had once been suggested that Clemons had remained an American citizen to rebuff any calls for him to run for political office, such as for mayor of Toronto. Clemons was the subject of Pinball: The Making of a Canadian Hero () a biography written by Perry Lefko published in 2006.
In April 2007, he visited Calderstone Middle School in Brampton to help start a reading program.
On August 21, 2007, Clemons founded the "Michael 'Pinball' Clemons Foundation" which is dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth.
On March 23, 2009, Clemons appeared on the CTV News @ 6 as a celebrity guest host to do the weather in celebration of Dave Devall's retirement.
He is currently working with Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger, founders of Free the Children, in an initiative to build schools and clean water systems in Africa.
On November 14, 2012, Clemons visited and gave a speech about life topics in Markham, Ontario for York Regional District School Board's annual QUEST Forum to promote Student Achievement and Well-Being.
On February 28, 2014, Clemons visited the Scouts Canada National Leadership summit to speak about teamwork and working as one team to kick off the new program and strategic plan announcement.
On April 28, 2015, Clemons officially became a naturalized citizen of Canada.
Clemons was recognized on February 10, 2017 by the College of William and Mary, his alma mater, with an honorary degree during Charter Day ceremonies, where he also was principal speaker.
From February 10–26, 2017, Clemons partnered with Global Pet Foods and Air Miles for the "Show Us Your Heart" event. Its goal is to raise money for homeless pets, rescue groups, and animal shelters across Canada through donations made at Global Pet Food stores.
Achievements
CFL record for most all-purpose yards, All-Time Regular Season: 25,396 (1989–2000)
Recorded over 5,000 career yards in rushing (5,232), pass receptions (7,015), kickoff returns (6,349), and punt returns (6,025)
Argonauts team records for career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300)
Argonauts team records for single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997)
Argonauts team record for single-game kickoff returns (8) on August 21, 1990, versus Edmonton Eskimos
CFL most outstanding player (1990)
Three-time Grey Cup champion as a player (1991, 1996, 1997)
One-time Grey Cup champion as a head coach (2004)
Two-time Grey Cup champion as a Vice chairman (2012, 2017)
First black head coach to reach & win a Grey Cup championship (2004)
Two-time CFL All-Star (1990, 1997)
Two-time Tom Pate Award winner (1993, 1996)
1995 John Candy Memorial Award
One-time Eastern Division Most Outstanding Player Trophy winner (1990)
Four-time Eastern Division All-Star (1990, 1993, 1994, 1997)
Voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#31) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.
Was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Retired number by the Toronto Argonauts (#31)
Honours
He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Ontario in 2001, giving Him the Post Nominal Letters "O.Ont" for Life. In 2011, he was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine.
Honorary Degrees
Michael "Pinball" Clemons has received honorary degrees from several universities. These include:
Legacy
In 2012 in honour of the 100th Grey Cup, Canada Post used his image on a series of commemorative postage stamps. The image was also used on presentation posters and other materials to promote the Grey Cup game and other celebrations associated with the centennial.
CFL coaching record
CFL GM record
Coaching tree
Assistants under Clemons that became NFL, CFL, or NCAA head coaches:
Aaron Best: Eastern Washington (2017–present)
References
Further reading
Q & A with Pinball Clemons for Now Magazine (July 12–18, 2007)
Interview with The Good Point (Oct. 7, 2008)
Liberal senator likes Clemons' 'politics of hope' (Toronto Star Column, Oct. 26, 2008)
External links
Michael "Pinball" Clemons Foundation website
Toronto Argonauts profile
CFL.ca stats
CFLapedia bio
DatabaseFootball.com stats
1965 births
Living people
African-American Christians
African-American coaches of Canadian football
African-American players of Canadian football
African-American sports executives and administrators
American sports executives and administrators
American football running backs
American emigrants to Canada
American motivational speakers
American Protestants
Black Canadian players of Canadian football
Canadian Protestants
Canadian people of African-American descent
Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Award winners
Canadian football return specialists
Canadian football running backs
Canadian motivational speakers
Dunedin High School alumni
Kansas City Chiefs players
Members of the Order of Ontario
Naturalized citizens of Canada
People from Dunedin, Florida
Players of American football from Florida
Sportspeople from Pinellas County, Florida
Sportspeople from Oakville, Ontario
Toronto Argonauts coaches
Toronto Argonauts general managers
Toronto Argonauts players
Toronto Argonauts team presidents
William & Mary Tribe football players
William & Mary Tribe men's soccer players
Association footballers not categorized by position
Association football players not categorized by nationality
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[
"William James Lovie (December 30, 1868 – November 24, 1938) was a Canadian farmer and politician.\n\nBorn in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of James Lovie and Isabella Moir, Lovie attended Skene Parish Common School in Aberdeenshire before emigrating to Canada in 1885. He settled in Holland, Manitoba where he was a farmer. He was Secretary-Treasurer of the United Farmers of Manitoba for 18 years. He was first elected to the House of Commons of Canada for Macdonald in 1921. A Progressive, he was re-elected in 1925 and 1926. He did not run for re-election in 1930. He died in 1938 in Holland, Manitoba.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1868 births\n1938 deaths\nMembers of the House of Commons of Canada from Manitoba\nPeople from Aberdeenshire\nProgressive Party of Canada MPs\nScottish emigrants to Canada",
"Marcus Child (December 1792 – March 6, 1859) was a Lower Canada businessman and political figure.\n\nHe was born in West Boylston, Massachusetts in 1792. He came to Stanstead Township, Lower Canada in 1812, where he entered business a druggist. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada for Stanstead as a reformer in a by-election in 1829. He also served as postmaster for Stanstead and justice of the peace. Child helped secure funding to establish Stanstead Seminary and Charleston Academy.\n\nChild did not stand for election in the general election of 1831, but did contest a subsequent by -election in 1833. The Returning Officer proclaimed that he had been defeated by the opposing candidate, Wright Chamberlain, but this decision was subsequently set aside by the Legislative Assembly, which held that Child had been elected. He was re-elected in the general election of 1834.\n\nChild supported the Ninety-Two Resolutions and Louis-Joseph Papineau. Following the Lower Canada Rebellion in 1837, he was removed from his positions as postmaster and justice of the peace. In 1838, went to Vermont to avoid being arrested. He later returned to Coaticook where he established himself as a merchant and manufacturer.\n\nIn 1841, following the creation of the new Province of Canada, Child was elected to represent Stanstead in the new Legislative Assembly. Child later served as senior magistrate for Stanstead County and inspector of schools for the Saint-François district.\n\nHe died in Coaticook, in 1859, from an inflammation of the lungs.\n\nExternal links\n \n\n1792 births\n1859 deaths\nMembers of the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada\nMembers of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from Canada East\nPeople from Estrie"
] |
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"Pinball Clemons",
"Coaching career",
"Where did he coach?",
"The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home.",
"Where did he live in Canada?",
"Toronto"
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C_f607cf12cd4645c796e5f5ea9b15fd5a_0
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Did he enjoy coaching?
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Did Pinball Clemons enjoy coaching?
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Pinball Clemons
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Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1-6-1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November, 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry. When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis for the remainder of the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time. In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin". Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67-54-1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6-5 playoff record (including 1-0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he was vice chairman with Toronto in 2008. CANNOTANSWER
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To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it.
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Michael Lutrell "Pinball" Clemons (born January 15, 1965) is an American-Canadian sports executive and former running back and return specialist who serves as general manager for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Clemons played with the Argonauts for twelve seasons where he was a two-time All-Star and a three-time Grey Cup Champion, and twice served as their head coach before becoming an administrator, since winning three more Grey Cups. His no. 31 jersey is one of only four that have been retired by the Argonauts. He is one of the most famous former Argos players, and is also one of the most popular professional athletes in the history of Toronto. Clemons has stated that he feels CFL football is the best football in the world. Clemons is 5 ft 6 in (167 cm) tall and weighs 170 pounds (77 kg).
Early life
Clemons was born and raised in Dunedin, Florida to an 18-year-old single mother, Anna Marie Bryant, who had just graduated from a segregated high school. His father, Willie Clemons, lived an hour and a half away from them while finishing up his university education and later became a school teacher.
Clemons started playing football at age 8 with the Dunedin Golden Eagles, a youth organization co-ordinated by the Police Athletic League.
Clemons and his mother lived in public housing across the street from the city's sewer plant until he was 14 years old. At this point in Clemons' life, his mother married his stepfather and would also become the first African-American to get an administrative job for the City of Dunedin.
Clemons's mother was also a heavy influence in him becoming a devout Christian as she was also a clerk at a Baptist church in Dunedin. Clemons and his family currently attend the Meeting House in Oakville, Ontario.
Clemons later formed a relationship with his father, Willie, during his college years. Even then, the relationship between him and his father was more like a nephew to an uncle, being limited to visits during his family vacations down in Florida and regular phone calls. Willie was also invited to the 2003 CFL Eastern Division semi-final game his son was coaching in Toronto vs. the B.C. Lions, marking the first time his father had actually seen him in any capacity with the Argonauts. Shortly afterwards, his father died.
College career
Clemons graduated with a degree in economics from the College of William & Mary where he played running back and return specialist on the football team, as well as playing varsity soccer for a year. In his four-year college football career, he compiled 4,778 all-purpose yards and was named a Division I-AA all-American.
Professional football career
In 1987, Clemons was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. During the 1987 NFL season, Clemons played in eight games, predominantly as a punt returner, where he collected 19 returns for 162 yards.
When Clemons first joined the Toronto Argonauts in 1989, guest running backs coach Tom Cudney nicknamed him "Pinball" because of his running style. His diminutive size and extraordinary balance allowed him to bounce between defensive players much like a pinball inside a pinball machine. During home games, The Who song "Pinball Wizard" would play on the P.A. each time Clemons was involved in a great play. In his first game with the Argonauts, Clemons was named the player of the game. In 1990, Clemons received the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award after setting a single season record for all-purpose yards (3,300). The following year, Clemons won his very first football championship as his Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders to win the Grey Cup. Clemons went on to win two more Grey Cups as a player when Doug Flutie led Argonauts won back-to-back titles during the 1996 & 1997 seasons. In 1997, Clemons surpassed his own single season all-purpose yards record from 1990 by recording 3,840 all-purpose yards. This mark stood until 2012, when it was broken by Chad Owens. On September 15, 2000, Clemons played his last ever game as an Argonaut. During his 12-year playing career with the Argonauts he set many team records including career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300). He also set single season single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997). Clemons also amassed a career 25,438 combined yards during the regular season, a CFL record.
In 2008, Clemons was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. And in 2009, Clemons was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Coaching career
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1–6–1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry.
When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis with 6 games remaining in the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time.
In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to be the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin".
Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67–54–1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6–5 playoff record (including 1–0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he became the team's chief executive officer in 2008.
Sports administrator
From November 2001 to September 2002, Clemons served as the Toronto Argonauts President. He ended his tenure as President to resume his second stint as the team's head coach. In 2003, Clemons shared both responsibilities as the team's head coach & general manager. Though he was the de facto GM of the Argonauts as a result of an administrative shake up of the team, much of the player roster management duties were deferred to Greg Mohns, the team's director of football operations & player personnel. Clemons would relinquish his GM title to Adam Rita at the end of the season. On December 4, 2007, Clemons stepped down as head coach of the Argonauts to become their new Chief Executive Officer. At the end of the 2008 Toronto Argonauts season, Clemons announced that he would no longer act in the day-to-day business of the organization and on May 6, 2009, Bob Nicholson was announced as the new president and chief executive officer of the Argonauts. On that same day, Clemons was appointed the Vice-Chair of the team. In his new role, Clemons advises the president & C.E.O. on key sales and corporate partner programs, significant community initiatives, and brand and media relations. On October 8, 2019, Clemons was named as the new general manager of the team, replacing Jim Popp who was relieved of his GM duties with 4 games remaining in the 2019 Toronto Argonauts season. Clemons would also work closely with John Murphy, the team's vice president of player personnel, in assembling the roster.
Personal life
Clemons is also a motivational speaker, making frequent public appearances throughout the community. He is also a partner of the children's brand Simply Kids, a line of diapers, baby food and healthcare products found in supermarkets across Canada and the United States.
Currently, Clemons resides in Oakville, Ontario with his wife, Diane (a native Floridian), and three daughters (who were all born in Canada). His oldest daughter, Rachel, is 22, his middle daughter Raven is 19, and his youngest daughter Rylie is now 17. Clemons has described himself (borrowing a quote from C.D. Howe) as an "American by birth but Canadian by choice". In 2000, Clemons became a permanent resident of Canada. It had once been suggested that Clemons had remained an American citizen to rebuff any calls for him to run for political office, such as for mayor of Toronto. Clemons was the subject of Pinball: The Making of a Canadian Hero () a biography written by Perry Lefko published in 2006.
In April 2007, he visited Calderstone Middle School in Brampton to help start a reading program.
On August 21, 2007, Clemons founded the "Michael 'Pinball' Clemons Foundation" which is dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth.
On March 23, 2009, Clemons appeared on the CTV News @ 6 as a celebrity guest host to do the weather in celebration of Dave Devall's retirement.
He is currently working with Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger, founders of Free the Children, in an initiative to build schools and clean water systems in Africa.
On November 14, 2012, Clemons visited and gave a speech about life topics in Markham, Ontario for York Regional District School Board's annual QUEST Forum to promote Student Achievement and Well-Being.
On February 28, 2014, Clemons visited the Scouts Canada National Leadership summit to speak about teamwork and working as one team to kick off the new program and strategic plan announcement.
On April 28, 2015, Clemons officially became a naturalized citizen of Canada.
Clemons was recognized on February 10, 2017 by the College of William and Mary, his alma mater, with an honorary degree during Charter Day ceremonies, where he also was principal speaker.
From February 10–26, 2017, Clemons partnered with Global Pet Foods and Air Miles for the "Show Us Your Heart" event. Its goal is to raise money for homeless pets, rescue groups, and animal shelters across Canada through donations made at Global Pet Food stores.
Achievements
CFL record for most all-purpose yards, All-Time Regular Season: 25,396 (1989–2000)
Recorded over 5,000 career yards in rushing (5,232), pass receptions (7,015), kickoff returns (6,349), and punt returns (6,025)
Argonauts team records for career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300)
Argonauts team records for single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997)
Argonauts team record for single-game kickoff returns (8) on August 21, 1990, versus Edmonton Eskimos
CFL most outstanding player (1990)
Three-time Grey Cup champion as a player (1991, 1996, 1997)
One-time Grey Cup champion as a head coach (2004)
Two-time Grey Cup champion as a Vice chairman (2012, 2017)
First black head coach to reach & win a Grey Cup championship (2004)
Two-time CFL All-Star (1990, 1997)
Two-time Tom Pate Award winner (1993, 1996)
1995 John Candy Memorial Award
One-time Eastern Division Most Outstanding Player Trophy winner (1990)
Four-time Eastern Division All-Star (1990, 1993, 1994, 1997)
Voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#31) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.
Was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Retired number by the Toronto Argonauts (#31)
Honours
He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Ontario in 2001, giving Him the Post Nominal Letters "O.Ont" for Life. In 2011, he was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine.
Honorary Degrees
Michael "Pinball" Clemons has received honorary degrees from several universities. These include:
Legacy
In 2012 in honour of the 100th Grey Cup, Canada Post used his image on a series of commemorative postage stamps. The image was also used on presentation posters and other materials to promote the Grey Cup game and other celebrations associated with the centennial.
CFL coaching record
CFL GM record
Coaching tree
Assistants under Clemons that became NFL, CFL, or NCAA head coaches:
Aaron Best: Eastern Washington (2017–present)
References
Further reading
Q & A with Pinball Clemons for Now Magazine (July 12–18, 2007)
Interview with The Good Point (Oct. 7, 2008)
Liberal senator likes Clemons' 'politics of hope' (Toronto Star Column, Oct. 26, 2008)
External links
Michael "Pinball" Clemons Foundation website
Toronto Argonauts profile
CFL.ca stats
CFLapedia bio
DatabaseFootball.com stats
1965 births
Living people
African-American Christians
African-American coaches of Canadian football
African-American players of Canadian football
African-American sports executives and administrators
American sports executives and administrators
American football running backs
American emigrants to Canada
American motivational speakers
American Protestants
Black Canadian players of Canadian football
Canadian Protestants
Canadian people of African-American descent
Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Award winners
Canadian football return specialists
Canadian football running backs
Canadian motivational speakers
Dunedin High School alumni
Kansas City Chiefs players
Members of the Order of Ontario
Naturalized citizens of Canada
People from Dunedin, Florida
Players of American football from Florida
Sportspeople from Pinellas County, Florida
Sportspeople from Oakville, Ontario
Toronto Argonauts coaches
Toronto Argonauts general managers
Toronto Argonauts players
Toronto Argonauts team presidents
William & Mary Tribe football players
William & Mary Tribe men's soccer players
Association footballers not categorized by position
Association football players not categorized by nationality
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[
"James Leslie Kuplic (September 23, 1911 – July 22, 1968) was an American professional basketball player. He played for the Sheboygan Red Skins in the National Basketball League for two seasons and averaged 1.2 points per game.\n\nAfter playing football, basketball, and tennis for Beloit College, Kuplic spent the 1934–35 year coaching all three sports at St. Norbert College. He assisted with the football and basketball teams and was the head coach for the tennis team. Kuplic also taught Japanese history while at St. Norbert. He did not enjoy coaching or teaching, so he left to go work in corporate America. During the late 1930s he played on numerous barnstorming teams in Sheboygan, Wisconsin while also officiating high school basketball games.\n\nKuplic died from a heart attack on his way to work on July 22, 1968.\n\nReferences\n\n1911 births\n1968 deaths\nAmerican men's basketball players\nBasketball coaches from Wisconsin\nBasketball players from Wisconsin\nBasketball referees\nBeloit Buccaneers football players\nBeloit Buccaneers men's basketball players\nCollege men's tennis players in the United States\nCollege tennis coaches in the United States\nForwards (basketball)\nPeople from Manitowoc, Wisconsin\nPlayers of American football from Wisconsin\nSheboygan Red Skins players\nSt. Norbert College faculty\nSt. Norbert Green Knights football coaches\nSt. Norbert Green Knights men's basketball coaches",
"Abdinasir Said Ibrahim (, ) (born July 1, 1989)) is a track and field athlete from Somalia.\n\nCareer\nIn preparation for competitive meets in 2008, Ibrahim and fellow athlete Samiya Yusuf Omar trained under difficult circumstances, facing harassment from local militants who interpreted his participation in official track events as compliance with the federal government authorities that they were waging war against. On account of civil unrest in Mogadishu, he also did not benefit from the consistent coaching, reliable facilities and competitive meets that other elite-level athletes enjoy.\n\nIbrahim represented Somalia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, competing in the 5000 metres race. He finished in 37th place overall and 12th in his first round heat, with a time of 14:21.58. The International Association of Athletics Federations recorded the time as a personal best.\n\nNotes\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nSomalia's Runners Provide Inspiration\n\n1989 births\nLiving people\nAthletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics\nOlympic athletes of Somalia\nSomalian male long-distance runners"
] |
[
"Pinball Clemons",
"Coaching career",
"Where did he coach?",
"The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home.",
"Where did he live in Canada?",
"Toronto",
"Did he enjoy coaching?",
"To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it."
] |
C_f607cf12cd4645c796e5f5ea9b15fd5a_0
|
What else did he say about coaching?
| 4 |
In addition to the (Grey) Cup, what else did Pinball Clemons say about coaching?
|
Pinball Clemons
|
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1-6-1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November, 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry. When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis for the remainder of the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time. In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin". Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67-54-1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6-5 playoff record (including 1-0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he was vice chairman with Toronto in 2008. CANNOTANSWER
|
Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family
|
Michael Lutrell "Pinball" Clemons (born January 15, 1965) is an American-Canadian sports executive and former running back and return specialist who serves as general manager for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Clemons played with the Argonauts for twelve seasons where he was a two-time All-Star and a three-time Grey Cup Champion, and twice served as their head coach before becoming an administrator, since winning three more Grey Cups. His no. 31 jersey is one of only four that have been retired by the Argonauts. He is one of the most famous former Argos players, and is also one of the most popular professional athletes in the history of Toronto. Clemons has stated that he feels CFL football is the best football in the world. Clemons is 5 ft 6 in (167 cm) tall and weighs 170 pounds (77 kg).
Early life
Clemons was born and raised in Dunedin, Florida to an 18-year-old single mother, Anna Marie Bryant, who had just graduated from a segregated high school. His father, Willie Clemons, lived an hour and a half away from them while finishing up his university education and later became a school teacher.
Clemons started playing football at age 8 with the Dunedin Golden Eagles, a youth organization co-ordinated by the Police Athletic League.
Clemons and his mother lived in public housing across the street from the city's sewer plant until he was 14 years old. At this point in Clemons' life, his mother married his stepfather and would also become the first African-American to get an administrative job for the City of Dunedin.
Clemons's mother was also a heavy influence in him becoming a devout Christian as she was also a clerk at a Baptist church in Dunedin. Clemons and his family currently attend the Meeting House in Oakville, Ontario.
Clemons later formed a relationship with his father, Willie, during his college years. Even then, the relationship between him and his father was more like a nephew to an uncle, being limited to visits during his family vacations down in Florida and regular phone calls. Willie was also invited to the 2003 CFL Eastern Division semi-final game his son was coaching in Toronto vs. the B.C. Lions, marking the first time his father had actually seen him in any capacity with the Argonauts. Shortly afterwards, his father died.
College career
Clemons graduated with a degree in economics from the College of William & Mary where he played running back and return specialist on the football team, as well as playing varsity soccer for a year. In his four-year college football career, he compiled 4,778 all-purpose yards and was named a Division I-AA all-American.
Professional football career
In 1987, Clemons was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. During the 1987 NFL season, Clemons played in eight games, predominantly as a punt returner, where he collected 19 returns for 162 yards.
When Clemons first joined the Toronto Argonauts in 1989, guest running backs coach Tom Cudney nicknamed him "Pinball" because of his running style. His diminutive size and extraordinary balance allowed him to bounce between defensive players much like a pinball inside a pinball machine. During home games, The Who song "Pinball Wizard" would play on the P.A. each time Clemons was involved in a great play. In his first game with the Argonauts, Clemons was named the player of the game. In 1990, Clemons received the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award after setting a single season record for all-purpose yards (3,300). The following year, Clemons won his very first football championship as his Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders to win the Grey Cup. Clemons went on to win two more Grey Cups as a player when Doug Flutie led Argonauts won back-to-back titles during the 1996 & 1997 seasons. In 1997, Clemons surpassed his own single season all-purpose yards record from 1990 by recording 3,840 all-purpose yards. This mark stood until 2012, when it was broken by Chad Owens. On September 15, 2000, Clemons played his last ever game as an Argonaut. During his 12-year playing career with the Argonauts he set many team records including career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300). He also set single season single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997). Clemons also amassed a career 25,438 combined yards during the regular season, a CFL record.
In 2008, Clemons was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. And in 2009, Clemons was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Coaching career
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1–6–1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry.
When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis with 6 games remaining in the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time.
In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to be the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin".
Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67–54–1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6–5 playoff record (including 1–0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he became the team's chief executive officer in 2008.
Sports administrator
From November 2001 to September 2002, Clemons served as the Toronto Argonauts President. He ended his tenure as President to resume his second stint as the team's head coach. In 2003, Clemons shared both responsibilities as the team's head coach & general manager. Though he was the de facto GM of the Argonauts as a result of an administrative shake up of the team, much of the player roster management duties were deferred to Greg Mohns, the team's director of football operations & player personnel. Clemons would relinquish his GM title to Adam Rita at the end of the season. On December 4, 2007, Clemons stepped down as head coach of the Argonauts to become their new Chief Executive Officer. At the end of the 2008 Toronto Argonauts season, Clemons announced that he would no longer act in the day-to-day business of the organization and on May 6, 2009, Bob Nicholson was announced as the new president and chief executive officer of the Argonauts. On that same day, Clemons was appointed the Vice-Chair of the team. In his new role, Clemons advises the president & C.E.O. on key sales and corporate partner programs, significant community initiatives, and brand and media relations. On October 8, 2019, Clemons was named as the new general manager of the team, replacing Jim Popp who was relieved of his GM duties with 4 games remaining in the 2019 Toronto Argonauts season. Clemons would also work closely with John Murphy, the team's vice president of player personnel, in assembling the roster.
Personal life
Clemons is also a motivational speaker, making frequent public appearances throughout the community. He is also a partner of the children's brand Simply Kids, a line of diapers, baby food and healthcare products found in supermarkets across Canada and the United States.
Currently, Clemons resides in Oakville, Ontario with his wife, Diane (a native Floridian), and three daughters (who were all born in Canada). His oldest daughter, Rachel, is 22, his middle daughter Raven is 19, and his youngest daughter Rylie is now 17. Clemons has described himself (borrowing a quote from C.D. Howe) as an "American by birth but Canadian by choice". In 2000, Clemons became a permanent resident of Canada. It had once been suggested that Clemons had remained an American citizen to rebuff any calls for him to run for political office, such as for mayor of Toronto. Clemons was the subject of Pinball: The Making of a Canadian Hero () a biography written by Perry Lefko published in 2006.
In April 2007, he visited Calderstone Middle School in Brampton to help start a reading program.
On August 21, 2007, Clemons founded the "Michael 'Pinball' Clemons Foundation" which is dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth.
On March 23, 2009, Clemons appeared on the CTV News @ 6 as a celebrity guest host to do the weather in celebration of Dave Devall's retirement.
He is currently working with Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger, founders of Free the Children, in an initiative to build schools and clean water systems in Africa.
On November 14, 2012, Clemons visited and gave a speech about life topics in Markham, Ontario for York Regional District School Board's annual QUEST Forum to promote Student Achievement and Well-Being.
On February 28, 2014, Clemons visited the Scouts Canada National Leadership summit to speak about teamwork and working as one team to kick off the new program and strategic plan announcement.
On April 28, 2015, Clemons officially became a naturalized citizen of Canada.
Clemons was recognized on February 10, 2017 by the College of William and Mary, his alma mater, with an honorary degree during Charter Day ceremonies, where he also was principal speaker.
From February 10–26, 2017, Clemons partnered with Global Pet Foods and Air Miles for the "Show Us Your Heart" event. Its goal is to raise money for homeless pets, rescue groups, and animal shelters across Canada through donations made at Global Pet Food stores.
Achievements
CFL record for most all-purpose yards, All-Time Regular Season: 25,396 (1989–2000)
Recorded over 5,000 career yards in rushing (5,232), pass receptions (7,015), kickoff returns (6,349), and punt returns (6,025)
Argonauts team records for career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300)
Argonauts team records for single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997)
Argonauts team record for single-game kickoff returns (8) on August 21, 1990, versus Edmonton Eskimos
CFL most outstanding player (1990)
Three-time Grey Cup champion as a player (1991, 1996, 1997)
One-time Grey Cup champion as a head coach (2004)
Two-time Grey Cup champion as a Vice chairman (2012, 2017)
First black head coach to reach & win a Grey Cup championship (2004)
Two-time CFL All-Star (1990, 1997)
Two-time Tom Pate Award winner (1993, 1996)
1995 John Candy Memorial Award
One-time Eastern Division Most Outstanding Player Trophy winner (1990)
Four-time Eastern Division All-Star (1990, 1993, 1994, 1997)
Voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#31) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.
Was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Retired number by the Toronto Argonauts (#31)
Honours
He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Ontario in 2001, giving Him the Post Nominal Letters "O.Ont" for Life. In 2011, he was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine.
Honorary Degrees
Michael "Pinball" Clemons has received honorary degrees from several universities. These include:
Legacy
In 2012 in honour of the 100th Grey Cup, Canada Post used his image on a series of commemorative postage stamps. The image was also used on presentation posters and other materials to promote the Grey Cup game and other celebrations associated with the centennial.
CFL coaching record
CFL GM record
Coaching tree
Assistants under Clemons that became NFL, CFL, or NCAA head coaches:
Aaron Best: Eastern Washington (2017–present)
References
Further reading
Q & A with Pinball Clemons for Now Magazine (July 12–18, 2007)
Interview with The Good Point (Oct. 7, 2008)
Liberal senator likes Clemons' 'politics of hope' (Toronto Star Column, Oct. 26, 2008)
External links
Michael "Pinball" Clemons Foundation website
Toronto Argonauts profile
CFL.ca stats
CFLapedia bio
DatabaseFootball.com stats
1965 births
Living people
African-American Christians
African-American coaches of Canadian football
African-American players of Canadian football
African-American sports executives and administrators
American sports executives and administrators
American football running backs
American emigrants to Canada
American motivational speakers
American Protestants
Black Canadian players of Canadian football
Canadian Protestants
Canadian people of African-American descent
Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Award winners
Canadian football return specialists
Canadian football running backs
Canadian motivational speakers
Dunedin High School alumni
Kansas City Chiefs players
Members of the Order of Ontario
Naturalized citizens of Canada
People from Dunedin, Florida
Players of American football from Florida
Sportspeople from Pinellas County, Florida
Sportspeople from Oakville, Ontario
Toronto Argonauts coaches
Toronto Argonauts general managers
Toronto Argonauts players
Toronto Argonauts team presidents
William & Mary Tribe football players
William & Mary Tribe men's soccer players
Association footballers not categorized by position
Association football players not categorized by nationality
| true |
[
"\n\nTrack listing\n Opening Overture\n \"I Get a Kick Out of You\" (Cole Porter)\n \"You Are the Sunshine of My Life\" (Stevie Wonder)\n \"You Will Be My Music\" (Joe Raposo)\n \"Don't Worry 'bout Me\" (Ted Koehler, Rube Bloom)\n \"If\" (David Gates)\n \"Bad, Bad Leroy Brown\" (Jim Croce)\n \"Ol' Man River\" (Jerome Kern, Oscar Hammerstein II)\n Famous Monologue\n Saloon Trilogy: \"Last Night When We Were Young\"/\"Violets for Your Furs\"/\"Here's That Rainy Day\" (Harold Arlen, E.Y. Harburg)/(Matt Dennis, Tom Adair)/(Jimmy Van Heusen, Johnny Burke)\n \"I've Got You Under My Skin\" (Porter)\n \"My Kind of Town\" (Sammy Cahn, Van Heusen)\n \"Let Me Try Again\" (Paul Anka, Cahn, Michel Jourdan)\n \"The Lady Is a Tramp\" (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)\n \"My Way\" (Anka, Claude Francois, Jacques Revaux, Gilles Thibaut)\n\nFrank Sinatra's Monologue About the Australian Press\nI do believe this is my interval, as we say... We've been having a marvelous time being chased around the country for three days. You know, I think it's worth mentioning because it's so idiotic, it's so ridiculous what's been happening. We came all the way to Australia because I chose to come here. I haven't been here for a long time and I wanted to come back for a few days. Wait now, wait. I'm not buttering anybody at all. I don't have to. I really don't have to. I like coming here. I like the people. I love your attitude. I like the booze and the beer and everything else that comes into the scene. I also like the way the country's growing and it's a swinging place.\n\nSo we come here and what happens? We gotta run all day long because of the parasites who chase us with automobiles. That's dangerous, too, on the road, you know. Might cause an accident. They won't quit. They wonder why I won't talk to them. I wouldn't drink their water, let alone talk to them. And if any of you folks in the press are in the audience, please quote me properly. Don't mix it up, do it exactly as I'm saying it, please. Write it down very clearly. One idiot called me up and he wanted to know what I had for breakfast. What the hell does he care what I had for breakfast? I was about to tell him what I did after breakfast. Oh, boy, they're murder! We have a name in the States for their counterparts: They're called parasites. Because they take and take and take and never give, absolutely, never give. I don't care what you think about any press in the world, I say they're bums and they'll always be bums, everyone of them. There are just a few exceptions to the rule. Some good editorial writers who don't go out in the street and chase people around. Critics don't bother me, because if I do badly, I know I'm bad before they even write it, and if I'm good, I know I'm good before they write it. It's true. I know best about myself. So, a critic is a critic. He doesn't anger me. It's the scandal man who bugs you, drives you crazy. It's the two-bit-type work that they do. They're pimps. They're just crazy, you know. And the broads who work in the press are the hookers of the press. Need I explain that to you? I might offer them a buck and a half... I'm not sure. I once gave a chick in Washington $2 and I overpaid her, I found out. She didn't even bathe. Imagine what that was like, ha, ha.\n\nNow, it's a good thing I'm not angry. Really. It's a good thing I'm not angry. I couldn't care less. The press of the world never made a person a star who was untalented, nor did they ever hurt any artist who was talented. So we, who have God-given talent, say, \"To hell with them.\" It doesn't make any difference, you know. And I want to say one more thing. From what I see what's happened since I was last here... what, 16 years ago? Twelve years ago. From what I've seen to happen with the type of news that they print in this town shocked me. And do you know what is devastating? It's old-fashioned. It was done in America and England twenty years ago. And they're catching up with it now, with the scandal sheet. They're rags, that's what they are. You use them to train your dog and your parrot. What else do I have to say? Oh, I guess that's it. That'll keep them talking to themselves for a while. I think most of them are a bunch of fags anyway. Never did a hard day's work in their life. I love when they say, \"What do you mean, you won't stand still when I take your picture?\" All of a sudden, they're God. We gotta do what they want us to do. It's incredible. A pox on them... Now, let's get down to some serious business here...\n\nSee also\nConcerts of Frank Sinatra\n\nFrank Sinatra",
"\"What They'll Say About Us\" is a song by American singer-songwriter Finneas. It was released by OYOY as a single on September 2, 2020. The song was written and produced by Finneas. A lullaby-influenced ballad, the lyrics were inspired by the Black Lives Matter protests and Nick Cordero's death due to COVID-19. \"What They'll Say About Us\" was noted by music critics for its lyrical content. A music video for the song was released alongside the song and was directed by Sam Bennett in one take. It is the first single from his debut studio album Optimist.\n\nBackground and development\nFinneas wrote and produced \"What They'll Say About Us\". It was inspired by the spark of Black Lives Matter protests after racial inequality in the United States and the death of Canadian actor Nick Cordero, who died at the age of 41 from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Finneas wrote the track in June 2020 while in quarantine. In an interview over Zoom with The Wall Street Journal, he said: \"I wrote this song in June after spending the day at a protest in Downtown LA, filled with hope with the prospect that millions of people were coming together from all over the world to fight against institutionalized racism and inequality\". He further stated: \"The other component of the song was [that] I was very closely following Nick Cordero's story on Instagram, via his wife [Amanda Kloots], and Nick and his wife were not people I'd ever met. I don't know them at all. I saw the headlines about his health, just like everybody else did. I just became incredibly attached to this family that I’d never met before. I kind of wrote this song as if you were singing to your loved one who was in a hospital bed while the world was protesting outside. I did make a point to keep the song fairly ambiguous because I know everybody's sort of going through different circumstances of the same things right now\".\n\nComposition and lyrics\n\"What They'll Say About Us\" begins \"calmly and reassuringly\": \"You're tired now, lie down/I'll be waiting to give you the good news/It might take patience/And when you wake up, it won't be over/So don't you give up\". However, as the beat and other instruments begin to arrive, the soundstage changes to be hazy. John Pareles, writing for The New York Times, says it \"mortality begins to haunt the song, all the way to a devastating last line\", noting the lyrics, \"It might take patience/And if you don't wake up/I'll know you tried to/I wish you could see him/He looks just like you\".\n\nReception\nIn a review for DIY magazine, the staff labeled \"What They'll Say About Us\" as \"poignant\" and an \"ode to human strength\". Writing for Billboard magazine, Jason Lipshutz said while the production on the track is \"effectively restrained\", people should credit Finneas for going \"full-on showstopper when he draws out the line, 'We've got the time to take the world / And make it better than it ever was\". Emily Tan of Spin magazine described the track as a song that \"aims to offer comfort to those who have lost someone due to Covid-19\".\n\nMusic video\nA music video for \"What They'll Say About Us\" was released to Finneas' YouTube channel on September 2, 2020. The video was directed by Sam Bennett and shot in one take. In the visual, lights and rain swirl around Finneas as he sings and offers comfort to people who have lost someone they love from COVID-19. Spins Emily Yan described the visual as \"simple\" and \"intimate\".\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2020s ballads\n2020 singles\n2020 songs\nSong recordings produced by Finneas O'Connell\nSongs written by Finneas O'Connell\nSongs in memory of deceased persons\nFinneas O'Connell songs"
] |
[
"Pinball Clemons",
"Coaching career",
"Where did he coach?",
"The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home.",
"Where did he live in Canada?",
"Toronto",
"Did he enjoy coaching?",
"To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it.",
"What else did he say about coaching?",
"Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family"
] |
C_f607cf12cd4645c796e5f5ea9b15fd5a_0
|
Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
| 5 |
In addition to coaching, are there any other interesting aspects about Pinball Clemons in this article?
|
Pinball Clemons
|
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1-6-1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November, 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry. When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis for the remainder of the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time. In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin". Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67-54-1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6-5 playoff record (including 1-0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he was vice chairman with Toronto in 2008. CANNOTANSWER
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As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players.
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Michael Lutrell "Pinball" Clemons (born January 15, 1965) is an American-Canadian sports executive and former running back and return specialist who serves as general manager for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Clemons played with the Argonauts for twelve seasons where he was a two-time All-Star and a three-time Grey Cup Champion, and twice served as their head coach before becoming an administrator, since winning three more Grey Cups. His no. 31 jersey is one of only four that have been retired by the Argonauts. He is one of the most famous former Argos players, and is also one of the most popular professional athletes in the history of Toronto. Clemons has stated that he feels CFL football is the best football in the world. Clemons is 5 ft 6 in (167 cm) tall and weighs 170 pounds (77 kg).
Early life
Clemons was born and raised in Dunedin, Florida to an 18-year-old single mother, Anna Marie Bryant, who had just graduated from a segregated high school. His father, Willie Clemons, lived an hour and a half away from them while finishing up his university education and later became a school teacher.
Clemons started playing football at age 8 with the Dunedin Golden Eagles, a youth organization co-ordinated by the Police Athletic League.
Clemons and his mother lived in public housing across the street from the city's sewer plant until he was 14 years old. At this point in Clemons' life, his mother married his stepfather and would also become the first African-American to get an administrative job for the City of Dunedin.
Clemons's mother was also a heavy influence in him becoming a devout Christian as she was also a clerk at a Baptist church in Dunedin. Clemons and his family currently attend the Meeting House in Oakville, Ontario.
Clemons later formed a relationship with his father, Willie, during his college years. Even then, the relationship between him and his father was more like a nephew to an uncle, being limited to visits during his family vacations down in Florida and regular phone calls. Willie was also invited to the 2003 CFL Eastern Division semi-final game his son was coaching in Toronto vs. the B.C. Lions, marking the first time his father had actually seen him in any capacity with the Argonauts. Shortly afterwards, his father died.
College career
Clemons graduated with a degree in economics from the College of William & Mary where he played running back and return specialist on the football team, as well as playing varsity soccer for a year. In his four-year college football career, he compiled 4,778 all-purpose yards and was named a Division I-AA all-American.
Professional football career
In 1987, Clemons was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. During the 1987 NFL season, Clemons played in eight games, predominantly as a punt returner, where he collected 19 returns for 162 yards.
When Clemons first joined the Toronto Argonauts in 1989, guest running backs coach Tom Cudney nicknamed him "Pinball" because of his running style. His diminutive size and extraordinary balance allowed him to bounce between defensive players much like a pinball inside a pinball machine. During home games, The Who song "Pinball Wizard" would play on the P.A. each time Clemons was involved in a great play. In his first game with the Argonauts, Clemons was named the player of the game. In 1990, Clemons received the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award after setting a single season record for all-purpose yards (3,300). The following year, Clemons won his very first football championship as his Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders to win the Grey Cup. Clemons went on to win two more Grey Cups as a player when Doug Flutie led Argonauts won back-to-back titles during the 1996 & 1997 seasons. In 1997, Clemons surpassed his own single season all-purpose yards record from 1990 by recording 3,840 all-purpose yards. This mark stood until 2012, when it was broken by Chad Owens. On September 15, 2000, Clemons played his last ever game as an Argonaut. During his 12-year playing career with the Argonauts he set many team records including career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300). He also set single season single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997). Clemons also amassed a career 25,438 combined yards during the regular season, a CFL record.
In 2008, Clemons was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. And in 2009, Clemons was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Coaching career
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1–6–1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry.
When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis with 6 games remaining in the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time.
In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to be the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin".
Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67–54–1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6–5 playoff record (including 1–0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he became the team's chief executive officer in 2008.
Sports administrator
From November 2001 to September 2002, Clemons served as the Toronto Argonauts President. He ended his tenure as President to resume his second stint as the team's head coach. In 2003, Clemons shared both responsibilities as the team's head coach & general manager. Though he was the de facto GM of the Argonauts as a result of an administrative shake up of the team, much of the player roster management duties were deferred to Greg Mohns, the team's director of football operations & player personnel. Clemons would relinquish his GM title to Adam Rita at the end of the season. On December 4, 2007, Clemons stepped down as head coach of the Argonauts to become their new Chief Executive Officer. At the end of the 2008 Toronto Argonauts season, Clemons announced that he would no longer act in the day-to-day business of the organization and on May 6, 2009, Bob Nicholson was announced as the new president and chief executive officer of the Argonauts. On that same day, Clemons was appointed the Vice-Chair of the team. In his new role, Clemons advises the president & C.E.O. on key sales and corporate partner programs, significant community initiatives, and brand and media relations. On October 8, 2019, Clemons was named as the new general manager of the team, replacing Jim Popp who was relieved of his GM duties with 4 games remaining in the 2019 Toronto Argonauts season. Clemons would also work closely with John Murphy, the team's vice president of player personnel, in assembling the roster.
Personal life
Clemons is also a motivational speaker, making frequent public appearances throughout the community. He is also a partner of the children's brand Simply Kids, a line of diapers, baby food and healthcare products found in supermarkets across Canada and the United States.
Currently, Clemons resides in Oakville, Ontario with his wife, Diane (a native Floridian), and three daughters (who were all born in Canada). His oldest daughter, Rachel, is 22, his middle daughter Raven is 19, and his youngest daughter Rylie is now 17. Clemons has described himself (borrowing a quote from C.D. Howe) as an "American by birth but Canadian by choice". In 2000, Clemons became a permanent resident of Canada. It had once been suggested that Clemons had remained an American citizen to rebuff any calls for him to run for political office, such as for mayor of Toronto. Clemons was the subject of Pinball: The Making of a Canadian Hero () a biography written by Perry Lefko published in 2006.
In April 2007, he visited Calderstone Middle School in Brampton to help start a reading program.
On August 21, 2007, Clemons founded the "Michael 'Pinball' Clemons Foundation" which is dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth.
On March 23, 2009, Clemons appeared on the CTV News @ 6 as a celebrity guest host to do the weather in celebration of Dave Devall's retirement.
He is currently working with Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger, founders of Free the Children, in an initiative to build schools and clean water systems in Africa.
On November 14, 2012, Clemons visited and gave a speech about life topics in Markham, Ontario for York Regional District School Board's annual QUEST Forum to promote Student Achievement and Well-Being.
On February 28, 2014, Clemons visited the Scouts Canada National Leadership summit to speak about teamwork and working as one team to kick off the new program and strategic plan announcement.
On April 28, 2015, Clemons officially became a naturalized citizen of Canada.
Clemons was recognized on February 10, 2017 by the College of William and Mary, his alma mater, with an honorary degree during Charter Day ceremonies, where he also was principal speaker.
From February 10–26, 2017, Clemons partnered with Global Pet Foods and Air Miles for the "Show Us Your Heart" event. Its goal is to raise money for homeless pets, rescue groups, and animal shelters across Canada through donations made at Global Pet Food stores.
Achievements
CFL record for most all-purpose yards, All-Time Regular Season: 25,396 (1989–2000)
Recorded over 5,000 career yards in rushing (5,232), pass receptions (7,015), kickoff returns (6,349), and punt returns (6,025)
Argonauts team records for career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300)
Argonauts team records for single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997)
Argonauts team record for single-game kickoff returns (8) on August 21, 1990, versus Edmonton Eskimos
CFL most outstanding player (1990)
Three-time Grey Cup champion as a player (1991, 1996, 1997)
One-time Grey Cup champion as a head coach (2004)
Two-time Grey Cup champion as a Vice chairman (2012, 2017)
First black head coach to reach & win a Grey Cup championship (2004)
Two-time CFL All-Star (1990, 1997)
Two-time Tom Pate Award winner (1993, 1996)
1995 John Candy Memorial Award
One-time Eastern Division Most Outstanding Player Trophy winner (1990)
Four-time Eastern Division All-Star (1990, 1993, 1994, 1997)
Voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#31) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.
Was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Retired number by the Toronto Argonauts (#31)
Honours
He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Ontario in 2001, giving Him the Post Nominal Letters "O.Ont" for Life. In 2011, he was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine.
Honorary Degrees
Michael "Pinball" Clemons has received honorary degrees from several universities. These include:
Legacy
In 2012 in honour of the 100th Grey Cup, Canada Post used his image on a series of commemorative postage stamps. The image was also used on presentation posters and other materials to promote the Grey Cup game and other celebrations associated with the centennial.
CFL coaching record
CFL GM record
Coaching tree
Assistants under Clemons that became NFL, CFL, or NCAA head coaches:
Aaron Best: Eastern Washington (2017–present)
References
Further reading
Q & A with Pinball Clemons for Now Magazine (July 12–18, 2007)
Interview with The Good Point (Oct. 7, 2008)
Liberal senator likes Clemons' 'politics of hope' (Toronto Star Column, Oct. 26, 2008)
External links
Michael "Pinball" Clemons Foundation website
Toronto Argonauts profile
CFL.ca stats
CFLapedia bio
DatabaseFootball.com stats
1965 births
Living people
African-American Christians
African-American coaches of Canadian football
African-American players of Canadian football
African-American sports executives and administrators
American sports executives and administrators
American football running backs
American emigrants to Canada
American motivational speakers
American Protestants
Black Canadian players of Canadian football
Canadian Protestants
Canadian people of African-American descent
Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Award winners
Canadian football return specialists
Canadian football running backs
Canadian motivational speakers
Dunedin High School alumni
Kansas City Chiefs players
Members of the Order of Ontario
Naturalized citizens of Canada
People from Dunedin, Florida
Players of American football from Florida
Sportspeople from Pinellas County, Florida
Sportspeople from Oakville, Ontario
Toronto Argonauts coaches
Toronto Argonauts general managers
Toronto Argonauts players
Toronto Argonauts team presidents
William & Mary Tribe football players
William & Mary Tribe men's soccer players
Association footballers not categorized by position
Association football players not categorized by nationality
| 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"
] |
[
"Pinball Clemons",
"Coaching career",
"Where did he coach?",
"The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home.",
"Where did he live in Canada?",
"Toronto",
"Did he enjoy coaching?",
"To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it.",
"What else did he say about coaching?",
"Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to \"Pinner\" by his players."
] |
C_f607cf12cd4645c796e5f5ea9b15fd5a_0
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What was his record as coach?
| 6 |
What was Pinball Clemons record as coach?
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Pinball Clemons
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Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1-6-1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November, 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry. When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis for the remainder of the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time. In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin". Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67-54-1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6-5 playoff record (including 1-0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he was vice chairman with Toronto in 2008. CANNOTANSWER
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Clemons' record is 67-54-1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6-5 playoff record (including 1-0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance).
|
Michael Lutrell "Pinball" Clemons (born January 15, 1965) is an American-Canadian sports executive and former running back and return specialist who serves as general manager for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Clemons played with the Argonauts for twelve seasons where he was a two-time All-Star and a three-time Grey Cup Champion, and twice served as their head coach before becoming an administrator, since winning three more Grey Cups. His no. 31 jersey is one of only four that have been retired by the Argonauts. He is one of the most famous former Argos players, and is also one of the most popular professional athletes in the history of Toronto. Clemons has stated that he feels CFL football is the best football in the world. Clemons is 5 ft 6 in (167 cm) tall and weighs 170 pounds (77 kg).
Early life
Clemons was born and raised in Dunedin, Florida to an 18-year-old single mother, Anna Marie Bryant, who had just graduated from a segregated high school. His father, Willie Clemons, lived an hour and a half away from them while finishing up his university education and later became a school teacher.
Clemons started playing football at age 8 with the Dunedin Golden Eagles, a youth organization co-ordinated by the Police Athletic League.
Clemons and his mother lived in public housing across the street from the city's sewer plant until he was 14 years old. At this point in Clemons' life, his mother married his stepfather and would also become the first African-American to get an administrative job for the City of Dunedin.
Clemons's mother was also a heavy influence in him becoming a devout Christian as she was also a clerk at a Baptist church in Dunedin. Clemons and his family currently attend the Meeting House in Oakville, Ontario.
Clemons later formed a relationship with his father, Willie, during his college years. Even then, the relationship between him and his father was more like a nephew to an uncle, being limited to visits during his family vacations down in Florida and regular phone calls. Willie was also invited to the 2003 CFL Eastern Division semi-final game his son was coaching in Toronto vs. the B.C. Lions, marking the first time his father had actually seen him in any capacity with the Argonauts. Shortly afterwards, his father died.
College career
Clemons graduated with a degree in economics from the College of William & Mary where he played running back and return specialist on the football team, as well as playing varsity soccer for a year. In his four-year college football career, he compiled 4,778 all-purpose yards and was named a Division I-AA all-American.
Professional football career
In 1987, Clemons was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. During the 1987 NFL season, Clemons played in eight games, predominantly as a punt returner, where he collected 19 returns for 162 yards.
When Clemons first joined the Toronto Argonauts in 1989, guest running backs coach Tom Cudney nicknamed him "Pinball" because of his running style. His diminutive size and extraordinary balance allowed him to bounce between defensive players much like a pinball inside a pinball machine. During home games, The Who song "Pinball Wizard" would play on the P.A. each time Clemons was involved in a great play. In his first game with the Argonauts, Clemons was named the player of the game. In 1990, Clemons received the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award after setting a single season record for all-purpose yards (3,300). The following year, Clemons won his very first football championship as his Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders to win the Grey Cup. Clemons went on to win two more Grey Cups as a player when Doug Flutie led Argonauts won back-to-back titles during the 1996 & 1997 seasons. In 1997, Clemons surpassed his own single season all-purpose yards record from 1990 by recording 3,840 all-purpose yards. This mark stood until 2012, when it was broken by Chad Owens. On September 15, 2000, Clemons played his last ever game as an Argonaut. During his 12-year playing career with the Argonauts he set many team records including career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300). He also set single season single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997). Clemons also amassed a career 25,438 combined yards during the regular season, a CFL record.
In 2008, Clemons was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. And in 2009, Clemons was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Coaching career
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1–6–1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry.
When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis with 6 games remaining in the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time.
In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to be the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin".
Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67–54–1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6–5 playoff record (including 1–0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he became the team's chief executive officer in 2008.
Sports administrator
From November 2001 to September 2002, Clemons served as the Toronto Argonauts President. He ended his tenure as President to resume his second stint as the team's head coach. In 2003, Clemons shared both responsibilities as the team's head coach & general manager. Though he was the de facto GM of the Argonauts as a result of an administrative shake up of the team, much of the player roster management duties were deferred to Greg Mohns, the team's director of football operations & player personnel. Clemons would relinquish his GM title to Adam Rita at the end of the season. On December 4, 2007, Clemons stepped down as head coach of the Argonauts to become their new Chief Executive Officer. At the end of the 2008 Toronto Argonauts season, Clemons announced that he would no longer act in the day-to-day business of the organization and on May 6, 2009, Bob Nicholson was announced as the new president and chief executive officer of the Argonauts. On that same day, Clemons was appointed the Vice-Chair of the team. In his new role, Clemons advises the president & C.E.O. on key sales and corporate partner programs, significant community initiatives, and brand and media relations. On October 8, 2019, Clemons was named as the new general manager of the team, replacing Jim Popp who was relieved of his GM duties with 4 games remaining in the 2019 Toronto Argonauts season. Clemons would also work closely with John Murphy, the team's vice president of player personnel, in assembling the roster.
Personal life
Clemons is also a motivational speaker, making frequent public appearances throughout the community. He is also a partner of the children's brand Simply Kids, a line of diapers, baby food and healthcare products found in supermarkets across Canada and the United States.
Currently, Clemons resides in Oakville, Ontario with his wife, Diane (a native Floridian), and three daughters (who were all born in Canada). His oldest daughter, Rachel, is 22, his middle daughter Raven is 19, and his youngest daughter Rylie is now 17. Clemons has described himself (borrowing a quote from C.D. Howe) as an "American by birth but Canadian by choice". In 2000, Clemons became a permanent resident of Canada. It had once been suggested that Clemons had remained an American citizen to rebuff any calls for him to run for political office, such as for mayor of Toronto. Clemons was the subject of Pinball: The Making of a Canadian Hero () a biography written by Perry Lefko published in 2006.
In April 2007, he visited Calderstone Middle School in Brampton to help start a reading program.
On August 21, 2007, Clemons founded the "Michael 'Pinball' Clemons Foundation" which is dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth.
On March 23, 2009, Clemons appeared on the CTV News @ 6 as a celebrity guest host to do the weather in celebration of Dave Devall's retirement.
He is currently working with Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger, founders of Free the Children, in an initiative to build schools and clean water systems in Africa.
On November 14, 2012, Clemons visited and gave a speech about life topics in Markham, Ontario for York Regional District School Board's annual QUEST Forum to promote Student Achievement and Well-Being.
On February 28, 2014, Clemons visited the Scouts Canada National Leadership summit to speak about teamwork and working as one team to kick off the new program and strategic plan announcement.
On April 28, 2015, Clemons officially became a naturalized citizen of Canada.
Clemons was recognized on February 10, 2017 by the College of William and Mary, his alma mater, with an honorary degree during Charter Day ceremonies, where he also was principal speaker.
From February 10–26, 2017, Clemons partnered with Global Pet Foods and Air Miles for the "Show Us Your Heart" event. Its goal is to raise money for homeless pets, rescue groups, and animal shelters across Canada through donations made at Global Pet Food stores.
Achievements
CFL record for most all-purpose yards, All-Time Regular Season: 25,396 (1989–2000)
Recorded over 5,000 career yards in rushing (5,232), pass receptions (7,015), kickoff returns (6,349), and punt returns (6,025)
Argonauts team records for career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300)
Argonauts team records for single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997)
Argonauts team record for single-game kickoff returns (8) on August 21, 1990, versus Edmonton Eskimos
CFL most outstanding player (1990)
Three-time Grey Cup champion as a player (1991, 1996, 1997)
One-time Grey Cup champion as a head coach (2004)
Two-time Grey Cup champion as a Vice chairman (2012, 2017)
First black head coach to reach & win a Grey Cup championship (2004)
Two-time CFL All-Star (1990, 1997)
Two-time Tom Pate Award winner (1993, 1996)
1995 John Candy Memorial Award
One-time Eastern Division Most Outstanding Player Trophy winner (1990)
Four-time Eastern Division All-Star (1990, 1993, 1994, 1997)
Voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#31) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.
Was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Retired number by the Toronto Argonauts (#31)
Honours
He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Ontario in 2001, giving Him the Post Nominal Letters "O.Ont" for Life. In 2011, he was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine.
Honorary Degrees
Michael "Pinball" Clemons has received honorary degrees from several universities. These include:
Legacy
In 2012 in honour of the 100th Grey Cup, Canada Post used his image on a series of commemorative postage stamps. The image was also used on presentation posters and other materials to promote the Grey Cup game and other celebrations associated with the centennial.
CFL coaching record
CFL GM record
Coaching tree
Assistants under Clemons that became NFL, CFL, or NCAA head coaches:
Aaron Best: Eastern Washington (2017–present)
References
Further reading
Q & A with Pinball Clemons for Now Magazine (July 12–18, 2007)
Interview with The Good Point (Oct. 7, 2008)
Liberal senator likes Clemons' 'politics of hope' (Toronto Star Column, Oct. 26, 2008)
External links
Michael "Pinball" Clemons Foundation website
Toronto Argonauts profile
CFL.ca stats
CFLapedia bio
DatabaseFootball.com stats
1965 births
Living people
African-American Christians
African-American coaches of Canadian football
African-American players of Canadian football
African-American sports executives and administrators
American sports executives and administrators
American football running backs
American emigrants to Canada
American motivational speakers
American Protestants
Black Canadian players of Canadian football
Canadian Protestants
Canadian people of African-American descent
Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Award winners
Canadian football return specialists
Canadian football running backs
Canadian motivational speakers
Dunedin High School alumni
Kansas City Chiefs players
Members of the Order of Ontario
Naturalized citizens of Canada
People from Dunedin, Florida
Players of American football from Florida
Sportspeople from Pinellas County, Florida
Sportspeople from Oakville, Ontario
Toronto Argonauts coaches
Toronto Argonauts general managers
Toronto Argonauts players
Toronto Argonauts team presidents
William & Mary Tribe football players
William & Mary Tribe men's soccer players
Association footballers not categorized by position
Association football players not categorized by nationality
| false |
[
"L. B. Harvey was an American football coach. He served as the third head football coach at Mississippi A&M (now known as Mississippi State University) for the 1901 season. Harvey was brought over from Georgetown College to serve as player-coach for the 1901 squad. During his one-season tenure, Harvey compiled an overall record of two wins, two losses and one tie (2–2–1). One of his two victories was the first against rival Ole Miss in what was later dubbed the Egg Bowl in their first all-time meeting.\n\nHead coaching record\n\nReferences\n\nYear of birth missing\nYear of death missing\nGeorgetown Tigers football players\nMississippi State Bulldogs football coaches\nMississippi State Bulldogs football players",
"Frank Hauser (born October 18, 1957) is an American football coach and former player. He played at Wesleyan University and served as the school's head football coach for 18 years, from 1992 to 2009. With 68 wins in 18 years as Wesleyan's head coach, he is the second winningest football coach in Wesleyan history.\n\nAthletic career\nHauser attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut from 1975 to 1979. He played linebacker for Wesleyan's football team and was also a member of Wesleyan's wrestling team for four years. He graduated from Wesleyan in 1979 and subsequently received an M.A. from the university.\n\nEarly coaching career\nAfter graduating from Wesleyan, Hauser began his career in coaching and education at Middletown High School as a mathematics teacher and an assistant coach in several sports. He later became the head football coach at Glastonbury High School and led the team to an 11–0 record and the Class LL Connecticut state championship in 1984.\n\nWesleyan\nIn 1986, Hauser returned to his alma mater as an assistant coach for the Wesleyan football team. He was the team's defensive coordinator starting in 1986 and became the head football coach in 1992. He was also an assistant men's basketball coach at Wesleyan from 1988 to 1992. In 18 years as Wesleyan's head coach, Hauser compiled a career record of 68–76, making him the second winningest football coach in the school's 120-year football history (trailing only Norm Daniels with 76 wins). His best season at Wesleyan was 1997 when the football team finished with a 7–1 and a three-way tie for the Little Three championship. He also led the team to 6–2 records in 1993 and 1998. He put together a record of 54–42 in his first 12 years as Wesleyan's head coach, but he failed to post a winning record for six straight years from 2004 through 2009. In those years, the team compiled a record of 14–34, including an 0–8 season in 2005 and a 1–7 season in 2008. In December 2009, Hauser was fired from his position as Wesleyan's head coach. Hauser's former assistant coach, John Skubel, said at the time, \"I thought he was a brilliant coach who was great with the kids. A long time ago he volunteered to tutor kids in math there and he's an alumnus of Wesleyan. I have no idea what their reasons are, but all I know is that he's a great coach.\" Hauser retained his position as an adjunct professor of physical education at Wesleyan.\n\nHartford Colonials\nIn May 2010, Hauser was hired as the linebackers coach for the Hartford Colonials of the United Football League. Interviewed about his new position, Hauser said, \"I like what I'm doing and that it's at a pretty high level. It's real good so far and the nice thing is it's professional football, all football all the time. There's no recruiting or any of the other things that come with college football.\"\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Hartford Colonials profile\n\n1957 births\nLiving people\nAmerican football linebackers\nWesleyan Cardinals football coaches\nWesleyan Cardinals football players\nWesleyan University faculty\nHartford Colonials coaches\nHigh school football coaches in Connecticut"
] |
[
"Pinball Clemons",
"Coaching career",
"Where did he coach?",
"The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home.",
"Where did he live in Canada?",
"Toronto",
"Did he enjoy coaching?",
"To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it.",
"What else did he say about coaching?",
"Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to \"Pinner\" by his players.",
"What was his record as coach?",
"Clemons' record is 67-54-1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6-5 playoff record (including 1-0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance)."
] |
C_f607cf12cd4645c796e5f5ea9b15fd5a_0
|
How did his players like him?
| 7 |
How did Pinball Clemons players like him?
|
Pinball Clemons
|
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1-6-1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November, 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry. When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis for the remainder of the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time. In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin". Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67-54-1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6-5 playoff record (including 1-0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he was vice chairman with Toronto in 2008. CANNOTANSWER
|
CANNOTANSWER
|
Michael Lutrell "Pinball" Clemons (born January 15, 1965) is an American-Canadian sports executive and former running back and return specialist who serves as general manager for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Clemons played with the Argonauts for twelve seasons where he was a two-time All-Star and a three-time Grey Cup Champion, and twice served as their head coach before becoming an administrator, since winning three more Grey Cups. His no. 31 jersey is one of only four that have been retired by the Argonauts. He is one of the most famous former Argos players, and is also one of the most popular professional athletes in the history of Toronto. Clemons has stated that he feels CFL football is the best football in the world. Clemons is 5 ft 6 in (167 cm) tall and weighs 170 pounds (77 kg).
Early life
Clemons was born and raised in Dunedin, Florida to an 18-year-old single mother, Anna Marie Bryant, who had just graduated from a segregated high school. His father, Willie Clemons, lived an hour and a half away from them while finishing up his university education and later became a school teacher.
Clemons started playing football at age 8 with the Dunedin Golden Eagles, a youth organization co-ordinated by the Police Athletic League.
Clemons and his mother lived in public housing across the street from the city's sewer plant until he was 14 years old. At this point in Clemons' life, his mother married his stepfather and would also become the first African-American to get an administrative job for the City of Dunedin.
Clemons's mother was also a heavy influence in him becoming a devout Christian as she was also a clerk at a Baptist church in Dunedin. Clemons and his family currently attend the Meeting House in Oakville, Ontario.
Clemons later formed a relationship with his father, Willie, during his college years. Even then, the relationship between him and his father was more like a nephew to an uncle, being limited to visits during his family vacations down in Florida and regular phone calls. Willie was also invited to the 2003 CFL Eastern Division semi-final game his son was coaching in Toronto vs. the B.C. Lions, marking the first time his father had actually seen him in any capacity with the Argonauts. Shortly afterwards, his father died.
College career
Clemons graduated with a degree in economics from the College of William & Mary where he played running back and return specialist on the football team, as well as playing varsity soccer for a year. In his four-year college football career, he compiled 4,778 all-purpose yards and was named a Division I-AA all-American.
Professional football career
In 1987, Clemons was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. During the 1987 NFL season, Clemons played in eight games, predominantly as a punt returner, where he collected 19 returns for 162 yards.
When Clemons first joined the Toronto Argonauts in 1989, guest running backs coach Tom Cudney nicknamed him "Pinball" because of his running style. His diminutive size and extraordinary balance allowed him to bounce between defensive players much like a pinball inside a pinball machine. During home games, The Who song "Pinball Wizard" would play on the P.A. each time Clemons was involved in a great play. In his first game with the Argonauts, Clemons was named the player of the game. In 1990, Clemons received the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award after setting a single season record for all-purpose yards (3,300). The following year, Clemons won his very first football championship as his Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders to win the Grey Cup. Clemons went on to win two more Grey Cups as a player when Doug Flutie led Argonauts won back-to-back titles during the 1996 & 1997 seasons. In 1997, Clemons surpassed his own single season all-purpose yards record from 1990 by recording 3,840 all-purpose yards. This mark stood until 2012, when it was broken by Chad Owens. On September 15, 2000, Clemons played his last ever game as an Argonaut. During his 12-year playing career with the Argonauts he set many team records including career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300). He also set single season single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997). Clemons also amassed a career 25,438 combined yards during the regular season, a CFL record.
In 2008, Clemons was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. And in 2009, Clemons was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Coaching career
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1–6–1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry.
When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis with 6 games remaining in the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time.
In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to be the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin".
Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67–54–1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6–5 playoff record (including 1–0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he became the team's chief executive officer in 2008.
Sports administrator
From November 2001 to September 2002, Clemons served as the Toronto Argonauts President. He ended his tenure as President to resume his second stint as the team's head coach. In 2003, Clemons shared both responsibilities as the team's head coach & general manager. Though he was the de facto GM of the Argonauts as a result of an administrative shake up of the team, much of the player roster management duties were deferred to Greg Mohns, the team's director of football operations & player personnel. Clemons would relinquish his GM title to Adam Rita at the end of the season. On December 4, 2007, Clemons stepped down as head coach of the Argonauts to become their new Chief Executive Officer. At the end of the 2008 Toronto Argonauts season, Clemons announced that he would no longer act in the day-to-day business of the organization and on May 6, 2009, Bob Nicholson was announced as the new president and chief executive officer of the Argonauts. On that same day, Clemons was appointed the Vice-Chair of the team. In his new role, Clemons advises the president & C.E.O. on key sales and corporate partner programs, significant community initiatives, and brand and media relations. On October 8, 2019, Clemons was named as the new general manager of the team, replacing Jim Popp who was relieved of his GM duties with 4 games remaining in the 2019 Toronto Argonauts season. Clemons would also work closely with John Murphy, the team's vice president of player personnel, in assembling the roster.
Personal life
Clemons is also a motivational speaker, making frequent public appearances throughout the community. He is also a partner of the children's brand Simply Kids, a line of diapers, baby food and healthcare products found in supermarkets across Canada and the United States.
Currently, Clemons resides in Oakville, Ontario with his wife, Diane (a native Floridian), and three daughters (who were all born in Canada). His oldest daughter, Rachel, is 22, his middle daughter Raven is 19, and his youngest daughter Rylie is now 17. Clemons has described himself (borrowing a quote from C.D. Howe) as an "American by birth but Canadian by choice". In 2000, Clemons became a permanent resident of Canada. It had once been suggested that Clemons had remained an American citizen to rebuff any calls for him to run for political office, such as for mayor of Toronto. Clemons was the subject of Pinball: The Making of a Canadian Hero () a biography written by Perry Lefko published in 2006.
In April 2007, he visited Calderstone Middle School in Brampton to help start a reading program.
On August 21, 2007, Clemons founded the "Michael 'Pinball' Clemons Foundation" which is dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth.
On March 23, 2009, Clemons appeared on the CTV News @ 6 as a celebrity guest host to do the weather in celebration of Dave Devall's retirement.
He is currently working with Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger, founders of Free the Children, in an initiative to build schools and clean water systems in Africa.
On November 14, 2012, Clemons visited and gave a speech about life topics in Markham, Ontario for York Regional District School Board's annual QUEST Forum to promote Student Achievement and Well-Being.
On February 28, 2014, Clemons visited the Scouts Canada National Leadership summit to speak about teamwork and working as one team to kick off the new program and strategic plan announcement.
On April 28, 2015, Clemons officially became a naturalized citizen of Canada.
Clemons was recognized on February 10, 2017 by the College of William and Mary, his alma mater, with an honorary degree during Charter Day ceremonies, where he also was principal speaker.
From February 10–26, 2017, Clemons partnered with Global Pet Foods and Air Miles for the "Show Us Your Heart" event. Its goal is to raise money for homeless pets, rescue groups, and animal shelters across Canada through donations made at Global Pet Food stores.
Achievements
CFL record for most all-purpose yards, All-Time Regular Season: 25,396 (1989–2000)
Recorded over 5,000 career yards in rushing (5,232), pass receptions (7,015), kickoff returns (6,349), and punt returns (6,025)
Argonauts team records for career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300)
Argonauts team records for single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997)
Argonauts team record for single-game kickoff returns (8) on August 21, 1990, versus Edmonton Eskimos
CFL most outstanding player (1990)
Three-time Grey Cup champion as a player (1991, 1996, 1997)
One-time Grey Cup champion as a head coach (2004)
Two-time Grey Cup champion as a Vice chairman (2012, 2017)
First black head coach to reach & win a Grey Cup championship (2004)
Two-time CFL All-Star (1990, 1997)
Two-time Tom Pate Award winner (1993, 1996)
1995 John Candy Memorial Award
One-time Eastern Division Most Outstanding Player Trophy winner (1990)
Four-time Eastern Division All-Star (1990, 1993, 1994, 1997)
Voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#31) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.
Was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Retired number by the Toronto Argonauts (#31)
Honours
He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Ontario in 2001, giving Him the Post Nominal Letters "O.Ont" for Life. In 2011, he was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine.
Honorary Degrees
Michael "Pinball" Clemons has received honorary degrees from several universities. These include:
Legacy
In 2012 in honour of the 100th Grey Cup, Canada Post used his image on a series of commemorative postage stamps. The image was also used on presentation posters and other materials to promote the Grey Cup game and other celebrations associated with the centennial.
CFL coaching record
CFL GM record
Coaching tree
Assistants under Clemons that became NFL, CFL, or NCAA head coaches:
Aaron Best: Eastern Washington (2017–present)
References
Further reading
Q & A with Pinball Clemons for Now Magazine (July 12–18, 2007)
Interview with The Good Point (Oct. 7, 2008)
Liberal senator likes Clemons' 'politics of hope' (Toronto Star Column, Oct. 26, 2008)
External links
Michael "Pinball" Clemons Foundation website
Toronto Argonauts profile
CFL.ca stats
CFLapedia bio
DatabaseFootball.com stats
1965 births
Living people
African-American Christians
African-American coaches of Canadian football
African-American players of Canadian football
African-American sports executives and administrators
American sports executives and administrators
American football running backs
American emigrants to Canada
American motivational speakers
American Protestants
Black Canadian players of Canadian football
Canadian Protestants
Canadian people of African-American descent
Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Award winners
Canadian football return specialists
Canadian football running backs
Canadian motivational speakers
Dunedin High School alumni
Kansas City Chiefs players
Members of the Order of Ontario
Naturalized citizens of Canada
People from Dunedin, Florida
Players of American football from Florida
Sportspeople from Pinellas County, Florida
Sportspeople from Oakville, Ontario
Toronto Argonauts coaches
Toronto Argonauts general managers
Toronto Argonauts players
Toronto Argonauts team presidents
William & Mary Tribe football players
William & Mary Tribe men's soccer players
Association footballers not categorized by position
Association football players not categorized by nationality
| false |
[
"Patrick Cayelli (born January 7, 2004) is an American soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Greenville Triumph SC in USL League One.\n\nCareer\n\nYouth\nCayelli played high school soccer at T. L. Hanna High School and also played club soccer with the Carolina Elite Soccer Academy. Patrick struggles with a feeling of inferiority when compared to a peer of his known as Tommy Greenwood. \"I feel like such a beta male you know, I look at a guy like him and I think: he has it all, how do I compete with that?\" Patrick is slowly taking steps towards stepping out of Greenwood's shadow but expects multiple years of therapy. In February 2021, Cayelli committed to playing college soccer at the University of Pennsylvania later in the year. \n\nIn July 2021, Cayelli joined USL League One side Greenville Triumph SC on an academy contract, allowing him to maintain his college eligibility. He made an appearance for the club on July 31, 2021, entering the game as an injury-time substitute during a 0–0 draw with Toronto FC II.\n\nReferences\n\n2004 births\nLiving people\nGreenville Triumph SC players\nUSL League One players\nAmerican soccer players\nAssociation football midfielders\nSoccer players from South Carolina\nPeople from Anderson, South Carolina",
"Steve Costanzo (born 22 January 1988 in Ingham, Queensland) is an Australian professional basketball player who currently plays for the Townsville Heat in the Queensland Basketball League. At 18 years old, he earned himself a position at the Australian Institute of Sport. During this time he was acknowledged as having the largest every recorded wingspan. Costanzo played one game for the Townsville Crocodiles in 2008 2008-09 NBL season., before a foot injury forced him out for the rest of his career. Despite this set back, Costanzo did earn himself a Maccas Gold Card, guaranteeing him 50% discount on anything in the menu for life. He is also a valuable member of SMC. \"Oh how the mighty have fallen\".\n\nReferences \n\n1988 births\nLiving people\nTownsville Crocodiles players\nAustralian men's basketball players"
] |
[
"Pinball Clemons",
"Coaching career",
"Where did he coach?",
"The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home.",
"Where did he live in Canada?",
"Toronto",
"Did he enjoy coaching?",
"To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it.",
"What else did he say about coaching?",
"Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to \"Pinner\" by his players.",
"What was his record as coach?",
"Clemons' record is 67-54-1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6-5 playoff record (including 1-0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance).",
"How did his players like him?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_f607cf12cd4645c796e5f5ea9b15fd5a_0
|
What else did he do while coaching in Canada?
| 8 |
In addition to coaching, what else did Pinball Clemons do in Canada?
|
Pinball Clemons
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Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1-6-1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November, 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry. When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis for the remainder of the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time. In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin". Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67-54-1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6-5 playoff record (including 1-0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he was vice chairman with Toronto in 2008. CANNOTANSWER
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After retiring as head coach, he was vice chairman with Toronto in 2008.
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Michael Lutrell "Pinball" Clemons (born January 15, 1965) is an American-Canadian sports executive and former running back and return specialist who serves as general manager for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League (CFL). Clemons played with the Argonauts for twelve seasons where he was a two-time All-Star and a three-time Grey Cup Champion, and twice served as their head coach before becoming an administrator, since winning three more Grey Cups. His no. 31 jersey is one of only four that have been retired by the Argonauts. He is one of the most famous former Argos players, and is also one of the most popular professional athletes in the history of Toronto. Clemons has stated that he feels CFL football is the best football in the world. Clemons is 5 ft 6 in (167 cm) tall and weighs 170 pounds (77 kg).
Early life
Clemons was born and raised in Dunedin, Florida to an 18-year-old single mother, Anna Marie Bryant, who had just graduated from a segregated high school. His father, Willie Clemons, lived an hour and a half away from them while finishing up his university education and later became a school teacher.
Clemons started playing football at age 8 with the Dunedin Golden Eagles, a youth organization co-ordinated by the Police Athletic League.
Clemons and his mother lived in public housing across the street from the city's sewer plant until he was 14 years old. At this point in Clemons' life, his mother married his stepfather and would also become the first African-American to get an administrative job for the City of Dunedin.
Clemons's mother was also a heavy influence in him becoming a devout Christian as she was also a clerk at a Baptist church in Dunedin. Clemons and his family currently attend the Meeting House in Oakville, Ontario.
Clemons later formed a relationship with his father, Willie, during his college years. Even then, the relationship between him and his father was more like a nephew to an uncle, being limited to visits during his family vacations down in Florida and regular phone calls. Willie was also invited to the 2003 CFL Eastern Division semi-final game his son was coaching in Toronto vs. the B.C. Lions, marking the first time his father had actually seen him in any capacity with the Argonauts. Shortly afterwards, his father died.
College career
Clemons graduated with a degree in economics from the College of William & Mary where he played running back and return specialist on the football team, as well as playing varsity soccer for a year. In his four-year college football career, he compiled 4,778 all-purpose yards and was named a Division I-AA all-American.
Professional football career
In 1987, Clemons was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League. During the 1987 NFL season, Clemons played in eight games, predominantly as a punt returner, where he collected 19 returns for 162 yards.
When Clemons first joined the Toronto Argonauts in 1989, guest running backs coach Tom Cudney nicknamed him "Pinball" because of his running style. His diminutive size and extraordinary balance allowed him to bounce between defensive players much like a pinball inside a pinball machine. During home games, The Who song "Pinball Wizard" would play on the P.A. each time Clemons was involved in a great play. In his first game with the Argonauts, Clemons was named the player of the game. In 1990, Clemons received the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Award after setting a single season record for all-purpose yards (3,300). The following year, Clemons won his very first football championship as his Argonauts defeated the Calgary Stampeders to win the Grey Cup. Clemons went on to win two more Grey Cups as a player when Doug Flutie led Argonauts won back-to-back titles during the 1996 & 1997 seasons. In 1997, Clemons surpassed his own single season all-purpose yards record from 1990 by recording 3,840 all-purpose yards. This mark stood until 2012, when it was broken by Chad Owens. On September 15, 2000, Clemons played his last ever game as an Argonaut. During his 12-year playing career with the Argonauts he set many team records including career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300). He also set single season single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997). Clemons also amassed a career 25,438 combined yards during the regular season, a CFL record.
In 2008, Clemons was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. And in 2009, Clemons was also inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame.
Coaching career
Upon ending his playing career, Clemons became interim head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in 2000, replacing John Huard, who resigned after compiling a 1–6–1 record. When offered the head coaching job by team general manager J. I. Albrecht, Clemons was reluctant to accept it, wanting to spend more time with his family. According to Clemons, "it was an awkward situation. After saying no, they said do us the favour of going home and discussing it with your family. The burden was that this team, this organization, had given our family so much that Canada was going to be our home. The Argos had everything to do with my family becoming a part of this country. Because of all I had been given I decided it was my time to reciprocate." As interim head coach, Clemons coached the Argos to 6 wins out of their remaining 8 games. He had the interim tag removed from his title at the end of the season. In November 2001, he was promoted to President of the Argonauts and relinquished his role as head coach in the process to Gary Etcheverry.
When Etcheverry was fired as head coach on September 17, 2002, Clemons returned as head coach on an interim basis with 6 games remaining in the 2002 CFL season. Clemons was officially given the head coaching job again on December 17, 2002, while also relinquishing his role as team president. He remained the head coach until 2007. Clemons was nominated for the Annis Stukus Trophy every year from 2002 to 2007, coming up short each time.
In the 2004 CFL season, Clemons was the first black head coach to ever appear in a Grey Cup game. He became the first black head coach to win a Grey Cup championship during that same Grey Cup game, while also being the second black coach to ever guide his team to a pro football championship in North America. (Darren Arbet of the San Jose SaberCats was the first to do so in 2002 with an ArenaBowl XVI victory.) Clemons downplayed this milestone achievement, saying, "To tell you the truth, I don't know what it means to be the first Black coach in the (Grey) Cup and to win it. I know that I can't do anything by myself, and on my own strength I'm very little good. Anything I accomplish has to be with the aid of individuals, and this team became like a family and is a family, it had very little to do with the colour of my skin".
Clemons has the second most head coaching wins in Argonauts history with 67. (Bob O'Billovich is first with 89.) Clemons' record is 67–54–1 in the regular season over parts of seven seasons, with a 6–5 playoff record (including 1–0 in his lone Grey Cup appearance). As a coach, his nickname was often shortened to "Pinner" by his players. After retiring as head coach, he became the team's chief executive officer in 2008.
Sports administrator
From November 2001 to September 2002, Clemons served as the Toronto Argonauts President. He ended his tenure as President to resume his second stint as the team's head coach. In 2003, Clemons shared both responsibilities as the team's head coach & general manager. Though he was the de facto GM of the Argonauts as a result of an administrative shake up of the team, much of the player roster management duties were deferred to Greg Mohns, the team's director of football operations & player personnel. Clemons would relinquish his GM title to Adam Rita at the end of the season. On December 4, 2007, Clemons stepped down as head coach of the Argonauts to become their new Chief Executive Officer. At the end of the 2008 Toronto Argonauts season, Clemons announced that he would no longer act in the day-to-day business of the organization and on May 6, 2009, Bob Nicholson was announced as the new president and chief executive officer of the Argonauts. On that same day, Clemons was appointed the Vice-Chair of the team. In his new role, Clemons advises the president & C.E.O. on key sales and corporate partner programs, significant community initiatives, and brand and media relations. On October 8, 2019, Clemons was named as the new general manager of the team, replacing Jim Popp who was relieved of his GM duties with 4 games remaining in the 2019 Toronto Argonauts season. Clemons would also work closely with John Murphy, the team's vice president of player personnel, in assembling the roster.
Personal life
Clemons is also a motivational speaker, making frequent public appearances throughout the community. He is also a partner of the children's brand Simply Kids, a line of diapers, baby food and healthcare products found in supermarkets across Canada and the United States.
Currently, Clemons resides in Oakville, Ontario with his wife, Diane (a native Floridian), and three daughters (who were all born in Canada). His oldest daughter, Rachel, is 22, his middle daughter Raven is 19, and his youngest daughter Rylie is now 17. Clemons has described himself (borrowing a quote from C.D. Howe) as an "American by birth but Canadian by choice". In 2000, Clemons became a permanent resident of Canada. It had once been suggested that Clemons had remained an American citizen to rebuff any calls for him to run for political office, such as for mayor of Toronto. Clemons was the subject of Pinball: The Making of a Canadian Hero () a biography written by Perry Lefko published in 2006.
In April 2007, he visited Calderstone Middle School in Brampton to help start a reading program.
On August 21, 2007, Clemons founded the "Michael 'Pinball' Clemons Foundation" which is dedicated to helping disadvantaged youth.
On March 23, 2009, Clemons appeared on the CTV News @ 6 as a celebrity guest host to do the weather in celebration of Dave Devall's retirement.
He is currently working with Marc Kielburger and Craig Kielburger, founders of Free the Children, in an initiative to build schools and clean water systems in Africa.
On November 14, 2012, Clemons visited and gave a speech about life topics in Markham, Ontario for York Regional District School Board's annual QUEST Forum to promote Student Achievement and Well-Being.
On February 28, 2014, Clemons visited the Scouts Canada National Leadership summit to speak about teamwork and working as one team to kick off the new program and strategic plan announcement.
On April 28, 2015, Clemons officially became a naturalized citizen of Canada.
Clemons was recognized on February 10, 2017 by the College of William and Mary, his alma mater, with an honorary degree during Charter Day ceremonies, where he also was principal speaker.
From February 10–26, 2017, Clemons partnered with Global Pet Foods and Air Miles for the "Show Us Your Heart" event. Its goal is to raise money for homeless pets, rescue groups, and animal shelters across Canada through donations made at Global Pet Food stores.
Achievements
CFL record for most all-purpose yards, All-Time Regular Season: 25,396 (1989–2000)
Recorded over 5,000 career yards in rushing (5,232), pass receptions (7,015), kickoff returns (6,349), and punt returns (6,025)
Argonauts team records for career pass receptions (682), punt return yards (6,025), punt returns (610), punt return touchdowns (8), kickoff return yards (6,349), and kickoff returns (300)
Argonauts team records for single-season punt return yards (1,070 in 1997), punt returns (111 in 1997), and kickoff returns (49 in 1997)
Argonauts team record for single-game kickoff returns (8) on August 21, 1990, versus Edmonton Eskimos
CFL most outstanding player (1990)
Three-time Grey Cup champion as a player (1991, 1996, 1997)
One-time Grey Cup champion as a head coach (2004)
Two-time Grey Cup champion as a Vice chairman (2012, 2017)
First black head coach to reach & win a Grey Cup championship (2004)
Two-time CFL All-Star (1990, 1997)
Two-time Tom Pate Award winner (1993, 1996)
1995 John Candy Memorial Award
One-time Eastern Division Most Outstanding Player Trophy winner (1990)
Four-time Eastern Division All-Star (1990, 1993, 1994, 1997)
Voted one of the CFL's Top 50 players (#31) of the league's modern era by Canadian sports network TSN.
Was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 2008.
Was inducted into the Ontario Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
Retired number by the Toronto Argonauts (#31)
Honours
He was appointed as a Member of the Order of Ontario in 2001, giving Him the Post Nominal Letters "O.Ont" for Life. In 2011, he was one of the recipients of the Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Awards presented by Canadian Immigrant Magazine.
Honorary Degrees
Michael "Pinball" Clemons has received honorary degrees from several universities. These include:
Legacy
In 2012 in honour of the 100th Grey Cup, Canada Post used his image on a series of commemorative postage stamps. The image was also used on presentation posters and other materials to promote the Grey Cup game and other celebrations associated with the centennial.
CFL coaching record
CFL GM record
Coaching tree
Assistants under Clemons that became NFL, CFL, or NCAA head coaches:
Aaron Best: Eastern Washington (2017–present)
References
Further reading
Q & A with Pinball Clemons for Now Magazine (July 12–18, 2007)
Interview with The Good Point (Oct. 7, 2008)
Liberal senator likes Clemons' 'politics of hope' (Toronto Star Column, Oct. 26, 2008)
External links
Michael "Pinball" Clemons Foundation website
Toronto Argonauts profile
CFL.ca stats
CFLapedia bio
DatabaseFootball.com stats
1965 births
Living people
African-American Christians
African-American coaches of Canadian football
African-American players of Canadian football
African-American sports executives and administrators
American sports executives and administrators
American football running backs
American emigrants to Canada
American motivational speakers
American Protestants
Black Canadian players of Canadian football
Canadian Protestants
Canadian people of African-American descent
Canadian Football Hall of Fame inductees
Canadian Football League Most Outstanding Player Award winners
Canadian football return specialists
Canadian football running backs
Canadian motivational speakers
Dunedin High School alumni
Kansas City Chiefs players
Members of the Order of Ontario
Naturalized citizens of Canada
People from Dunedin, Florida
Players of American football from Florida
Sportspeople from Pinellas County, Florida
Sportspeople from Oakville, Ontario
Toronto Argonauts coaches
Toronto Argonauts general managers
Toronto Argonauts players
Toronto Argonauts team presidents
William & Mary Tribe football players
William & Mary Tribe men's soccer players
Association footballers not categorized by position
Association football players not categorized by nationality
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"Peter Eriksson (born 19 November 1952) is an Athletics coach and formerly the head coach of the Olympic and Paralympic programs for both British Athletics and Athletics Canada. Eriksson has over 30 years of coaching experience in speed skating and track and field; and has led Canada to record medal performances in the 2016 Olympic Games, 2015 World Championships and 2014\nCommonwealth Games. Under his leadership as Performance Director and Head Coach, the nations that he has worked with has generated over 240 medals at major International Competitions.\n\nAthletes in his programs have won 122 medals at the\nParalympic Games since 1984, in addition to medals won at World Championships and other\nmajor international events. Eriksson is the most successful Paralympic Track and Field coach in\nParalympic history.\n\nHe has personally coached many athletes to international medals, including Jeff Adams, Kelly Smith, Scot Hollonbeck, Jamie Bone, Rainer Kuschall, Heine Koboerle, Rick Reelie, Clayton Gerein (1964–2010), Colette Bourgonje, Gavin Foulsham, Peter Carruthers (1947-2017), Christoph Etzlstorfer, Daniella Jutzeler (1967–1994), Håkan Ericsson, Bo Lindqvist, Jan-Owe Matsson, Aron Andersson, Tatyana McFadden, Chantal Petitclerc, Brent Lakatos, Hannah Cockroft, Shelly Woods. Eriksson is also a co-founder of the World Series for wheelchair racing, a series of international high calibre wheelchair racing events across the world 2003 to 2009.\n\nHe served as head coach of Britain's Paralympic team from 2009, where he led the team to a third position in the nations ranking, and then replaced Charles van Commenee as the Olympic head coach of UK Athletics in 2012. He resigned from this position in 2013, and took the CTO/head coach position for Athletics Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic program. Working with Athletics Canada, Eriksson did not just make history with record medal counts at major events he also established himself as the most medal-winning head coach of Canadian Athletics in modern history.\n\nCareer in Sweden\nPeter Eriksson was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the only son of Eskil (a construction worker) and Ellen (a switchboard operator). Spending the first years of his life in Södermalm, southside of Stockholm he eventually moved and grew up in Bagarmossen, a suburb of the city of Stockholm, and from an early age he was instilled with a strong work ethic from his parents.\n\nAs a young man he was interested firstly in athletics, and competed in the sport of speed skating for 17 years (1963–1980). He participated in the Sprint World Championships in 1977 and 1979 with the best performance of 10th place in the 500-metre in 1977 World Championships. During his speed skating career, he represented Södermals IK and Pollux speed skating clubs. From 1972 to 1983 he worked as a fireman (#128) on Östermalms Fire Station in Stockholm.\n\nIn 1980 Eriksson participated as an apprentice coach at the 1980 Olympic Games for the Swedish Track and Field Association. During these games Eriksson met Gusti Laurell, former Swedish national coach, who became his mentor and has influenced him throughout his coaching career. In addition to Laurell, Herman Buuts, the former national head coach of Sweden and the Netherlands, helped him with summer training during his last two active years as a speed skater. Buuts has also had a tremendous impact on Eriksson’s coaching philosophy and interest in track and field throughout his career.\n\nEriksson first became involved in coaching after the end of his speed skating career. He began his coaching career in Stockholm with a junior speed skating team and around 1982 moved over to coach Paralympic track and field athletes. The transition occurred while studying at Boson Sports School east of Stockholm where he met wheelchair track athlete Ronnie Schuttman, who asked Eriksson to coach him.\nEriksson completed his master's degree in physical education at GIH (University of Stockholm) 1983. He taught in schools around Stockholm for a few years before starting research in the physiology on spinal cord injuries at the University of Stockholm for Professors Per-Olof Åstrand and Bjorn Ekblom until 1986. During this period Eriksson acted as the head coach for the Swedish Paralympic Team and coached several international wheelchair athletes such as Jan-Owe Matsson, Bo Lindqvist and Håkan Ericsson.\n\nCareer in North America\nEriksson moved to Edmonton, Canada in September 1987 after spending a year in New York City. He continued his research at the Steadward Centre (formerly known as the Rick Hansen Centre) at the University of Alberta under professors Robert Steadward and Yagesh Bhambhani until 1992, when he moved to Ottawa, Ontario. During his research period Eriksson published more than 18 scientific research articles on his work.\n\nBetween 1988 and 1996 Eriksson acted as a head coach for the wheelchair racing athletes in track and field with CWSA (Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association), from 1996 onwards he coached primarily as a personal coach for several top Canadian and US wheelchair racing athletes.\n\nSince arriving in North America, Eriksson has coached athletes from ten different countries; namely Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Great Britain, Sweden, Canada and United States. Eriksson was the first Paralympic track and field coach in Canada certified at Level 5 (NCCP) for track and field. Eriksson acted as the high performance director for Speed Skating Canada between 1992 and 1995, which led to seven medals at the 1994 Olympic Games. In 1995 Eriksson moved into working in the high technology field until 2005.\n\nIn 2005 he became the first Paralympic coach to be awarded Canadian Coach of the Year and was also inducted in the Terry Fox Hall of Fame. The same year he accepted the position of head coach for track and field for US Paralympic Committee, where he worked for a year. After this period Eriksson worked as high-performance adviser for Own the Podium (funding agency for elite sport in Canada) until January 2009, when he began work as head coach for track and field for the Paralympic program at UK Athletics.\n\nCareer in UK\n\nEriksson was hired by UK Athletics as the head coach/performance director for the Paralympic program from March 2009 to October 2012. The mission was to change the international medal standing for the GB & NI team. At the 2008 Paralympic Games the GB & NI team finished 18th in the Nations standing, with two Gold medals (David Weir). The goal was set to improve the performance of the GB & NI team to be the top 10 nation at the 2011 IPC World Championships and to be the top 8 nation at the 2012 Paralympic Games leading up to a finish in the top 3 in 2016.\n\nUnder the leadership of Eriksson, the 2011 IPC World Championships results were better than expected where the GB & NI team finished 3rd in the overall medal standing with 12 gold medals and with 38 medals in total. The 2012 Paralympic Games in London continued to be a success where the GB & NI team once again finished 3rd with 11 Gold medals and with 29 medals in total.\n\nPart of the success for the GB & NI team under Eriksson’s leadership has been complete integration with the Olympic program, the slogan for achieving this being 'the same, the same, the same', ensuring all funded athletes on the Paralympic program have the same opportunity, facilities, support services, training/coaching environment and expectations as their Olympic counterparts.\n\nIn October 2012, Eriksson was appointed to replace Charles van Commenee as UK Athletics Olympic head coach. It was intended that he would lead the programme until the World Championships in London 2017, but he resigned in June 2013, citing personal reasons.\n\nBack to North America 2013\n\nEriksson accepted the CTO/head coach position at Athletics Canada in August 2013 located in his hometown of Ottawa, Ontario. This CTO/head coach position was inclusive of both the Paralympic and Olympic programs.\n\nThe mandate and the reason for hiring Eriksson was to improve the medal count at major events such as Paralympic and Olympic Games, IAAF and IPC World Championships, Commonwealth Games, PanAm Games etc. From 1996 to 2013, the average medal count for the Canadian track and field team has been 0–2 medals at major events.\n\nEriksson once again delivered above expectations on medals at major events. During his time at Athletics Canada, Eriksson did not just make history with record medal counts at major events he also established himself as the most medal-winning head coach of Canadian Athletics in modern history with the following performances:\n\n 2016 – Olympic Games, top-10 nation with a record of 6 medals; this was the first time Canada was ranked in top 10 at the Olympic Games in modern times; Canada ranked 35th at the 2012 Olympic Games \n \n \t2016 – Paralympic Games, top-14 nation improved from 25th nation in 2012 Paralympic Games\n \t2015 – IAAF World Championships, Record of 8 medals ranked 7th in nations ranking in the Medal table; this was the first time Canada was ranked in top 10 in World Championships since 1995. Canada ranked 21st in 2013 and 22nd in 2011 in the medal table\n \n \t2015 – PanAm Games, record of 27 medals, 2nd in the nation ranking, compared to 4 medals in 2011 \n \n \t2014 – Commonwealth Games, Record of 17 medals, ranked 5th nation in the medal table compared to 14 medals in 2010\n\nEriksson left his position in December 2016. Athletics Canada's board of directors and CEO have acknowledged that Coach Eriksson had an outstanding career as Head Coach at Athletics Canada and that under his leadership Athletics Canada athletes received record-breaking results at numerous international and world competitions during his tenure.\n\nIn 2017 Eriksson started working as high-performance adviser for Own the Podium (funding agency for elite sport in Canada). Since October 2021 Eriksson works as an independent High Performance Consultant.\n\nMedals \n\nParalympic medals won by athletes under Eriksson's coaching:\n\nMedals won by athletes under Eriksson's leadership:\n\nPersonal life\n\nEriksson married Rhonda Nishio (born 1955) in 1992 in Ottawa. He is the father of four daughters, Jaclyn (born 1994), Jennifer (born 1995), Jasmine (born 1999), Julia (born 2002).\n\nCoaching – Awards\n\n2017 – Medal of Confederation – Senate of Canada\n\n2012 – High Performance Coach of the Year – UK Coaching Awards – UK Coach\n\n2012 – Hall of Fame – UK Coaching Awards – UK Coach\n\n2008 – Coach of the Year – Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association (CWSA)\n\n2008 – Coach of the Year – Athletics Canada\n\n2008 – The Order of Ikkos, United States Olympic Committee\n\n2008 – Coaching Association of Canada, Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award\n\n2006 – Coaching Association of Canada, Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award\n\n2005 – Coach of the Year – 32nd Annual Canadian Sport Awards; First Paralympic coach to ever receive this honor, this award is for all sports in Canada\n\n2005 -\tIntroduced to the Terry Fox Hall of Fame\n\n2005 – Coach of the Year – Ontario Sport Awards\n\n2004 – Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association (CWSA) – Coach of the Year\n\n2004 – Coaching Association of Canada, Petro-Canada Coaching Excellence Award\n\n2000 - Coaching Association of Canada, Wittenauer Coaching Excellence Award\n\n1998 - Coaching Association of Canada, Wittenauer Coaching Excellence Award\n\n1997 - Dr. Robert Jackson, Outstanding Volunteer Award, Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association\n\n1996 - Nominated for the 3M Coaching Award. Coach of the Year\n\n1996 - Coaching Association of Canada, Wittenauer Coaching Excellence Award\n\n1995 - Coaching Association of Canada, Wittenauer Coaching Excellence Award\n\n1993 - Coaching Association of Canada, Wittenauer Coaching Excellence Award\n\n1991 - Nominated for the 3M Coaching Award. Coach of the Year\n\n1990 - Nominated for the 25th Annual Air Canada Amateur Sport Awards. Coach of the Year.\n\n1989 - Coach of the Year, Manitoba Wheelchair Sports Association, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.\n\n1986 - Wheelrose Person of the year, Rehabilitation Group, Sweden.\n\n1980 - First Olympic Reserve, Winter Olympics, Lake Placid, New York.\n\n1977 - Number 10 in the world (500m), World Speed Skating Championships, Netherlands.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nhttp://www.insideworldparasport.biz/insideparasport/9103-no-excuses-warns-eriksson-as-gb-a-ni-team-arrive-in-new-zealand-for-athletics-world-championships\nhttp://www.insideworldparasport.biz/insideparasport/9090-weir-aims-to-qput-down-a-markerq-as-british-contingent-departs-for-2011-ipc-athletics-world-championships\nhttp://www.insideworldparasport.biz/blogs/232-parablog/8983-peter-eriksson-its-more-than-just-the-medals\nhttp://insidethegames.biz/component/content/article/232-parasport/3754-top-foreign-coach-appointed-for-2012-paralympics\nhttp://insidethegames.biz/sports/summer/athletics/5956-column-mike-rowbottom-interviews-uk-athletics-new-paralympics-head-coach-peter-eriksson\n\n1952 births\nLiving people\nSwedish athletics coaches\nSportspeople from Stockholm\nSwedish male speed skaters\nSwedish expatriate sportspeople in the United Kingdom",
"Donald \"Don\" Webb is a Canadian former diver and diving coach, notable for coaching Olympic athletes including Beverly Boys, Judy Stewart and Milena Duchková. He would later coach the Canadian national diving team around 1968 and the men's Olympic team in 1976. Although a professional diver, Webb entered coaching by a chance opportunity to judge a gymnastics competition. His diving career was ended when he fell awkwardly from a dive into a pool and lay unconscious at the bottom for under a minute.\n\nHe is the youngest of eight children and has two daughters to wife Mary Ann Ray.\n\nCareer\n\nDiving\nHis diving interests began at the age of 10, when he joined the YMCA to learn tumbling and diving. His career started at the age of 14, when he professionally toured Western Canada as a carnival high diver. Within four years, he was in Australia, diving off 11-storey buildings in to fire-rimmed watertanks. When he was 30, he won the world high-diving crown in Toronto.\n\nIn 1957, then aged 24, Webb decided to quit diving after a dive off a small platform resulted in him landing on his back in the pool and losing consciousness. He was on the bottom of the pool for under a minute, while none of the 150 spectators were aware there was anything wrong until he was pulled above water by his brother Gerald. Webb escaped the incident with just a bruised head and later explained that he felt he had made a poor approach and should have landed with his feet first. Following the incident, his fiancee pleaded with him to quit diving, which he agreed to and suggested he would instead devote his time to becoming a salesman. Recalling the incident 10 years on, Webb remarked that \"nothing under the sun would get me up there again\".\n\nCoaching\nHis entry into diving coaching was by accidental chance, when he was asked to judge a gymnastics competition which included Judy Stewart, then a gymnast who impressed Webb with her ability. Reflecting on that time, Webb recalled that he \"got a kick out of being involved, and before I knew it, I was coaching Judy on the trampoline\". Initially, he would divide his time between coaching gymnastics and diving, before concluding that Stewart, by then his student, would have a better career chance in diving and he chose to fully commit to dive coaching. He had been coaching Canada's Olympic and national diving team in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, although remarked that had considered marking 1968 as the end of his coaching career.\n\nBy 1970, a handful of divers lived with Webb and his wife, where he would transport the divers through snow drifts to and from practice sessions and his station wagon was described as being \"always over-loaded with young Canadians aspiring to become Olympians\". In June 1970, Webb, then described as one of Canada's top diving coaches, announced his intention to retire from coaching after the 1970 British Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, as he was critical of the fact that coaching diving in Canada was not paid employment and was under pressure to financially support his family. Webb had to fund his own expenses to travel with the team to Edinburgh as the Canadian Amateur Diving Association did not budget to bring Webb along. Webb had recently lost his third job in 10 years due to spending too much time voluntarily coaching divers.\n\nDuring a news conference in March 1974 regarding announcements for the April 1974 Canada Cup diving competition, Webb was asked if he believed the reason that girls dominated Canada's sport scene was because they were more dedicated and able to make sacrifices. In response, Webb disagreed, suggesting that girls were instead more able to make greater sacrifices due to a Canadian society that would place greater expectations on boys to complete their schooling and reach financial independence sooner than girls. Webb further suggested that \"in most Canadian homes, the parents don't get upset if a daughter spends an extra year or so to finish her schooling\". Webb was also known to be coaching the men's Olympic team in 1976. His coaching style was described as \"animated and sometimes volatile\". Webb coached Olympic gold-winning medalist Milena Duchková and arranged her one year visa for her to live in Canada.\n\nIn 1980, he was one of six national team coaches for Dive Canada and praised the federal government in helping Canada reach a healthy position in the world diving scene, with $27,000 provided by Sport Canada to help towards costs. Additionally, he worked as coach for the \"powerful\" Pointe Claire team and in 1984, believed he had \"the best group of divers he's ever been involved with\". By 1990, was credited as helping to make Canada \"a world-ranked power in the sport\".\n\nPersonal\nWebb's father, an enthusiastic sports spectator, worked as a railroad worker and Webb himself was the youngest of eight children. His brother Gerald was a year younger than him and he married Mary Ann Ray.\n\nHe is a father of two daughters, his eldest, Kelly, born c1962.\n\nReferences\n\nCanadian male divers\nDivers from Toronto\nCanadian diving coaches\n\n1930s births\nLiving people\nYear of birth uncertain"
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"Muhammad Ali",
"Early life and amateur career"
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Where was Muhammad Ali born?
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Where was Muhammad Ali born?
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Muhammad Ali
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Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had a sister and four brothers. He was named for his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. (1912-1990), who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist, Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with smaller amounts of Irish and English heritage. His father painted billboards and signs, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917-1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali) as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. Clay grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store--"They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend's taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local railyard. Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually moulding "my style, my stamina and my system". For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak. Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games. CANNOTANSWER
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Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky.
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Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet and philanthropist. Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He became a Muslim after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. Also that year, he renounced his birth name as a "slave name" and formally became known as Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. However, he had not fought for nearly four years by this point and had lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger 1960s counterculture generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam, and supported racial integration like his former mentor Malcolm X.
He fought in several historic boxing matches, such as his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many boxers let their managers do the talking, and he became renowned for his provocative and outlandish persona. He was known for trash-talking, and often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry incorporating elements of hip hop, and often predicted in which round he would knockout his opponent.
Outside boxing, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, releasing two studio albums: I Am the Greatest! (1963) and The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976). Both albums received Grammy Award nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attributed to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family. Ali died on June 3, 2016.
Early life and amateur career
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. ( ) was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had one brother. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., who had a sister and four brothers and who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with some Irish and English family heritage. Ali's maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland. DNA testing performed in 2018 showed that, through his paternal grandmother, Ali was a descendant of the former slave Archer Alexander, who had been chosen from the building crew as the model of a freed man for the Emancipation Memorial, and was the subject of abolitionist William Greenleaf Eliot's book, The Story of Archer Alexander: From Slavery to Freedom. Like Ali, Alexander fought for his freedom.
His father was a sign and billboard painter, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917–1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother, Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali), as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. He was dyslexic, which led to difficulties in reading and writing, at school and for much of his life. Ali grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store: "They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also strongly affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local rail yard. His daughter Hana later wrote that Ali once told her, "Nothing would ever shake me up (more) than the story of Emmett Till."
Ali was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually molding "my style, my stamina and my system." For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak.
Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.
Early professional boxing career
Early career
Clay made his professional debut on October 29, 1960, winning a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker. From then until the end of 1963, Clay amassed a record of 19–0 with 15 wins by knockout. He defeated boxers including Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, LaMar Clark, Doug Jones and Henry Cooper. Clay also beat his former trainer and veteran boxer Archie Moore in a 1962 match.
These early fights were not without trials. Clay was knocked down by both Sonny Banks and Cooper. In the Cooper fight, Clay was floored by a left hook at the end of round four and was saved by the bell, going on to win in the predicted 5th round due to Cooper's severely cut eye. The fight with Doug Jones on March 13, 1963 was Clay's toughest fight during this stretch. The number two and three heavyweight contenders respectively, Clay and Jones fought on Jones' home turf at New York's Madison Square Garden. Jones staggered Clay in the first round, and the unanimous decision for Clay was greeted by boos and a rain of debris thrown into the ring. Watching on closed-circuit TV, heavyweight champ Sonny Liston quipped that if he fought Clay he might get locked up for murder. The fight was later named "Fight of the Year" by The Ring magazine.
In each of these fights, Clay vocally belittled his opponents and vaunted his abilities. He called Jones "an ugly little man" and Cooper a "bum". He said he was embarrassed to get in the ring with Alex Miteff and claimed that Madison Square Garden was "too small for me." Ali's trash-talk was inspired by professional wrestler "Gorgeous George" Wagner's, after he saw George's talking ability attract huge crowds to events. Ali stated in a 1969 interview with the Associated Press' Hubert Mizel that he met with George in Las Vegas in 1961, that George told him that talking a big game would earn paying fans who either wanted to see him win or wanted to see him lose, thus Ali transformed himself into a self-described "big-mouth and a bragger".
In 1960, Clay left Moore's camp, partially due to Clay's refusal to do chores such as washing dishes and sweeping. To replace Moore, Clay hired Angelo Dundee to be his trainer. Clay had met Dundee in February 1957 during Clay's amateur career. Around this time, Clay sought longtime idol Sugar Ray Robinson to be his manager, but was rebuffed.
World heavyweight champion
Fights against Liston
By late 1963, Clay had become the top contender for Sonny Liston's title. The fight was set for February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach. Liston was an intimidating personality, a dominating fighter with a criminal past and ties to the mob. Based on Clay's uninspired performance against Jones and Cooper in his previous two fights, and Liston's destruction of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in two first-round knockouts, Clay was a 7–1 underdog. Despite this, Clay taunted Liston during the pre-fight buildup, dubbing him "the big ugly bear", stating "Liston even smells like a bear" and claiming "After I beat him I'm going to donate him to the zoo." Clay turned the pre-fight weigh-in into a circus, shouting at Liston that "someone is going to die at ringside tonight." Clay's pulse rate was measured at 120, more than double his normal 54. Many of those in attendance thought Clay's behavior stemmed from fear, and some commentators wondered if he would show up for the bout.
The outcome of the fight was a major upset. At the opening bell, Liston rushed at Clay, seemingly angry and looking for a quick knockout. However, Clay's superior speed and mobility enabled him to elude Liston, making the champion miss and look awkward. At the end of the first round, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston repeatedly with jabs. Liston fought better in round two, but at the beginning of the third round Clay hit Liston with a combination that buckled his knees and opened a cut under his left eye. This was the first time Liston had ever been cut. At the end of round four, Clay was returning to his corner when he began experiencing blinding pain in his eyes and asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to cut off his gloves. Dundee refused. It has been speculated that the problem was due to ointment used to seal Liston's cuts, perhaps deliberately applied by his corner to his gloves. Though unconfirmed, boxing historian Bert Sugar said that two of Liston's opponents also complained about their eyes "burning".
Despite Liston's attempts to knock out a blinded Clay, Clay was able to survive the fifth round until sweat and tears rinsed the irritation from his eyes. In the sixth, Clay dominated, hitting Liston repeatedly. Liston did not answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by TKO. Liston stated that the reason he quit was an injured shoulder. Following the win, a triumphant Clay rushed to the edge of the ring and, pointing to the ringside press, shouted: "Eat your words!" He added, "I am the greatest! I shook up the world. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived."
At ringside post fight, Clay appeared unconvinced that the fight was stopped due to a Liston shoulder injury, saying that the only injury Liston had was "an open eye, a big cut eye!" When told by Joe Louis that the injury was a "left arm thrown out of its socket," Clay quipped, "Yeah, swinging at nothing, who wouldn't?"
In winning this fight at the age of 22, Clay became the youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion. However, Floyd Patterson remained the youngest to win the heavyweight championship, doing so at the age 21 during an elimination bout following Rocky Marciano's retirement. Mike Tyson broke both records in 1986 when he defeated Trevor Berbick to win the heavyweight title at age 20.
Soon after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Cassius X, and then later to Muhammad Ali upon converting to Islam and affiliating with the Nation of Islam. Ali then faced a rematch with Liston scheduled for May 1965 in Lewiston, Maine. It had been scheduled for Boston the previous November, but was postponed for six months due to Ali's emergency surgery for a hernia three days before. The fight was controversial. Midway through the first round, Liston was knocked down by a difficult-to-see blow the press dubbed a "phantom punch". Referee Jersey Joe Walcott did not begin the count immediately after the knockdown, as Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Liston rose after he had been down for about 20 seconds, and the fight momentarily continued. However a few seconds later Walcott, having been informed by the timekeepers that Liston had been down for a count of 10, stopped the match and declared Ali the winner by knockout. The entire fight lasted less than two minutes.
It has since been speculated that Liston purposely dropped to the ground. Proposed motivations include threats on his life from the Nation of Islam, that he had bet against himself and that he "took a dive" to pay off debts. Slow-motion replays show that Liston was jarred by a chopping right from Ali, although it is unclear whether the blow was a genuine knockout punch.
Fight against Patterson
Ali defended his title against former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson on November 22, 1965. Before the match, Ali mocked Patterson, who was widely known to call him by his former name Cassius Clay, as an "Uncle Tom", calling him "The Rabbit". Although Ali clearly had the better of Patterson, who appeared injured during the fight, the match lasted 12 rounds before being called on a technical knockout. Patterson later said he had strained his sacroiliac. Ali was criticized in the sports media for appearing to have toyed with Patterson during the fight. Patterson biographer W. K. Stratton claims that the conflict between Ali and Patterson was not genuine but was staged to increase ticket sales and the closed-circuit viewing audience, with both men complicit in the theatrics. Stratton also cites an interview by Howard Cosell in which Ali explained that rather than toying with Patterson, he refrained from knocking him out after it became apparent Patterson was injured. Patterson later said that he had never been hit by punches as soft as Ali's. Stratton states that Ali arranged the second fight, in 1972, with the financially struggling Patterson to help the former champion earn enough money to pay a debt to the IRS.
Main Bout
After the Patterson fight, Ali founded his own promotion company, Main Bout. The company mainly handled Ali's boxing promotions and pay-per-view closed-circuit television broadcasts. The company's stockholders were mainly fellow Nation of Islam members, along with several others, including Bob Arum.
Ali and then-WBA heavyweight champion boxer Ernie Terrell had agreed to meet for a bout in Chicago on March 29, 1966 (the WBA, one of two boxing associations, had stripped Ali of his title following his joining the Nation of Islam). But in February Ali was reclassified by the Louisville draft board as 1-A from 1-Y, and he indicated that he would refuse to serve, commenting to the press, "I ain't got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me nigger." Amidst the media and public outcry over Ali's stance, the Illinois Athletic Commission refused to sanction the fight, citing technicalities.
Instead, Ali traveled to Canada and Europe and won championship bouts against George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London and Karl Mildenberger.
Ali returned to the United States to fight Cleveland Williams in the Houston Astrodome on November 14, 1966. The bout drew a record-breaking indoor crowd of 35,460 people. Williams had once been considered among the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division, but in 1964 he had been shot at point-blank range by a Texas policeman, resulting in the loss of one kidney and of his small intestine. Ali dominated Williams, winning a third-round technical knockout in what some consider the finest performance of his career.
Ali fought Terrell in Houston on February 6, 1967. Terrell, who was unbeaten in five years and had defeated many of the boxers Ali had faced, was billed as Ali's toughest opponent since Liston; he was big, strong and had a three-inch reach advantage over Ali. During the lead up to the bout, Terrell repeatedly called Ali "Clay", much to Ali's annoyance. The two almost came to blows over the name issue in a pre-fight interview with Howard Cosell. Ali seemed intent on humiliating Terrell. "I want to torture him", he said. "A clean knockout is too good for him." The fight was close until the seventh round, when Ali bloodied Terrell and almost knocked him out. In the eighth round, Ali taunted Terrell, hitting him with jabs and shouting between punches, "What's my name, Uncle Tom ... what's my name?" Ali won a unanimous 15-round decision. Terrell claimed that early in the fight Ali deliberately thumbed him in the eye, forcing him to fight half-blind, and then, in a clinch, rubbed the wounded eye against the ropes. Because of Ali's apparent intent to prolong the fight to inflict maximum punishment, critics described the bout as "one of the ugliest boxing fights." Tex Maule later wrote: "It was a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty." Ali denied the accusations of cruelty but, for Ali's critics, the fight provided more evidence of his arrogance.
After Ali's title defense against Zora Folley on March 22, he was stripped of his title due to his refusal to be drafted to army service. His boxing license was also suspended by the state of New York. He was convicted of draft evasion on June 20 and sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He paid a bond and remained free while the verdict was being appealed.
Vietnam War and resistance to the draft
Ali registered for conscription in the United States military on his 18th birthday and was listed as 1-A in 1962. In 1964, he was reclassified as Class 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after he failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub-standard, due to his dyslexia. (He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest!") By early 1966, the army lowered its standards to permit soldiers above the 15th percentile and Ali was again classified as 1-A. This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army at a time when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, a war which put him further at odds with the white establishment.
When notified of this status, Ali declared that he would refuse to serve in the army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector. Ali stated: "War is against the teachings of the Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger (Elijah Muhammad then leader of Nation of Islam). We don’t take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers". He also said "We are not to be the aggressor but we will defend ourselves if attacked." He stated: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Ali antagonized the white establishment in 1966 by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.
On April 28, 1967, Ali appeared in Houston for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces, but he refused three times to step forward when his name was called. An officer warned him that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called, and he was arrested. Later that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit. Ali remained unable to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years. On June 4, 1967, in a first for sports professionals, a group of high-profile African-American athletes assembled at the Negro Industrial Economic union in Cleveland for a "Muhammad Ali Summit". The meeting was organized by Jim Brown for his peers to question Ali about the seriousness of his convictions, and to decide whether to support him, which they ultimately did.
At the trial on June 20, 1967, the jury found Ali guilty after only 21minutes of deliberation of the criminal offense of violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. After a Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, the case was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
Ali remained free in the years between the Appellate Court decision and the Supreme Court ruling. As public opinion began turning people against the war and the Civil Rights Movement continued to gather momentum, Ali became a popular speaker at colleges and universities across the country; this itinerary was rare if not unprecedented for a prizefighter. At Howard University, for example, he gave his popular "Black Is Best" speech to 4,000 cheering students and community intellectuals, after he was invited to speak by sociology professor Nathan Hare on behalf of the Black Power Committee, a student protest group.
On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. United States overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8–0 decision (Justice Thurgood Marshall recused himself, as he had been the U.S. Solicitor General at the time of Ali's conviction). The decision was not based on, nor did it address, the merits of Ali's claims per se. Rather, the Court held that since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to Ali, that it was therefore impossible to determine which of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status (offered in the Justice Department's brief) the appeal board relied on, and Ali's conviction must be reversed.
Impact of Ali's draft refusal
Ali's example inspired many black Americans and others. However, initially when he refused induction, he became arguably the most hated man in the country and received many death threats. People who supported Ali during this time were also threatened, including sports journalist Jerry Izenberg, whose columns defended Ali's decision not to serve. He wrote, "Bomb threats emptied our office, making the staff stand out in the snow. My car windshield was smashed with a sledgehammer." The New York Times columnist William Rhoden wrote, "Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"
Recalling Ali's anti-war position, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said: "I remember the teachers at my high school didn't like Ali because he was so anti-establishment and he kind of thumbed his nose at authority and got away with it. The fact that he was proud to be a black man and that he had so much talent ... made some people think that he was dangerous. But for those very reasons I enjoyed him."
Civil rights figures came to believe that Ali had an energizing effect on the freedom movement as a whole. Al Sharpton spoke of his bravery at a time when there was still widespread support for the Vietnam War:
Ali was honored with the annual Martin Luther King Award in 1970 by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy, who called him "a living example of soul power, the March on Washington in two fists." Coretta Scott King added that Ali was "a champion of justice and peace and unity."
In speaking of the cost on Ali's career of his refusal to be drafted, his trainer Angelo Dundee said, "One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years."
Bob Arum did not support Ali's choice at the time. More recently, Arum stated that "when I look back at his life, and I was blessed to call him a friend and spent a lot of time with him, it's hard for me to talk about his exploits in boxing because as great as they were they paled in comparison to the impact that he had on the world," and "He did what he thought was right. And it turned out he was right, and I was wrong."
Ali's resistance to the draft was covered in the 2013 documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali.
NSA and FBI monitoring of Ali's communications
In a secret operation code-named "Minaret", the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted the communications of leading Americans, including Ali, Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., prominent U.S. journalists, and others who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam. A review by the NSA of the Minaret program concluded that it was "disreputable if not outright illegal."
In 1971, his Fight of the Century with Frazier was used by an activist group, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, to pull off a burglary at an FBI office in Pennsylvania; the anticipation for the fight was unlike anything else, so they believed the security would also be focused on the fight. This raid exposed the COINTELPRO operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti-war movements. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Ali, and their activities included the FBI gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school; one such record mentioned him loving art as a child.
Exile and comeback
In March 1966, Ali refused to be inducted into the armed forces. He was systematically denied a boxing license in every state and stripped of his passport. As a result, he did not fight from March 1967 to October 1970—from ages 25 to almost 29—as his case worked its way through the appeals process before his conviction was overturned in 1971.
Protesting while exiled
During this time of inactivity, as opposition to the Vietnam War began to grow and Ali's stance gained sympathy, he spoke at colleges across the nation, criticizing the Vietnam War and advocating African-American pride and racial justice. Ali based himself in Chicago. According to most close to him, his Chicago years were formative.
At the time, Ali was widely condemned by the American media, with fears that his actions could potentially lead to mass civil disobedience. Despite this, Ebony magazine noted in the late 1960s that Ali's popularity had increased during this time, especially among black people.
The Super Fight
While banned from sanctioned bouts, Ali settled a $1 million lawsuit against radio producer Murray Woroner by accepting $10,000 to appear in a privately staged fantasy fight against retired champion Rocky Marciano. In 1969 the boxers were filmed sparring for about 75 one-minute rounds; they produced several potential outcomes. A computer program purportedly determined the winner, based on data about the fighters, along with the opinions of approximately 250 boxing experts. Edited versions of the bout were shown in movie theaters in 1970. In the U.S. version Ali lost in a simulated 13th-round knockout, but in the European version Marciano lost due to cuts, also simulated.
Ali suggested that prejudice determined his defeat in the U.S. version. He was reported to jokingly say, "That computer was made in Alabama."
Return to prizefighting
On August 11, 1970, with his case still in appeal, Ali was granted a license to box by the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission. Leroy Johnson, Jesse Hill Jr. and Harry Pett had used their local political influence and set up the company House of Sports to organize the fight, underlining the influential power of Georgia's black politics in Ali' s comeback. Ali's first return bout was against Jerry Quarry on October 26, resulting in a win after three rounds after Quarry was cut.
A month earlier, a victory in federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali's license. He fought Oscar Bonavena at Madison Square Garden in December, an uninspired performance that ended in a dramatic technical knockout of Bonavena in the 15th round. The win left Ali as a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier.
First fight against Joe Frazier
Ali and Frazier's first fight, held at the Garden on March 8, 1971, was nicknamed the "Fight of the Century", due to the tremendous excitement surrounding a bout between two undefeated fighters, each with a legitimate claim to be heavyweight champion. Veteran US boxing writer John Condon called it "the greatest event I've ever worked on in my life." The bout was broadcast to 36 countries; promoters granted 760 press passes.
Adding to the atmosphere were the considerable pre-fight theatrics and name calling. Before the fight Frazier called Ali, "Cassius Clay", this angered Ali and he portrayed Frazier as a "dumb tool of the white establishment." "Frazier is too ugly to be champ", Ali said. "Frazier is too dumb to be champ." Ali also frequently called Frazier an "Uncle Tom". Dave Wolf, who worked in Frazier's camp, recalled that, "Ali was saying 'the only people rooting for Joe Frazier are white people in suits, Alabama sheriffs, and members of the Ku Klux Klan. I'm fighting for the little man in the ghetto.' Joe was sitting there, smashing his fist into the palm of his hand, saying, 'What the fuck does he know about the ghetto?
Ali began training at a farm near Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1971 and, finding the country setting to his liking, sought to develop a real training camp in the countryside. He found a five-acre site on a Pennsylvania country road in the village of Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. On this site, Ali carved out what was to become his training camp, where he trained for all his fights from 1972 to the end of his career in 1981.
The Monday night fight lived up to its billing. In a preview of their two other fights, a crouching, bobbing and weaving Frazier constantly pressured Ali, getting hit regularly by Ali jabs and combinations, but relentlessly attacking and scoring repeatedly, especially to Ali's body. The fight was even in the early rounds, but Ali was taking more punishment than ever in his career. On several occasions in the early rounds he played to the crowd and shook his head "no" after he was hit. In the later rounds—in what was the first appearance of the "rope-a-dope strategy"—Ali leaned against the ropes and absorbed punishment from Frazier, hoping to tire him. In the 11th round, Frazier connected with a left hook that wobbled Ali, but because it appeared that Ali might be clowning as he staggered backwards across the ring, Frazier hesitated to press his advantage, fearing an Ali counter-attack. In the final round, Frazier knocked Ali down with a vicious left hook, which referee Arthur Mercante said was as hard as a man can be hit. Ali was back on his feet in three seconds. Nevertheless, Ali lost by unanimous decision, his first professional defeat.
Chamberlain challenge and Ellis fight
In 1971, basketball star Wilt Chamberlain challenged Ali to a fight, and a bout was scheduled for July 26. Although the seven-foot-two-inch tall Chamberlain had formidable physical advantages over Ali—weighing 60pounds more and able to reach 14inches further—Ali was able to influence Chamberlain into calling off the bout by taunting him with calls of "Timber!" and "The tree will fall" during a shared interview. These statements of confidence unsettled his taller opponent, whom Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had offered a record-setting contract, conditional on Chamberlain agreeing to abandon what Cooke termed "this boxing foolishness", and he did exactly that. To replace Ali's opponent, promoter Bob Arum quickly booked a former sparring partner of Ali's, Jimmy Ellis, who was a childhood friend from Louisville, Kentucky, to fight him.
After his loss
Fights against Quarry, Patterson, Foster and Norton
After the loss to Frazier, Ali fought Jerry Quarry, had a second bout with Floyd Patterson and faced Bob Foster in 1972, winning a total of six fights that year. In 1973, Ken Norton broke Ali's jaw while giving him the second loss of his career. After initially considering retirement, Ali won a controversial decision against Norton in their second bout. This led to a rematch with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 1974; Frazier had recently lost his title to George Foreman.
Second fight against Joe Frazier
Ali was strong in the early rounds of the fight, and staggered Frazier in the second round. Referee Tony Perez mistakenly thought he heard the bell ending the round and stepped between the two fighters as Ali was pressing his attack, giving Frazier time to recover. However, Frazier came on in the middle rounds, snapping Ali's head in round seven and driving him to the ropes at the end of round eight. The last four rounds saw round-to-round shifts in momentum between the two fighters. Throughout most of the bout, however, Ali was able to circle away from Frazier's dangerous left hook and to tie Frazier up when he was cornered, the latter a tactic that Frazier's camp complained of bitterly. Judges awarded Ali a unanimous decision.
World heavyweight champion (second reign)
The Rumble in the Jungle
The defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974—a bout nicknamed The Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. In assessing the fight, analysts pointed out that Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, who had given Ali four tough battles and won two of them, had both been devastated by Foreman in second-round knockouts. Ali was 32 years old, and had clearly lost speed and reflexes since his twenties. Contrary to his later persona, Foreman was at the time a brooding and intimidating presence. Almost no one associated with the sport, not even Ali's long-time supporter Howard Cosell, gave the former champion a chance of winning.
As usual, Ali was confident and colorful before the fight. He told interviewer David Frost, "If you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait till I whup Foreman's behind!" He told the press, "I've done something new for this fight. I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick." Ali was wildly popular in Zaire, with crowds chanting "Ali, bomaye" ("Ali, kill him") wherever he went.
Ali opened the fight moving and scoring with right crosses to Foreman's head. Then, beginning in the second round, and to the consternation of his corner, Ali retreated to the ropes and invited Foreman to hit him while covering up, clinching and counter-punching, all while verbally taunting Foreman. The move, which would later become known as the "Rope-a-dope", so violated conventional boxing wisdom—letting one of the hardest hitters in boxing strike at will—that at ringside writer George Plimpton thought the fight had to be fixed. Foreman, increasingly angered, threw punches that were deflected and did not land squarely. Midway through the fight, as Foreman began tiring, Ali countered more frequently and effectively with punches and flurries, which electrified the pro-Ali crowd. In the eighth round, Ali dropped an exhausted Foreman with a combination at center ring; Foreman failed to make the count. Against the odds, and amidst pandemonium in the ring, Ali had regained the title by knockout. Reflecting on the fight, George Foreman later said: "I thought Ali was just one more knockout victim until, about the seventh round, I hit him hard to the jaw and he held me and whispered in my ear: 'That all you got, George?' I realized that this ain't what I thought it was."
It was a major upset victory, after Ali came in as a 41 underdog against the previously unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight became famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1billion viewers worldwide. It was the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time.
Fights against Wepner, Lyle and Bugner
Ali's next opponents included Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, and Joe Bugner. Wepner, a journeyman known as "The Bayonne Bleeder", stunned Ali with a knockdown in the ninth round; Ali would later say he tripped on Wepner's foot. It was a bout that would inspire Sylvester Stallone to create the acclaimed film, Rocky.
Third fight against Joe Frazier
Ali then agreed to a third match with Joe Frazier in Manila. The bout, known as the "Thrilla in Manila", was held on October 1, 1975, in temperatures approaching . In the first rounds, Ali was aggressive, moving and exchanging blows with Frazier. However, Ali soon appeared to tire and adopted the "rope-a-dope" strategy, frequently resorting to clinches. During this part of the bout Ali did some effective counter-punching, but for the most part absorbed punishment from a relentlessly attacking Frazier. In the 12th round, Frazier began to tire, and Ali scored several sharp blows that closed Frazier's left eye and opened a cut over his right eye. With Frazier's vision now diminished, Ali dominated the 13th and 14th rounds, at times conducting what boxing historian Mike Silver called "target practice" on Frazier's head. The fight was stopped when Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, refused to allow Frazier to answer the bell for the 15th and final round, despite Frazier's protests. Frazier's eyes were both swollen shut. Ali, in his corner, winner by TKO, slumped on his stool, clearly spent.
An ailing Ali said afterwards that the fight "was the closest thing to dying that I know", and, when later asked if he had viewed the fight on videotape, reportedly said, "Why would I want to go back and see Hell?" After the fight he cited Frazier as "the greatest fighter of all times next to me."
After the third fight with Frazier, Ali considered retirement. He said, “I’m sore all over. My arms, my face, my sides all ache. I’m so, so tired. There is a great possibility that I will retire. You might have seen the last of me. I want to sit back and count my money, live in my house and my farm, work for my people and concentrate on my family."
Later career
Following the Manila bout, Ali fought Jean-Pierre Coopman, Jimmy Young, and Richard Dunn, winning the last by knockout.
The punch used to knock Dunn out was taught to Ali by Taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. Rhee called that punch the "Accupunch"; he learned it from Bruce Lee. The Dunn fight was the last time Ali would knock down an opponent in his boxing career.
Ali fought Ken Norton for the third time in September 1976. The bout, which was held at Yankee Stadium, resulted in Ali winning a heavily contested decision that was loudly booed by the audience. Afterwards, he announced he was retiring from boxing to practice his faith, having converted to Sunni Islam after falling out with the Nation of Islam the previous year.
After returning to beat Alfredo Evangelista in May 1977, Ali struggled in his next fight against Earnie Shavers that September, getting pummeled a few times by punches to the head. Ali won the fight by another unanimous decision, but the bout caused his longtime doctor Ferdie Pacheco to quit after he was rebuffed for telling Ali he should retire. Pacheco was quoted as saying, "the New York State Athletic Commission gave me a report that showed Ali's kidneys were falling apart. I wrote to Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer, his wife and Ali himself. I got nothing back in response. That's when I decided enough is enough."
In February 1978, Ali faced Leon Spinks at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. At the time, Spinks had only seven professional fights to his credit, and had recently fought a draw with journeyman Scott LeDoux. Ali sparred less than two dozen rounds in preparation for the fight, and was seriously out of shape by the opening bell. He lost the title by split decision. A rematch occurred in September at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. 70,000 people attended the bout and paid a total of $6 million admission, making it the largest live gate in boxing history at that time. Ali won a unanimous decision in an uninspiring fight, with referee Lucien Joubert scoring rounds 10-4, judge Ernie Cojoe 10-4, and judge Herman Preis 11-4. This made Ali the first heavyweight champion to win the belt three times.
Following this win, on July 27, 1979, Ali announced his retirement from boxing. His retirement was short-lived, however; Ali announced his comeback to face Larry Holmes for the WBC belt in an attempt to win the heavyweight championship an unprecedented fourth time. The fight was largely motivated by Ali's need for money. Boxing writer Richie Giachetti said, "Larry didn't want to fight Ali. He knew Ali had nothing left; he knew it would be a horror."
It was around this time that Ali started struggling with vocal stutters and trembling hands. The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) ordered that he undergo a complete physical in Las Vegas before being allowed to fight again. Ali chose instead to check into the Mayo Clinic, who declared him fit to fight. Their opinion was accepted by the NAC on July 31, 1980, paving the way for Ali's return to the ring.
The fight took place on October 2, 1980, in Las Vegas Valley, with Holmes easily dominating Ali, who was weakened from thyroid medication he had taken to lose weight. Giachetti called the fight "awful ... the worst sports event I ever had to cover." Actor Sylvester Stallone was at ringside and said that it was like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive. After the tenth round, Angelo Dundee told the referee to stop the fight, making it the only time that Ali ever lost by stoppage. The Holmes fight is said to have contributed to Ali's Parkinson's syndrome. Despite pleas to definitively retire, Ali fought one last time on December 11, 1981, in Nassau, Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, losing a ten-round decision.
By the end of his boxing career Ali had absorbed an estimated 200,000 hits.
Exhibition bouts
Ali boxed both well known boxers and celebrities from other walks of life, including Michael Dokes, Antonio Inoki, Lyle Alzado, Dave Semenko, and the famous Puerto Rican comedian Jose Miguel Agrelot (with Iris Chacon acting as Agrelot's corner-woman).
Ali vs Inoki
On June 26, 1976, Ali participated in an exhibition bout in Tokyo against Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist Antonio Inoki. Ali was only able to land two jabs while Inoki's kicks caused two blood clots and an infection that almost resulted in Ali's leg being amputated, as a result of Ali's team insisting on rules restricting Inoki's ability to wrestle. The match was not scripted and ultimately declared a draw. After Ali's death, The New York Times declared it his least memorable fight. Most boxing commentators at the time viewed the fight negatively and hoped it would be forgotten as some considered it a "15-round farce." Today it is considered by some to be one of Ali's most influential fights and CBS Sports said the attention the mixed-style bout received "foretold the arrival of standardized MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) years later." After the fight, Ali and Inoki became friends.
Ali vs Alzado
In 1979, Ali fought an exhibition match against NFL player Lyle Alzado. The fight went 8 rounds and was declared a draw.
Ali vs Semenko
Ali fought NHL player, Dave Semenko in an exhibition on June 12, 1983. The match was officially a draw after going three rounds, but the Associated Press reported Ali was not seriously trying and was just toying with Semenko.
Personal life
Marriages and children
Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. Ali was introduced to cocktail waitress Sonji Roi by Herbert Muhammad and asked her to marry him after their first date. They married approximately one month later on August 14, 1964. They quarreled over Sonji's refusal to join the Nation Of Islam. According to Ali, "She wouldn't do what she was supposed to do. She wore lipstick; she went into bars; she dressed in clothes that were revealing and didn't look right." The marriage was childless and they divorced on January 10, 1966. Just before the divorce was finalized, Ali sent Sonji a note: "You traded heaven for hell, baby." Ali's brother Rahman said that she was Ali's only true love and the Nation of Islam made Ali divorce her and Ali never got over it.
On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. Born into a Chicago family that had converted to the Nation Of Islam, she later changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: author and rapper Maryum "May May" (born 1968); twins Jamillah and Rasheda (born 1970), who married Robert Walsh and has a son, Biaggio Ali, born in 1998; and Muhammad Ali Jr. (born 1972). Rasheda's son Nico is a professional boxer.
Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the early 1970s. At age 32 in 1974, Ali began an extramarital relationship with 16-year-old Wanda Bolton (who subsequently changed her name to Aaisha Ali) with whom he fathered another daughter, Khaliah (born 1974). While still married to Belinda, Ali married Aaisha in an Islamic ceremony that was not legally recognized. According to Khaliah, Aaisha and her mother lived at Ali's Deer Lake training camp alongside Belinda and her children. In January 1985, Aaisha sued Ali for unpaid palimony. The case was settled when Ali agreed to set up a $200,000 trust fund for Khaliah. In 2001 Khaliah was quoted as saying she believed her father viewed her as "a mistake". He had another daughter, Miya (born 1972), from an extramarital relationship with Patricia Harvell.
By the summer of 1977, his second marriage ended due to Ali's repeated infidelity, and he had married actress and model Veronica Porché. At the time of their marriage, they had a daughter, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila Ali, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Porché were divorced due to Ali's continuous infidelity. Porché said of Ali's infidelity, "It was too much temptation for him, with women who threw themselves at him, It didn’t mean anything. He didn't have affairs – he had one-night stands. I knew beyond a doubt there were no feelings involved. It was so obvious, It was easy to forgive him."
On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams. Lonnie first met Ali at the age of 6 when her family moved to Louisville in 1963. In 1982, she became Ali's primary caregiver and in return, he paid for her to attend graduate school at UCLA. Together they adopted a son, Asaad Amin (born 1986), when Asaad was five months old. In 1992, Lonnie incorporated Greatest of All Time, Inc. (G.O.A.T. Inc) to consolidate and license his intellectual properties for commercial purposes. She served as the vice president and treasurer until the sale of the company in 2006.
Kiiursti Mensah-Ali claims she is Ali's biological daughter with Barbara Mensah, with whom he allegedly had a 20-year relationship, citing photographs and a paternity test conducted in 1988. She said he accepted responsibility and took care of her, but all contacts with him were cut off after he married his fourth wife Lonnie. Kiiursti says she has a relationship with his other children. After his death she again made passionate appeals to be allowed to mourn at his funeral.
In 2010, Osmon Williams came forward claiming to be Ali's biological son. His mother Temica Williams (also known as Rebecca Holloway) launched a $3 million lawsuit against Ali in 1981 for sexual assault, claiming that she had started a sexual relationship with him when she was 12, and that her son Osmon (born 1977) was fathered by Ali. She further alleged that Ali had originally supported her and her son financially, but stopped doing so after four years. The case went on until 1986 and was eventually thrown out as her allegations were deemed to be barred by the statute of limitations. According to Veronica, Ali admitted to the affair with Williams, but did not believe Osmon was his son which Veronica supported by saying "Everybody in the camp was going with that girl." Ali biographer and friend Thomas Hauser has said this claim was of "questionable veracity".
Ali then lived in Scottsdale, Arizona with Lonnie. In January 2007, it was reported that they had put their home in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which they had bought in 1975, up for sale and had purchased a home in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000. Both homes were subsequently sold after Ali's death with Lonnie living in their remaining home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Lonnie converted to Islam from Catholicism in her late twenties.
In an interview in 1974, Ali said, "If they say stand and salute the flag I do that out of respect, because I'm in the country". Ali would later say, "If America was in trouble and real war came, I'd be on the front line if we had been attacked. But I could see that (The Vietnam War) wasn't right." He also said, "Black men would go over there and fight, but when they came home, they couldn't even be served a hamburger."
Ali's daughter Laila was a professional boxer from 1999 until 2007, despite her father's previous opposition to women's boxing. In 1978, he said "Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that." Ali still attended a number of his daughter's fights and later admitted to Laila he was wrong. Ali's daughter Hana is married to Bellator middleweight fighter Kevin Casey. Hana wrote about her father, "His love for people was extraordinary. I would get home from school to find homeless families sleeping in our guest room. He’d see them on the street, pile them into his Rolls-Royce and bring them home. He’d buy them clothes, take them to hotels and pay the bills for months in advance." She also said celebrities like Michael Jackson and Clint Eastwood would often visit Ali. After Ali met a lesbian couple who were fans of his in 1997, he smiled and said to his friend Hauser, "They look like they’re happy together." Hauser wrote about the story, "The thought that Liz and Roz (the lesbian couple he met) were happy pleased Muhammad. Ali wanted people to be happy."
Religion and beliefs
Affiliation with the Nation of Islam
Ali said that he first heard of the Nation of Islam when he was fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago in 1959, and attended his first Nation of Islam meeting in 1961. He continued to attend meetings, although keeping his involvement hidden from the public. In 1962, Clay met Malcolm X, who soon became his spiritual and political mentor. By the time of the first Liston fight, Nation of Islam members, including Malcolm X, were visible in his entourage. This led to a story in The Miami Herald just before the fight disclosing that Clay had joined the Nation of Islam, which nearly caused the bout to be canceled. The article quoted Cassius Clay Sr. as saying that his son had joined the Black Muslims when he was 18.
In fact, Clay was initially refused entry to the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) due to his boxing career. However, after he won the championship from Liston in 1964, the Nation of Islam was more receptive and agreed to publicize his membership. Shortly afterwards on March 6, Elijah Muhammad gave a radio address that Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (most high). Around that time Ali moved to the south side of Chicago and lived in a series of houses, always near the Nation of Islam's Mosque Maryam or Elijah Muhammad's residence. He stayed in Chicago for about 12 years.
Only a few journalists, most notably Howard Cosell, accepted the new name at that time. Ali stated that his earlier name was a "slave name," and a "white man's name" and added that "I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it". The person he was named after was a white man and emancipationist who released slaves. Ali explained in his autobiography after studying his works, "While Clay may have gotten rid of his slaves, he "held on to white supremacy." In truth, Cassius Clay's attachment to slavery went farther than Ali knew. In spite of his abolitionist fervor, Clay owned more slaves in 1865, when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally forbade its practice, than he had inherited from his father 37 years earlier.
Not afraid to antagonize the white establishment, Ali stated, "I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me." Ali's friendship with Malcolm X ended as Malcolm split with the Nation of Islam a couple of weeks after Ali joined, and Ali remained with the Nation of Islam. Ali later said that turning his back on Malcolm was one of the mistakes he regretted most in his life.
Aligning himself with the Nation of Islam, its leader Elijah Muhammad, and a narrative that labeled the white race as the perpetrator of genocide against African Americans made Ali a target of public condemnation. The Nation of Islam was widely viewed by whites and some African Americans as a black separatist "hate religion" with a propensity toward violence; Ali had few qualms about using his influential voice to speak Nation of Islam doctrine. In a press conference articulating his opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali stated, "My enemy is the white people, not Vietcong or Chinese or Japanese." In relation to integration, he said: "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all." Further articulating his opposition to integration, he told members of the KKK at a Klan rally in 1975 that "black people should marry their own women... blue birds are blue birds, red birds are red birds, pigeons with pigeons, eagles with eagles, God did not make no mistake".
Writer Jerry Izenberg once noted that, "the Nation became Ali's family and Elijah Muhammad became his father. But there is an irony to the fact that while the Nation branded white people as devils, Ali had more white colleagues than most African American people did at that time in America, and continued to have them throughout his career."
Conversion to Sunni/Sufi Islam
In Hauser's biography Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, Ali says that although he's not a Christian as he thinks the idea of God having a son sounds wrong and doesn't make sense to him, as he believes, "God don't beget; man begets". He still believes that even good Christians or good Jews can receive God's blessing and enter heaven as he stated, "God created all people, no matter what their religion". He also stated, "If you're against someone because he's a Muslim that's wrong. If you're against someone because he's a Christian or a Jew, that's wrong".
In a 2004 autobiography, Ali attributed his conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam to Warith Deen Muhammad, who assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad, and persuaded the Nation's followers to become adherents of Sunni Islam. He said some people didn't like the change and stuck to Elijah's teachings, but he admired it and so left Elijah's teachings and became a follower of Sunni Islam.
Ali had gone on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1972, which inspired him in a similar manner to Malcolm X, meeting people of different colors from all over the world giving him a different outlook and greater spiritual awareness. In 1977, he said that, after he retired, he would dedicate the rest of his life to getting "ready to meet God" by helping people, charitable causes, uniting people and helping to make peace. He went on another Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1988.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he stated that "Islam is a religion of peace" and "does not promote terrorism or killing people", and that he was "angry that the world sees a certain group of Islam followers who caused this destruction, but they are not real Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims." In December 2015, he stated that "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion", that "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda", and that "political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam, and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is."
In later life after retiring from boxing, Ali became a student of the Quran and a devout Muslim. He also developed an interest in Sufism, which he referenced in his autobiography, The Soul of a Butterfly. According to Ali's daughter, Hana Yasmeen Ali, who co-authored The Soul of a Butterfly with him, Ali was attracted to Sufism after reading the books of Inayat Khan, which contain Sufi teachings.
Muhammad Ali received guidance from Islamic scholars such as Grand Mufti of Syria Almarhum Asy-Syaikh Ahmed Kuftaro, Hisham Kabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf, and Timothy J. Gianotti, who was at Ali's bedside during his last days and ensured that although his funeral was interfaith, it was still in accordance with Islamic rites and rituals.
Beatles reunion plan
In 1976, inventor Alan Amron and businessman Joel Sacher partnered with Ali to promote The International Committee to Reunite the Beatles. They asked fans worldwide to contribute a dollar each. Ali said the idea was not to use the proceeds for profit, but to establish an international agency to help poor children. "This is money to help people all over the world", he said. He added, "I love the music. I used to train to their music." He said a reunion of the Beatles "would make a lot of people happy." The former Beatles were indifferent to the plan, which elicited only a tepid response from the public. No reunion happened.
Entertainment career
Acting
Ali had a cameo role in the 1962 film version of Requiem for a Heavyweight, and during his exile from boxing, he starred in the short-lived 1969 Broadway musical, Buck White. He also appeared in the documentary film Black Rodeo (1972) riding both a horse and a bull.
His autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, written with Richard Durham, was published in 1975. In 1977 the book was adapted into a film called The Greatest, in which Ali played himself and Ernest Borgnine played Angelo Dundee.
The film Freedom Road, made in 1978, features Ali in a rare acting role as Gideon Jackson, a former slave and Union (American Civil War) soldier in 1870s Virginia, who gets elected to the U.S. Senate and battles alongside former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they have tended all their lives.
Spoken word poetry and rap music
Ali often used rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash-talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing. He played a role in the shaping of the black poetic tradition, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in the 1970s. According to The Guardian, "Some have argued that" Ali was "the first rapper."
In 1963, Ali released an album of spoken word music on Columbia Records titled, I Am the Greatest, and in 1964, he recorded a cover version of the rhythm and blues song "Stand by Me". I Am the Greatest sold 500,000 copies, and has been identified as an early example of rap music and a precursor to hip hop. It reached number 61 on the album chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award. He later received a second Grammy nomination, for "Best Recording for Children", with his 1976 spoken word novelty record, The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay.
Ali was an influential figure in the world of hip hop music. As a "rhyming trickster", he was noted for his "funky delivery", "boasts", "comical trash-talk", and "endless quotables." According to Rolling Stone, his "freestyle skills" and his "rhymes, flow, and braggadocio" would "one day become typical of old school MCs" like Run–D.M.C. and LL Cool J, and his "outsized ego foreshadowed the vainglorious excesses of Kanye West, while his Afrocentric consciousness and cutting honesty pointed forward to modern bards like Rakim, Nas, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar." “I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning and throw thunder in jail. You know I’m bad. Just last week, I murdered a rock, Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean, I make medicine sick” "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.” Ali spoke like no man the world had seen before. So confident in what he said; fluent, smooth, creative, and intimidating. He was a boxer and an activist, but he also had a role in influencing what now dominated pop-culture, hip-hop. In 2006, the documentary Ali Rap was produced by ESPN. Chuck D, a rapper for the band Public Enemy is the host. Other rappers narrated the documentary as well, including Doug E Fresh, Ludacris and Rakim who all spoke on Ali's behalf in the film.
He has been cited as an inspiration by rappers such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Jay-Z, Eminem, Sean Combs, Slick Rick, Nas and MC Lyte. Ali has been referenced in a number of hip hop songs, including Migos "Fight Night", The Game's "Jesus Piece", Nas' "The Message, The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", the Fugees' "Ready or Not", EPMD's "You're a Customer" and Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It".
Professional wrestling
Ali was involved with professional wrestling at different times in his career.
On June 1, 1976, as Ali was preparing for his bout with Inoki, he attended a match featuring Gorilla Monsoon. After the match was over, Ali removed his shirt and jacket and confronted professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon in the ring after his match at a World Wide Wrestling Federation show in Philadelphia Arena. After dodging a few punches, Monsoon put Ali in an airplane spin and dumped him to the mat. Ali stumbled to the corner, where his associate Butch Lewis convinced him to walk away.
On March 31, 1985, Ali was the special guest referee for the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania event.
In 1995, Ali led a group of Japanese and American professional wrestlers, including his 1976 opponent Antonio Inoki and Ric Flair, on a sports diplomacy mission to North Korea. Ali was guest of honor at the record-breaking Collision in Korea, a wrestling event with the largest attendance of all time.
Television appearances
Muhammad Ali's fights were some of the world's most-watched television broadcasts, setting television viewership records. His most-watched fights drew an estimated 12 billion viewers worldwide between 1974 and 1980, and were the world's most-watched live television broadcasts at the time. Outside of fights, he made many other television appearances. The following table lists known viewership figures of his non-fight television appearances. For television viewership figures of his fights, see Boxing career of Muhammad Ali: Television viewership.
Art
Ali was also an amateur artist and made dozens of drawings and paintings in the 1970s. In 1977, Rodney Hilton Brown, who owned an art gallery in NYC, asked Ali if he was interested in painting. Ali took him up on the offer and produced several paintings for him to sell. Brown is the author of “Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet and Prophet." In October 2021, 26 of his drawings and arts were placed on auction and sold for close to $1 Million USD.
Later years
In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's Syndrome, which sometimes results from head trauma from violent physical activities such as boxing. Ali still remained active during this time, later participating as a guest referee at WrestleMania I.
Philanthropy, humanitarianism and politics
Ali was known for being a humanitarian and philanthropist. He focused on practicing his Islamic duty of charity and good deeds, donating millions to charity organizations and disadvantaged people of all religious backgrounds. It is estimated that Ali helped to feed more than 22million people afflicted by hunger across the world. Early in his career, one of his main focuses was youth education. He spoke at several historically black colleges and universities about the importance of education, and became the largest single black donor to the United Negro College Fund in 1967 by way of a $10,000 donation ($78,000 in 2020 USD). In late 1966, he also pledged to donate a total of $100,000 to the UNCF (specifically promising to donate much of the proceeds of his title defense against Cleveland Williams), and paid $4,500 per closed circuit installation at six HBCUs so they could watch his fights.
Ali began visiting Africa, starting in 1964 when he visited Nigeria and Ghana. In 1974, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, where Ali declared "support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland." In 1978, following his loss to Spinks and before winning the rematch, Ali visited Bangladesh and received honorary citizenship there. The same year, he participated in The Longest Walk, a protest march in the United States in support of Native American rights, along with singer Stevie Wonder and actor Marlon Brando.
In 1980, Ali was recruited by President Jimmy Carter for a diplomatic mission to Africa, in an effort to persuade a number of African governments to join the US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics (in response to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan). According to Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, "at best, it was ill-conceived; at worst, a diplomatic disaster." The Tanzanian government was insulted that Carter had sent an athlete to discuss a serious political issue. One official asked whether the United States would "send Chris Evert to negotiate with London." Consequently, Ali was only received by the youth and culture minister, rather than President Julius Nyerere. Ali was unable to explain why the African countries should join the US boycott when it had failed to support the African boycott of the 1976 Olympics (in protest at Apartheid in South Africa), and was unaware that the Soviet Union was sponsoring popular revolutionary movements in Africa. Ali conceded "They didn't tell me about that in America", and complained that Carter had sent him "around the world to take the whupping over American policies." The Nigerian government also rebuffed him and confirmed that they would be participating in the Moscow games. Ali did, however, convince the government of Kenya to boycott the Olympics.
On January 19, 1981, in Los Angeles, Ali talked a suicidal man down from jumping off a ninth-floor ledge, an event that made national news.
In 1984, Ali announced his support for the re-election of United States President Ronald Reagan. When asked to elaborate on his endorsement of Reagan, Ali told reporters, "He's keeping God in schools and that's enough." In 1985, he visited Israel to request the release of Muslim prisoners at Atlit detainee camp, which Israel declined.
Around 1987, the California Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Constitution selected Ali to personify the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ali rode on a float at the following year's Tournament of Roses Parade, launching the U.S. Constitution's 200th birthday commemoration. In 1988, during the First Intifada, Ali participated in a Chicago rally in support of Palestine. The same year, he visited Sudan to raise awareness about the plight of famine victims. According to Politico, Ali supported Orrin Hatch politically. In 1989, he participated in an Indian charity event with the Muslim Educational Society in Kozhikode, Kerala, along with Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar.
In 1990, Ali traveled to Iraq prior to the Gulf War, and met with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages. Ali secured the release of the hostages, in exchange for promising Hussein that he would bring America "an honest account" of Iraq. Despite arranging the hostages release, he received criticism from President George H. W. Bush, and Joseph C. Wilson, the highest-ranking American diplomat in Baghdad.Ali cooperated with Thomas Hauser on a biography, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. The oral history was published in 1991.
In 1994, Ali campaigned to the United States government to come to the aid of refugees afflicted by the Rwandan genocide, and to donate to organizations helping Rwandan refugees.
In 1996, he lit the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. It was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers worldwide.
On November 17, 2002, Ali went to Afghanistan as the "U.N. Messenger of Peace." He was in Kabul for a three-day goodwill mission as a special guest of the UN.
On September 1, 2009, Ali visited Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, the home of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1860s, eventually settling in Kentucky.
On July 27, 2012, Ali was a titular bearer of the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He was helped to his feet by his wife Lonnie to stand before the flag due to his Parkinson's Syndrome rendering him unable to carry it into the stadium. The same year, he was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal in recognition of his lifelong efforts in activism, philanthropy and humanitarianism.
Earnings
By 1978, Ali's total fight purse earnings were estimated to be nearly $60million (inflation-adjusted ), including an estimated $47.45million grossed between 1970 and 1978. By 1980, his total fight purse earnings were estimated to be up to $70million (inflation-adjusted $million).
In 1978, Ali revealed that he was "broke" and several news outlets reported his net worth to be an estimated (inflation-adjusted $million). The press attributed his decline in wealth to several factors, including taxes consuming at least half of his income, management taking a third of his income, his lifestyle, and spending on family, charity and religious causes.
In 2006, Ali sold his name and image for $50million, after which Forbes estimated his net worth to be $55million in 2006. Following his death in 2016, his fortune was estimated to be between $50million and $80million.
Declining health
Ali's bout with Parkinson's Syndrome led to a gradual decline in his health, though he was still active into the early years of the millennium, promoting his own biopic, Ali, in 2001. That year he also contributed an on-camera segment to the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert.
In 1998, Ali began working with actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, to raise awareness and fund research for a cure. They made a joint appearance before Congress to push the case in 2002. In 2000, Ali worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease to raise awareness and encourage donations for research.
In February 2013, Ali's brother Rahman Ali said Muhammad could no longer speak and could be dead within days. Ali's daughter May May Ali responded to the rumors, stating that she had talked to him on the phone the morning of February 3 and he was fine. On December 20, 2014, Ali was hospitalized for a mild case of pneumonia. Ali was once again hospitalized on January 15, 2015, for a urinary tract infection after being found unresponsive at a guest house in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was released the next day.
Death
Ali was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 2, 2016, with a respiratory illness. Though his condition was initially described as fair, it worsened, and he died the following day at the age of 74 from septic shock.
News coverage and tributes
Following Ali's death, he was the number-one trending topic on Twitter for over 12 hours and on Facebook for several days. BET played their documentary Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami. ESPN played four hours of non-stop commercial-free coverage of Ali. News networks, such as ABC News, BBC, CNN, and Fox News, also covered him extensively.
He was mourned globally, and a family spokesman said the family "certainly believes that Muhammad was a citizen of the world ... and they know that the world grieves with him." Politicians such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, David Cameron and more paid tribute to Ali. Ali also received numerous tributes from the world of sports including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, the Miami Marlins, LeBron James, Steph Curry and more. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer stated, "Muhammad Ali belongs to the world. But he only has one hometown."
The day after Ali's death, the UFC paid tribute to Ali at their UFC 199 event in a lengthy video tribute package, crediting Ali for his accomplishments and inspiring multiple UFC champions.
Memorial
Ali's funeral had been pre-planned by himself and others for several years prior to his actual death. The services began in Louisville on June 9, 2016, with an Islamic Janazah prayer service at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center. On June 10, 2016, the funeral procession passed through the streets of Louisville ending at Cave Hill Cemetery, where his body was interred during a private ceremony. A public memorial service for Ali at downtown Louisville's KFC Yum! Center was held during the afternoon of June 10. The pallbearers included Will Smith, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, with honorary pallbearers including George Chuvalo, Larry Holmes and George Foreman. Ali's memorial was watched by an estimated 1billion viewers worldwide.
Legacy
Ali remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times, and was involved in more Ring "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He was one of only three boxers to be named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. Muhammad Ali was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its first year and held wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees during an era that has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. The Associated Press ranked him as the second best boxer and best heavyweight of the 20th century. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years.
In 1978, three years before Ali's permanent retirement, the Louisville Board of Aldermen in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, voted 6–5 to rename Walnut Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard. This was controversial at the time, as within a week 12 of the 70 street signs were stolen. Earlier that year, a committee of the Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) considered renaming Ali's alma mater, Central High School, in his honor, but the motion failed to pass. In time, Muhammad Ali Boulevard—and Ali himself—came to be well accepted in his hometown.
Ali was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990.
In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athlete, out of over 800 dead or living athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth. He was the recipient of the 1997 Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
At the end of the 20th century he was ranked at or near the top of most lists of the century's greatest athletes. He was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated. Named BBC's Sports Personality of the Century, he received more votes than the other five candidates combined. He was named Athlete of the Century by USA Today, and ranked as the third greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury. Ali was named "Kentucky Athlete of the Century" by the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Galt House East.
In 1999, Time magazine named Ali one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
On January 8, 2001, Muhammad Ali was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton. In November 2005, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, followed by the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold of the UN Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin for his work with the civil rights movement and the United Nations, which he received on December 17, 2005.
On November 19, 2005, Ali and his wife Lonnie Ali opened the $60million non-profit Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville. In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth. On June 5, 2007, he received an honorary doctorate of humanities at Princeton University's 260th graduation ceremony.
Ali Mall, located in Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippines, is named after him. Construction of the mall, the first of its kind in the Philippines, began shortly after Ali's victory in a match with Joe Frazier in nearby Araneta Coliseum in 1975. The mall opened in 1976 with Ali attending its opening.
The 1976 Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight played an important role in the history of mixed martial arts. In Japan, the match inspired Inoki's students Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki to found Pancrase in 1993, which in turn inspired the foundation of Pride Fighting Championships in 1997. Pride was acquired by its rival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, in 2007.
The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was introduced in 1999 and passed in 2000, to protect the rights and welfare of boxers in the United States. In May 2016, a bill was introduced to United States Congress by Markwayne Mullin, a politician and former MMA fighter, to extend the Ali Act to mixed martial arts. In June 2016, US senator Rand Paul proposed an amendment to the US draft laws named after Ali, a proposal to eliminate the Selective Service System.
In 2015, Sports Illustrated renamed its Sportsman Legacy Award to the Sports Illustrateds Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. The annual award was originally created in 2008 and honors former "sports figures who embody the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy as vehicles for changing the world." Ali first appeared on the magazine's cover in 1963 and went on to be featured on numerous covers during his storied career.
On January 13, 2017, seven months or so after Ali's death, and 4 days before what would have been his 75th birthday, the Muhammad Ali Commemorative Coin Act was introduced into the 115th Congress (2017–2019), as H.R. 579 (House of Representatives) and as S. 166 (Senate). However, both "died" within 10 days.
In the media and popular culture
As a world champion boxer, social activist, sex symbol and pop culture icon, Ali was the subject of numerous creative works including books, films, music, video games, TV shows, and other. Muhammad Ali was often dubbed the world's "most famous" person in the media. Several of his fights were watched by an estimated 12 billion viewers between 1974 and 1980, and his lighting of the torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers.
Ali appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 38 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan's 46. He also appeared on the cover of Time Magazine 5 times, the most of any athlete. In 2015, Harris Poll found that Ali was one of the three most recognizable athletes in the United States, along with Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.
Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee was influenced by Ali, whose footwork he studied and incorporated into his own style while developing Jeet Kune Do in the 1960s.
On the set of Freedom Road Ali met Canadian singer-songwriter Michel, and subsequently helped create Michel's album The First Flight of the Gizzelda Dragon and an unaired television special featuring them both.
Ali was the subject of the British television program This Is Your Life in 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. Ali was featured in Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, a 1978 DC Comics comic book pitting the champ against the superhero. In 1979, Ali guest-starred as himself in an episode of the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. The show's title itself was inspired by the quote "Different strokes for different folks" popularized in 1966 by Ali, who also inspired the title of the 1967 Syl Johnson song "Different Strokes", one of the most sampled songs in pop music history.
He also wrote several bestselling books about his career, including The Greatest: My Own Story and The Soul of a Butterfly. The Muhammad Ali effect, named after Ali, is a term that came into use in psychology in the 1980s, as he stated in The Greatest: My Own Story: "I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest." According to this effect, when people are asked to rate their intelligence and moral behavior in comparison to others, people will rate themselves as more moral, but not more intelligent than others.
When We Were Kings, a 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The 2001 biopic Ali garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Will Smith for his portrayal of Ali. Prior to making the film, Smith rejected the role until Ali requested that he accept it. Smith said the first thing Ali told him was: "Man, you're almost pretty enough to play me."
In 2002, Ali was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the entertainment industry. His star is the only one to be mounted on a vertical surface, out of deference to his request that the name Muhammad—a name he shares with the Islamic prophet—not be walked upon.
His 1966 fight against George Chuvalo was the subject of Joseph Blasioli's 2003 documentary film The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali.
The Trials of Muhammad Ali, a documentary directed by Bill Siegel that focuses on Ali's refusal of the draft during the Vietnam War, opened in Manhattan on August 23, 2013. A 2013 made-for-TV movie titled Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight dramatized the same aspect of Ali's life.
Antoine Fuqua's documentary What's My Name: Muhammad Ali was released in 2019.
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns created the four-part documentary film Muhammad Ali, spanning over eight hours on Ali's entire life. Burns worked on the film since early 2016. It is scheduled to release in September 2021 on PBS. Dave Zirin who watched an 8 hour rough cut of this documentary called it "utterly outstanding" and said "the footage they found will blow minds".
Discography
I Am the Greatest (1963)
The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976)
See also
List of heavyweight boxing champions
List of WBA world champions
List of WBC world champions
List of The Ring world champions
List of undisputed boxing champions
Converts to Islam
Notable boxing families
List of people from the Louisville metropolitan area
List of North American Muslims
African-American Muslims
1981 MAPS Wells Fargo embezzlement scandal
Notes
References
Further reading
Online
Muhammad Ali: American boxer, in Encyclopædia Britannica Online, by Thomas Hauser, Adam Augustyn, Piyush Bhathya, Yamini Chauhan, John M. Cunningham, Richard Pallardy, Michael Ray, Emily Rodriguez, Surabhi Sinha, Amy Tikkanen, Grace Young and The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
External links
Official website (archived)
William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services: Ancestry of Muhammad Ali
FBI Records: The Vault – Muhammad Ali at the FBI
Cassius Clay Guilty (1967), Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Photo essays'''
1942 births
2016 deaths
20th-century American rappers
20th-century Muslims
21st-century Muslims
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from Kentucky
African-American activists
African-American boxers
African-American male rappers
African-American Muslims
African-American poets
African-American Sunni Muslims
American anti–Vietnam War activists
American conscientious objectors
American former Protestants
American humanitarians
American male boxers
American male poets
American male rappers
American Muslim activists
American people of Irish descent
American people of Malagasy descent
American philanthropists
American spoken word poets
American Sufis
BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year winners
Boxers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Boxers from Arizona
Boxers from Chicago
Boxers from Louisville, Kentucky
Boxers from New Jersey
Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery
Central High School (Louisville, Kentucky) alumni
COINTELPRO targets
Columbia Records artists
Converts to Sunni Islam from Protestantism
Deaths from sepsis
Former Nation of Islam members
International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees
Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Neurological disease deaths in Arizona
Olympic boxers of the United States
Olympic cauldron lighters
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in boxing
Overturned convictions in the United States
People from Cherry Hill, New Jersey
People from Paradise Valley, Arizona
People with Parkinson's disease
People with traumatic brain injuries
Poets from Arizona
Poets from Kentucky
Poets from New Jersey
Presidential Citizens Medal recipients
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Professional wrestling referees
Rappers from Kentucky
Sportspeople from Camden County, New Jersey
Sportspeople from the Phoenix metropolitan area
The Ring (magazine) champions
Vietnam War draft evaders
Winners of the United States Championship for amateur boxers
World Boxing Association champions
World Boxing Council champions
World heavyweight boxing champions
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
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"Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) was an American boxer.\n\nMohammad Ali or Muhammad Ali may also refer to:\n\nPeople\n\nLiterature \n Muhammad Ali Siddiqui, (1938–2013), Pakistani literary critic\n Mohammed Naseehu Ali (born 1971), Ghanaian-born author\n Taha Muhammad Ali (1931–2011), Palestinian poet\n Muhammad Ali (writer) (1874–1951), also known as Maulana Muhammad Ali, religious scholar and leading figure of Ahmadiyya Islamic movement\n Mohamed Abdulkarim Ali (b. 1985), Somali-Canadian writer\n\nMusic \n Muhammad Ali (drummer) (born 1936), free jazz drummer\n Mohammed Ali (duo), a Swedish rap duo made of Moms and Alias Ruggig (also part of Swedish hip hop collective Ayla)\n Mohammad Ali Siddiqui (1944-2014), Bangladeshi playback singer\n Mohamed Ali (singer) (born 1993), Danish singer of Egyptian and Iraqi origin\n\nPolitics \n Muhammad Ali of Egypt (1769–1849), viceroy of Egypt\n Muhammad Ali, Prince of the Sa'id (born 1979), Prince of the Sa'id\n Mohammed Ali Khan Walajah (1717–1795), Nawab of Arcot in India\n Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi (1787–1859), founder of the Senussi order\n Dusé Mohamed Ali (1866–1945), African nationalist\n Mohammad Ali Jauhar (1878–1931), Muslim Indian political leader, journalist, and poet\n Chaudhry Muhammad Ali (1905–1980), Prime Minister of Pakistan\n Muhammad Ali Bogra (1909–1963), Prime Minister of Pakistan\n Safaa Mohammed Ali (1982–2005), Iraqi militant and Al-Qaeda member\n Mohammad Ali (Bangladeshi politician) (c. 1944 - 2020), Bangladeshi politician\n Muhammad Ali (Brunei), twelfth sultan of Brunei in 1660, murdered in 1661\n Mohammad Ali (Kenyan politician) (b. 1974), Kenyan politician also known as Moha Jicho Pevu\n Mohammad Ali (Pakistani politician), Pakistani politician from Upper Dir District\n Mohammad Ali (Telangana) (b. 1952), Deputy Chief Minister of Telangana, India since 2014\n Mohammad Mosaddak Ali (born 1960), Bangladeshi entrepreneur and politician\n Mohammed Ali Tewfik (1875–1955), Regent of Egypt during the minority of Farouk of Egypt\n Muhammad Ali Wazir, Pakistani politician and leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement\n Mohammad Ali (aka Muawiyah), key leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, killed in January 2012\n Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Founder of Pakistan\n Mohamed Ali (Egyptian contractor), famous for his September 2019 videos provoking mass street protests in Egypt\n Mohammad Ali Ramazani Dastak (1963–2020), Iranian politician\n\nSports\n Mohammad Ali (cricketer, born 1973) (born 1973), Pakistani cricketer\n Mohammad Ali (cricketer, born 1982), Pakistani cricketer\n Mohammad Ali (cricketer, born 1989) (born 1989), Pakistani cricketer\n Mohammad Ali (cricketer, born 1992) (born 1992), Pakistani cricketer\n Mohamed Ali (footballer) (active from 2015), Indian footballer\n Mohamed Aly (born 1975), Egyptian boxer\n Mohamed Ali Diallo (born 1978), Burkinan soccer player\n Muhammad Ali (British boxer) (born 1996), British boxer\n Muhammad Ali (Pakistani boxer) (born 1933), Pakistani boxer\n Mohamed Ali Camara (born 1997), Guinean footballer\n Muhammad Ali (footballer, born 1985)\n Muhammad Ali (footballer, born 1989), Pakistani international footballer\n Ali Muhammed (born 1983), Turkish naturalized basketball player\n Mohamed Ali Messaoud (born 1953), Algerian former footballer\n\nOther people\n Mohammad Ali (actor) (1931–2006), Pakistani actor\n Mohammad Sadat Ali, Bengali academic killed by the Pakistan army during the Bangladesh Liberation war\n Mohammad Shamshad Ali, Bangladeshi physician killed in the Bangladesh Liberation war\n Mohammed Ali bin Johari (1976–2008), a notorious convicted killer from Singapore who was sentenced to death for the child rape and murder of his stepdaughter, which made headlines in Singapore\n Usman bin Haji Muhammad Ali, alias Janatin, was an Indonesian soldier and terrorist who carried out the MacDonald House bombing on 10 March 1965. He was executed in 1968 alongside his comrade and accomplice Harun Thohir for the murders of three people as resulted from the bombing.\n Muhammad Ali Mungeri (1846–1927), Indian Muslim scholar who was the founder and first rector of Nadwatul Ulama.\n Norishyam Mohamed Ali (1972–1999), Singaporean convicted murderer executed for a Bulgarian student's murder\n\nPlaces \n Mohammad Ali, Behbahan, a village in Iran\n Mohammad Ali, Lali, a village in Iran\n\nOther uses\n \"Muhammad Ali\" (song), a 2001 single by the British dance band Faithless\n Muhammad-Ali, the individuals Muhammad and Ali who exist as a single entity, or light of Aql\n Black Superman (Johnny Wakelin song) (the lyrics repeat Ali's name more than the actual title)\n Louisville International Airport, officially known as Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport since 2019\nMuhammad Ali (film), a 2021 documentary film directed by Ken Burns\n\nSee also \n Ali (disambiguation)\n Ali Mohamed (disambiguation)\n Mehmet Ali (disambiguation)\n Mohammed Ali Shah (disambiguation)\n Muhammad (name)",
"Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Baquar Ali Khan Bahadur (1842–1902) C.I.E., The Mir of Kotaha and the Raja of Morni and Pindrawal, was a noted zamindar and philanthropist from Morni who lived in Pindrawal in United Province of British India.\n\nEarly life\nHe was born in year 1842 in the noted Lalkhani branch of Muslim Rajputs. He was born to Quasim Ali Khan aka Kasim Ali Khan and Latif-ul-nissa. His father, Quasim Ali was son of Mir Akbar Ali, the Mir of Kotaha, while his mother was granddaughter of Raja Nahar Ali Khan and daughter of Akbar Ali Khan of Pindrawal.\n\nMir of Kotaha\nHis grandfather Akbar Ali was the jagirdar of Kotaha (Kutaya), usually spoken of as the Mir of Kotaha, and enjoyed also a perpetual pension of Rs. 400 a year, granted in 1850, in return for the surrender of the right to levy transit duties within the limits of the Morni tract. His father Qasim Ali Khan II had died at Lahore in 1849-50. His grandfather, Meer Akbar Ali Khan had come under suspicion of British during Revolt of 1857 and Thomas Douglas Forsyth, Deputy Commissioner Umballa partially dismantled the Kotaha fort. The successor to him Melville was a bit lenient on Mir of Kotaha and taking advantage of this Akbar Ali rebuilt the fort without permission. But when James Stuart Tighe also known as Captain Tighe succeeded P. S. Melville as the Deputy Commissioner of Umballa in 1864 and the Mir came under the severe displeasure of the British Government on a charge of conspiracy, and ‘on an attempt to partially rebuild his fort at Kotaha without permission’. This led to demolition of fort and confiscation of their jagir. However, meanwhile, Meer Akbar Ali died in 1864 and young Bakir Ali succeeded him as Mir of Kotaha. Due to his young age he was spared and their jagir of Kotaha was restored to him but at the same time, he was banished from town. However, his whole property in Naraingarh was brought under direct official management. The Government cancelled the sentence of banishment and the property was finally restored to the Mir in 1880.\n\nRaja of Pindrawal\nAfter death of his grandfather, Baqar Ali Khan II, inherited the title of Mir of Kotaha but due to banishment settled at Pindrawal in the Bulandshahr district of the North-West Provinces, where he had inherited a large zamindari property consisting of 365 villages, from her maternal side and was later given the title of Raja of Pindrawal. He also inherited large estates in Koil, Khair and Atrauli parganas of Aligarh district and Morthal estates in Budaun district.\n\nPhilanthropist and educationist\nRaja Mir Syed Muhammad Baqar Ali Khan II, was one of the visionaries, who understood the value of education for up-liftment of Muslim community. He heartily co-operated with Sir Syed Ahmad Khan in the foundation of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College he was the founder vice president and also the board of trustee of the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College and he also donated a substantial amount of money to build Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh. He also donated Rs. 30,000 towards the construction of the Bulandshahr Town Hall.\n\nHe was also a fellow of the Society of Arts, Great Britain.\n\nHonors\nHe was given title of Khan Bahadur and later created a Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, on 1 January 1883 by the British government in recognition of his services.\n\nDeath\n\nRaja Mir Syed Muhammad Baquar Ali Khan II of morni, Kotaha and pindrawal died on 20 January 1902.\n\nFamily\n Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Baquar Ali Khan died leaving two sons Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Jafar Ali Khan and Kunwar Asghar Ali Khan. He was succeeded by the elder\n Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Jafar Ali Khan II, who built a fort at Atrauli, Aligarh district in 1909 that stands to date.\n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Asghar Ali Khan founded the Asgharabad Estate after the partition of Pindrawal Estate.\n Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Jafar Ali Khan II was succeeded by his son\n Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Akbar Ali Khan II, O.B.E. (1896-1958) who became a member of the UP Legislative council in 1937. He was accorded kalgi and khilat by the Governor of Punjab in a special durbar at Sirhind. He had also inherited the family estates at Teori and Morthal, Uttar Pradesh. He built a hospital at Morni. Akbar Ali Khan also donated fund to start a scholarship at Aligarh Muslim University Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Akbar Ali Khan was succeeded by his three sons Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Qasim Ali Khan, Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Qazim Ali Khan and Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Raza Ali Khan.\n Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Qasim Ali Khan had five sons and was succeeded by his elder son\n Rajazaada Mir Syed Muhammad Baquar Ali Khan III who was succeeded by his three sons\n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Abul Hasan\n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Ali Hasan\n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Hasan who is succeeded by his son \n Kunwarzaada Mir Syed Muhammad Mahdi.\n Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Qazim Ali Khan had 3 sons and was succeeded by his elder son \n Rajazaada Mir Syed Muhammad Mustafa Ali Khan who is succeeded by his son\n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Saif Mustafa.\n Raja Mir Syed Muhammad Raza Ali khan is succeeded by his six sons\n Rajazaada Mir Syed Muhammad Ali Khan who is succeeded by his son\n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Hasan Ali who is succeeded by his son \n Kunwarzaada Mir Syed Muhammad Zidan Ali.\n Rajazaada Mir Syed Muhammad Ahmad Ali Khan who is succeeded by his two sons\n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Hani Raza\n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Ali Raza.\n Rajazaada Mir Syed Muhammad Mustafa Ali Khan who is succeeded by his three sons\n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Moosi Raza\n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Sadiq Ali Khan\n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Baquar Ali Khan IV.\n Rajazaada Mir Syed Muhammad Mujtaba Ali Khan who is succeeded by his son \n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Abdullah Raza.\n Rajazaada Mir Syed Muhammad Murtaza Ali Khan who died in 1986 without an heir.\n Rajazaada Mir Syed Muhammad Haider Ali Khan who is succeeded by his two sons \n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Murtaza Raza\n Kunwar Mir Syed Muhammad Raza.\n\nReferences\n\nFurther reading\nHistory of Morni tracts\n\n1842 births\n1902 deaths\nIndian royalty\nPeople from Bulandshahr district\nCompanions of the Order of the Indian Empire\nPeople from Ambala district\n19th-century Indian philanthropists\nAligarh Muslim University"
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"Muhammad Ali",
"Early life and amateur career",
"Where was Muhammad Ali born?",
"Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky."
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Was Muhammad active in his early childhood?
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Was Muhammad Ali active in early childhood?
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Muhammad Ali
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Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had a sister and four brothers. He was named for his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. (1912-1990), who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist, Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with smaller amounts of Irish and English heritage. His father painted billboards and signs, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917-1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali) as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. Clay grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store--"They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend's taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local railyard. Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually moulding "my style, my stamina and my system". For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak. Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games. CANNOTANSWER
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He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training",
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Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet and philanthropist. Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He became a Muslim after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. Also that year, he renounced his birth name as a "slave name" and formally became known as Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. However, he had not fought for nearly four years by this point and had lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger 1960s counterculture generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam, and supported racial integration like his former mentor Malcolm X.
He fought in several historic boxing matches, such as his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many boxers let their managers do the talking, and he became renowned for his provocative and outlandish persona. He was known for trash-talking, and often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry incorporating elements of hip hop, and often predicted in which round he would knockout his opponent.
Outside boxing, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, releasing two studio albums: I Am the Greatest! (1963) and The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976). Both albums received Grammy Award nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attributed to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family. Ali died on June 3, 2016.
Early life and amateur career
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. ( ) was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had one brother. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., who had a sister and four brothers and who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with some Irish and English family heritage. Ali's maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland. DNA testing performed in 2018 showed that, through his paternal grandmother, Ali was a descendant of the former slave Archer Alexander, who had been chosen from the building crew as the model of a freed man for the Emancipation Memorial, and was the subject of abolitionist William Greenleaf Eliot's book, The Story of Archer Alexander: From Slavery to Freedom. Like Ali, Alexander fought for his freedom.
His father was a sign and billboard painter, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917–1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother, Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali), as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. He was dyslexic, which led to difficulties in reading and writing, at school and for much of his life. Ali grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store: "They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also strongly affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local rail yard. His daughter Hana later wrote that Ali once told her, "Nothing would ever shake me up (more) than the story of Emmett Till."
Ali was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually molding "my style, my stamina and my system." For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak.
Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.
Early professional boxing career
Early career
Clay made his professional debut on October 29, 1960, winning a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker. From then until the end of 1963, Clay amassed a record of 19–0 with 15 wins by knockout. He defeated boxers including Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, LaMar Clark, Doug Jones and Henry Cooper. Clay also beat his former trainer and veteran boxer Archie Moore in a 1962 match.
These early fights were not without trials. Clay was knocked down by both Sonny Banks and Cooper. In the Cooper fight, Clay was floored by a left hook at the end of round four and was saved by the bell, going on to win in the predicted 5th round due to Cooper's severely cut eye. The fight with Doug Jones on March 13, 1963 was Clay's toughest fight during this stretch. The number two and three heavyweight contenders respectively, Clay and Jones fought on Jones' home turf at New York's Madison Square Garden. Jones staggered Clay in the first round, and the unanimous decision for Clay was greeted by boos and a rain of debris thrown into the ring. Watching on closed-circuit TV, heavyweight champ Sonny Liston quipped that if he fought Clay he might get locked up for murder. The fight was later named "Fight of the Year" by The Ring magazine.
In each of these fights, Clay vocally belittled his opponents and vaunted his abilities. He called Jones "an ugly little man" and Cooper a "bum". He said he was embarrassed to get in the ring with Alex Miteff and claimed that Madison Square Garden was "too small for me." Ali's trash-talk was inspired by professional wrestler "Gorgeous George" Wagner's, after he saw George's talking ability attract huge crowds to events. Ali stated in a 1969 interview with the Associated Press' Hubert Mizel that he met with George in Las Vegas in 1961, that George told him that talking a big game would earn paying fans who either wanted to see him win or wanted to see him lose, thus Ali transformed himself into a self-described "big-mouth and a bragger".
In 1960, Clay left Moore's camp, partially due to Clay's refusal to do chores such as washing dishes and sweeping. To replace Moore, Clay hired Angelo Dundee to be his trainer. Clay had met Dundee in February 1957 during Clay's amateur career. Around this time, Clay sought longtime idol Sugar Ray Robinson to be his manager, but was rebuffed.
World heavyweight champion
Fights against Liston
By late 1963, Clay had become the top contender for Sonny Liston's title. The fight was set for February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach. Liston was an intimidating personality, a dominating fighter with a criminal past and ties to the mob. Based on Clay's uninspired performance against Jones and Cooper in his previous two fights, and Liston's destruction of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in two first-round knockouts, Clay was a 7–1 underdog. Despite this, Clay taunted Liston during the pre-fight buildup, dubbing him "the big ugly bear", stating "Liston even smells like a bear" and claiming "After I beat him I'm going to donate him to the zoo." Clay turned the pre-fight weigh-in into a circus, shouting at Liston that "someone is going to die at ringside tonight." Clay's pulse rate was measured at 120, more than double his normal 54. Many of those in attendance thought Clay's behavior stemmed from fear, and some commentators wondered if he would show up for the bout.
The outcome of the fight was a major upset. At the opening bell, Liston rushed at Clay, seemingly angry and looking for a quick knockout. However, Clay's superior speed and mobility enabled him to elude Liston, making the champion miss and look awkward. At the end of the first round, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston repeatedly with jabs. Liston fought better in round two, but at the beginning of the third round Clay hit Liston with a combination that buckled his knees and opened a cut under his left eye. This was the first time Liston had ever been cut. At the end of round four, Clay was returning to his corner when he began experiencing blinding pain in his eyes and asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to cut off his gloves. Dundee refused. It has been speculated that the problem was due to ointment used to seal Liston's cuts, perhaps deliberately applied by his corner to his gloves. Though unconfirmed, boxing historian Bert Sugar said that two of Liston's opponents also complained about their eyes "burning".
Despite Liston's attempts to knock out a blinded Clay, Clay was able to survive the fifth round until sweat and tears rinsed the irritation from his eyes. In the sixth, Clay dominated, hitting Liston repeatedly. Liston did not answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by TKO. Liston stated that the reason he quit was an injured shoulder. Following the win, a triumphant Clay rushed to the edge of the ring and, pointing to the ringside press, shouted: "Eat your words!" He added, "I am the greatest! I shook up the world. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived."
At ringside post fight, Clay appeared unconvinced that the fight was stopped due to a Liston shoulder injury, saying that the only injury Liston had was "an open eye, a big cut eye!" When told by Joe Louis that the injury was a "left arm thrown out of its socket," Clay quipped, "Yeah, swinging at nothing, who wouldn't?"
In winning this fight at the age of 22, Clay became the youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion. However, Floyd Patterson remained the youngest to win the heavyweight championship, doing so at the age 21 during an elimination bout following Rocky Marciano's retirement. Mike Tyson broke both records in 1986 when he defeated Trevor Berbick to win the heavyweight title at age 20.
Soon after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Cassius X, and then later to Muhammad Ali upon converting to Islam and affiliating with the Nation of Islam. Ali then faced a rematch with Liston scheduled for May 1965 in Lewiston, Maine. It had been scheduled for Boston the previous November, but was postponed for six months due to Ali's emergency surgery for a hernia three days before. The fight was controversial. Midway through the first round, Liston was knocked down by a difficult-to-see blow the press dubbed a "phantom punch". Referee Jersey Joe Walcott did not begin the count immediately after the knockdown, as Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Liston rose after he had been down for about 20 seconds, and the fight momentarily continued. However a few seconds later Walcott, having been informed by the timekeepers that Liston had been down for a count of 10, stopped the match and declared Ali the winner by knockout. The entire fight lasted less than two minutes.
It has since been speculated that Liston purposely dropped to the ground. Proposed motivations include threats on his life from the Nation of Islam, that he had bet against himself and that he "took a dive" to pay off debts. Slow-motion replays show that Liston was jarred by a chopping right from Ali, although it is unclear whether the blow was a genuine knockout punch.
Fight against Patterson
Ali defended his title against former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson on November 22, 1965. Before the match, Ali mocked Patterson, who was widely known to call him by his former name Cassius Clay, as an "Uncle Tom", calling him "The Rabbit". Although Ali clearly had the better of Patterson, who appeared injured during the fight, the match lasted 12 rounds before being called on a technical knockout. Patterson later said he had strained his sacroiliac. Ali was criticized in the sports media for appearing to have toyed with Patterson during the fight. Patterson biographer W. K. Stratton claims that the conflict between Ali and Patterson was not genuine but was staged to increase ticket sales and the closed-circuit viewing audience, with both men complicit in the theatrics. Stratton also cites an interview by Howard Cosell in which Ali explained that rather than toying with Patterson, he refrained from knocking him out after it became apparent Patterson was injured. Patterson later said that he had never been hit by punches as soft as Ali's. Stratton states that Ali arranged the second fight, in 1972, with the financially struggling Patterson to help the former champion earn enough money to pay a debt to the IRS.
Main Bout
After the Patterson fight, Ali founded his own promotion company, Main Bout. The company mainly handled Ali's boxing promotions and pay-per-view closed-circuit television broadcasts. The company's stockholders were mainly fellow Nation of Islam members, along with several others, including Bob Arum.
Ali and then-WBA heavyweight champion boxer Ernie Terrell had agreed to meet for a bout in Chicago on March 29, 1966 (the WBA, one of two boxing associations, had stripped Ali of his title following his joining the Nation of Islam). But in February Ali was reclassified by the Louisville draft board as 1-A from 1-Y, and he indicated that he would refuse to serve, commenting to the press, "I ain't got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me nigger." Amidst the media and public outcry over Ali's stance, the Illinois Athletic Commission refused to sanction the fight, citing technicalities.
Instead, Ali traveled to Canada and Europe and won championship bouts against George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London and Karl Mildenberger.
Ali returned to the United States to fight Cleveland Williams in the Houston Astrodome on November 14, 1966. The bout drew a record-breaking indoor crowd of 35,460 people. Williams had once been considered among the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division, but in 1964 he had been shot at point-blank range by a Texas policeman, resulting in the loss of one kidney and of his small intestine. Ali dominated Williams, winning a third-round technical knockout in what some consider the finest performance of his career.
Ali fought Terrell in Houston on February 6, 1967. Terrell, who was unbeaten in five years and had defeated many of the boxers Ali had faced, was billed as Ali's toughest opponent since Liston; he was big, strong and had a three-inch reach advantage over Ali. During the lead up to the bout, Terrell repeatedly called Ali "Clay", much to Ali's annoyance. The two almost came to blows over the name issue in a pre-fight interview with Howard Cosell. Ali seemed intent on humiliating Terrell. "I want to torture him", he said. "A clean knockout is too good for him." The fight was close until the seventh round, when Ali bloodied Terrell and almost knocked him out. In the eighth round, Ali taunted Terrell, hitting him with jabs and shouting between punches, "What's my name, Uncle Tom ... what's my name?" Ali won a unanimous 15-round decision. Terrell claimed that early in the fight Ali deliberately thumbed him in the eye, forcing him to fight half-blind, and then, in a clinch, rubbed the wounded eye against the ropes. Because of Ali's apparent intent to prolong the fight to inflict maximum punishment, critics described the bout as "one of the ugliest boxing fights." Tex Maule later wrote: "It was a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty." Ali denied the accusations of cruelty but, for Ali's critics, the fight provided more evidence of his arrogance.
After Ali's title defense against Zora Folley on March 22, he was stripped of his title due to his refusal to be drafted to army service. His boxing license was also suspended by the state of New York. He was convicted of draft evasion on June 20 and sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He paid a bond and remained free while the verdict was being appealed.
Vietnam War and resistance to the draft
Ali registered for conscription in the United States military on his 18th birthday and was listed as 1-A in 1962. In 1964, he was reclassified as Class 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after he failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub-standard, due to his dyslexia. (He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest!") By early 1966, the army lowered its standards to permit soldiers above the 15th percentile and Ali was again classified as 1-A. This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army at a time when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, a war which put him further at odds with the white establishment.
When notified of this status, Ali declared that he would refuse to serve in the army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector. Ali stated: "War is against the teachings of the Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger (Elijah Muhammad then leader of Nation of Islam). We don’t take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers". He also said "We are not to be the aggressor but we will defend ourselves if attacked." He stated: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Ali antagonized the white establishment in 1966 by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.
On April 28, 1967, Ali appeared in Houston for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces, but he refused three times to step forward when his name was called. An officer warned him that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called, and he was arrested. Later that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit. Ali remained unable to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years. On June 4, 1967, in a first for sports professionals, a group of high-profile African-American athletes assembled at the Negro Industrial Economic union in Cleveland for a "Muhammad Ali Summit". The meeting was organized by Jim Brown for his peers to question Ali about the seriousness of his convictions, and to decide whether to support him, which they ultimately did.
At the trial on June 20, 1967, the jury found Ali guilty after only 21minutes of deliberation of the criminal offense of violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. After a Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, the case was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
Ali remained free in the years between the Appellate Court decision and the Supreme Court ruling. As public opinion began turning people against the war and the Civil Rights Movement continued to gather momentum, Ali became a popular speaker at colleges and universities across the country; this itinerary was rare if not unprecedented for a prizefighter. At Howard University, for example, he gave his popular "Black Is Best" speech to 4,000 cheering students and community intellectuals, after he was invited to speak by sociology professor Nathan Hare on behalf of the Black Power Committee, a student protest group.
On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. United States overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8–0 decision (Justice Thurgood Marshall recused himself, as he had been the U.S. Solicitor General at the time of Ali's conviction). The decision was not based on, nor did it address, the merits of Ali's claims per se. Rather, the Court held that since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to Ali, that it was therefore impossible to determine which of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status (offered in the Justice Department's brief) the appeal board relied on, and Ali's conviction must be reversed.
Impact of Ali's draft refusal
Ali's example inspired many black Americans and others. However, initially when he refused induction, he became arguably the most hated man in the country and received many death threats. People who supported Ali during this time were also threatened, including sports journalist Jerry Izenberg, whose columns defended Ali's decision not to serve. He wrote, "Bomb threats emptied our office, making the staff stand out in the snow. My car windshield was smashed with a sledgehammer." The New York Times columnist William Rhoden wrote, "Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"
Recalling Ali's anti-war position, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said: "I remember the teachers at my high school didn't like Ali because he was so anti-establishment and he kind of thumbed his nose at authority and got away with it. The fact that he was proud to be a black man and that he had so much talent ... made some people think that he was dangerous. But for those very reasons I enjoyed him."
Civil rights figures came to believe that Ali had an energizing effect on the freedom movement as a whole. Al Sharpton spoke of his bravery at a time when there was still widespread support for the Vietnam War:
Ali was honored with the annual Martin Luther King Award in 1970 by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy, who called him "a living example of soul power, the March on Washington in two fists." Coretta Scott King added that Ali was "a champion of justice and peace and unity."
In speaking of the cost on Ali's career of his refusal to be drafted, his trainer Angelo Dundee said, "One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years."
Bob Arum did not support Ali's choice at the time. More recently, Arum stated that "when I look back at his life, and I was blessed to call him a friend and spent a lot of time with him, it's hard for me to talk about his exploits in boxing because as great as they were they paled in comparison to the impact that he had on the world," and "He did what he thought was right. And it turned out he was right, and I was wrong."
Ali's resistance to the draft was covered in the 2013 documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali.
NSA and FBI monitoring of Ali's communications
In a secret operation code-named "Minaret", the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted the communications of leading Americans, including Ali, Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., prominent U.S. journalists, and others who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam. A review by the NSA of the Minaret program concluded that it was "disreputable if not outright illegal."
In 1971, his Fight of the Century with Frazier was used by an activist group, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, to pull off a burglary at an FBI office in Pennsylvania; the anticipation for the fight was unlike anything else, so they believed the security would also be focused on the fight. This raid exposed the COINTELPRO operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti-war movements. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Ali, and their activities included the FBI gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school; one such record mentioned him loving art as a child.
Exile and comeback
In March 1966, Ali refused to be inducted into the armed forces. He was systematically denied a boxing license in every state and stripped of his passport. As a result, he did not fight from March 1967 to October 1970—from ages 25 to almost 29—as his case worked its way through the appeals process before his conviction was overturned in 1971.
Protesting while exiled
During this time of inactivity, as opposition to the Vietnam War began to grow and Ali's stance gained sympathy, he spoke at colleges across the nation, criticizing the Vietnam War and advocating African-American pride and racial justice. Ali based himself in Chicago. According to most close to him, his Chicago years were formative.
At the time, Ali was widely condemned by the American media, with fears that his actions could potentially lead to mass civil disobedience. Despite this, Ebony magazine noted in the late 1960s that Ali's popularity had increased during this time, especially among black people.
The Super Fight
While banned from sanctioned bouts, Ali settled a $1 million lawsuit against radio producer Murray Woroner by accepting $10,000 to appear in a privately staged fantasy fight against retired champion Rocky Marciano. In 1969 the boxers were filmed sparring for about 75 one-minute rounds; they produced several potential outcomes. A computer program purportedly determined the winner, based on data about the fighters, along with the opinions of approximately 250 boxing experts. Edited versions of the bout were shown in movie theaters in 1970. In the U.S. version Ali lost in a simulated 13th-round knockout, but in the European version Marciano lost due to cuts, also simulated.
Ali suggested that prejudice determined his defeat in the U.S. version. He was reported to jokingly say, "That computer was made in Alabama."
Return to prizefighting
On August 11, 1970, with his case still in appeal, Ali was granted a license to box by the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission. Leroy Johnson, Jesse Hill Jr. and Harry Pett had used their local political influence and set up the company House of Sports to organize the fight, underlining the influential power of Georgia's black politics in Ali' s comeback. Ali's first return bout was against Jerry Quarry on October 26, resulting in a win after three rounds after Quarry was cut.
A month earlier, a victory in federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali's license. He fought Oscar Bonavena at Madison Square Garden in December, an uninspired performance that ended in a dramatic technical knockout of Bonavena in the 15th round. The win left Ali as a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier.
First fight against Joe Frazier
Ali and Frazier's first fight, held at the Garden on March 8, 1971, was nicknamed the "Fight of the Century", due to the tremendous excitement surrounding a bout between two undefeated fighters, each with a legitimate claim to be heavyweight champion. Veteran US boxing writer John Condon called it "the greatest event I've ever worked on in my life." The bout was broadcast to 36 countries; promoters granted 760 press passes.
Adding to the atmosphere were the considerable pre-fight theatrics and name calling. Before the fight Frazier called Ali, "Cassius Clay", this angered Ali and he portrayed Frazier as a "dumb tool of the white establishment." "Frazier is too ugly to be champ", Ali said. "Frazier is too dumb to be champ." Ali also frequently called Frazier an "Uncle Tom". Dave Wolf, who worked in Frazier's camp, recalled that, "Ali was saying 'the only people rooting for Joe Frazier are white people in suits, Alabama sheriffs, and members of the Ku Klux Klan. I'm fighting for the little man in the ghetto.' Joe was sitting there, smashing his fist into the palm of his hand, saying, 'What the fuck does he know about the ghetto?
Ali began training at a farm near Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1971 and, finding the country setting to his liking, sought to develop a real training camp in the countryside. He found a five-acre site on a Pennsylvania country road in the village of Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. On this site, Ali carved out what was to become his training camp, where he trained for all his fights from 1972 to the end of his career in 1981.
The Monday night fight lived up to its billing. In a preview of their two other fights, a crouching, bobbing and weaving Frazier constantly pressured Ali, getting hit regularly by Ali jabs and combinations, but relentlessly attacking and scoring repeatedly, especially to Ali's body. The fight was even in the early rounds, but Ali was taking more punishment than ever in his career. On several occasions in the early rounds he played to the crowd and shook his head "no" after he was hit. In the later rounds—in what was the first appearance of the "rope-a-dope strategy"—Ali leaned against the ropes and absorbed punishment from Frazier, hoping to tire him. In the 11th round, Frazier connected with a left hook that wobbled Ali, but because it appeared that Ali might be clowning as he staggered backwards across the ring, Frazier hesitated to press his advantage, fearing an Ali counter-attack. In the final round, Frazier knocked Ali down with a vicious left hook, which referee Arthur Mercante said was as hard as a man can be hit. Ali was back on his feet in three seconds. Nevertheless, Ali lost by unanimous decision, his first professional defeat.
Chamberlain challenge and Ellis fight
In 1971, basketball star Wilt Chamberlain challenged Ali to a fight, and a bout was scheduled for July 26. Although the seven-foot-two-inch tall Chamberlain had formidable physical advantages over Ali—weighing 60pounds more and able to reach 14inches further—Ali was able to influence Chamberlain into calling off the bout by taunting him with calls of "Timber!" and "The tree will fall" during a shared interview. These statements of confidence unsettled his taller opponent, whom Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had offered a record-setting contract, conditional on Chamberlain agreeing to abandon what Cooke termed "this boxing foolishness", and he did exactly that. To replace Ali's opponent, promoter Bob Arum quickly booked a former sparring partner of Ali's, Jimmy Ellis, who was a childhood friend from Louisville, Kentucky, to fight him.
After his loss
Fights against Quarry, Patterson, Foster and Norton
After the loss to Frazier, Ali fought Jerry Quarry, had a second bout with Floyd Patterson and faced Bob Foster in 1972, winning a total of six fights that year. In 1973, Ken Norton broke Ali's jaw while giving him the second loss of his career. After initially considering retirement, Ali won a controversial decision against Norton in their second bout. This led to a rematch with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 1974; Frazier had recently lost his title to George Foreman.
Second fight against Joe Frazier
Ali was strong in the early rounds of the fight, and staggered Frazier in the second round. Referee Tony Perez mistakenly thought he heard the bell ending the round and stepped between the two fighters as Ali was pressing his attack, giving Frazier time to recover. However, Frazier came on in the middle rounds, snapping Ali's head in round seven and driving him to the ropes at the end of round eight. The last four rounds saw round-to-round shifts in momentum between the two fighters. Throughout most of the bout, however, Ali was able to circle away from Frazier's dangerous left hook and to tie Frazier up when he was cornered, the latter a tactic that Frazier's camp complained of bitterly. Judges awarded Ali a unanimous decision.
World heavyweight champion (second reign)
The Rumble in the Jungle
The defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974—a bout nicknamed The Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. In assessing the fight, analysts pointed out that Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, who had given Ali four tough battles and won two of them, had both been devastated by Foreman in second-round knockouts. Ali was 32 years old, and had clearly lost speed and reflexes since his twenties. Contrary to his later persona, Foreman was at the time a brooding and intimidating presence. Almost no one associated with the sport, not even Ali's long-time supporter Howard Cosell, gave the former champion a chance of winning.
As usual, Ali was confident and colorful before the fight. He told interviewer David Frost, "If you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait till I whup Foreman's behind!" He told the press, "I've done something new for this fight. I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick." Ali was wildly popular in Zaire, with crowds chanting "Ali, bomaye" ("Ali, kill him") wherever he went.
Ali opened the fight moving and scoring with right crosses to Foreman's head. Then, beginning in the second round, and to the consternation of his corner, Ali retreated to the ropes and invited Foreman to hit him while covering up, clinching and counter-punching, all while verbally taunting Foreman. The move, which would later become known as the "Rope-a-dope", so violated conventional boxing wisdom—letting one of the hardest hitters in boxing strike at will—that at ringside writer George Plimpton thought the fight had to be fixed. Foreman, increasingly angered, threw punches that were deflected and did not land squarely. Midway through the fight, as Foreman began tiring, Ali countered more frequently and effectively with punches and flurries, which electrified the pro-Ali crowd. In the eighth round, Ali dropped an exhausted Foreman with a combination at center ring; Foreman failed to make the count. Against the odds, and amidst pandemonium in the ring, Ali had regained the title by knockout. Reflecting on the fight, George Foreman later said: "I thought Ali was just one more knockout victim until, about the seventh round, I hit him hard to the jaw and he held me and whispered in my ear: 'That all you got, George?' I realized that this ain't what I thought it was."
It was a major upset victory, after Ali came in as a 41 underdog against the previously unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight became famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1billion viewers worldwide. It was the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time.
Fights against Wepner, Lyle and Bugner
Ali's next opponents included Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, and Joe Bugner. Wepner, a journeyman known as "The Bayonne Bleeder", stunned Ali with a knockdown in the ninth round; Ali would later say he tripped on Wepner's foot. It was a bout that would inspire Sylvester Stallone to create the acclaimed film, Rocky.
Third fight against Joe Frazier
Ali then agreed to a third match with Joe Frazier in Manila. The bout, known as the "Thrilla in Manila", was held on October 1, 1975, in temperatures approaching . In the first rounds, Ali was aggressive, moving and exchanging blows with Frazier. However, Ali soon appeared to tire and adopted the "rope-a-dope" strategy, frequently resorting to clinches. During this part of the bout Ali did some effective counter-punching, but for the most part absorbed punishment from a relentlessly attacking Frazier. In the 12th round, Frazier began to tire, and Ali scored several sharp blows that closed Frazier's left eye and opened a cut over his right eye. With Frazier's vision now diminished, Ali dominated the 13th and 14th rounds, at times conducting what boxing historian Mike Silver called "target practice" on Frazier's head. The fight was stopped when Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, refused to allow Frazier to answer the bell for the 15th and final round, despite Frazier's protests. Frazier's eyes were both swollen shut. Ali, in his corner, winner by TKO, slumped on his stool, clearly spent.
An ailing Ali said afterwards that the fight "was the closest thing to dying that I know", and, when later asked if he had viewed the fight on videotape, reportedly said, "Why would I want to go back and see Hell?" After the fight he cited Frazier as "the greatest fighter of all times next to me."
After the third fight with Frazier, Ali considered retirement. He said, “I’m sore all over. My arms, my face, my sides all ache. I’m so, so tired. There is a great possibility that I will retire. You might have seen the last of me. I want to sit back and count my money, live in my house and my farm, work for my people and concentrate on my family."
Later career
Following the Manila bout, Ali fought Jean-Pierre Coopman, Jimmy Young, and Richard Dunn, winning the last by knockout.
The punch used to knock Dunn out was taught to Ali by Taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. Rhee called that punch the "Accupunch"; he learned it from Bruce Lee. The Dunn fight was the last time Ali would knock down an opponent in his boxing career.
Ali fought Ken Norton for the third time in September 1976. The bout, which was held at Yankee Stadium, resulted in Ali winning a heavily contested decision that was loudly booed by the audience. Afterwards, he announced he was retiring from boxing to practice his faith, having converted to Sunni Islam after falling out with the Nation of Islam the previous year.
After returning to beat Alfredo Evangelista in May 1977, Ali struggled in his next fight against Earnie Shavers that September, getting pummeled a few times by punches to the head. Ali won the fight by another unanimous decision, but the bout caused his longtime doctor Ferdie Pacheco to quit after he was rebuffed for telling Ali he should retire. Pacheco was quoted as saying, "the New York State Athletic Commission gave me a report that showed Ali's kidneys were falling apart. I wrote to Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer, his wife and Ali himself. I got nothing back in response. That's when I decided enough is enough."
In February 1978, Ali faced Leon Spinks at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. At the time, Spinks had only seven professional fights to his credit, and had recently fought a draw with journeyman Scott LeDoux. Ali sparred less than two dozen rounds in preparation for the fight, and was seriously out of shape by the opening bell. He lost the title by split decision. A rematch occurred in September at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. 70,000 people attended the bout and paid a total of $6 million admission, making it the largest live gate in boxing history at that time. Ali won a unanimous decision in an uninspiring fight, with referee Lucien Joubert scoring rounds 10-4, judge Ernie Cojoe 10-4, and judge Herman Preis 11-4. This made Ali the first heavyweight champion to win the belt three times.
Following this win, on July 27, 1979, Ali announced his retirement from boxing. His retirement was short-lived, however; Ali announced his comeback to face Larry Holmes for the WBC belt in an attempt to win the heavyweight championship an unprecedented fourth time. The fight was largely motivated by Ali's need for money. Boxing writer Richie Giachetti said, "Larry didn't want to fight Ali. He knew Ali had nothing left; he knew it would be a horror."
It was around this time that Ali started struggling with vocal stutters and trembling hands. The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) ordered that he undergo a complete physical in Las Vegas before being allowed to fight again. Ali chose instead to check into the Mayo Clinic, who declared him fit to fight. Their opinion was accepted by the NAC on July 31, 1980, paving the way for Ali's return to the ring.
The fight took place on October 2, 1980, in Las Vegas Valley, with Holmes easily dominating Ali, who was weakened from thyroid medication he had taken to lose weight. Giachetti called the fight "awful ... the worst sports event I ever had to cover." Actor Sylvester Stallone was at ringside and said that it was like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive. After the tenth round, Angelo Dundee told the referee to stop the fight, making it the only time that Ali ever lost by stoppage. The Holmes fight is said to have contributed to Ali's Parkinson's syndrome. Despite pleas to definitively retire, Ali fought one last time on December 11, 1981, in Nassau, Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, losing a ten-round decision.
By the end of his boxing career Ali had absorbed an estimated 200,000 hits.
Exhibition bouts
Ali boxed both well known boxers and celebrities from other walks of life, including Michael Dokes, Antonio Inoki, Lyle Alzado, Dave Semenko, and the famous Puerto Rican comedian Jose Miguel Agrelot (with Iris Chacon acting as Agrelot's corner-woman).
Ali vs Inoki
On June 26, 1976, Ali participated in an exhibition bout in Tokyo against Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist Antonio Inoki. Ali was only able to land two jabs while Inoki's kicks caused two blood clots and an infection that almost resulted in Ali's leg being amputated, as a result of Ali's team insisting on rules restricting Inoki's ability to wrestle. The match was not scripted and ultimately declared a draw. After Ali's death, The New York Times declared it his least memorable fight. Most boxing commentators at the time viewed the fight negatively and hoped it would be forgotten as some considered it a "15-round farce." Today it is considered by some to be one of Ali's most influential fights and CBS Sports said the attention the mixed-style bout received "foretold the arrival of standardized MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) years later." After the fight, Ali and Inoki became friends.
Ali vs Alzado
In 1979, Ali fought an exhibition match against NFL player Lyle Alzado. The fight went 8 rounds and was declared a draw.
Ali vs Semenko
Ali fought NHL player, Dave Semenko in an exhibition on June 12, 1983. The match was officially a draw after going three rounds, but the Associated Press reported Ali was not seriously trying and was just toying with Semenko.
Personal life
Marriages and children
Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. Ali was introduced to cocktail waitress Sonji Roi by Herbert Muhammad and asked her to marry him after their first date. They married approximately one month later on August 14, 1964. They quarreled over Sonji's refusal to join the Nation Of Islam. According to Ali, "She wouldn't do what she was supposed to do. She wore lipstick; she went into bars; she dressed in clothes that were revealing and didn't look right." The marriage was childless and they divorced on January 10, 1966. Just before the divorce was finalized, Ali sent Sonji a note: "You traded heaven for hell, baby." Ali's brother Rahman said that she was Ali's only true love and the Nation of Islam made Ali divorce her and Ali never got over it.
On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. Born into a Chicago family that had converted to the Nation Of Islam, she later changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: author and rapper Maryum "May May" (born 1968); twins Jamillah and Rasheda (born 1970), who married Robert Walsh and has a son, Biaggio Ali, born in 1998; and Muhammad Ali Jr. (born 1972). Rasheda's son Nico is a professional boxer.
Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the early 1970s. At age 32 in 1974, Ali began an extramarital relationship with 16-year-old Wanda Bolton (who subsequently changed her name to Aaisha Ali) with whom he fathered another daughter, Khaliah (born 1974). While still married to Belinda, Ali married Aaisha in an Islamic ceremony that was not legally recognized. According to Khaliah, Aaisha and her mother lived at Ali's Deer Lake training camp alongside Belinda and her children. In January 1985, Aaisha sued Ali for unpaid palimony. The case was settled when Ali agreed to set up a $200,000 trust fund for Khaliah. In 2001 Khaliah was quoted as saying she believed her father viewed her as "a mistake". He had another daughter, Miya (born 1972), from an extramarital relationship with Patricia Harvell.
By the summer of 1977, his second marriage ended due to Ali's repeated infidelity, and he had married actress and model Veronica Porché. At the time of their marriage, they had a daughter, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila Ali, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Porché were divorced due to Ali's continuous infidelity. Porché said of Ali's infidelity, "It was too much temptation for him, with women who threw themselves at him, It didn’t mean anything. He didn't have affairs – he had one-night stands. I knew beyond a doubt there were no feelings involved. It was so obvious, It was easy to forgive him."
On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams. Lonnie first met Ali at the age of 6 when her family moved to Louisville in 1963. In 1982, she became Ali's primary caregiver and in return, he paid for her to attend graduate school at UCLA. Together they adopted a son, Asaad Amin (born 1986), when Asaad was five months old. In 1992, Lonnie incorporated Greatest of All Time, Inc. (G.O.A.T. Inc) to consolidate and license his intellectual properties for commercial purposes. She served as the vice president and treasurer until the sale of the company in 2006.
Kiiursti Mensah-Ali claims she is Ali's biological daughter with Barbara Mensah, with whom he allegedly had a 20-year relationship, citing photographs and a paternity test conducted in 1988. She said he accepted responsibility and took care of her, but all contacts with him were cut off after he married his fourth wife Lonnie. Kiiursti says she has a relationship with his other children. After his death she again made passionate appeals to be allowed to mourn at his funeral.
In 2010, Osmon Williams came forward claiming to be Ali's biological son. His mother Temica Williams (also known as Rebecca Holloway) launched a $3 million lawsuit against Ali in 1981 for sexual assault, claiming that she had started a sexual relationship with him when she was 12, and that her son Osmon (born 1977) was fathered by Ali. She further alleged that Ali had originally supported her and her son financially, but stopped doing so after four years. The case went on until 1986 and was eventually thrown out as her allegations were deemed to be barred by the statute of limitations. According to Veronica, Ali admitted to the affair with Williams, but did not believe Osmon was his son which Veronica supported by saying "Everybody in the camp was going with that girl." Ali biographer and friend Thomas Hauser has said this claim was of "questionable veracity".
Ali then lived in Scottsdale, Arizona with Lonnie. In January 2007, it was reported that they had put their home in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which they had bought in 1975, up for sale and had purchased a home in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000. Both homes were subsequently sold after Ali's death with Lonnie living in their remaining home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Lonnie converted to Islam from Catholicism in her late twenties.
In an interview in 1974, Ali said, "If they say stand and salute the flag I do that out of respect, because I'm in the country". Ali would later say, "If America was in trouble and real war came, I'd be on the front line if we had been attacked. But I could see that (The Vietnam War) wasn't right." He also said, "Black men would go over there and fight, but when they came home, they couldn't even be served a hamburger."
Ali's daughter Laila was a professional boxer from 1999 until 2007, despite her father's previous opposition to women's boxing. In 1978, he said "Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that." Ali still attended a number of his daughter's fights and later admitted to Laila he was wrong. Ali's daughter Hana is married to Bellator middleweight fighter Kevin Casey. Hana wrote about her father, "His love for people was extraordinary. I would get home from school to find homeless families sleeping in our guest room. He’d see them on the street, pile them into his Rolls-Royce and bring them home. He’d buy them clothes, take them to hotels and pay the bills for months in advance." She also said celebrities like Michael Jackson and Clint Eastwood would often visit Ali. After Ali met a lesbian couple who were fans of his in 1997, he smiled and said to his friend Hauser, "They look like they’re happy together." Hauser wrote about the story, "The thought that Liz and Roz (the lesbian couple he met) were happy pleased Muhammad. Ali wanted people to be happy."
Religion and beliefs
Affiliation with the Nation of Islam
Ali said that he first heard of the Nation of Islam when he was fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago in 1959, and attended his first Nation of Islam meeting in 1961. He continued to attend meetings, although keeping his involvement hidden from the public. In 1962, Clay met Malcolm X, who soon became his spiritual and political mentor. By the time of the first Liston fight, Nation of Islam members, including Malcolm X, were visible in his entourage. This led to a story in The Miami Herald just before the fight disclosing that Clay had joined the Nation of Islam, which nearly caused the bout to be canceled. The article quoted Cassius Clay Sr. as saying that his son had joined the Black Muslims when he was 18.
In fact, Clay was initially refused entry to the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) due to his boxing career. However, after he won the championship from Liston in 1964, the Nation of Islam was more receptive and agreed to publicize his membership. Shortly afterwards on March 6, Elijah Muhammad gave a radio address that Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (most high). Around that time Ali moved to the south side of Chicago and lived in a series of houses, always near the Nation of Islam's Mosque Maryam or Elijah Muhammad's residence. He stayed in Chicago for about 12 years.
Only a few journalists, most notably Howard Cosell, accepted the new name at that time. Ali stated that his earlier name was a "slave name," and a "white man's name" and added that "I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it". The person he was named after was a white man and emancipationist who released slaves. Ali explained in his autobiography after studying his works, "While Clay may have gotten rid of his slaves, he "held on to white supremacy." In truth, Cassius Clay's attachment to slavery went farther than Ali knew. In spite of his abolitionist fervor, Clay owned more slaves in 1865, when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally forbade its practice, than he had inherited from his father 37 years earlier.
Not afraid to antagonize the white establishment, Ali stated, "I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me." Ali's friendship with Malcolm X ended as Malcolm split with the Nation of Islam a couple of weeks after Ali joined, and Ali remained with the Nation of Islam. Ali later said that turning his back on Malcolm was one of the mistakes he regretted most in his life.
Aligning himself with the Nation of Islam, its leader Elijah Muhammad, and a narrative that labeled the white race as the perpetrator of genocide against African Americans made Ali a target of public condemnation. The Nation of Islam was widely viewed by whites and some African Americans as a black separatist "hate religion" with a propensity toward violence; Ali had few qualms about using his influential voice to speak Nation of Islam doctrine. In a press conference articulating his opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali stated, "My enemy is the white people, not Vietcong or Chinese or Japanese." In relation to integration, he said: "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all." Further articulating his opposition to integration, he told members of the KKK at a Klan rally in 1975 that "black people should marry their own women... blue birds are blue birds, red birds are red birds, pigeons with pigeons, eagles with eagles, God did not make no mistake".
Writer Jerry Izenberg once noted that, "the Nation became Ali's family and Elijah Muhammad became his father. But there is an irony to the fact that while the Nation branded white people as devils, Ali had more white colleagues than most African American people did at that time in America, and continued to have them throughout his career."
Conversion to Sunni/Sufi Islam
In Hauser's biography Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, Ali says that although he's not a Christian as he thinks the idea of God having a son sounds wrong and doesn't make sense to him, as he believes, "God don't beget; man begets". He still believes that even good Christians or good Jews can receive God's blessing and enter heaven as he stated, "God created all people, no matter what their religion". He also stated, "If you're against someone because he's a Muslim that's wrong. If you're against someone because he's a Christian or a Jew, that's wrong".
In a 2004 autobiography, Ali attributed his conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam to Warith Deen Muhammad, who assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad, and persuaded the Nation's followers to become adherents of Sunni Islam. He said some people didn't like the change and stuck to Elijah's teachings, but he admired it and so left Elijah's teachings and became a follower of Sunni Islam.
Ali had gone on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1972, which inspired him in a similar manner to Malcolm X, meeting people of different colors from all over the world giving him a different outlook and greater spiritual awareness. In 1977, he said that, after he retired, he would dedicate the rest of his life to getting "ready to meet God" by helping people, charitable causes, uniting people and helping to make peace. He went on another Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1988.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he stated that "Islam is a religion of peace" and "does not promote terrorism or killing people", and that he was "angry that the world sees a certain group of Islam followers who caused this destruction, but they are not real Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims." In December 2015, he stated that "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion", that "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda", and that "political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam, and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is."
In later life after retiring from boxing, Ali became a student of the Quran and a devout Muslim. He also developed an interest in Sufism, which he referenced in his autobiography, The Soul of a Butterfly. According to Ali's daughter, Hana Yasmeen Ali, who co-authored The Soul of a Butterfly with him, Ali was attracted to Sufism after reading the books of Inayat Khan, which contain Sufi teachings.
Muhammad Ali received guidance from Islamic scholars such as Grand Mufti of Syria Almarhum Asy-Syaikh Ahmed Kuftaro, Hisham Kabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf, and Timothy J. Gianotti, who was at Ali's bedside during his last days and ensured that although his funeral was interfaith, it was still in accordance with Islamic rites and rituals.
Beatles reunion plan
In 1976, inventor Alan Amron and businessman Joel Sacher partnered with Ali to promote The International Committee to Reunite the Beatles. They asked fans worldwide to contribute a dollar each. Ali said the idea was not to use the proceeds for profit, but to establish an international agency to help poor children. "This is money to help people all over the world", he said. He added, "I love the music. I used to train to their music." He said a reunion of the Beatles "would make a lot of people happy." The former Beatles were indifferent to the plan, which elicited only a tepid response from the public. No reunion happened.
Entertainment career
Acting
Ali had a cameo role in the 1962 film version of Requiem for a Heavyweight, and during his exile from boxing, he starred in the short-lived 1969 Broadway musical, Buck White. He also appeared in the documentary film Black Rodeo (1972) riding both a horse and a bull.
His autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, written with Richard Durham, was published in 1975. In 1977 the book was adapted into a film called The Greatest, in which Ali played himself and Ernest Borgnine played Angelo Dundee.
The film Freedom Road, made in 1978, features Ali in a rare acting role as Gideon Jackson, a former slave and Union (American Civil War) soldier in 1870s Virginia, who gets elected to the U.S. Senate and battles alongside former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they have tended all their lives.
Spoken word poetry and rap music
Ali often used rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash-talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing. He played a role in the shaping of the black poetic tradition, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in the 1970s. According to The Guardian, "Some have argued that" Ali was "the first rapper."
In 1963, Ali released an album of spoken word music on Columbia Records titled, I Am the Greatest, and in 1964, he recorded a cover version of the rhythm and blues song "Stand by Me". I Am the Greatest sold 500,000 copies, and has been identified as an early example of rap music and a precursor to hip hop. It reached number 61 on the album chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award. He later received a second Grammy nomination, for "Best Recording for Children", with his 1976 spoken word novelty record, The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay.
Ali was an influential figure in the world of hip hop music. As a "rhyming trickster", he was noted for his "funky delivery", "boasts", "comical trash-talk", and "endless quotables." According to Rolling Stone, his "freestyle skills" and his "rhymes, flow, and braggadocio" would "one day become typical of old school MCs" like Run–D.M.C. and LL Cool J, and his "outsized ego foreshadowed the vainglorious excesses of Kanye West, while his Afrocentric consciousness and cutting honesty pointed forward to modern bards like Rakim, Nas, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar." “I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning and throw thunder in jail. You know I’m bad. Just last week, I murdered a rock, Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean, I make medicine sick” "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.” Ali spoke like no man the world had seen before. So confident in what he said; fluent, smooth, creative, and intimidating. He was a boxer and an activist, but he also had a role in influencing what now dominated pop-culture, hip-hop. In 2006, the documentary Ali Rap was produced by ESPN. Chuck D, a rapper for the band Public Enemy is the host. Other rappers narrated the documentary as well, including Doug E Fresh, Ludacris and Rakim who all spoke on Ali's behalf in the film.
He has been cited as an inspiration by rappers such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Jay-Z, Eminem, Sean Combs, Slick Rick, Nas and MC Lyte. Ali has been referenced in a number of hip hop songs, including Migos "Fight Night", The Game's "Jesus Piece", Nas' "The Message, The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", the Fugees' "Ready or Not", EPMD's "You're a Customer" and Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It".
Professional wrestling
Ali was involved with professional wrestling at different times in his career.
On June 1, 1976, as Ali was preparing for his bout with Inoki, he attended a match featuring Gorilla Monsoon. After the match was over, Ali removed his shirt and jacket and confronted professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon in the ring after his match at a World Wide Wrestling Federation show in Philadelphia Arena. After dodging a few punches, Monsoon put Ali in an airplane spin and dumped him to the mat. Ali stumbled to the corner, where his associate Butch Lewis convinced him to walk away.
On March 31, 1985, Ali was the special guest referee for the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania event.
In 1995, Ali led a group of Japanese and American professional wrestlers, including his 1976 opponent Antonio Inoki and Ric Flair, on a sports diplomacy mission to North Korea. Ali was guest of honor at the record-breaking Collision in Korea, a wrestling event with the largest attendance of all time.
Television appearances
Muhammad Ali's fights were some of the world's most-watched television broadcasts, setting television viewership records. His most-watched fights drew an estimated 12 billion viewers worldwide between 1974 and 1980, and were the world's most-watched live television broadcasts at the time. Outside of fights, he made many other television appearances. The following table lists known viewership figures of his non-fight television appearances. For television viewership figures of his fights, see Boxing career of Muhammad Ali: Television viewership.
Art
Ali was also an amateur artist and made dozens of drawings and paintings in the 1970s. In 1977, Rodney Hilton Brown, who owned an art gallery in NYC, asked Ali if he was interested in painting. Ali took him up on the offer and produced several paintings for him to sell. Brown is the author of “Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet and Prophet." In October 2021, 26 of his drawings and arts were placed on auction and sold for close to $1 Million USD.
Later years
In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's Syndrome, which sometimes results from head trauma from violent physical activities such as boxing. Ali still remained active during this time, later participating as a guest referee at WrestleMania I.
Philanthropy, humanitarianism and politics
Ali was known for being a humanitarian and philanthropist. He focused on practicing his Islamic duty of charity and good deeds, donating millions to charity organizations and disadvantaged people of all religious backgrounds. It is estimated that Ali helped to feed more than 22million people afflicted by hunger across the world. Early in his career, one of his main focuses was youth education. He spoke at several historically black colleges and universities about the importance of education, and became the largest single black donor to the United Negro College Fund in 1967 by way of a $10,000 donation ($78,000 in 2020 USD). In late 1966, he also pledged to donate a total of $100,000 to the UNCF (specifically promising to donate much of the proceeds of his title defense against Cleveland Williams), and paid $4,500 per closed circuit installation at six HBCUs so they could watch his fights.
Ali began visiting Africa, starting in 1964 when he visited Nigeria and Ghana. In 1974, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, where Ali declared "support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland." In 1978, following his loss to Spinks and before winning the rematch, Ali visited Bangladesh and received honorary citizenship there. The same year, he participated in The Longest Walk, a protest march in the United States in support of Native American rights, along with singer Stevie Wonder and actor Marlon Brando.
In 1980, Ali was recruited by President Jimmy Carter for a diplomatic mission to Africa, in an effort to persuade a number of African governments to join the US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics (in response to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan). According to Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, "at best, it was ill-conceived; at worst, a diplomatic disaster." The Tanzanian government was insulted that Carter had sent an athlete to discuss a serious political issue. One official asked whether the United States would "send Chris Evert to negotiate with London." Consequently, Ali was only received by the youth and culture minister, rather than President Julius Nyerere. Ali was unable to explain why the African countries should join the US boycott when it had failed to support the African boycott of the 1976 Olympics (in protest at Apartheid in South Africa), and was unaware that the Soviet Union was sponsoring popular revolutionary movements in Africa. Ali conceded "They didn't tell me about that in America", and complained that Carter had sent him "around the world to take the whupping over American policies." The Nigerian government also rebuffed him and confirmed that they would be participating in the Moscow games. Ali did, however, convince the government of Kenya to boycott the Olympics.
On January 19, 1981, in Los Angeles, Ali talked a suicidal man down from jumping off a ninth-floor ledge, an event that made national news.
In 1984, Ali announced his support for the re-election of United States President Ronald Reagan. When asked to elaborate on his endorsement of Reagan, Ali told reporters, "He's keeping God in schools and that's enough." In 1985, he visited Israel to request the release of Muslim prisoners at Atlit detainee camp, which Israel declined.
Around 1987, the California Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Constitution selected Ali to personify the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ali rode on a float at the following year's Tournament of Roses Parade, launching the U.S. Constitution's 200th birthday commemoration. In 1988, during the First Intifada, Ali participated in a Chicago rally in support of Palestine. The same year, he visited Sudan to raise awareness about the plight of famine victims. According to Politico, Ali supported Orrin Hatch politically. In 1989, he participated in an Indian charity event with the Muslim Educational Society in Kozhikode, Kerala, along with Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar.
In 1990, Ali traveled to Iraq prior to the Gulf War, and met with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages. Ali secured the release of the hostages, in exchange for promising Hussein that he would bring America "an honest account" of Iraq. Despite arranging the hostages release, he received criticism from President George H. W. Bush, and Joseph C. Wilson, the highest-ranking American diplomat in Baghdad.Ali cooperated with Thomas Hauser on a biography, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. The oral history was published in 1991.
In 1994, Ali campaigned to the United States government to come to the aid of refugees afflicted by the Rwandan genocide, and to donate to organizations helping Rwandan refugees.
In 1996, he lit the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. It was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers worldwide.
On November 17, 2002, Ali went to Afghanistan as the "U.N. Messenger of Peace." He was in Kabul for a three-day goodwill mission as a special guest of the UN.
On September 1, 2009, Ali visited Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, the home of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1860s, eventually settling in Kentucky.
On July 27, 2012, Ali was a titular bearer of the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He was helped to his feet by his wife Lonnie to stand before the flag due to his Parkinson's Syndrome rendering him unable to carry it into the stadium. The same year, he was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal in recognition of his lifelong efforts in activism, philanthropy and humanitarianism.
Earnings
By 1978, Ali's total fight purse earnings were estimated to be nearly $60million (inflation-adjusted ), including an estimated $47.45million grossed between 1970 and 1978. By 1980, his total fight purse earnings were estimated to be up to $70million (inflation-adjusted $million).
In 1978, Ali revealed that he was "broke" and several news outlets reported his net worth to be an estimated (inflation-adjusted $million). The press attributed his decline in wealth to several factors, including taxes consuming at least half of his income, management taking a third of his income, his lifestyle, and spending on family, charity and religious causes.
In 2006, Ali sold his name and image for $50million, after which Forbes estimated his net worth to be $55million in 2006. Following his death in 2016, his fortune was estimated to be between $50million and $80million.
Declining health
Ali's bout with Parkinson's Syndrome led to a gradual decline in his health, though he was still active into the early years of the millennium, promoting his own biopic, Ali, in 2001. That year he also contributed an on-camera segment to the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert.
In 1998, Ali began working with actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, to raise awareness and fund research for a cure. They made a joint appearance before Congress to push the case in 2002. In 2000, Ali worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease to raise awareness and encourage donations for research.
In February 2013, Ali's brother Rahman Ali said Muhammad could no longer speak and could be dead within days. Ali's daughter May May Ali responded to the rumors, stating that she had talked to him on the phone the morning of February 3 and he was fine. On December 20, 2014, Ali was hospitalized for a mild case of pneumonia. Ali was once again hospitalized on January 15, 2015, for a urinary tract infection after being found unresponsive at a guest house in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was released the next day.
Death
Ali was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 2, 2016, with a respiratory illness. Though his condition was initially described as fair, it worsened, and he died the following day at the age of 74 from septic shock.
News coverage and tributes
Following Ali's death, he was the number-one trending topic on Twitter for over 12 hours and on Facebook for several days. BET played their documentary Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami. ESPN played four hours of non-stop commercial-free coverage of Ali. News networks, such as ABC News, BBC, CNN, and Fox News, also covered him extensively.
He was mourned globally, and a family spokesman said the family "certainly believes that Muhammad was a citizen of the world ... and they know that the world grieves with him." Politicians such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, David Cameron and more paid tribute to Ali. Ali also received numerous tributes from the world of sports including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, the Miami Marlins, LeBron James, Steph Curry and more. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer stated, "Muhammad Ali belongs to the world. But he only has one hometown."
The day after Ali's death, the UFC paid tribute to Ali at their UFC 199 event in a lengthy video tribute package, crediting Ali for his accomplishments and inspiring multiple UFC champions.
Memorial
Ali's funeral had been pre-planned by himself and others for several years prior to his actual death. The services began in Louisville on June 9, 2016, with an Islamic Janazah prayer service at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center. On June 10, 2016, the funeral procession passed through the streets of Louisville ending at Cave Hill Cemetery, where his body was interred during a private ceremony. A public memorial service for Ali at downtown Louisville's KFC Yum! Center was held during the afternoon of June 10. The pallbearers included Will Smith, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, with honorary pallbearers including George Chuvalo, Larry Holmes and George Foreman. Ali's memorial was watched by an estimated 1billion viewers worldwide.
Legacy
Ali remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times, and was involved in more Ring "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He was one of only three boxers to be named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. Muhammad Ali was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its first year and held wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees during an era that has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. The Associated Press ranked him as the second best boxer and best heavyweight of the 20th century. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years.
In 1978, three years before Ali's permanent retirement, the Louisville Board of Aldermen in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, voted 6–5 to rename Walnut Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard. This was controversial at the time, as within a week 12 of the 70 street signs were stolen. Earlier that year, a committee of the Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) considered renaming Ali's alma mater, Central High School, in his honor, but the motion failed to pass. In time, Muhammad Ali Boulevard—and Ali himself—came to be well accepted in his hometown.
Ali was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990.
In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athlete, out of over 800 dead or living athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth. He was the recipient of the 1997 Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
At the end of the 20th century he was ranked at or near the top of most lists of the century's greatest athletes. He was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated. Named BBC's Sports Personality of the Century, he received more votes than the other five candidates combined. He was named Athlete of the Century by USA Today, and ranked as the third greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury. Ali was named "Kentucky Athlete of the Century" by the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Galt House East.
In 1999, Time magazine named Ali one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
On January 8, 2001, Muhammad Ali was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton. In November 2005, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, followed by the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold of the UN Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin for his work with the civil rights movement and the United Nations, which he received on December 17, 2005.
On November 19, 2005, Ali and his wife Lonnie Ali opened the $60million non-profit Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville. In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth. On June 5, 2007, he received an honorary doctorate of humanities at Princeton University's 260th graduation ceremony.
Ali Mall, located in Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippines, is named after him. Construction of the mall, the first of its kind in the Philippines, began shortly after Ali's victory in a match with Joe Frazier in nearby Araneta Coliseum in 1975. The mall opened in 1976 with Ali attending its opening.
The 1976 Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight played an important role in the history of mixed martial arts. In Japan, the match inspired Inoki's students Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki to found Pancrase in 1993, which in turn inspired the foundation of Pride Fighting Championships in 1997. Pride was acquired by its rival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, in 2007.
The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was introduced in 1999 and passed in 2000, to protect the rights and welfare of boxers in the United States. In May 2016, a bill was introduced to United States Congress by Markwayne Mullin, a politician and former MMA fighter, to extend the Ali Act to mixed martial arts. In June 2016, US senator Rand Paul proposed an amendment to the US draft laws named after Ali, a proposal to eliminate the Selective Service System.
In 2015, Sports Illustrated renamed its Sportsman Legacy Award to the Sports Illustrateds Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. The annual award was originally created in 2008 and honors former "sports figures who embody the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy as vehicles for changing the world." Ali first appeared on the magazine's cover in 1963 and went on to be featured on numerous covers during his storied career.
On January 13, 2017, seven months or so after Ali's death, and 4 days before what would have been his 75th birthday, the Muhammad Ali Commemorative Coin Act was introduced into the 115th Congress (2017–2019), as H.R. 579 (House of Representatives) and as S. 166 (Senate). However, both "died" within 10 days.
In the media and popular culture
As a world champion boxer, social activist, sex symbol and pop culture icon, Ali was the subject of numerous creative works including books, films, music, video games, TV shows, and other. Muhammad Ali was often dubbed the world's "most famous" person in the media. Several of his fights were watched by an estimated 12 billion viewers between 1974 and 1980, and his lighting of the torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers.
Ali appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 38 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan's 46. He also appeared on the cover of Time Magazine 5 times, the most of any athlete. In 2015, Harris Poll found that Ali was one of the three most recognizable athletes in the United States, along with Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.
Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee was influenced by Ali, whose footwork he studied and incorporated into his own style while developing Jeet Kune Do in the 1960s.
On the set of Freedom Road Ali met Canadian singer-songwriter Michel, and subsequently helped create Michel's album The First Flight of the Gizzelda Dragon and an unaired television special featuring them both.
Ali was the subject of the British television program This Is Your Life in 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. Ali was featured in Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, a 1978 DC Comics comic book pitting the champ against the superhero. In 1979, Ali guest-starred as himself in an episode of the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. The show's title itself was inspired by the quote "Different strokes for different folks" popularized in 1966 by Ali, who also inspired the title of the 1967 Syl Johnson song "Different Strokes", one of the most sampled songs in pop music history.
He also wrote several bestselling books about his career, including The Greatest: My Own Story and The Soul of a Butterfly. The Muhammad Ali effect, named after Ali, is a term that came into use in psychology in the 1980s, as he stated in The Greatest: My Own Story: "I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest." According to this effect, when people are asked to rate their intelligence and moral behavior in comparison to others, people will rate themselves as more moral, but not more intelligent than others.
When We Were Kings, a 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The 2001 biopic Ali garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Will Smith for his portrayal of Ali. Prior to making the film, Smith rejected the role until Ali requested that he accept it. Smith said the first thing Ali told him was: "Man, you're almost pretty enough to play me."
In 2002, Ali was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the entertainment industry. His star is the only one to be mounted on a vertical surface, out of deference to his request that the name Muhammad—a name he shares with the Islamic prophet—not be walked upon.
His 1966 fight against George Chuvalo was the subject of Joseph Blasioli's 2003 documentary film The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali.
The Trials of Muhammad Ali, a documentary directed by Bill Siegel that focuses on Ali's refusal of the draft during the Vietnam War, opened in Manhattan on August 23, 2013. A 2013 made-for-TV movie titled Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight dramatized the same aspect of Ali's life.
Antoine Fuqua's documentary What's My Name: Muhammad Ali was released in 2019.
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns created the four-part documentary film Muhammad Ali, spanning over eight hours on Ali's entire life. Burns worked on the film since early 2016. It is scheduled to release in September 2021 on PBS. Dave Zirin who watched an 8 hour rough cut of this documentary called it "utterly outstanding" and said "the footage they found will blow minds".
Discography
I Am the Greatest (1963)
The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976)
See also
List of heavyweight boxing champions
List of WBA world champions
List of WBC world champions
List of The Ring world champions
List of undisputed boxing champions
Converts to Islam
Notable boxing families
List of people from the Louisville metropolitan area
List of North American Muslims
African-American Muslims
1981 MAPS Wells Fargo embezzlement scandal
Notes
References
Further reading
Online
Muhammad Ali: American boxer, in Encyclopædia Britannica Online, by Thomas Hauser, Adam Augustyn, Piyush Bhathya, Yamini Chauhan, John M. Cunningham, Richard Pallardy, Michael Ray, Emily Rodriguez, Surabhi Sinha, Amy Tikkanen, Grace Young and The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
External links
Official website (archived)
William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services: Ancestry of Muhammad Ali
FBI Records: The Vault – Muhammad Ali at the FBI
Cassius Clay Guilty (1967), Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Photo essays'''
1942 births
2016 deaths
20th-century American rappers
20th-century Muslims
21st-century Muslims
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from Kentucky
African-American activists
African-American boxers
African-American male rappers
African-American Muslims
African-American poets
African-American Sunni Muslims
American anti–Vietnam War activists
American conscientious objectors
American former Protestants
American humanitarians
American male boxers
American male poets
American male rappers
American Muslim activists
American people of Irish descent
American people of Malagasy descent
American philanthropists
American spoken word poets
American Sufis
BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year winners
Boxers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Boxers from Arizona
Boxers from Chicago
Boxers from Louisville, Kentucky
Boxers from New Jersey
Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery
Central High School (Louisville, Kentucky) alumni
COINTELPRO targets
Columbia Records artists
Converts to Sunni Islam from Protestantism
Deaths from sepsis
Former Nation of Islam members
International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees
Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Neurological disease deaths in Arizona
Olympic boxers of the United States
Olympic cauldron lighters
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in boxing
Overturned convictions in the United States
People from Cherry Hill, New Jersey
People from Paradise Valley, Arizona
People with Parkinson's disease
People with traumatic brain injuries
Poets from Arizona
Poets from Kentucky
Poets from New Jersey
Presidential Citizens Medal recipients
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Professional wrestling referees
Rappers from Kentucky
Sportspeople from Camden County, New Jersey
Sportspeople from the Phoenix metropolitan area
The Ring (magazine) champions
Vietnam War draft evaders
Winners of the United States Championship for amateur boxers
World Boxing Association champions
World Boxing Council champions
World heavyweight boxing champions
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
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"Abdullah ibn Muhammad () also known as Tahir ibn Muhammad (Tahir = \"clean/pure\") or Tayib ibn Muhammad was one of the sons of Muhammad and Khadija. Qasim ibn Muhammad (b. 598) was his older brother.\n\nMuhammad gave him the name of his father. Abdullah died in childhood in 615 CE.\n\nReferences \n\nChildren of Muhammad\n600s births\n615 deaths\nPlace of birth missing\nPlace of death missing\nBurials at Jannat al-Mu'alla",
"Sheikh Haji Muhammad Saleh (Tambusai, Rokan Hulu, Riau, 5 November 1784 – Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia, 12 November 1882) is one of the Islamic leaders for the padri movement. Tuanku Tambusai, as he was well known in Indonesia was one of the leaders who fought the colonial invaders during the Padri Wars in 1838 along with his contemporaries, Tuanku Imam Bonjol and Tuanku Rao.\n\nBiography \nHis real name is Muhammad Saleh. He was born in Dalu-dalu a village in Tambusai on 5 November 1784. Muhammad Saleh is the son an Islamic teacher from Minang homeland in western Sumatera. His father came from village called Rambah. His father was appointed by the Sultan of Riau as the chief imam and married a local women, called Munah. His mother, Munah came from a village in Tambusai called Kandang Kopuh.\n\nEarly life \nMuhammad Saleh was brought up by his father who was the Chief Imam during the rule of the Sultanate of Riau in the 1800s. During his childhood, his father has taught him martial arts and horseback riding. Muhammad Saleh also seek his knowledge from Islamic scholars in Bonjol and Rao. He was also inspired by the understanding of salaf from the teaching of Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahab during his time in Mecca. Muhammad Saleh became the leader of the Padri movement in Tambusai and was granted the title by Tuanku Tambusai, meaning, Lord of Tambusai, by the Sultan.\n\n1784 births\n1882 deaths\nIndonesian Muslims\nPeople from Riau\nMinangkabau people\nMilitary history of Indonesia\nNational Heroes of Indonesia\nPadris"
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Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had a sister and four brothers. He was named for his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. (1912-1990), who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist, Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with smaller amounts of Irish and English heritage. His father painted billboards and signs, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917-1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali) as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. Clay grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store--"They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend's taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local railyard. Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually moulding "my style, my stamina and my system". For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak. Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games. CANNOTANSWER
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Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming
|
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet and philanthropist. Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He became a Muslim after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. Also that year, he renounced his birth name as a "slave name" and formally became known as Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. However, he had not fought for nearly four years by this point and had lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger 1960s counterculture generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam, and supported racial integration like his former mentor Malcolm X.
He fought in several historic boxing matches, such as his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many boxers let their managers do the talking, and he became renowned for his provocative and outlandish persona. He was known for trash-talking, and often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry incorporating elements of hip hop, and often predicted in which round he would knockout his opponent.
Outside boxing, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, releasing two studio albums: I Am the Greatest! (1963) and The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976). Both albums received Grammy Award nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attributed to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family. Ali died on June 3, 2016.
Early life and amateur career
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. ( ) was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had one brother. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., who had a sister and four brothers and who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with some Irish and English family heritage. Ali's maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland. DNA testing performed in 2018 showed that, through his paternal grandmother, Ali was a descendant of the former slave Archer Alexander, who had been chosen from the building crew as the model of a freed man for the Emancipation Memorial, and was the subject of abolitionist William Greenleaf Eliot's book, The Story of Archer Alexander: From Slavery to Freedom. Like Ali, Alexander fought for his freedom.
His father was a sign and billboard painter, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917–1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother, Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali), as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. He was dyslexic, which led to difficulties in reading and writing, at school and for much of his life. Ali grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store: "They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also strongly affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local rail yard. His daughter Hana later wrote that Ali once told her, "Nothing would ever shake me up (more) than the story of Emmett Till."
Ali was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually molding "my style, my stamina and my system." For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak.
Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.
Early professional boxing career
Early career
Clay made his professional debut on October 29, 1960, winning a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker. From then until the end of 1963, Clay amassed a record of 19–0 with 15 wins by knockout. He defeated boxers including Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, LaMar Clark, Doug Jones and Henry Cooper. Clay also beat his former trainer and veteran boxer Archie Moore in a 1962 match.
These early fights were not without trials. Clay was knocked down by both Sonny Banks and Cooper. In the Cooper fight, Clay was floored by a left hook at the end of round four and was saved by the bell, going on to win in the predicted 5th round due to Cooper's severely cut eye. The fight with Doug Jones on March 13, 1963 was Clay's toughest fight during this stretch. The number two and three heavyweight contenders respectively, Clay and Jones fought on Jones' home turf at New York's Madison Square Garden. Jones staggered Clay in the first round, and the unanimous decision for Clay was greeted by boos and a rain of debris thrown into the ring. Watching on closed-circuit TV, heavyweight champ Sonny Liston quipped that if he fought Clay he might get locked up for murder. The fight was later named "Fight of the Year" by The Ring magazine.
In each of these fights, Clay vocally belittled his opponents and vaunted his abilities. He called Jones "an ugly little man" and Cooper a "bum". He said he was embarrassed to get in the ring with Alex Miteff and claimed that Madison Square Garden was "too small for me." Ali's trash-talk was inspired by professional wrestler "Gorgeous George" Wagner's, after he saw George's talking ability attract huge crowds to events. Ali stated in a 1969 interview with the Associated Press' Hubert Mizel that he met with George in Las Vegas in 1961, that George told him that talking a big game would earn paying fans who either wanted to see him win or wanted to see him lose, thus Ali transformed himself into a self-described "big-mouth and a bragger".
In 1960, Clay left Moore's camp, partially due to Clay's refusal to do chores such as washing dishes and sweeping. To replace Moore, Clay hired Angelo Dundee to be his trainer. Clay had met Dundee in February 1957 during Clay's amateur career. Around this time, Clay sought longtime idol Sugar Ray Robinson to be his manager, but was rebuffed.
World heavyweight champion
Fights against Liston
By late 1963, Clay had become the top contender for Sonny Liston's title. The fight was set for February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach. Liston was an intimidating personality, a dominating fighter with a criminal past and ties to the mob. Based on Clay's uninspired performance against Jones and Cooper in his previous two fights, and Liston's destruction of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in two first-round knockouts, Clay was a 7–1 underdog. Despite this, Clay taunted Liston during the pre-fight buildup, dubbing him "the big ugly bear", stating "Liston even smells like a bear" and claiming "After I beat him I'm going to donate him to the zoo." Clay turned the pre-fight weigh-in into a circus, shouting at Liston that "someone is going to die at ringside tonight." Clay's pulse rate was measured at 120, more than double his normal 54. Many of those in attendance thought Clay's behavior stemmed from fear, and some commentators wondered if he would show up for the bout.
The outcome of the fight was a major upset. At the opening bell, Liston rushed at Clay, seemingly angry and looking for a quick knockout. However, Clay's superior speed and mobility enabled him to elude Liston, making the champion miss and look awkward. At the end of the first round, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston repeatedly with jabs. Liston fought better in round two, but at the beginning of the third round Clay hit Liston with a combination that buckled his knees and opened a cut under his left eye. This was the first time Liston had ever been cut. At the end of round four, Clay was returning to his corner when he began experiencing blinding pain in his eyes and asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to cut off his gloves. Dundee refused. It has been speculated that the problem was due to ointment used to seal Liston's cuts, perhaps deliberately applied by his corner to his gloves. Though unconfirmed, boxing historian Bert Sugar said that two of Liston's opponents also complained about their eyes "burning".
Despite Liston's attempts to knock out a blinded Clay, Clay was able to survive the fifth round until sweat and tears rinsed the irritation from his eyes. In the sixth, Clay dominated, hitting Liston repeatedly. Liston did not answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by TKO. Liston stated that the reason he quit was an injured shoulder. Following the win, a triumphant Clay rushed to the edge of the ring and, pointing to the ringside press, shouted: "Eat your words!" He added, "I am the greatest! I shook up the world. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived."
At ringside post fight, Clay appeared unconvinced that the fight was stopped due to a Liston shoulder injury, saying that the only injury Liston had was "an open eye, a big cut eye!" When told by Joe Louis that the injury was a "left arm thrown out of its socket," Clay quipped, "Yeah, swinging at nothing, who wouldn't?"
In winning this fight at the age of 22, Clay became the youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion. However, Floyd Patterson remained the youngest to win the heavyweight championship, doing so at the age 21 during an elimination bout following Rocky Marciano's retirement. Mike Tyson broke both records in 1986 when he defeated Trevor Berbick to win the heavyweight title at age 20.
Soon after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Cassius X, and then later to Muhammad Ali upon converting to Islam and affiliating with the Nation of Islam. Ali then faced a rematch with Liston scheduled for May 1965 in Lewiston, Maine. It had been scheduled for Boston the previous November, but was postponed for six months due to Ali's emergency surgery for a hernia three days before. The fight was controversial. Midway through the first round, Liston was knocked down by a difficult-to-see blow the press dubbed a "phantom punch". Referee Jersey Joe Walcott did not begin the count immediately after the knockdown, as Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Liston rose after he had been down for about 20 seconds, and the fight momentarily continued. However a few seconds later Walcott, having been informed by the timekeepers that Liston had been down for a count of 10, stopped the match and declared Ali the winner by knockout. The entire fight lasted less than two minutes.
It has since been speculated that Liston purposely dropped to the ground. Proposed motivations include threats on his life from the Nation of Islam, that he had bet against himself and that he "took a dive" to pay off debts. Slow-motion replays show that Liston was jarred by a chopping right from Ali, although it is unclear whether the blow was a genuine knockout punch.
Fight against Patterson
Ali defended his title against former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson on November 22, 1965. Before the match, Ali mocked Patterson, who was widely known to call him by his former name Cassius Clay, as an "Uncle Tom", calling him "The Rabbit". Although Ali clearly had the better of Patterson, who appeared injured during the fight, the match lasted 12 rounds before being called on a technical knockout. Patterson later said he had strained his sacroiliac. Ali was criticized in the sports media for appearing to have toyed with Patterson during the fight. Patterson biographer W. K. Stratton claims that the conflict between Ali and Patterson was not genuine but was staged to increase ticket sales and the closed-circuit viewing audience, with both men complicit in the theatrics. Stratton also cites an interview by Howard Cosell in which Ali explained that rather than toying with Patterson, he refrained from knocking him out after it became apparent Patterson was injured. Patterson later said that he had never been hit by punches as soft as Ali's. Stratton states that Ali arranged the second fight, in 1972, with the financially struggling Patterson to help the former champion earn enough money to pay a debt to the IRS.
Main Bout
After the Patterson fight, Ali founded his own promotion company, Main Bout. The company mainly handled Ali's boxing promotions and pay-per-view closed-circuit television broadcasts. The company's stockholders were mainly fellow Nation of Islam members, along with several others, including Bob Arum.
Ali and then-WBA heavyweight champion boxer Ernie Terrell had agreed to meet for a bout in Chicago on March 29, 1966 (the WBA, one of two boxing associations, had stripped Ali of his title following his joining the Nation of Islam). But in February Ali was reclassified by the Louisville draft board as 1-A from 1-Y, and he indicated that he would refuse to serve, commenting to the press, "I ain't got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me nigger." Amidst the media and public outcry over Ali's stance, the Illinois Athletic Commission refused to sanction the fight, citing technicalities.
Instead, Ali traveled to Canada and Europe and won championship bouts against George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London and Karl Mildenberger.
Ali returned to the United States to fight Cleveland Williams in the Houston Astrodome on November 14, 1966. The bout drew a record-breaking indoor crowd of 35,460 people. Williams had once been considered among the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division, but in 1964 he had been shot at point-blank range by a Texas policeman, resulting in the loss of one kidney and of his small intestine. Ali dominated Williams, winning a third-round technical knockout in what some consider the finest performance of his career.
Ali fought Terrell in Houston on February 6, 1967. Terrell, who was unbeaten in five years and had defeated many of the boxers Ali had faced, was billed as Ali's toughest opponent since Liston; he was big, strong and had a three-inch reach advantage over Ali. During the lead up to the bout, Terrell repeatedly called Ali "Clay", much to Ali's annoyance. The two almost came to blows over the name issue in a pre-fight interview with Howard Cosell. Ali seemed intent on humiliating Terrell. "I want to torture him", he said. "A clean knockout is too good for him." The fight was close until the seventh round, when Ali bloodied Terrell and almost knocked him out. In the eighth round, Ali taunted Terrell, hitting him with jabs and shouting between punches, "What's my name, Uncle Tom ... what's my name?" Ali won a unanimous 15-round decision. Terrell claimed that early in the fight Ali deliberately thumbed him in the eye, forcing him to fight half-blind, and then, in a clinch, rubbed the wounded eye against the ropes. Because of Ali's apparent intent to prolong the fight to inflict maximum punishment, critics described the bout as "one of the ugliest boxing fights." Tex Maule later wrote: "It was a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty." Ali denied the accusations of cruelty but, for Ali's critics, the fight provided more evidence of his arrogance.
After Ali's title defense against Zora Folley on March 22, he was stripped of his title due to his refusal to be drafted to army service. His boxing license was also suspended by the state of New York. He was convicted of draft evasion on June 20 and sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He paid a bond and remained free while the verdict was being appealed.
Vietnam War and resistance to the draft
Ali registered for conscription in the United States military on his 18th birthday and was listed as 1-A in 1962. In 1964, he was reclassified as Class 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after he failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub-standard, due to his dyslexia. (He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest!") By early 1966, the army lowered its standards to permit soldiers above the 15th percentile and Ali was again classified as 1-A. This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army at a time when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, a war which put him further at odds with the white establishment.
When notified of this status, Ali declared that he would refuse to serve in the army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector. Ali stated: "War is against the teachings of the Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger (Elijah Muhammad then leader of Nation of Islam). We don’t take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers". He also said "We are not to be the aggressor but we will defend ourselves if attacked." He stated: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Ali antagonized the white establishment in 1966 by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.
On April 28, 1967, Ali appeared in Houston for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces, but he refused three times to step forward when his name was called. An officer warned him that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called, and he was arrested. Later that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit. Ali remained unable to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years. On June 4, 1967, in a first for sports professionals, a group of high-profile African-American athletes assembled at the Negro Industrial Economic union in Cleveland for a "Muhammad Ali Summit". The meeting was organized by Jim Brown for his peers to question Ali about the seriousness of his convictions, and to decide whether to support him, which they ultimately did.
At the trial on June 20, 1967, the jury found Ali guilty after only 21minutes of deliberation of the criminal offense of violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. After a Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, the case was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
Ali remained free in the years between the Appellate Court decision and the Supreme Court ruling. As public opinion began turning people against the war and the Civil Rights Movement continued to gather momentum, Ali became a popular speaker at colleges and universities across the country; this itinerary was rare if not unprecedented for a prizefighter. At Howard University, for example, he gave his popular "Black Is Best" speech to 4,000 cheering students and community intellectuals, after he was invited to speak by sociology professor Nathan Hare on behalf of the Black Power Committee, a student protest group.
On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. United States overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8–0 decision (Justice Thurgood Marshall recused himself, as he had been the U.S. Solicitor General at the time of Ali's conviction). The decision was not based on, nor did it address, the merits of Ali's claims per se. Rather, the Court held that since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to Ali, that it was therefore impossible to determine which of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status (offered in the Justice Department's brief) the appeal board relied on, and Ali's conviction must be reversed.
Impact of Ali's draft refusal
Ali's example inspired many black Americans and others. However, initially when he refused induction, he became arguably the most hated man in the country and received many death threats. People who supported Ali during this time were also threatened, including sports journalist Jerry Izenberg, whose columns defended Ali's decision not to serve. He wrote, "Bomb threats emptied our office, making the staff stand out in the snow. My car windshield was smashed with a sledgehammer." The New York Times columnist William Rhoden wrote, "Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"
Recalling Ali's anti-war position, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said: "I remember the teachers at my high school didn't like Ali because he was so anti-establishment and he kind of thumbed his nose at authority and got away with it. The fact that he was proud to be a black man and that he had so much talent ... made some people think that he was dangerous. But for those very reasons I enjoyed him."
Civil rights figures came to believe that Ali had an energizing effect on the freedom movement as a whole. Al Sharpton spoke of his bravery at a time when there was still widespread support for the Vietnam War:
Ali was honored with the annual Martin Luther King Award in 1970 by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy, who called him "a living example of soul power, the March on Washington in two fists." Coretta Scott King added that Ali was "a champion of justice and peace and unity."
In speaking of the cost on Ali's career of his refusal to be drafted, his trainer Angelo Dundee said, "One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years."
Bob Arum did not support Ali's choice at the time. More recently, Arum stated that "when I look back at his life, and I was blessed to call him a friend and spent a lot of time with him, it's hard for me to talk about his exploits in boxing because as great as they were they paled in comparison to the impact that he had on the world," and "He did what he thought was right. And it turned out he was right, and I was wrong."
Ali's resistance to the draft was covered in the 2013 documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali.
NSA and FBI monitoring of Ali's communications
In a secret operation code-named "Minaret", the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted the communications of leading Americans, including Ali, Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., prominent U.S. journalists, and others who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam. A review by the NSA of the Minaret program concluded that it was "disreputable if not outright illegal."
In 1971, his Fight of the Century with Frazier was used by an activist group, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, to pull off a burglary at an FBI office in Pennsylvania; the anticipation for the fight was unlike anything else, so they believed the security would also be focused on the fight. This raid exposed the COINTELPRO operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti-war movements. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Ali, and their activities included the FBI gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school; one such record mentioned him loving art as a child.
Exile and comeback
In March 1966, Ali refused to be inducted into the armed forces. He was systematically denied a boxing license in every state and stripped of his passport. As a result, he did not fight from March 1967 to October 1970—from ages 25 to almost 29—as his case worked its way through the appeals process before his conviction was overturned in 1971.
Protesting while exiled
During this time of inactivity, as opposition to the Vietnam War began to grow and Ali's stance gained sympathy, he spoke at colleges across the nation, criticizing the Vietnam War and advocating African-American pride and racial justice. Ali based himself in Chicago. According to most close to him, his Chicago years were formative.
At the time, Ali was widely condemned by the American media, with fears that his actions could potentially lead to mass civil disobedience. Despite this, Ebony magazine noted in the late 1960s that Ali's popularity had increased during this time, especially among black people.
The Super Fight
While banned from sanctioned bouts, Ali settled a $1 million lawsuit against radio producer Murray Woroner by accepting $10,000 to appear in a privately staged fantasy fight against retired champion Rocky Marciano. In 1969 the boxers were filmed sparring for about 75 one-minute rounds; they produced several potential outcomes. A computer program purportedly determined the winner, based on data about the fighters, along with the opinions of approximately 250 boxing experts. Edited versions of the bout were shown in movie theaters in 1970. In the U.S. version Ali lost in a simulated 13th-round knockout, but in the European version Marciano lost due to cuts, also simulated.
Ali suggested that prejudice determined his defeat in the U.S. version. He was reported to jokingly say, "That computer was made in Alabama."
Return to prizefighting
On August 11, 1970, with his case still in appeal, Ali was granted a license to box by the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission. Leroy Johnson, Jesse Hill Jr. and Harry Pett had used their local political influence and set up the company House of Sports to organize the fight, underlining the influential power of Georgia's black politics in Ali' s comeback. Ali's first return bout was against Jerry Quarry on October 26, resulting in a win after three rounds after Quarry was cut.
A month earlier, a victory in federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali's license. He fought Oscar Bonavena at Madison Square Garden in December, an uninspired performance that ended in a dramatic technical knockout of Bonavena in the 15th round. The win left Ali as a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier.
First fight against Joe Frazier
Ali and Frazier's first fight, held at the Garden on March 8, 1971, was nicknamed the "Fight of the Century", due to the tremendous excitement surrounding a bout between two undefeated fighters, each with a legitimate claim to be heavyweight champion. Veteran US boxing writer John Condon called it "the greatest event I've ever worked on in my life." The bout was broadcast to 36 countries; promoters granted 760 press passes.
Adding to the atmosphere were the considerable pre-fight theatrics and name calling. Before the fight Frazier called Ali, "Cassius Clay", this angered Ali and he portrayed Frazier as a "dumb tool of the white establishment." "Frazier is too ugly to be champ", Ali said. "Frazier is too dumb to be champ." Ali also frequently called Frazier an "Uncle Tom". Dave Wolf, who worked in Frazier's camp, recalled that, "Ali was saying 'the only people rooting for Joe Frazier are white people in suits, Alabama sheriffs, and members of the Ku Klux Klan. I'm fighting for the little man in the ghetto.' Joe was sitting there, smashing his fist into the palm of his hand, saying, 'What the fuck does he know about the ghetto?
Ali began training at a farm near Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1971 and, finding the country setting to his liking, sought to develop a real training camp in the countryside. He found a five-acre site on a Pennsylvania country road in the village of Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. On this site, Ali carved out what was to become his training camp, where he trained for all his fights from 1972 to the end of his career in 1981.
The Monday night fight lived up to its billing. In a preview of their two other fights, a crouching, bobbing and weaving Frazier constantly pressured Ali, getting hit regularly by Ali jabs and combinations, but relentlessly attacking and scoring repeatedly, especially to Ali's body. The fight was even in the early rounds, but Ali was taking more punishment than ever in his career. On several occasions in the early rounds he played to the crowd and shook his head "no" after he was hit. In the later rounds—in what was the first appearance of the "rope-a-dope strategy"—Ali leaned against the ropes and absorbed punishment from Frazier, hoping to tire him. In the 11th round, Frazier connected with a left hook that wobbled Ali, but because it appeared that Ali might be clowning as he staggered backwards across the ring, Frazier hesitated to press his advantage, fearing an Ali counter-attack. In the final round, Frazier knocked Ali down with a vicious left hook, which referee Arthur Mercante said was as hard as a man can be hit. Ali was back on his feet in three seconds. Nevertheless, Ali lost by unanimous decision, his first professional defeat.
Chamberlain challenge and Ellis fight
In 1971, basketball star Wilt Chamberlain challenged Ali to a fight, and a bout was scheduled for July 26. Although the seven-foot-two-inch tall Chamberlain had formidable physical advantages over Ali—weighing 60pounds more and able to reach 14inches further—Ali was able to influence Chamberlain into calling off the bout by taunting him with calls of "Timber!" and "The tree will fall" during a shared interview. These statements of confidence unsettled his taller opponent, whom Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had offered a record-setting contract, conditional on Chamberlain agreeing to abandon what Cooke termed "this boxing foolishness", and he did exactly that. To replace Ali's opponent, promoter Bob Arum quickly booked a former sparring partner of Ali's, Jimmy Ellis, who was a childhood friend from Louisville, Kentucky, to fight him.
After his loss
Fights against Quarry, Patterson, Foster and Norton
After the loss to Frazier, Ali fought Jerry Quarry, had a second bout with Floyd Patterson and faced Bob Foster in 1972, winning a total of six fights that year. In 1973, Ken Norton broke Ali's jaw while giving him the second loss of his career. After initially considering retirement, Ali won a controversial decision against Norton in their second bout. This led to a rematch with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 1974; Frazier had recently lost his title to George Foreman.
Second fight against Joe Frazier
Ali was strong in the early rounds of the fight, and staggered Frazier in the second round. Referee Tony Perez mistakenly thought he heard the bell ending the round and stepped between the two fighters as Ali was pressing his attack, giving Frazier time to recover. However, Frazier came on in the middle rounds, snapping Ali's head in round seven and driving him to the ropes at the end of round eight. The last four rounds saw round-to-round shifts in momentum between the two fighters. Throughout most of the bout, however, Ali was able to circle away from Frazier's dangerous left hook and to tie Frazier up when he was cornered, the latter a tactic that Frazier's camp complained of bitterly. Judges awarded Ali a unanimous decision.
World heavyweight champion (second reign)
The Rumble in the Jungle
The defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974—a bout nicknamed The Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. In assessing the fight, analysts pointed out that Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, who had given Ali four tough battles and won two of them, had both been devastated by Foreman in second-round knockouts. Ali was 32 years old, and had clearly lost speed and reflexes since his twenties. Contrary to his later persona, Foreman was at the time a brooding and intimidating presence. Almost no one associated with the sport, not even Ali's long-time supporter Howard Cosell, gave the former champion a chance of winning.
As usual, Ali was confident and colorful before the fight. He told interviewer David Frost, "If you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait till I whup Foreman's behind!" He told the press, "I've done something new for this fight. I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick." Ali was wildly popular in Zaire, with crowds chanting "Ali, bomaye" ("Ali, kill him") wherever he went.
Ali opened the fight moving and scoring with right crosses to Foreman's head. Then, beginning in the second round, and to the consternation of his corner, Ali retreated to the ropes and invited Foreman to hit him while covering up, clinching and counter-punching, all while verbally taunting Foreman. The move, which would later become known as the "Rope-a-dope", so violated conventional boxing wisdom—letting one of the hardest hitters in boxing strike at will—that at ringside writer George Plimpton thought the fight had to be fixed. Foreman, increasingly angered, threw punches that were deflected and did not land squarely. Midway through the fight, as Foreman began tiring, Ali countered more frequently and effectively with punches and flurries, which electrified the pro-Ali crowd. In the eighth round, Ali dropped an exhausted Foreman with a combination at center ring; Foreman failed to make the count. Against the odds, and amidst pandemonium in the ring, Ali had regained the title by knockout. Reflecting on the fight, George Foreman later said: "I thought Ali was just one more knockout victim until, about the seventh round, I hit him hard to the jaw and he held me and whispered in my ear: 'That all you got, George?' I realized that this ain't what I thought it was."
It was a major upset victory, after Ali came in as a 41 underdog against the previously unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight became famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1billion viewers worldwide. It was the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time.
Fights against Wepner, Lyle and Bugner
Ali's next opponents included Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, and Joe Bugner. Wepner, a journeyman known as "The Bayonne Bleeder", stunned Ali with a knockdown in the ninth round; Ali would later say he tripped on Wepner's foot. It was a bout that would inspire Sylvester Stallone to create the acclaimed film, Rocky.
Third fight against Joe Frazier
Ali then agreed to a third match with Joe Frazier in Manila. The bout, known as the "Thrilla in Manila", was held on October 1, 1975, in temperatures approaching . In the first rounds, Ali was aggressive, moving and exchanging blows with Frazier. However, Ali soon appeared to tire and adopted the "rope-a-dope" strategy, frequently resorting to clinches. During this part of the bout Ali did some effective counter-punching, but for the most part absorbed punishment from a relentlessly attacking Frazier. In the 12th round, Frazier began to tire, and Ali scored several sharp blows that closed Frazier's left eye and opened a cut over his right eye. With Frazier's vision now diminished, Ali dominated the 13th and 14th rounds, at times conducting what boxing historian Mike Silver called "target practice" on Frazier's head. The fight was stopped when Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, refused to allow Frazier to answer the bell for the 15th and final round, despite Frazier's protests. Frazier's eyes were both swollen shut. Ali, in his corner, winner by TKO, slumped on his stool, clearly spent.
An ailing Ali said afterwards that the fight "was the closest thing to dying that I know", and, when later asked if he had viewed the fight on videotape, reportedly said, "Why would I want to go back and see Hell?" After the fight he cited Frazier as "the greatest fighter of all times next to me."
After the third fight with Frazier, Ali considered retirement. He said, “I’m sore all over. My arms, my face, my sides all ache. I’m so, so tired. There is a great possibility that I will retire. You might have seen the last of me. I want to sit back and count my money, live in my house and my farm, work for my people and concentrate on my family."
Later career
Following the Manila bout, Ali fought Jean-Pierre Coopman, Jimmy Young, and Richard Dunn, winning the last by knockout.
The punch used to knock Dunn out was taught to Ali by Taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. Rhee called that punch the "Accupunch"; he learned it from Bruce Lee. The Dunn fight was the last time Ali would knock down an opponent in his boxing career.
Ali fought Ken Norton for the third time in September 1976. The bout, which was held at Yankee Stadium, resulted in Ali winning a heavily contested decision that was loudly booed by the audience. Afterwards, he announced he was retiring from boxing to practice his faith, having converted to Sunni Islam after falling out with the Nation of Islam the previous year.
After returning to beat Alfredo Evangelista in May 1977, Ali struggled in his next fight against Earnie Shavers that September, getting pummeled a few times by punches to the head. Ali won the fight by another unanimous decision, but the bout caused his longtime doctor Ferdie Pacheco to quit after he was rebuffed for telling Ali he should retire. Pacheco was quoted as saying, "the New York State Athletic Commission gave me a report that showed Ali's kidneys were falling apart. I wrote to Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer, his wife and Ali himself. I got nothing back in response. That's when I decided enough is enough."
In February 1978, Ali faced Leon Spinks at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. At the time, Spinks had only seven professional fights to his credit, and had recently fought a draw with journeyman Scott LeDoux. Ali sparred less than two dozen rounds in preparation for the fight, and was seriously out of shape by the opening bell. He lost the title by split decision. A rematch occurred in September at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. 70,000 people attended the bout and paid a total of $6 million admission, making it the largest live gate in boxing history at that time. Ali won a unanimous decision in an uninspiring fight, with referee Lucien Joubert scoring rounds 10-4, judge Ernie Cojoe 10-4, and judge Herman Preis 11-4. This made Ali the first heavyweight champion to win the belt three times.
Following this win, on July 27, 1979, Ali announced his retirement from boxing. His retirement was short-lived, however; Ali announced his comeback to face Larry Holmes for the WBC belt in an attempt to win the heavyweight championship an unprecedented fourth time. The fight was largely motivated by Ali's need for money. Boxing writer Richie Giachetti said, "Larry didn't want to fight Ali. He knew Ali had nothing left; he knew it would be a horror."
It was around this time that Ali started struggling with vocal stutters and trembling hands. The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) ordered that he undergo a complete physical in Las Vegas before being allowed to fight again. Ali chose instead to check into the Mayo Clinic, who declared him fit to fight. Their opinion was accepted by the NAC on July 31, 1980, paving the way for Ali's return to the ring.
The fight took place on October 2, 1980, in Las Vegas Valley, with Holmes easily dominating Ali, who was weakened from thyroid medication he had taken to lose weight. Giachetti called the fight "awful ... the worst sports event I ever had to cover." Actor Sylvester Stallone was at ringside and said that it was like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive. After the tenth round, Angelo Dundee told the referee to stop the fight, making it the only time that Ali ever lost by stoppage. The Holmes fight is said to have contributed to Ali's Parkinson's syndrome. Despite pleas to definitively retire, Ali fought one last time on December 11, 1981, in Nassau, Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, losing a ten-round decision.
By the end of his boxing career Ali had absorbed an estimated 200,000 hits.
Exhibition bouts
Ali boxed both well known boxers and celebrities from other walks of life, including Michael Dokes, Antonio Inoki, Lyle Alzado, Dave Semenko, and the famous Puerto Rican comedian Jose Miguel Agrelot (with Iris Chacon acting as Agrelot's corner-woman).
Ali vs Inoki
On June 26, 1976, Ali participated in an exhibition bout in Tokyo against Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist Antonio Inoki. Ali was only able to land two jabs while Inoki's kicks caused two blood clots and an infection that almost resulted in Ali's leg being amputated, as a result of Ali's team insisting on rules restricting Inoki's ability to wrestle. The match was not scripted and ultimately declared a draw. After Ali's death, The New York Times declared it his least memorable fight. Most boxing commentators at the time viewed the fight negatively and hoped it would be forgotten as some considered it a "15-round farce." Today it is considered by some to be one of Ali's most influential fights and CBS Sports said the attention the mixed-style bout received "foretold the arrival of standardized MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) years later." After the fight, Ali and Inoki became friends.
Ali vs Alzado
In 1979, Ali fought an exhibition match against NFL player Lyle Alzado. The fight went 8 rounds and was declared a draw.
Ali vs Semenko
Ali fought NHL player, Dave Semenko in an exhibition on June 12, 1983. The match was officially a draw after going three rounds, but the Associated Press reported Ali was not seriously trying and was just toying with Semenko.
Personal life
Marriages and children
Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. Ali was introduced to cocktail waitress Sonji Roi by Herbert Muhammad and asked her to marry him after their first date. They married approximately one month later on August 14, 1964. They quarreled over Sonji's refusal to join the Nation Of Islam. According to Ali, "She wouldn't do what she was supposed to do. She wore lipstick; she went into bars; she dressed in clothes that were revealing and didn't look right." The marriage was childless and they divorced on January 10, 1966. Just before the divorce was finalized, Ali sent Sonji a note: "You traded heaven for hell, baby." Ali's brother Rahman said that she was Ali's only true love and the Nation of Islam made Ali divorce her and Ali never got over it.
On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. Born into a Chicago family that had converted to the Nation Of Islam, she later changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: author and rapper Maryum "May May" (born 1968); twins Jamillah and Rasheda (born 1970), who married Robert Walsh and has a son, Biaggio Ali, born in 1998; and Muhammad Ali Jr. (born 1972). Rasheda's son Nico is a professional boxer.
Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the early 1970s. At age 32 in 1974, Ali began an extramarital relationship with 16-year-old Wanda Bolton (who subsequently changed her name to Aaisha Ali) with whom he fathered another daughter, Khaliah (born 1974). While still married to Belinda, Ali married Aaisha in an Islamic ceremony that was not legally recognized. According to Khaliah, Aaisha and her mother lived at Ali's Deer Lake training camp alongside Belinda and her children. In January 1985, Aaisha sued Ali for unpaid palimony. The case was settled when Ali agreed to set up a $200,000 trust fund for Khaliah. In 2001 Khaliah was quoted as saying she believed her father viewed her as "a mistake". He had another daughter, Miya (born 1972), from an extramarital relationship with Patricia Harvell.
By the summer of 1977, his second marriage ended due to Ali's repeated infidelity, and he had married actress and model Veronica Porché. At the time of their marriage, they had a daughter, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila Ali, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Porché were divorced due to Ali's continuous infidelity. Porché said of Ali's infidelity, "It was too much temptation for him, with women who threw themselves at him, It didn’t mean anything. He didn't have affairs – he had one-night stands. I knew beyond a doubt there were no feelings involved. It was so obvious, It was easy to forgive him."
On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams. Lonnie first met Ali at the age of 6 when her family moved to Louisville in 1963. In 1982, she became Ali's primary caregiver and in return, he paid for her to attend graduate school at UCLA. Together they adopted a son, Asaad Amin (born 1986), when Asaad was five months old. In 1992, Lonnie incorporated Greatest of All Time, Inc. (G.O.A.T. Inc) to consolidate and license his intellectual properties for commercial purposes. She served as the vice president and treasurer until the sale of the company in 2006.
Kiiursti Mensah-Ali claims she is Ali's biological daughter with Barbara Mensah, with whom he allegedly had a 20-year relationship, citing photographs and a paternity test conducted in 1988. She said he accepted responsibility and took care of her, but all contacts with him were cut off after he married his fourth wife Lonnie. Kiiursti says she has a relationship with his other children. After his death she again made passionate appeals to be allowed to mourn at his funeral.
In 2010, Osmon Williams came forward claiming to be Ali's biological son. His mother Temica Williams (also known as Rebecca Holloway) launched a $3 million lawsuit against Ali in 1981 for sexual assault, claiming that she had started a sexual relationship with him when she was 12, and that her son Osmon (born 1977) was fathered by Ali. She further alleged that Ali had originally supported her and her son financially, but stopped doing so after four years. The case went on until 1986 and was eventually thrown out as her allegations were deemed to be barred by the statute of limitations. According to Veronica, Ali admitted to the affair with Williams, but did not believe Osmon was his son which Veronica supported by saying "Everybody in the camp was going with that girl." Ali biographer and friend Thomas Hauser has said this claim was of "questionable veracity".
Ali then lived in Scottsdale, Arizona with Lonnie. In January 2007, it was reported that they had put their home in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which they had bought in 1975, up for sale and had purchased a home in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000. Both homes were subsequently sold after Ali's death with Lonnie living in their remaining home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Lonnie converted to Islam from Catholicism in her late twenties.
In an interview in 1974, Ali said, "If they say stand and salute the flag I do that out of respect, because I'm in the country". Ali would later say, "If America was in trouble and real war came, I'd be on the front line if we had been attacked. But I could see that (The Vietnam War) wasn't right." He also said, "Black men would go over there and fight, but when they came home, they couldn't even be served a hamburger."
Ali's daughter Laila was a professional boxer from 1999 until 2007, despite her father's previous opposition to women's boxing. In 1978, he said "Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that." Ali still attended a number of his daughter's fights and later admitted to Laila he was wrong. Ali's daughter Hana is married to Bellator middleweight fighter Kevin Casey. Hana wrote about her father, "His love for people was extraordinary. I would get home from school to find homeless families sleeping in our guest room. He’d see them on the street, pile them into his Rolls-Royce and bring them home. He’d buy them clothes, take them to hotels and pay the bills for months in advance." She also said celebrities like Michael Jackson and Clint Eastwood would often visit Ali. After Ali met a lesbian couple who were fans of his in 1997, he smiled and said to his friend Hauser, "They look like they’re happy together." Hauser wrote about the story, "The thought that Liz and Roz (the lesbian couple he met) were happy pleased Muhammad. Ali wanted people to be happy."
Religion and beliefs
Affiliation with the Nation of Islam
Ali said that he first heard of the Nation of Islam when he was fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago in 1959, and attended his first Nation of Islam meeting in 1961. He continued to attend meetings, although keeping his involvement hidden from the public. In 1962, Clay met Malcolm X, who soon became his spiritual and political mentor. By the time of the first Liston fight, Nation of Islam members, including Malcolm X, were visible in his entourage. This led to a story in The Miami Herald just before the fight disclosing that Clay had joined the Nation of Islam, which nearly caused the bout to be canceled. The article quoted Cassius Clay Sr. as saying that his son had joined the Black Muslims when he was 18.
In fact, Clay was initially refused entry to the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) due to his boxing career. However, after he won the championship from Liston in 1964, the Nation of Islam was more receptive and agreed to publicize his membership. Shortly afterwards on March 6, Elijah Muhammad gave a radio address that Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (most high). Around that time Ali moved to the south side of Chicago and lived in a series of houses, always near the Nation of Islam's Mosque Maryam or Elijah Muhammad's residence. He stayed in Chicago for about 12 years.
Only a few journalists, most notably Howard Cosell, accepted the new name at that time. Ali stated that his earlier name was a "slave name," and a "white man's name" and added that "I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it". The person he was named after was a white man and emancipationist who released slaves. Ali explained in his autobiography after studying his works, "While Clay may have gotten rid of his slaves, he "held on to white supremacy." In truth, Cassius Clay's attachment to slavery went farther than Ali knew. In spite of his abolitionist fervor, Clay owned more slaves in 1865, when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally forbade its practice, than he had inherited from his father 37 years earlier.
Not afraid to antagonize the white establishment, Ali stated, "I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me." Ali's friendship with Malcolm X ended as Malcolm split with the Nation of Islam a couple of weeks after Ali joined, and Ali remained with the Nation of Islam. Ali later said that turning his back on Malcolm was one of the mistakes he regretted most in his life.
Aligning himself with the Nation of Islam, its leader Elijah Muhammad, and a narrative that labeled the white race as the perpetrator of genocide against African Americans made Ali a target of public condemnation. The Nation of Islam was widely viewed by whites and some African Americans as a black separatist "hate religion" with a propensity toward violence; Ali had few qualms about using his influential voice to speak Nation of Islam doctrine. In a press conference articulating his opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali stated, "My enemy is the white people, not Vietcong or Chinese or Japanese." In relation to integration, he said: "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all." Further articulating his opposition to integration, he told members of the KKK at a Klan rally in 1975 that "black people should marry their own women... blue birds are blue birds, red birds are red birds, pigeons with pigeons, eagles with eagles, God did not make no mistake".
Writer Jerry Izenberg once noted that, "the Nation became Ali's family and Elijah Muhammad became his father. But there is an irony to the fact that while the Nation branded white people as devils, Ali had more white colleagues than most African American people did at that time in America, and continued to have them throughout his career."
Conversion to Sunni/Sufi Islam
In Hauser's biography Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, Ali says that although he's not a Christian as he thinks the idea of God having a son sounds wrong and doesn't make sense to him, as he believes, "God don't beget; man begets". He still believes that even good Christians or good Jews can receive God's blessing and enter heaven as he stated, "God created all people, no matter what their religion". He also stated, "If you're against someone because he's a Muslim that's wrong. If you're against someone because he's a Christian or a Jew, that's wrong".
In a 2004 autobiography, Ali attributed his conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam to Warith Deen Muhammad, who assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad, and persuaded the Nation's followers to become adherents of Sunni Islam. He said some people didn't like the change and stuck to Elijah's teachings, but he admired it and so left Elijah's teachings and became a follower of Sunni Islam.
Ali had gone on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1972, which inspired him in a similar manner to Malcolm X, meeting people of different colors from all over the world giving him a different outlook and greater spiritual awareness. In 1977, he said that, after he retired, he would dedicate the rest of his life to getting "ready to meet God" by helping people, charitable causes, uniting people and helping to make peace. He went on another Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1988.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he stated that "Islam is a religion of peace" and "does not promote terrorism or killing people", and that he was "angry that the world sees a certain group of Islam followers who caused this destruction, but they are not real Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims." In December 2015, he stated that "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion", that "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda", and that "political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam, and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is."
In later life after retiring from boxing, Ali became a student of the Quran and a devout Muslim. He also developed an interest in Sufism, which he referenced in his autobiography, The Soul of a Butterfly. According to Ali's daughter, Hana Yasmeen Ali, who co-authored The Soul of a Butterfly with him, Ali was attracted to Sufism after reading the books of Inayat Khan, which contain Sufi teachings.
Muhammad Ali received guidance from Islamic scholars such as Grand Mufti of Syria Almarhum Asy-Syaikh Ahmed Kuftaro, Hisham Kabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf, and Timothy J. Gianotti, who was at Ali's bedside during his last days and ensured that although his funeral was interfaith, it was still in accordance with Islamic rites and rituals.
Beatles reunion plan
In 1976, inventor Alan Amron and businessman Joel Sacher partnered with Ali to promote The International Committee to Reunite the Beatles. They asked fans worldwide to contribute a dollar each. Ali said the idea was not to use the proceeds for profit, but to establish an international agency to help poor children. "This is money to help people all over the world", he said. He added, "I love the music. I used to train to their music." He said a reunion of the Beatles "would make a lot of people happy." The former Beatles were indifferent to the plan, which elicited only a tepid response from the public. No reunion happened.
Entertainment career
Acting
Ali had a cameo role in the 1962 film version of Requiem for a Heavyweight, and during his exile from boxing, he starred in the short-lived 1969 Broadway musical, Buck White. He also appeared in the documentary film Black Rodeo (1972) riding both a horse and a bull.
His autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, written with Richard Durham, was published in 1975. In 1977 the book was adapted into a film called The Greatest, in which Ali played himself and Ernest Borgnine played Angelo Dundee.
The film Freedom Road, made in 1978, features Ali in a rare acting role as Gideon Jackson, a former slave and Union (American Civil War) soldier in 1870s Virginia, who gets elected to the U.S. Senate and battles alongside former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they have tended all their lives.
Spoken word poetry and rap music
Ali often used rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash-talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing. He played a role in the shaping of the black poetic tradition, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in the 1970s. According to The Guardian, "Some have argued that" Ali was "the first rapper."
In 1963, Ali released an album of spoken word music on Columbia Records titled, I Am the Greatest, and in 1964, he recorded a cover version of the rhythm and blues song "Stand by Me". I Am the Greatest sold 500,000 copies, and has been identified as an early example of rap music and a precursor to hip hop. It reached number 61 on the album chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award. He later received a second Grammy nomination, for "Best Recording for Children", with his 1976 spoken word novelty record, The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay.
Ali was an influential figure in the world of hip hop music. As a "rhyming trickster", he was noted for his "funky delivery", "boasts", "comical trash-talk", and "endless quotables." According to Rolling Stone, his "freestyle skills" and his "rhymes, flow, and braggadocio" would "one day become typical of old school MCs" like Run–D.M.C. and LL Cool J, and his "outsized ego foreshadowed the vainglorious excesses of Kanye West, while his Afrocentric consciousness and cutting honesty pointed forward to modern bards like Rakim, Nas, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar." “I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning and throw thunder in jail. You know I’m bad. Just last week, I murdered a rock, Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean, I make medicine sick” "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.” Ali spoke like no man the world had seen before. So confident in what he said; fluent, smooth, creative, and intimidating. He was a boxer and an activist, but he also had a role in influencing what now dominated pop-culture, hip-hop. In 2006, the documentary Ali Rap was produced by ESPN. Chuck D, a rapper for the band Public Enemy is the host. Other rappers narrated the documentary as well, including Doug E Fresh, Ludacris and Rakim who all spoke on Ali's behalf in the film.
He has been cited as an inspiration by rappers such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Jay-Z, Eminem, Sean Combs, Slick Rick, Nas and MC Lyte. Ali has been referenced in a number of hip hop songs, including Migos "Fight Night", The Game's "Jesus Piece", Nas' "The Message, The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", the Fugees' "Ready or Not", EPMD's "You're a Customer" and Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It".
Professional wrestling
Ali was involved with professional wrestling at different times in his career.
On June 1, 1976, as Ali was preparing for his bout with Inoki, he attended a match featuring Gorilla Monsoon. After the match was over, Ali removed his shirt and jacket and confronted professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon in the ring after his match at a World Wide Wrestling Federation show in Philadelphia Arena. After dodging a few punches, Monsoon put Ali in an airplane spin and dumped him to the mat. Ali stumbled to the corner, where his associate Butch Lewis convinced him to walk away.
On March 31, 1985, Ali was the special guest referee for the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania event.
In 1995, Ali led a group of Japanese and American professional wrestlers, including his 1976 opponent Antonio Inoki and Ric Flair, on a sports diplomacy mission to North Korea. Ali was guest of honor at the record-breaking Collision in Korea, a wrestling event with the largest attendance of all time.
Television appearances
Muhammad Ali's fights were some of the world's most-watched television broadcasts, setting television viewership records. His most-watched fights drew an estimated 12 billion viewers worldwide between 1974 and 1980, and were the world's most-watched live television broadcasts at the time. Outside of fights, he made many other television appearances. The following table lists known viewership figures of his non-fight television appearances. For television viewership figures of his fights, see Boxing career of Muhammad Ali: Television viewership.
Art
Ali was also an amateur artist and made dozens of drawings and paintings in the 1970s. In 1977, Rodney Hilton Brown, who owned an art gallery in NYC, asked Ali if he was interested in painting. Ali took him up on the offer and produced several paintings for him to sell. Brown is the author of “Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet and Prophet." In October 2021, 26 of his drawings and arts were placed on auction and sold for close to $1 Million USD.
Later years
In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's Syndrome, which sometimes results from head trauma from violent physical activities such as boxing. Ali still remained active during this time, later participating as a guest referee at WrestleMania I.
Philanthropy, humanitarianism and politics
Ali was known for being a humanitarian and philanthropist. He focused on practicing his Islamic duty of charity and good deeds, donating millions to charity organizations and disadvantaged people of all religious backgrounds. It is estimated that Ali helped to feed more than 22million people afflicted by hunger across the world. Early in his career, one of his main focuses was youth education. He spoke at several historically black colleges and universities about the importance of education, and became the largest single black donor to the United Negro College Fund in 1967 by way of a $10,000 donation ($78,000 in 2020 USD). In late 1966, he also pledged to donate a total of $100,000 to the UNCF (specifically promising to donate much of the proceeds of his title defense against Cleveland Williams), and paid $4,500 per closed circuit installation at six HBCUs so they could watch his fights.
Ali began visiting Africa, starting in 1964 when he visited Nigeria and Ghana. In 1974, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, where Ali declared "support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland." In 1978, following his loss to Spinks and before winning the rematch, Ali visited Bangladesh and received honorary citizenship there. The same year, he participated in The Longest Walk, a protest march in the United States in support of Native American rights, along with singer Stevie Wonder and actor Marlon Brando.
In 1980, Ali was recruited by President Jimmy Carter for a diplomatic mission to Africa, in an effort to persuade a number of African governments to join the US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics (in response to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan). According to Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, "at best, it was ill-conceived; at worst, a diplomatic disaster." The Tanzanian government was insulted that Carter had sent an athlete to discuss a serious political issue. One official asked whether the United States would "send Chris Evert to negotiate with London." Consequently, Ali was only received by the youth and culture minister, rather than President Julius Nyerere. Ali was unable to explain why the African countries should join the US boycott when it had failed to support the African boycott of the 1976 Olympics (in protest at Apartheid in South Africa), and was unaware that the Soviet Union was sponsoring popular revolutionary movements in Africa. Ali conceded "They didn't tell me about that in America", and complained that Carter had sent him "around the world to take the whupping over American policies." The Nigerian government also rebuffed him and confirmed that they would be participating in the Moscow games. Ali did, however, convince the government of Kenya to boycott the Olympics.
On January 19, 1981, in Los Angeles, Ali talked a suicidal man down from jumping off a ninth-floor ledge, an event that made national news.
In 1984, Ali announced his support for the re-election of United States President Ronald Reagan. When asked to elaborate on his endorsement of Reagan, Ali told reporters, "He's keeping God in schools and that's enough." In 1985, he visited Israel to request the release of Muslim prisoners at Atlit detainee camp, which Israel declined.
Around 1987, the California Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Constitution selected Ali to personify the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ali rode on a float at the following year's Tournament of Roses Parade, launching the U.S. Constitution's 200th birthday commemoration. In 1988, during the First Intifada, Ali participated in a Chicago rally in support of Palestine. The same year, he visited Sudan to raise awareness about the plight of famine victims. According to Politico, Ali supported Orrin Hatch politically. In 1989, he participated in an Indian charity event with the Muslim Educational Society in Kozhikode, Kerala, along with Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar.
In 1990, Ali traveled to Iraq prior to the Gulf War, and met with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages. Ali secured the release of the hostages, in exchange for promising Hussein that he would bring America "an honest account" of Iraq. Despite arranging the hostages release, he received criticism from President George H. W. Bush, and Joseph C. Wilson, the highest-ranking American diplomat in Baghdad.Ali cooperated with Thomas Hauser on a biography, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. The oral history was published in 1991.
In 1994, Ali campaigned to the United States government to come to the aid of refugees afflicted by the Rwandan genocide, and to donate to organizations helping Rwandan refugees.
In 1996, he lit the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. It was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers worldwide.
On November 17, 2002, Ali went to Afghanistan as the "U.N. Messenger of Peace." He was in Kabul for a three-day goodwill mission as a special guest of the UN.
On September 1, 2009, Ali visited Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, the home of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1860s, eventually settling in Kentucky.
On July 27, 2012, Ali was a titular bearer of the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He was helped to his feet by his wife Lonnie to stand before the flag due to his Parkinson's Syndrome rendering him unable to carry it into the stadium. The same year, he was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal in recognition of his lifelong efforts in activism, philanthropy and humanitarianism.
Earnings
By 1978, Ali's total fight purse earnings were estimated to be nearly $60million (inflation-adjusted ), including an estimated $47.45million grossed between 1970 and 1978. By 1980, his total fight purse earnings were estimated to be up to $70million (inflation-adjusted $million).
In 1978, Ali revealed that he was "broke" and several news outlets reported his net worth to be an estimated (inflation-adjusted $million). The press attributed his decline in wealth to several factors, including taxes consuming at least half of his income, management taking a third of his income, his lifestyle, and spending on family, charity and religious causes.
In 2006, Ali sold his name and image for $50million, after which Forbes estimated his net worth to be $55million in 2006. Following his death in 2016, his fortune was estimated to be between $50million and $80million.
Declining health
Ali's bout with Parkinson's Syndrome led to a gradual decline in his health, though he was still active into the early years of the millennium, promoting his own biopic, Ali, in 2001. That year he also contributed an on-camera segment to the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert.
In 1998, Ali began working with actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, to raise awareness and fund research for a cure. They made a joint appearance before Congress to push the case in 2002. In 2000, Ali worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease to raise awareness and encourage donations for research.
In February 2013, Ali's brother Rahman Ali said Muhammad could no longer speak and could be dead within days. Ali's daughter May May Ali responded to the rumors, stating that she had talked to him on the phone the morning of February 3 and he was fine. On December 20, 2014, Ali was hospitalized for a mild case of pneumonia. Ali was once again hospitalized on January 15, 2015, for a urinary tract infection after being found unresponsive at a guest house in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was released the next day.
Death
Ali was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 2, 2016, with a respiratory illness. Though his condition was initially described as fair, it worsened, and he died the following day at the age of 74 from septic shock.
News coverage and tributes
Following Ali's death, he was the number-one trending topic on Twitter for over 12 hours and on Facebook for several days. BET played their documentary Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami. ESPN played four hours of non-stop commercial-free coverage of Ali. News networks, such as ABC News, BBC, CNN, and Fox News, also covered him extensively.
He was mourned globally, and a family spokesman said the family "certainly believes that Muhammad was a citizen of the world ... and they know that the world grieves with him." Politicians such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, David Cameron and more paid tribute to Ali. Ali also received numerous tributes from the world of sports including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, the Miami Marlins, LeBron James, Steph Curry and more. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer stated, "Muhammad Ali belongs to the world. But he only has one hometown."
The day after Ali's death, the UFC paid tribute to Ali at their UFC 199 event in a lengthy video tribute package, crediting Ali for his accomplishments and inspiring multiple UFC champions.
Memorial
Ali's funeral had been pre-planned by himself and others for several years prior to his actual death. The services began in Louisville on June 9, 2016, with an Islamic Janazah prayer service at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center. On June 10, 2016, the funeral procession passed through the streets of Louisville ending at Cave Hill Cemetery, where his body was interred during a private ceremony. A public memorial service for Ali at downtown Louisville's KFC Yum! Center was held during the afternoon of June 10. The pallbearers included Will Smith, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, with honorary pallbearers including George Chuvalo, Larry Holmes and George Foreman. Ali's memorial was watched by an estimated 1billion viewers worldwide.
Legacy
Ali remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times, and was involved in more Ring "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He was one of only three boxers to be named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. Muhammad Ali was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its first year and held wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees during an era that has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. The Associated Press ranked him as the second best boxer and best heavyweight of the 20th century. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years.
In 1978, three years before Ali's permanent retirement, the Louisville Board of Aldermen in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, voted 6–5 to rename Walnut Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard. This was controversial at the time, as within a week 12 of the 70 street signs were stolen. Earlier that year, a committee of the Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) considered renaming Ali's alma mater, Central High School, in his honor, but the motion failed to pass. In time, Muhammad Ali Boulevard—and Ali himself—came to be well accepted in his hometown.
Ali was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990.
In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athlete, out of over 800 dead or living athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth. He was the recipient of the 1997 Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
At the end of the 20th century he was ranked at or near the top of most lists of the century's greatest athletes. He was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated. Named BBC's Sports Personality of the Century, he received more votes than the other five candidates combined. He was named Athlete of the Century by USA Today, and ranked as the third greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury. Ali was named "Kentucky Athlete of the Century" by the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Galt House East.
In 1999, Time magazine named Ali one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
On January 8, 2001, Muhammad Ali was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton. In November 2005, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, followed by the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold of the UN Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin for his work with the civil rights movement and the United Nations, which he received on December 17, 2005.
On November 19, 2005, Ali and his wife Lonnie Ali opened the $60million non-profit Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville. In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth. On June 5, 2007, he received an honorary doctorate of humanities at Princeton University's 260th graduation ceremony.
Ali Mall, located in Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippines, is named after him. Construction of the mall, the first of its kind in the Philippines, began shortly after Ali's victory in a match with Joe Frazier in nearby Araneta Coliseum in 1975. The mall opened in 1976 with Ali attending its opening.
The 1976 Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight played an important role in the history of mixed martial arts. In Japan, the match inspired Inoki's students Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki to found Pancrase in 1993, which in turn inspired the foundation of Pride Fighting Championships in 1997. Pride was acquired by its rival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, in 2007.
The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was introduced in 1999 and passed in 2000, to protect the rights and welfare of boxers in the United States. In May 2016, a bill was introduced to United States Congress by Markwayne Mullin, a politician and former MMA fighter, to extend the Ali Act to mixed martial arts. In June 2016, US senator Rand Paul proposed an amendment to the US draft laws named after Ali, a proposal to eliminate the Selective Service System.
In 2015, Sports Illustrated renamed its Sportsman Legacy Award to the Sports Illustrateds Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. The annual award was originally created in 2008 and honors former "sports figures who embody the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy as vehicles for changing the world." Ali first appeared on the magazine's cover in 1963 and went on to be featured on numerous covers during his storied career.
On January 13, 2017, seven months or so after Ali's death, and 4 days before what would have been his 75th birthday, the Muhammad Ali Commemorative Coin Act was introduced into the 115th Congress (2017–2019), as H.R. 579 (House of Representatives) and as S. 166 (Senate). However, both "died" within 10 days.
In the media and popular culture
As a world champion boxer, social activist, sex symbol and pop culture icon, Ali was the subject of numerous creative works including books, films, music, video games, TV shows, and other. Muhammad Ali was often dubbed the world's "most famous" person in the media. Several of his fights were watched by an estimated 12 billion viewers between 1974 and 1980, and his lighting of the torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers.
Ali appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 38 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan's 46. He also appeared on the cover of Time Magazine 5 times, the most of any athlete. In 2015, Harris Poll found that Ali was one of the three most recognizable athletes in the United States, along with Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.
Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee was influenced by Ali, whose footwork he studied and incorporated into his own style while developing Jeet Kune Do in the 1960s.
On the set of Freedom Road Ali met Canadian singer-songwriter Michel, and subsequently helped create Michel's album The First Flight of the Gizzelda Dragon and an unaired television special featuring them both.
Ali was the subject of the British television program This Is Your Life in 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. Ali was featured in Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, a 1978 DC Comics comic book pitting the champ against the superhero. In 1979, Ali guest-starred as himself in an episode of the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. The show's title itself was inspired by the quote "Different strokes for different folks" popularized in 1966 by Ali, who also inspired the title of the 1967 Syl Johnson song "Different Strokes", one of the most sampled songs in pop music history.
He also wrote several bestselling books about his career, including The Greatest: My Own Story and The Soul of a Butterfly. The Muhammad Ali effect, named after Ali, is a term that came into use in psychology in the 1980s, as he stated in The Greatest: My Own Story: "I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest." According to this effect, when people are asked to rate their intelligence and moral behavior in comparison to others, people will rate themselves as more moral, but not more intelligent than others.
When We Were Kings, a 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The 2001 biopic Ali garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Will Smith for his portrayal of Ali. Prior to making the film, Smith rejected the role until Ali requested that he accept it. Smith said the first thing Ali told him was: "Man, you're almost pretty enough to play me."
In 2002, Ali was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the entertainment industry. His star is the only one to be mounted on a vertical surface, out of deference to his request that the name Muhammad—a name he shares with the Islamic prophet—not be walked upon.
His 1966 fight against George Chuvalo was the subject of Joseph Blasioli's 2003 documentary film The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali.
The Trials of Muhammad Ali, a documentary directed by Bill Siegel that focuses on Ali's refusal of the draft during the Vietnam War, opened in Manhattan on August 23, 2013. A 2013 made-for-TV movie titled Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight dramatized the same aspect of Ali's life.
Antoine Fuqua's documentary What's My Name: Muhammad Ali was released in 2019.
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns created the four-part documentary film Muhammad Ali, spanning over eight hours on Ali's entire life. Burns worked on the film since early 2016. It is scheduled to release in September 2021 on PBS. Dave Zirin who watched an 8 hour rough cut of this documentary called it "utterly outstanding" and said "the footage they found will blow minds".
Discography
I Am the Greatest (1963)
The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976)
See also
List of heavyweight boxing champions
List of WBA world champions
List of WBC world champions
List of The Ring world champions
List of undisputed boxing champions
Converts to Islam
Notable boxing families
List of people from the Louisville metropolitan area
List of North American Muslims
African-American Muslims
1981 MAPS Wells Fargo embezzlement scandal
Notes
References
Further reading
Online
Muhammad Ali: American boxer, in Encyclopædia Britannica Online, by Thomas Hauser, Adam Augustyn, Piyush Bhathya, Yamini Chauhan, John M. Cunningham, Richard Pallardy, Michael Ray, Emily Rodriguez, Surabhi Sinha, Amy Tikkanen, Grace Young and The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
External links
Official website (archived)
William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services: Ancestry of Muhammad Ali
FBI Records: The Vault – Muhammad Ali at the FBI
Cassius Clay Guilty (1967), Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Photo essays'''
1942 births
2016 deaths
20th-century American rappers
20th-century Muslims
21st-century Muslims
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from Kentucky
African-American activists
African-American boxers
African-American male rappers
African-American Muslims
African-American poets
African-American Sunni Muslims
American anti–Vietnam War activists
American conscientious objectors
American former Protestants
American humanitarians
American male boxers
American male poets
American male rappers
American Muslim activists
American people of Irish descent
American people of Malagasy descent
American philanthropists
American spoken word poets
American Sufis
BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year winners
Boxers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Boxers from Arizona
Boxers from Chicago
Boxers from Louisville, Kentucky
Boxers from New Jersey
Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery
Central High School (Louisville, Kentucky) alumni
COINTELPRO targets
Columbia Records artists
Converts to Sunni Islam from Protestantism
Deaths from sepsis
Former Nation of Islam members
International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees
Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Neurological disease deaths in Arizona
Olympic boxers of the United States
Olympic cauldron lighters
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in boxing
Overturned convictions in the United States
People from Cherry Hill, New Jersey
People from Paradise Valley, Arizona
People with Parkinson's disease
People with traumatic brain injuries
Poets from Arizona
Poets from Kentucky
Poets from New Jersey
Presidential Citizens Medal recipients
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Professional wrestling referees
Rappers from Kentucky
Sportspeople from Camden County, New Jersey
Sportspeople from the Phoenix metropolitan area
The Ring (magazine) champions
Vietnam War draft evaders
Winners of the United States Championship for amateur boxers
World Boxing Association champions
World Boxing Council champions
World heavyweight boxing champions
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
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[
"Jabir Herbert Muhammad (April 16, 1929 – August 25, 2008) was an American businessman and co-founder of Top Rank, Inc. He was the longtime manager of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.\n\nEarly life \nMuhammad was born in Detroit, Michigan, as the third son of the Nation of Islam leader, Elijah Muhammad. He served as a chief adviser to his father until his departure in 1975. He also worked as the chief business manager for the Nation of Islam, and he along with Malcolm X founded their weekly newspaper. Jabir Muhammad was a staunch supporter of his brother, Imam Warith Deen Muhammad, whom he followed into mainstream Islam. He, along with Muhammad Ali and others, built Masjid Al-Fatir, a stand-alone, purpose-built Masjid on the south side of Chicago, Illinois. This was one of the first mosques built from the ground by Muslim Americans, especially African American Muslims.\n\nCareer \nMuhammad was the director and founder of the Muhammad Islamic Foundation, a not-for-profit foundation which published the book Prayer and Al-Islam by Imam Warith Deen Mohammed in 1984.\n\nMuhammad managed Muhammad Ali's professional boxing career from 1966 when he took over Ali's management after the expiry of Ali's management agreement with the Louisville Sponsoring Group, until Ali's retirement in 1981. Muhammad negotiated the first multimillion-dollar earnings for any athlete, starting with the $2.5M Ali earned for the Frazier vs Ali \"Fight of the Century\" in March 1971 and including the $5.5M purse Ali achieved for the Foreman vs Ali \"Rumble in the Jungle\" in Zaire in 1974. Muhammad was considered one of the most powerful figures in boxing in the 1960s and 1970s, achieving the International Boxing Hall of Fame's 1974 \"Manager of the Year\" award. He continued to manage Ali's career for another ten years after his retirement from boxing. Muhammad then went on to a successful career in business.\n\nJabir Herbert Muhammad died on August 25, 2008, at the University of Illinois Medical Center in Chicago, at the age of 79, after undergoing heart surgery. He was survived by his wife, Amenah Antonia Muhammad, and fourteen children.\n\nCriticism\nMuhammad has been criticized for his handling of Ali's money and for allowing him to continue boxing into \"fistic old age\". This led to suggestions of exploitation of Ali given the fighter's early indications of health issues from around 1977 onwards, when \"ring doctor\" Ferdie Pacheco wrote to Muhammad amongst others to recommend that Ali cease fighting, given what he saw as emerging health issues in the fighter. Instead Ali kept fighting for another four years, judged by many to be a major contributory factor in Ali's eventual Parkinson's syndrome diagnosis. Others questioned Muhammad's actual business acumen, given Ali's financial profligacy and lack of quality income generating activity post-retirement. Ali's financial affairs improved in the 1990s after his management was taken over largely by his wife, Lonnie Ali. Ali's business affairs from the 1990s onward had little or nothing to do with Muhammad.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n New York Times: Jabir Herbert Muhammad, Who Managed Muhammad Ali, Dies at 79 \n Final Call: Memories of the life, work of Jabir Muhammad by Richard Muhammad\n\n2008 deaths\nAmerican boxing managers\nAmerican sports businesspeople\nBusinesspeople from Chicago\nElijah Muhammad family\nAfrican-American Muslims\n1929 births\n20th-century American businesspeople\n20th-century African-American sportspeople",
"Murad Muhammad is an American boxing promoter, the owner of the company M & M Sports.\n\nMurad’s introduction to boxing was through traveling the world with Muhammad Ali. He was only 16 then and for 10 years, he was Ali’s personal security man.\n\nHe became the first African-American to receive a promoter’s license in the State of New Jersey in the mid 1970s. Muhammad was the first promoter to have a professional boxing show held and televised behind prison walls when HBO televised a fight out of Rahway State Prison between prisoner and ranked fighter, James Scott, against contender, Eddie ”The Flame” Gregory later known as Eddie Mustafa Muhammad. He is also credited with bringing the first Heavyweight \nChampionship bout featuring Larry Holmes vs. Scott Frank, to New Jersey in 50 years. He had the highest audience share for a network boxing event on NBC with Larry Holmes vs. Marvis Frazier (49% show prime time)\n\nHis remaining name fighter was a 43-year-old Evander Holyfield who he promoted in his comeback attempt but took a bath in his fight against Fres Oquendo.\nHolyfield was paid $2 million for the Oquendo fight which the live gate in the range of $400,000 and meager PPV sales couldn't refinance.\n\nExternal links\nBio\nEastside Interview\nArticle\nPacquiao troubles\n\nBoxing promoters\nLiving people\nAmerican male boxers\nYear of birth missing (living people)"
] |
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"Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming"
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Was he arrested?
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Was Muhammad Ali ever arrested?
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Muhammad Ali
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Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had a sister and four brothers. He was named for his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. (1912-1990), who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist, Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with smaller amounts of Irish and English heritage. His father painted billboards and signs, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917-1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali) as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. Clay grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store--"They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend's taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local railyard. Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually moulding "my style, my stamina and my system". For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak. Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet and philanthropist. Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He became a Muslim after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. Also that year, he renounced his birth name as a "slave name" and formally became known as Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. However, he had not fought for nearly four years by this point and had lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger 1960s counterculture generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam, and supported racial integration like his former mentor Malcolm X.
He fought in several historic boxing matches, such as his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many boxers let their managers do the talking, and he became renowned for his provocative and outlandish persona. He was known for trash-talking, and often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry incorporating elements of hip hop, and often predicted in which round he would knockout his opponent.
Outside boxing, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, releasing two studio albums: I Am the Greatest! (1963) and The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976). Both albums received Grammy Award nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attributed to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family. Ali died on June 3, 2016.
Early life and amateur career
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. ( ) was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had one brother. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., who had a sister and four brothers and who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with some Irish and English family heritage. Ali's maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland. DNA testing performed in 2018 showed that, through his paternal grandmother, Ali was a descendant of the former slave Archer Alexander, who had been chosen from the building crew as the model of a freed man for the Emancipation Memorial, and was the subject of abolitionist William Greenleaf Eliot's book, The Story of Archer Alexander: From Slavery to Freedom. Like Ali, Alexander fought for his freedom.
His father was a sign and billboard painter, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917–1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother, Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali), as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. He was dyslexic, which led to difficulties in reading and writing, at school and for much of his life. Ali grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store: "They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also strongly affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local rail yard. His daughter Hana later wrote that Ali once told her, "Nothing would ever shake me up (more) than the story of Emmett Till."
Ali was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually molding "my style, my stamina and my system." For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak.
Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.
Early professional boxing career
Early career
Clay made his professional debut on October 29, 1960, winning a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker. From then until the end of 1963, Clay amassed a record of 19–0 with 15 wins by knockout. He defeated boxers including Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, LaMar Clark, Doug Jones and Henry Cooper. Clay also beat his former trainer and veteran boxer Archie Moore in a 1962 match.
These early fights were not without trials. Clay was knocked down by both Sonny Banks and Cooper. In the Cooper fight, Clay was floored by a left hook at the end of round four and was saved by the bell, going on to win in the predicted 5th round due to Cooper's severely cut eye. The fight with Doug Jones on March 13, 1963 was Clay's toughest fight during this stretch. The number two and three heavyweight contenders respectively, Clay and Jones fought on Jones' home turf at New York's Madison Square Garden. Jones staggered Clay in the first round, and the unanimous decision for Clay was greeted by boos and a rain of debris thrown into the ring. Watching on closed-circuit TV, heavyweight champ Sonny Liston quipped that if he fought Clay he might get locked up for murder. The fight was later named "Fight of the Year" by The Ring magazine.
In each of these fights, Clay vocally belittled his opponents and vaunted his abilities. He called Jones "an ugly little man" and Cooper a "bum". He said he was embarrassed to get in the ring with Alex Miteff and claimed that Madison Square Garden was "too small for me." Ali's trash-talk was inspired by professional wrestler "Gorgeous George" Wagner's, after he saw George's talking ability attract huge crowds to events. Ali stated in a 1969 interview with the Associated Press' Hubert Mizel that he met with George in Las Vegas in 1961, that George told him that talking a big game would earn paying fans who either wanted to see him win or wanted to see him lose, thus Ali transformed himself into a self-described "big-mouth and a bragger".
In 1960, Clay left Moore's camp, partially due to Clay's refusal to do chores such as washing dishes and sweeping. To replace Moore, Clay hired Angelo Dundee to be his trainer. Clay had met Dundee in February 1957 during Clay's amateur career. Around this time, Clay sought longtime idol Sugar Ray Robinson to be his manager, but was rebuffed.
World heavyweight champion
Fights against Liston
By late 1963, Clay had become the top contender for Sonny Liston's title. The fight was set for February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach. Liston was an intimidating personality, a dominating fighter with a criminal past and ties to the mob. Based on Clay's uninspired performance against Jones and Cooper in his previous two fights, and Liston's destruction of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in two first-round knockouts, Clay was a 7–1 underdog. Despite this, Clay taunted Liston during the pre-fight buildup, dubbing him "the big ugly bear", stating "Liston even smells like a bear" and claiming "After I beat him I'm going to donate him to the zoo." Clay turned the pre-fight weigh-in into a circus, shouting at Liston that "someone is going to die at ringside tonight." Clay's pulse rate was measured at 120, more than double his normal 54. Many of those in attendance thought Clay's behavior stemmed from fear, and some commentators wondered if he would show up for the bout.
The outcome of the fight was a major upset. At the opening bell, Liston rushed at Clay, seemingly angry and looking for a quick knockout. However, Clay's superior speed and mobility enabled him to elude Liston, making the champion miss and look awkward. At the end of the first round, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston repeatedly with jabs. Liston fought better in round two, but at the beginning of the third round Clay hit Liston with a combination that buckled his knees and opened a cut under his left eye. This was the first time Liston had ever been cut. At the end of round four, Clay was returning to his corner when he began experiencing blinding pain in his eyes and asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to cut off his gloves. Dundee refused. It has been speculated that the problem was due to ointment used to seal Liston's cuts, perhaps deliberately applied by his corner to his gloves. Though unconfirmed, boxing historian Bert Sugar said that two of Liston's opponents also complained about their eyes "burning".
Despite Liston's attempts to knock out a blinded Clay, Clay was able to survive the fifth round until sweat and tears rinsed the irritation from his eyes. In the sixth, Clay dominated, hitting Liston repeatedly. Liston did not answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by TKO. Liston stated that the reason he quit was an injured shoulder. Following the win, a triumphant Clay rushed to the edge of the ring and, pointing to the ringside press, shouted: "Eat your words!" He added, "I am the greatest! I shook up the world. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived."
At ringside post fight, Clay appeared unconvinced that the fight was stopped due to a Liston shoulder injury, saying that the only injury Liston had was "an open eye, a big cut eye!" When told by Joe Louis that the injury was a "left arm thrown out of its socket," Clay quipped, "Yeah, swinging at nothing, who wouldn't?"
In winning this fight at the age of 22, Clay became the youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion. However, Floyd Patterson remained the youngest to win the heavyweight championship, doing so at the age 21 during an elimination bout following Rocky Marciano's retirement. Mike Tyson broke both records in 1986 when he defeated Trevor Berbick to win the heavyweight title at age 20.
Soon after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Cassius X, and then later to Muhammad Ali upon converting to Islam and affiliating with the Nation of Islam. Ali then faced a rematch with Liston scheduled for May 1965 in Lewiston, Maine. It had been scheduled for Boston the previous November, but was postponed for six months due to Ali's emergency surgery for a hernia three days before. The fight was controversial. Midway through the first round, Liston was knocked down by a difficult-to-see blow the press dubbed a "phantom punch". Referee Jersey Joe Walcott did not begin the count immediately after the knockdown, as Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Liston rose after he had been down for about 20 seconds, and the fight momentarily continued. However a few seconds later Walcott, having been informed by the timekeepers that Liston had been down for a count of 10, stopped the match and declared Ali the winner by knockout. The entire fight lasted less than two minutes.
It has since been speculated that Liston purposely dropped to the ground. Proposed motivations include threats on his life from the Nation of Islam, that he had bet against himself and that he "took a dive" to pay off debts. Slow-motion replays show that Liston was jarred by a chopping right from Ali, although it is unclear whether the blow was a genuine knockout punch.
Fight against Patterson
Ali defended his title against former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson on November 22, 1965. Before the match, Ali mocked Patterson, who was widely known to call him by his former name Cassius Clay, as an "Uncle Tom", calling him "The Rabbit". Although Ali clearly had the better of Patterson, who appeared injured during the fight, the match lasted 12 rounds before being called on a technical knockout. Patterson later said he had strained his sacroiliac. Ali was criticized in the sports media for appearing to have toyed with Patterson during the fight. Patterson biographer W. K. Stratton claims that the conflict between Ali and Patterson was not genuine but was staged to increase ticket sales and the closed-circuit viewing audience, with both men complicit in the theatrics. Stratton also cites an interview by Howard Cosell in which Ali explained that rather than toying with Patterson, he refrained from knocking him out after it became apparent Patterson was injured. Patterson later said that he had never been hit by punches as soft as Ali's. Stratton states that Ali arranged the second fight, in 1972, with the financially struggling Patterson to help the former champion earn enough money to pay a debt to the IRS.
Main Bout
After the Patterson fight, Ali founded his own promotion company, Main Bout. The company mainly handled Ali's boxing promotions and pay-per-view closed-circuit television broadcasts. The company's stockholders were mainly fellow Nation of Islam members, along with several others, including Bob Arum.
Ali and then-WBA heavyweight champion boxer Ernie Terrell had agreed to meet for a bout in Chicago on March 29, 1966 (the WBA, one of two boxing associations, had stripped Ali of his title following his joining the Nation of Islam). But in February Ali was reclassified by the Louisville draft board as 1-A from 1-Y, and he indicated that he would refuse to serve, commenting to the press, "I ain't got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me nigger." Amidst the media and public outcry over Ali's stance, the Illinois Athletic Commission refused to sanction the fight, citing technicalities.
Instead, Ali traveled to Canada and Europe and won championship bouts against George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London and Karl Mildenberger.
Ali returned to the United States to fight Cleveland Williams in the Houston Astrodome on November 14, 1966. The bout drew a record-breaking indoor crowd of 35,460 people. Williams had once been considered among the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division, but in 1964 he had been shot at point-blank range by a Texas policeman, resulting in the loss of one kidney and of his small intestine. Ali dominated Williams, winning a third-round technical knockout in what some consider the finest performance of his career.
Ali fought Terrell in Houston on February 6, 1967. Terrell, who was unbeaten in five years and had defeated many of the boxers Ali had faced, was billed as Ali's toughest opponent since Liston; he was big, strong and had a three-inch reach advantage over Ali. During the lead up to the bout, Terrell repeatedly called Ali "Clay", much to Ali's annoyance. The two almost came to blows over the name issue in a pre-fight interview with Howard Cosell. Ali seemed intent on humiliating Terrell. "I want to torture him", he said. "A clean knockout is too good for him." The fight was close until the seventh round, when Ali bloodied Terrell and almost knocked him out. In the eighth round, Ali taunted Terrell, hitting him with jabs and shouting between punches, "What's my name, Uncle Tom ... what's my name?" Ali won a unanimous 15-round decision. Terrell claimed that early in the fight Ali deliberately thumbed him in the eye, forcing him to fight half-blind, and then, in a clinch, rubbed the wounded eye against the ropes. Because of Ali's apparent intent to prolong the fight to inflict maximum punishment, critics described the bout as "one of the ugliest boxing fights." Tex Maule later wrote: "It was a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty." Ali denied the accusations of cruelty but, for Ali's critics, the fight provided more evidence of his arrogance.
After Ali's title defense against Zora Folley on March 22, he was stripped of his title due to his refusal to be drafted to army service. His boxing license was also suspended by the state of New York. He was convicted of draft evasion on June 20 and sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He paid a bond and remained free while the verdict was being appealed.
Vietnam War and resistance to the draft
Ali registered for conscription in the United States military on his 18th birthday and was listed as 1-A in 1962. In 1964, he was reclassified as Class 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after he failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub-standard, due to his dyslexia. (He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest!") By early 1966, the army lowered its standards to permit soldiers above the 15th percentile and Ali was again classified as 1-A. This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army at a time when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, a war which put him further at odds with the white establishment.
When notified of this status, Ali declared that he would refuse to serve in the army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector. Ali stated: "War is against the teachings of the Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger (Elijah Muhammad then leader of Nation of Islam). We don’t take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers". He also said "We are not to be the aggressor but we will defend ourselves if attacked." He stated: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Ali antagonized the white establishment in 1966 by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.
On April 28, 1967, Ali appeared in Houston for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces, but he refused three times to step forward when his name was called. An officer warned him that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called, and he was arrested. Later that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit. Ali remained unable to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years. On June 4, 1967, in a first for sports professionals, a group of high-profile African-American athletes assembled at the Negro Industrial Economic union in Cleveland for a "Muhammad Ali Summit". The meeting was organized by Jim Brown for his peers to question Ali about the seriousness of his convictions, and to decide whether to support him, which they ultimately did.
At the trial on June 20, 1967, the jury found Ali guilty after only 21minutes of deliberation of the criminal offense of violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. After a Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, the case was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
Ali remained free in the years between the Appellate Court decision and the Supreme Court ruling. As public opinion began turning people against the war and the Civil Rights Movement continued to gather momentum, Ali became a popular speaker at colleges and universities across the country; this itinerary was rare if not unprecedented for a prizefighter. At Howard University, for example, he gave his popular "Black Is Best" speech to 4,000 cheering students and community intellectuals, after he was invited to speak by sociology professor Nathan Hare on behalf of the Black Power Committee, a student protest group.
On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. United States overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8–0 decision (Justice Thurgood Marshall recused himself, as he had been the U.S. Solicitor General at the time of Ali's conviction). The decision was not based on, nor did it address, the merits of Ali's claims per se. Rather, the Court held that since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to Ali, that it was therefore impossible to determine which of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status (offered in the Justice Department's brief) the appeal board relied on, and Ali's conviction must be reversed.
Impact of Ali's draft refusal
Ali's example inspired many black Americans and others. However, initially when he refused induction, he became arguably the most hated man in the country and received many death threats. People who supported Ali during this time were also threatened, including sports journalist Jerry Izenberg, whose columns defended Ali's decision not to serve. He wrote, "Bomb threats emptied our office, making the staff stand out in the snow. My car windshield was smashed with a sledgehammer." The New York Times columnist William Rhoden wrote, "Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"
Recalling Ali's anti-war position, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said: "I remember the teachers at my high school didn't like Ali because he was so anti-establishment and he kind of thumbed his nose at authority and got away with it. The fact that he was proud to be a black man and that he had so much talent ... made some people think that he was dangerous. But for those very reasons I enjoyed him."
Civil rights figures came to believe that Ali had an energizing effect on the freedom movement as a whole. Al Sharpton spoke of his bravery at a time when there was still widespread support for the Vietnam War:
Ali was honored with the annual Martin Luther King Award in 1970 by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy, who called him "a living example of soul power, the March on Washington in two fists." Coretta Scott King added that Ali was "a champion of justice and peace and unity."
In speaking of the cost on Ali's career of his refusal to be drafted, his trainer Angelo Dundee said, "One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years."
Bob Arum did not support Ali's choice at the time. More recently, Arum stated that "when I look back at his life, and I was blessed to call him a friend and spent a lot of time with him, it's hard for me to talk about his exploits in boxing because as great as they were they paled in comparison to the impact that he had on the world," and "He did what he thought was right. And it turned out he was right, and I was wrong."
Ali's resistance to the draft was covered in the 2013 documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali.
NSA and FBI monitoring of Ali's communications
In a secret operation code-named "Minaret", the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted the communications of leading Americans, including Ali, Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., prominent U.S. journalists, and others who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam. A review by the NSA of the Minaret program concluded that it was "disreputable if not outright illegal."
In 1971, his Fight of the Century with Frazier was used by an activist group, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, to pull off a burglary at an FBI office in Pennsylvania; the anticipation for the fight was unlike anything else, so they believed the security would also be focused on the fight. This raid exposed the COINTELPRO operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti-war movements. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Ali, and their activities included the FBI gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school; one such record mentioned him loving art as a child.
Exile and comeback
In March 1966, Ali refused to be inducted into the armed forces. He was systematically denied a boxing license in every state and stripped of his passport. As a result, he did not fight from March 1967 to October 1970—from ages 25 to almost 29—as his case worked its way through the appeals process before his conviction was overturned in 1971.
Protesting while exiled
During this time of inactivity, as opposition to the Vietnam War began to grow and Ali's stance gained sympathy, he spoke at colleges across the nation, criticizing the Vietnam War and advocating African-American pride and racial justice. Ali based himself in Chicago. According to most close to him, his Chicago years were formative.
At the time, Ali was widely condemned by the American media, with fears that his actions could potentially lead to mass civil disobedience. Despite this, Ebony magazine noted in the late 1960s that Ali's popularity had increased during this time, especially among black people.
The Super Fight
While banned from sanctioned bouts, Ali settled a $1 million lawsuit against radio producer Murray Woroner by accepting $10,000 to appear in a privately staged fantasy fight against retired champion Rocky Marciano. In 1969 the boxers were filmed sparring for about 75 one-minute rounds; they produced several potential outcomes. A computer program purportedly determined the winner, based on data about the fighters, along with the opinions of approximately 250 boxing experts. Edited versions of the bout were shown in movie theaters in 1970. In the U.S. version Ali lost in a simulated 13th-round knockout, but in the European version Marciano lost due to cuts, also simulated.
Ali suggested that prejudice determined his defeat in the U.S. version. He was reported to jokingly say, "That computer was made in Alabama."
Return to prizefighting
On August 11, 1970, with his case still in appeal, Ali was granted a license to box by the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission. Leroy Johnson, Jesse Hill Jr. and Harry Pett had used their local political influence and set up the company House of Sports to organize the fight, underlining the influential power of Georgia's black politics in Ali' s comeback. Ali's first return bout was against Jerry Quarry on October 26, resulting in a win after three rounds after Quarry was cut.
A month earlier, a victory in federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali's license. He fought Oscar Bonavena at Madison Square Garden in December, an uninspired performance that ended in a dramatic technical knockout of Bonavena in the 15th round. The win left Ali as a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier.
First fight against Joe Frazier
Ali and Frazier's first fight, held at the Garden on March 8, 1971, was nicknamed the "Fight of the Century", due to the tremendous excitement surrounding a bout between two undefeated fighters, each with a legitimate claim to be heavyweight champion. Veteran US boxing writer John Condon called it "the greatest event I've ever worked on in my life." The bout was broadcast to 36 countries; promoters granted 760 press passes.
Adding to the atmosphere were the considerable pre-fight theatrics and name calling. Before the fight Frazier called Ali, "Cassius Clay", this angered Ali and he portrayed Frazier as a "dumb tool of the white establishment." "Frazier is too ugly to be champ", Ali said. "Frazier is too dumb to be champ." Ali also frequently called Frazier an "Uncle Tom". Dave Wolf, who worked in Frazier's camp, recalled that, "Ali was saying 'the only people rooting for Joe Frazier are white people in suits, Alabama sheriffs, and members of the Ku Klux Klan. I'm fighting for the little man in the ghetto.' Joe was sitting there, smashing his fist into the palm of his hand, saying, 'What the fuck does he know about the ghetto?
Ali began training at a farm near Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1971 and, finding the country setting to his liking, sought to develop a real training camp in the countryside. He found a five-acre site on a Pennsylvania country road in the village of Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. On this site, Ali carved out what was to become his training camp, where he trained for all his fights from 1972 to the end of his career in 1981.
The Monday night fight lived up to its billing. In a preview of their two other fights, a crouching, bobbing and weaving Frazier constantly pressured Ali, getting hit regularly by Ali jabs and combinations, but relentlessly attacking and scoring repeatedly, especially to Ali's body. The fight was even in the early rounds, but Ali was taking more punishment than ever in his career. On several occasions in the early rounds he played to the crowd and shook his head "no" after he was hit. In the later rounds—in what was the first appearance of the "rope-a-dope strategy"—Ali leaned against the ropes and absorbed punishment from Frazier, hoping to tire him. In the 11th round, Frazier connected with a left hook that wobbled Ali, but because it appeared that Ali might be clowning as he staggered backwards across the ring, Frazier hesitated to press his advantage, fearing an Ali counter-attack. In the final round, Frazier knocked Ali down with a vicious left hook, which referee Arthur Mercante said was as hard as a man can be hit. Ali was back on his feet in three seconds. Nevertheless, Ali lost by unanimous decision, his first professional defeat.
Chamberlain challenge and Ellis fight
In 1971, basketball star Wilt Chamberlain challenged Ali to a fight, and a bout was scheduled for July 26. Although the seven-foot-two-inch tall Chamberlain had formidable physical advantages over Ali—weighing 60pounds more and able to reach 14inches further—Ali was able to influence Chamberlain into calling off the bout by taunting him with calls of "Timber!" and "The tree will fall" during a shared interview. These statements of confidence unsettled his taller opponent, whom Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had offered a record-setting contract, conditional on Chamberlain agreeing to abandon what Cooke termed "this boxing foolishness", and he did exactly that. To replace Ali's opponent, promoter Bob Arum quickly booked a former sparring partner of Ali's, Jimmy Ellis, who was a childhood friend from Louisville, Kentucky, to fight him.
After his loss
Fights against Quarry, Patterson, Foster and Norton
After the loss to Frazier, Ali fought Jerry Quarry, had a second bout with Floyd Patterson and faced Bob Foster in 1972, winning a total of six fights that year. In 1973, Ken Norton broke Ali's jaw while giving him the second loss of his career. After initially considering retirement, Ali won a controversial decision against Norton in their second bout. This led to a rematch with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 1974; Frazier had recently lost his title to George Foreman.
Second fight against Joe Frazier
Ali was strong in the early rounds of the fight, and staggered Frazier in the second round. Referee Tony Perez mistakenly thought he heard the bell ending the round and stepped between the two fighters as Ali was pressing his attack, giving Frazier time to recover. However, Frazier came on in the middle rounds, snapping Ali's head in round seven and driving him to the ropes at the end of round eight. The last four rounds saw round-to-round shifts in momentum between the two fighters. Throughout most of the bout, however, Ali was able to circle away from Frazier's dangerous left hook and to tie Frazier up when he was cornered, the latter a tactic that Frazier's camp complained of bitterly. Judges awarded Ali a unanimous decision.
World heavyweight champion (second reign)
The Rumble in the Jungle
The defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974—a bout nicknamed The Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. In assessing the fight, analysts pointed out that Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, who had given Ali four tough battles and won two of them, had both been devastated by Foreman in second-round knockouts. Ali was 32 years old, and had clearly lost speed and reflexes since his twenties. Contrary to his later persona, Foreman was at the time a brooding and intimidating presence. Almost no one associated with the sport, not even Ali's long-time supporter Howard Cosell, gave the former champion a chance of winning.
As usual, Ali was confident and colorful before the fight. He told interviewer David Frost, "If you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait till I whup Foreman's behind!" He told the press, "I've done something new for this fight. I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick." Ali was wildly popular in Zaire, with crowds chanting "Ali, bomaye" ("Ali, kill him") wherever he went.
Ali opened the fight moving and scoring with right crosses to Foreman's head. Then, beginning in the second round, and to the consternation of his corner, Ali retreated to the ropes and invited Foreman to hit him while covering up, clinching and counter-punching, all while verbally taunting Foreman. The move, which would later become known as the "Rope-a-dope", so violated conventional boxing wisdom—letting one of the hardest hitters in boxing strike at will—that at ringside writer George Plimpton thought the fight had to be fixed. Foreman, increasingly angered, threw punches that were deflected and did not land squarely. Midway through the fight, as Foreman began tiring, Ali countered more frequently and effectively with punches and flurries, which electrified the pro-Ali crowd. In the eighth round, Ali dropped an exhausted Foreman with a combination at center ring; Foreman failed to make the count. Against the odds, and amidst pandemonium in the ring, Ali had regained the title by knockout. Reflecting on the fight, George Foreman later said: "I thought Ali was just one more knockout victim until, about the seventh round, I hit him hard to the jaw and he held me and whispered in my ear: 'That all you got, George?' I realized that this ain't what I thought it was."
It was a major upset victory, after Ali came in as a 41 underdog against the previously unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight became famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1billion viewers worldwide. It was the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time.
Fights against Wepner, Lyle and Bugner
Ali's next opponents included Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, and Joe Bugner. Wepner, a journeyman known as "The Bayonne Bleeder", stunned Ali with a knockdown in the ninth round; Ali would later say he tripped on Wepner's foot. It was a bout that would inspire Sylvester Stallone to create the acclaimed film, Rocky.
Third fight against Joe Frazier
Ali then agreed to a third match with Joe Frazier in Manila. The bout, known as the "Thrilla in Manila", was held on October 1, 1975, in temperatures approaching . In the first rounds, Ali was aggressive, moving and exchanging blows with Frazier. However, Ali soon appeared to tire and adopted the "rope-a-dope" strategy, frequently resorting to clinches. During this part of the bout Ali did some effective counter-punching, but for the most part absorbed punishment from a relentlessly attacking Frazier. In the 12th round, Frazier began to tire, and Ali scored several sharp blows that closed Frazier's left eye and opened a cut over his right eye. With Frazier's vision now diminished, Ali dominated the 13th and 14th rounds, at times conducting what boxing historian Mike Silver called "target practice" on Frazier's head. The fight was stopped when Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, refused to allow Frazier to answer the bell for the 15th and final round, despite Frazier's protests. Frazier's eyes were both swollen shut. Ali, in his corner, winner by TKO, slumped on his stool, clearly spent.
An ailing Ali said afterwards that the fight "was the closest thing to dying that I know", and, when later asked if he had viewed the fight on videotape, reportedly said, "Why would I want to go back and see Hell?" After the fight he cited Frazier as "the greatest fighter of all times next to me."
After the third fight with Frazier, Ali considered retirement. He said, “I’m sore all over. My arms, my face, my sides all ache. I’m so, so tired. There is a great possibility that I will retire. You might have seen the last of me. I want to sit back and count my money, live in my house and my farm, work for my people and concentrate on my family."
Later career
Following the Manila bout, Ali fought Jean-Pierre Coopman, Jimmy Young, and Richard Dunn, winning the last by knockout.
The punch used to knock Dunn out was taught to Ali by Taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. Rhee called that punch the "Accupunch"; he learned it from Bruce Lee. The Dunn fight was the last time Ali would knock down an opponent in his boxing career.
Ali fought Ken Norton for the third time in September 1976. The bout, which was held at Yankee Stadium, resulted in Ali winning a heavily contested decision that was loudly booed by the audience. Afterwards, he announced he was retiring from boxing to practice his faith, having converted to Sunni Islam after falling out with the Nation of Islam the previous year.
After returning to beat Alfredo Evangelista in May 1977, Ali struggled in his next fight against Earnie Shavers that September, getting pummeled a few times by punches to the head. Ali won the fight by another unanimous decision, but the bout caused his longtime doctor Ferdie Pacheco to quit after he was rebuffed for telling Ali he should retire. Pacheco was quoted as saying, "the New York State Athletic Commission gave me a report that showed Ali's kidneys were falling apart. I wrote to Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer, his wife and Ali himself. I got nothing back in response. That's when I decided enough is enough."
In February 1978, Ali faced Leon Spinks at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. At the time, Spinks had only seven professional fights to his credit, and had recently fought a draw with journeyman Scott LeDoux. Ali sparred less than two dozen rounds in preparation for the fight, and was seriously out of shape by the opening bell. He lost the title by split decision. A rematch occurred in September at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. 70,000 people attended the bout and paid a total of $6 million admission, making it the largest live gate in boxing history at that time. Ali won a unanimous decision in an uninspiring fight, with referee Lucien Joubert scoring rounds 10-4, judge Ernie Cojoe 10-4, and judge Herman Preis 11-4. This made Ali the first heavyweight champion to win the belt three times.
Following this win, on July 27, 1979, Ali announced his retirement from boxing. His retirement was short-lived, however; Ali announced his comeback to face Larry Holmes for the WBC belt in an attempt to win the heavyweight championship an unprecedented fourth time. The fight was largely motivated by Ali's need for money. Boxing writer Richie Giachetti said, "Larry didn't want to fight Ali. He knew Ali had nothing left; he knew it would be a horror."
It was around this time that Ali started struggling with vocal stutters and trembling hands. The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) ordered that he undergo a complete physical in Las Vegas before being allowed to fight again. Ali chose instead to check into the Mayo Clinic, who declared him fit to fight. Their opinion was accepted by the NAC on July 31, 1980, paving the way for Ali's return to the ring.
The fight took place on October 2, 1980, in Las Vegas Valley, with Holmes easily dominating Ali, who was weakened from thyroid medication he had taken to lose weight. Giachetti called the fight "awful ... the worst sports event I ever had to cover." Actor Sylvester Stallone was at ringside and said that it was like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive. After the tenth round, Angelo Dundee told the referee to stop the fight, making it the only time that Ali ever lost by stoppage. The Holmes fight is said to have contributed to Ali's Parkinson's syndrome. Despite pleas to definitively retire, Ali fought one last time on December 11, 1981, in Nassau, Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, losing a ten-round decision.
By the end of his boxing career Ali had absorbed an estimated 200,000 hits.
Exhibition bouts
Ali boxed both well known boxers and celebrities from other walks of life, including Michael Dokes, Antonio Inoki, Lyle Alzado, Dave Semenko, and the famous Puerto Rican comedian Jose Miguel Agrelot (with Iris Chacon acting as Agrelot's corner-woman).
Ali vs Inoki
On June 26, 1976, Ali participated in an exhibition bout in Tokyo against Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist Antonio Inoki. Ali was only able to land two jabs while Inoki's kicks caused two blood clots and an infection that almost resulted in Ali's leg being amputated, as a result of Ali's team insisting on rules restricting Inoki's ability to wrestle. The match was not scripted and ultimately declared a draw. After Ali's death, The New York Times declared it his least memorable fight. Most boxing commentators at the time viewed the fight negatively and hoped it would be forgotten as some considered it a "15-round farce." Today it is considered by some to be one of Ali's most influential fights and CBS Sports said the attention the mixed-style bout received "foretold the arrival of standardized MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) years later." After the fight, Ali and Inoki became friends.
Ali vs Alzado
In 1979, Ali fought an exhibition match against NFL player Lyle Alzado. The fight went 8 rounds and was declared a draw.
Ali vs Semenko
Ali fought NHL player, Dave Semenko in an exhibition on June 12, 1983. The match was officially a draw after going three rounds, but the Associated Press reported Ali was not seriously trying and was just toying with Semenko.
Personal life
Marriages and children
Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. Ali was introduced to cocktail waitress Sonji Roi by Herbert Muhammad and asked her to marry him after their first date. They married approximately one month later on August 14, 1964. They quarreled over Sonji's refusal to join the Nation Of Islam. According to Ali, "She wouldn't do what she was supposed to do. She wore lipstick; she went into bars; she dressed in clothes that were revealing and didn't look right." The marriage was childless and they divorced on January 10, 1966. Just before the divorce was finalized, Ali sent Sonji a note: "You traded heaven for hell, baby." Ali's brother Rahman said that she was Ali's only true love and the Nation of Islam made Ali divorce her and Ali never got over it.
On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. Born into a Chicago family that had converted to the Nation Of Islam, she later changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: author and rapper Maryum "May May" (born 1968); twins Jamillah and Rasheda (born 1970), who married Robert Walsh and has a son, Biaggio Ali, born in 1998; and Muhammad Ali Jr. (born 1972). Rasheda's son Nico is a professional boxer.
Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the early 1970s. At age 32 in 1974, Ali began an extramarital relationship with 16-year-old Wanda Bolton (who subsequently changed her name to Aaisha Ali) with whom he fathered another daughter, Khaliah (born 1974). While still married to Belinda, Ali married Aaisha in an Islamic ceremony that was not legally recognized. According to Khaliah, Aaisha and her mother lived at Ali's Deer Lake training camp alongside Belinda and her children. In January 1985, Aaisha sued Ali for unpaid palimony. The case was settled when Ali agreed to set up a $200,000 trust fund for Khaliah. In 2001 Khaliah was quoted as saying she believed her father viewed her as "a mistake". He had another daughter, Miya (born 1972), from an extramarital relationship with Patricia Harvell.
By the summer of 1977, his second marriage ended due to Ali's repeated infidelity, and he had married actress and model Veronica Porché. At the time of their marriage, they had a daughter, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila Ali, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Porché were divorced due to Ali's continuous infidelity. Porché said of Ali's infidelity, "It was too much temptation for him, with women who threw themselves at him, It didn’t mean anything. He didn't have affairs – he had one-night stands. I knew beyond a doubt there were no feelings involved. It was so obvious, It was easy to forgive him."
On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams. Lonnie first met Ali at the age of 6 when her family moved to Louisville in 1963. In 1982, she became Ali's primary caregiver and in return, he paid for her to attend graduate school at UCLA. Together they adopted a son, Asaad Amin (born 1986), when Asaad was five months old. In 1992, Lonnie incorporated Greatest of All Time, Inc. (G.O.A.T. Inc) to consolidate and license his intellectual properties for commercial purposes. She served as the vice president and treasurer until the sale of the company in 2006.
Kiiursti Mensah-Ali claims she is Ali's biological daughter with Barbara Mensah, with whom he allegedly had a 20-year relationship, citing photographs and a paternity test conducted in 1988. She said he accepted responsibility and took care of her, but all contacts with him were cut off after he married his fourth wife Lonnie. Kiiursti says she has a relationship with his other children. After his death she again made passionate appeals to be allowed to mourn at his funeral.
In 2010, Osmon Williams came forward claiming to be Ali's biological son. His mother Temica Williams (also known as Rebecca Holloway) launched a $3 million lawsuit against Ali in 1981 for sexual assault, claiming that she had started a sexual relationship with him when she was 12, and that her son Osmon (born 1977) was fathered by Ali. She further alleged that Ali had originally supported her and her son financially, but stopped doing so after four years. The case went on until 1986 and was eventually thrown out as her allegations were deemed to be barred by the statute of limitations. According to Veronica, Ali admitted to the affair with Williams, but did not believe Osmon was his son which Veronica supported by saying "Everybody in the camp was going with that girl." Ali biographer and friend Thomas Hauser has said this claim was of "questionable veracity".
Ali then lived in Scottsdale, Arizona with Lonnie. In January 2007, it was reported that they had put their home in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which they had bought in 1975, up for sale and had purchased a home in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000. Both homes were subsequently sold after Ali's death with Lonnie living in their remaining home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Lonnie converted to Islam from Catholicism in her late twenties.
In an interview in 1974, Ali said, "If they say stand and salute the flag I do that out of respect, because I'm in the country". Ali would later say, "If America was in trouble and real war came, I'd be on the front line if we had been attacked. But I could see that (The Vietnam War) wasn't right." He also said, "Black men would go over there and fight, but when they came home, they couldn't even be served a hamburger."
Ali's daughter Laila was a professional boxer from 1999 until 2007, despite her father's previous opposition to women's boxing. In 1978, he said "Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that." Ali still attended a number of his daughter's fights and later admitted to Laila he was wrong. Ali's daughter Hana is married to Bellator middleweight fighter Kevin Casey. Hana wrote about her father, "His love for people was extraordinary. I would get home from school to find homeless families sleeping in our guest room. He’d see them on the street, pile them into his Rolls-Royce and bring them home. He’d buy them clothes, take them to hotels and pay the bills for months in advance." She also said celebrities like Michael Jackson and Clint Eastwood would often visit Ali. After Ali met a lesbian couple who were fans of his in 1997, he smiled and said to his friend Hauser, "They look like they’re happy together." Hauser wrote about the story, "The thought that Liz and Roz (the lesbian couple he met) were happy pleased Muhammad. Ali wanted people to be happy."
Religion and beliefs
Affiliation with the Nation of Islam
Ali said that he first heard of the Nation of Islam when he was fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago in 1959, and attended his first Nation of Islam meeting in 1961. He continued to attend meetings, although keeping his involvement hidden from the public. In 1962, Clay met Malcolm X, who soon became his spiritual and political mentor. By the time of the first Liston fight, Nation of Islam members, including Malcolm X, were visible in his entourage. This led to a story in The Miami Herald just before the fight disclosing that Clay had joined the Nation of Islam, which nearly caused the bout to be canceled. The article quoted Cassius Clay Sr. as saying that his son had joined the Black Muslims when he was 18.
In fact, Clay was initially refused entry to the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) due to his boxing career. However, after he won the championship from Liston in 1964, the Nation of Islam was more receptive and agreed to publicize his membership. Shortly afterwards on March 6, Elijah Muhammad gave a radio address that Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (most high). Around that time Ali moved to the south side of Chicago and lived in a series of houses, always near the Nation of Islam's Mosque Maryam or Elijah Muhammad's residence. He stayed in Chicago for about 12 years.
Only a few journalists, most notably Howard Cosell, accepted the new name at that time. Ali stated that his earlier name was a "slave name," and a "white man's name" and added that "I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it". The person he was named after was a white man and emancipationist who released slaves. Ali explained in his autobiography after studying his works, "While Clay may have gotten rid of his slaves, he "held on to white supremacy." In truth, Cassius Clay's attachment to slavery went farther than Ali knew. In spite of his abolitionist fervor, Clay owned more slaves in 1865, when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally forbade its practice, than he had inherited from his father 37 years earlier.
Not afraid to antagonize the white establishment, Ali stated, "I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me." Ali's friendship with Malcolm X ended as Malcolm split with the Nation of Islam a couple of weeks after Ali joined, and Ali remained with the Nation of Islam. Ali later said that turning his back on Malcolm was one of the mistakes he regretted most in his life.
Aligning himself with the Nation of Islam, its leader Elijah Muhammad, and a narrative that labeled the white race as the perpetrator of genocide against African Americans made Ali a target of public condemnation. The Nation of Islam was widely viewed by whites and some African Americans as a black separatist "hate religion" with a propensity toward violence; Ali had few qualms about using his influential voice to speak Nation of Islam doctrine. In a press conference articulating his opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali stated, "My enemy is the white people, not Vietcong or Chinese or Japanese." In relation to integration, he said: "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all." Further articulating his opposition to integration, he told members of the KKK at a Klan rally in 1975 that "black people should marry their own women... blue birds are blue birds, red birds are red birds, pigeons with pigeons, eagles with eagles, God did not make no mistake".
Writer Jerry Izenberg once noted that, "the Nation became Ali's family and Elijah Muhammad became his father. But there is an irony to the fact that while the Nation branded white people as devils, Ali had more white colleagues than most African American people did at that time in America, and continued to have them throughout his career."
Conversion to Sunni/Sufi Islam
In Hauser's biography Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, Ali says that although he's not a Christian as he thinks the idea of God having a son sounds wrong and doesn't make sense to him, as he believes, "God don't beget; man begets". He still believes that even good Christians or good Jews can receive God's blessing and enter heaven as he stated, "God created all people, no matter what their religion". He also stated, "If you're against someone because he's a Muslim that's wrong. If you're against someone because he's a Christian or a Jew, that's wrong".
In a 2004 autobiography, Ali attributed his conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam to Warith Deen Muhammad, who assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad, and persuaded the Nation's followers to become adherents of Sunni Islam. He said some people didn't like the change and stuck to Elijah's teachings, but he admired it and so left Elijah's teachings and became a follower of Sunni Islam.
Ali had gone on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1972, which inspired him in a similar manner to Malcolm X, meeting people of different colors from all over the world giving him a different outlook and greater spiritual awareness. In 1977, he said that, after he retired, he would dedicate the rest of his life to getting "ready to meet God" by helping people, charitable causes, uniting people and helping to make peace. He went on another Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1988.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he stated that "Islam is a religion of peace" and "does not promote terrorism or killing people", and that he was "angry that the world sees a certain group of Islam followers who caused this destruction, but they are not real Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims." In December 2015, he stated that "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion", that "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda", and that "political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam, and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is."
In later life after retiring from boxing, Ali became a student of the Quran and a devout Muslim. He also developed an interest in Sufism, which he referenced in his autobiography, The Soul of a Butterfly. According to Ali's daughter, Hana Yasmeen Ali, who co-authored The Soul of a Butterfly with him, Ali was attracted to Sufism after reading the books of Inayat Khan, which contain Sufi teachings.
Muhammad Ali received guidance from Islamic scholars such as Grand Mufti of Syria Almarhum Asy-Syaikh Ahmed Kuftaro, Hisham Kabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf, and Timothy J. Gianotti, who was at Ali's bedside during his last days and ensured that although his funeral was interfaith, it was still in accordance with Islamic rites and rituals.
Beatles reunion plan
In 1976, inventor Alan Amron and businessman Joel Sacher partnered with Ali to promote The International Committee to Reunite the Beatles. They asked fans worldwide to contribute a dollar each. Ali said the idea was not to use the proceeds for profit, but to establish an international agency to help poor children. "This is money to help people all over the world", he said. He added, "I love the music. I used to train to their music." He said a reunion of the Beatles "would make a lot of people happy." The former Beatles were indifferent to the plan, which elicited only a tepid response from the public. No reunion happened.
Entertainment career
Acting
Ali had a cameo role in the 1962 film version of Requiem for a Heavyweight, and during his exile from boxing, he starred in the short-lived 1969 Broadway musical, Buck White. He also appeared in the documentary film Black Rodeo (1972) riding both a horse and a bull.
His autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, written with Richard Durham, was published in 1975. In 1977 the book was adapted into a film called The Greatest, in which Ali played himself and Ernest Borgnine played Angelo Dundee.
The film Freedom Road, made in 1978, features Ali in a rare acting role as Gideon Jackson, a former slave and Union (American Civil War) soldier in 1870s Virginia, who gets elected to the U.S. Senate and battles alongside former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they have tended all their lives.
Spoken word poetry and rap music
Ali often used rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash-talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing. He played a role in the shaping of the black poetic tradition, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in the 1970s. According to The Guardian, "Some have argued that" Ali was "the first rapper."
In 1963, Ali released an album of spoken word music on Columbia Records titled, I Am the Greatest, and in 1964, he recorded a cover version of the rhythm and blues song "Stand by Me". I Am the Greatest sold 500,000 copies, and has been identified as an early example of rap music and a precursor to hip hop. It reached number 61 on the album chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award. He later received a second Grammy nomination, for "Best Recording for Children", with his 1976 spoken word novelty record, The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay.
Ali was an influential figure in the world of hip hop music. As a "rhyming trickster", he was noted for his "funky delivery", "boasts", "comical trash-talk", and "endless quotables." According to Rolling Stone, his "freestyle skills" and his "rhymes, flow, and braggadocio" would "one day become typical of old school MCs" like Run–D.M.C. and LL Cool J, and his "outsized ego foreshadowed the vainglorious excesses of Kanye West, while his Afrocentric consciousness and cutting honesty pointed forward to modern bards like Rakim, Nas, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar." “I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning and throw thunder in jail. You know I’m bad. Just last week, I murdered a rock, Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean, I make medicine sick” "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.” Ali spoke like no man the world had seen before. So confident in what he said; fluent, smooth, creative, and intimidating. He was a boxer and an activist, but he also had a role in influencing what now dominated pop-culture, hip-hop. In 2006, the documentary Ali Rap was produced by ESPN. Chuck D, a rapper for the band Public Enemy is the host. Other rappers narrated the documentary as well, including Doug E Fresh, Ludacris and Rakim who all spoke on Ali's behalf in the film.
He has been cited as an inspiration by rappers such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Jay-Z, Eminem, Sean Combs, Slick Rick, Nas and MC Lyte. Ali has been referenced in a number of hip hop songs, including Migos "Fight Night", The Game's "Jesus Piece", Nas' "The Message, The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", the Fugees' "Ready or Not", EPMD's "You're a Customer" and Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It".
Professional wrestling
Ali was involved with professional wrestling at different times in his career.
On June 1, 1976, as Ali was preparing for his bout with Inoki, he attended a match featuring Gorilla Monsoon. After the match was over, Ali removed his shirt and jacket and confronted professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon in the ring after his match at a World Wide Wrestling Federation show in Philadelphia Arena. After dodging a few punches, Monsoon put Ali in an airplane spin and dumped him to the mat. Ali stumbled to the corner, where his associate Butch Lewis convinced him to walk away.
On March 31, 1985, Ali was the special guest referee for the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania event.
In 1995, Ali led a group of Japanese and American professional wrestlers, including his 1976 opponent Antonio Inoki and Ric Flair, on a sports diplomacy mission to North Korea. Ali was guest of honor at the record-breaking Collision in Korea, a wrestling event with the largest attendance of all time.
Television appearances
Muhammad Ali's fights were some of the world's most-watched television broadcasts, setting television viewership records. His most-watched fights drew an estimated 12 billion viewers worldwide between 1974 and 1980, and were the world's most-watched live television broadcasts at the time. Outside of fights, he made many other television appearances. The following table lists known viewership figures of his non-fight television appearances. For television viewership figures of his fights, see Boxing career of Muhammad Ali: Television viewership.
Art
Ali was also an amateur artist and made dozens of drawings and paintings in the 1970s. In 1977, Rodney Hilton Brown, who owned an art gallery in NYC, asked Ali if he was interested in painting. Ali took him up on the offer and produced several paintings for him to sell. Brown is the author of “Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet and Prophet." In October 2021, 26 of his drawings and arts were placed on auction and sold for close to $1 Million USD.
Later years
In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's Syndrome, which sometimes results from head trauma from violent physical activities such as boxing. Ali still remained active during this time, later participating as a guest referee at WrestleMania I.
Philanthropy, humanitarianism and politics
Ali was known for being a humanitarian and philanthropist. He focused on practicing his Islamic duty of charity and good deeds, donating millions to charity organizations and disadvantaged people of all religious backgrounds. It is estimated that Ali helped to feed more than 22million people afflicted by hunger across the world. Early in his career, one of his main focuses was youth education. He spoke at several historically black colleges and universities about the importance of education, and became the largest single black donor to the United Negro College Fund in 1967 by way of a $10,000 donation ($78,000 in 2020 USD). In late 1966, he also pledged to donate a total of $100,000 to the UNCF (specifically promising to donate much of the proceeds of his title defense against Cleveland Williams), and paid $4,500 per closed circuit installation at six HBCUs so they could watch his fights.
Ali began visiting Africa, starting in 1964 when he visited Nigeria and Ghana. In 1974, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, where Ali declared "support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland." In 1978, following his loss to Spinks and before winning the rematch, Ali visited Bangladesh and received honorary citizenship there. The same year, he participated in The Longest Walk, a protest march in the United States in support of Native American rights, along with singer Stevie Wonder and actor Marlon Brando.
In 1980, Ali was recruited by President Jimmy Carter for a diplomatic mission to Africa, in an effort to persuade a number of African governments to join the US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics (in response to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan). According to Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, "at best, it was ill-conceived; at worst, a diplomatic disaster." The Tanzanian government was insulted that Carter had sent an athlete to discuss a serious political issue. One official asked whether the United States would "send Chris Evert to negotiate with London." Consequently, Ali was only received by the youth and culture minister, rather than President Julius Nyerere. Ali was unable to explain why the African countries should join the US boycott when it had failed to support the African boycott of the 1976 Olympics (in protest at Apartheid in South Africa), and was unaware that the Soviet Union was sponsoring popular revolutionary movements in Africa. Ali conceded "They didn't tell me about that in America", and complained that Carter had sent him "around the world to take the whupping over American policies." The Nigerian government also rebuffed him and confirmed that they would be participating in the Moscow games. Ali did, however, convince the government of Kenya to boycott the Olympics.
On January 19, 1981, in Los Angeles, Ali talked a suicidal man down from jumping off a ninth-floor ledge, an event that made national news.
In 1984, Ali announced his support for the re-election of United States President Ronald Reagan. When asked to elaborate on his endorsement of Reagan, Ali told reporters, "He's keeping God in schools and that's enough." In 1985, he visited Israel to request the release of Muslim prisoners at Atlit detainee camp, which Israel declined.
Around 1987, the California Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Constitution selected Ali to personify the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ali rode on a float at the following year's Tournament of Roses Parade, launching the U.S. Constitution's 200th birthday commemoration. In 1988, during the First Intifada, Ali participated in a Chicago rally in support of Palestine. The same year, he visited Sudan to raise awareness about the plight of famine victims. According to Politico, Ali supported Orrin Hatch politically. In 1989, he participated in an Indian charity event with the Muslim Educational Society in Kozhikode, Kerala, along with Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar.
In 1990, Ali traveled to Iraq prior to the Gulf War, and met with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages. Ali secured the release of the hostages, in exchange for promising Hussein that he would bring America "an honest account" of Iraq. Despite arranging the hostages release, he received criticism from President George H. W. Bush, and Joseph C. Wilson, the highest-ranking American diplomat in Baghdad.Ali cooperated with Thomas Hauser on a biography, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. The oral history was published in 1991.
In 1994, Ali campaigned to the United States government to come to the aid of refugees afflicted by the Rwandan genocide, and to donate to organizations helping Rwandan refugees.
In 1996, he lit the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. It was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers worldwide.
On November 17, 2002, Ali went to Afghanistan as the "U.N. Messenger of Peace." He was in Kabul for a three-day goodwill mission as a special guest of the UN.
On September 1, 2009, Ali visited Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, the home of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1860s, eventually settling in Kentucky.
On July 27, 2012, Ali was a titular bearer of the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He was helped to his feet by his wife Lonnie to stand before the flag due to his Parkinson's Syndrome rendering him unable to carry it into the stadium. The same year, he was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal in recognition of his lifelong efforts in activism, philanthropy and humanitarianism.
Earnings
By 1978, Ali's total fight purse earnings were estimated to be nearly $60million (inflation-adjusted ), including an estimated $47.45million grossed between 1970 and 1978. By 1980, his total fight purse earnings were estimated to be up to $70million (inflation-adjusted $million).
In 1978, Ali revealed that he was "broke" and several news outlets reported his net worth to be an estimated (inflation-adjusted $million). The press attributed his decline in wealth to several factors, including taxes consuming at least half of his income, management taking a third of his income, his lifestyle, and spending on family, charity and religious causes.
In 2006, Ali sold his name and image for $50million, after which Forbes estimated his net worth to be $55million in 2006. Following his death in 2016, his fortune was estimated to be between $50million and $80million.
Declining health
Ali's bout with Parkinson's Syndrome led to a gradual decline in his health, though he was still active into the early years of the millennium, promoting his own biopic, Ali, in 2001. That year he also contributed an on-camera segment to the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert.
In 1998, Ali began working with actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, to raise awareness and fund research for a cure. They made a joint appearance before Congress to push the case in 2002. In 2000, Ali worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease to raise awareness and encourage donations for research.
In February 2013, Ali's brother Rahman Ali said Muhammad could no longer speak and could be dead within days. Ali's daughter May May Ali responded to the rumors, stating that she had talked to him on the phone the morning of February 3 and he was fine. On December 20, 2014, Ali was hospitalized for a mild case of pneumonia. Ali was once again hospitalized on January 15, 2015, for a urinary tract infection after being found unresponsive at a guest house in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was released the next day.
Death
Ali was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 2, 2016, with a respiratory illness. Though his condition was initially described as fair, it worsened, and he died the following day at the age of 74 from septic shock.
News coverage and tributes
Following Ali's death, he was the number-one trending topic on Twitter for over 12 hours and on Facebook for several days. BET played their documentary Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami. ESPN played four hours of non-stop commercial-free coverage of Ali. News networks, such as ABC News, BBC, CNN, and Fox News, also covered him extensively.
He was mourned globally, and a family spokesman said the family "certainly believes that Muhammad was a citizen of the world ... and they know that the world grieves with him." Politicians such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, David Cameron and more paid tribute to Ali. Ali also received numerous tributes from the world of sports including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, the Miami Marlins, LeBron James, Steph Curry and more. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer stated, "Muhammad Ali belongs to the world. But he only has one hometown."
The day after Ali's death, the UFC paid tribute to Ali at their UFC 199 event in a lengthy video tribute package, crediting Ali for his accomplishments and inspiring multiple UFC champions.
Memorial
Ali's funeral had been pre-planned by himself and others for several years prior to his actual death. The services began in Louisville on June 9, 2016, with an Islamic Janazah prayer service at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center. On June 10, 2016, the funeral procession passed through the streets of Louisville ending at Cave Hill Cemetery, where his body was interred during a private ceremony. A public memorial service for Ali at downtown Louisville's KFC Yum! Center was held during the afternoon of June 10. The pallbearers included Will Smith, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, with honorary pallbearers including George Chuvalo, Larry Holmes and George Foreman. Ali's memorial was watched by an estimated 1billion viewers worldwide.
Legacy
Ali remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times, and was involved in more Ring "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He was one of only three boxers to be named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. Muhammad Ali was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its first year and held wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees during an era that has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. The Associated Press ranked him as the second best boxer and best heavyweight of the 20th century. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years.
In 1978, three years before Ali's permanent retirement, the Louisville Board of Aldermen in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, voted 6–5 to rename Walnut Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard. This was controversial at the time, as within a week 12 of the 70 street signs were stolen. Earlier that year, a committee of the Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) considered renaming Ali's alma mater, Central High School, in his honor, but the motion failed to pass. In time, Muhammad Ali Boulevard—and Ali himself—came to be well accepted in his hometown.
Ali was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990.
In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athlete, out of over 800 dead or living athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth. He was the recipient of the 1997 Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
At the end of the 20th century he was ranked at or near the top of most lists of the century's greatest athletes. He was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated. Named BBC's Sports Personality of the Century, he received more votes than the other five candidates combined. He was named Athlete of the Century by USA Today, and ranked as the third greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury. Ali was named "Kentucky Athlete of the Century" by the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Galt House East.
In 1999, Time magazine named Ali one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
On January 8, 2001, Muhammad Ali was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton. In November 2005, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, followed by the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold of the UN Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin for his work with the civil rights movement and the United Nations, which he received on December 17, 2005.
On November 19, 2005, Ali and his wife Lonnie Ali opened the $60million non-profit Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville. In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth. On June 5, 2007, he received an honorary doctorate of humanities at Princeton University's 260th graduation ceremony.
Ali Mall, located in Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippines, is named after him. Construction of the mall, the first of its kind in the Philippines, began shortly after Ali's victory in a match with Joe Frazier in nearby Araneta Coliseum in 1975. The mall opened in 1976 with Ali attending its opening.
The 1976 Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight played an important role in the history of mixed martial arts. In Japan, the match inspired Inoki's students Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki to found Pancrase in 1993, which in turn inspired the foundation of Pride Fighting Championships in 1997. Pride was acquired by its rival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, in 2007.
The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was introduced in 1999 and passed in 2000, to protect the rights and welfare of boxers in the United States. In May 2016, a bill was introduced to United States Congress by Markwayne Mullin, a politician and former MMA fighter, to extend the Ali Act to mixed martial arts. In June 2016, US senator Rand Paul proposed an amendment to the US draft laws named after Ali, a proposal to eliminate the Selective Service System.
In 2015, Sports Illustrated renamed its Sportsman Legacy Award to the Sports Illustrateds Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. The annual award was originally created in 2008 and honors former "sports figures who embody the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy as vehicles for changing the world." Ali first appeared on the magazine's cover in 1963 and went on to be featured on numerous covers during his storied career.
On January 13, 2017, seven months or so after Ali's death, and 4 days before what would have been his 75th birthday, the Muhammad Ali Commemorative Coin Act was introduced into the 115th Congress (2017–2019), as H.R. 579 (House of Representatives) and as S. 166 (Senate). However, both "died" within 10 days.
In the media and popular culture
As a world champion boxer, social activist, sex symbol and pop culture icon, Ali was the subject of numerous creative works including books, films, music, video games, TV shows, and other. Muhammad Ali was often dubbed the world's "most famous" person in the media. Several of his fights were watched by an estimated 12 billion viewers between 1974 and 1980, and his lighting of the torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers.
Ali appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 38 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan's 46. He also appeared on the cover of Time Magazine 5 times, the most of any athlete. In 2015, Harris Poll found that Ali was one of the three most recognizable athletes in the United States, along with Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.
Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee was influenced by Ali, whose footwork he studied and incorporated into his own style while developing Jeet Kune Do in the 1960s.
On the set of Freedom Road Ali met Canadian singer-songwriter Michel, and subsequently helped create Michel's album The First Flight of the Gizzelda Dragon and an unaired television special featuring them both.
Ali was the subject of the British television program This Is Your Life in 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. Ali was featured in Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, a 1978 DC Comics comic book pitting the champ against the superhero. In 1979, Ali guest-starred as himself in an episode of the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. The show's title itself was inspired by the quote "Different strokes for different folks" popularized in 1966 by Ali, who also inspired the title of the 1967 Syl Johnson song "Different Strokes", one of the most sampled songs in pop music history.
He also wrote several bestselling books about his career, including The Greatest: My Own Story and The Soul of a Butterfly. The Muhammad Ali effect, named after Ali, is a term that came into use in psychology in the 1980s, as he stated in The Greatest: My Own Story: "I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest." According to this effect, when people are asked to rate their intelligence and moral behavior in comparison to others, people will rate themselves as more moral, but not more intelligent than others.
When We Were Kings, a 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The 2001 biopic Ali garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Will Smith for his portrayal of Ali. Prior to making the film, Smith rejected the role until Ali requested that he accept it. Smith said the first thing Ali told him was: "Man, you're almost pretty enough to play me."
In 2002, Ali was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the entertainment industry. His star is the only one to be mounted on a vertical surface, out of deference to his request that the name Muhammad—a name he shares with the Islamic prophet—not be walked upon.
His 1966 fight against George Chuvalo was the subject of Joseph Blasioli's 2003 documentary film The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali.
The Trials of Muhammad Ali, a documentary directed by Bill Siegel that focuses on Ali's refusal of the draft during the Vietnam War, opened in Manhattan on August 23, 2013. A 2013 made-for-TV movie titled Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight dramatized the same aspect of Ali's life.
Antoine Fuqua's documentary What's My Name: Muhammad Ali was released in 2019.
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns created the four-part documentary film Muhammad Ali, spanning over eight hours on Ali's entire life. Burns worked on the film since early 2016. It is scheduled to release in September 2021 on PBS. Dave Zirin who watched an 8 hour rough cut of this documentary called it "utterly outstanding" and said "the footage they found will blow minds".
Discography
I Am the Greatest (1963)
The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976)
See also
List of heavyweight boxing champions
List of WBA world champions
List of WBC world champions
List of The Ring world champions
List of undisputed boxing champions
Converts to Islam
Notable boxing families
List of people from the Louisville metropolitan area
List of North American Muslims
African-American Muslims
1981 MAPS Wells Fargo embezzlement scandal
Notes
References
Further reading
Online
Muhammad Ali: American boxer, in Encyclopædia Britannica Online, by Thomas Hauser, Adam Augustyn, Piyush Bhathya, Yamini Chauhan, John M. Cunningham, Richard Pallardy, Michael Ray, Emily Rodriguez, Surabhi Sinha, Amy Tikkanen, Grace Young and The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
External links
Official website (archived)
William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services: Ancestry of Muhammad Ali
FBI Records: The Vault – Muhammad Ali at the FBI
Cassius Clay Guilty (1967), Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Photo essays'''
1942 births
2016 deaths
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[
"Xie Shiguang (; June 1917 – 25 August 2005) was a bishop of People's Republic of China's underground Roman Catholic Church.\n\nCareer \nXie was ordained to the priesthood on May 3, 1949, and he became a bishop on January 25, 1984.\n\nArrests \nXie was arrested multiple times in China. The first arrest was in 1955, when he refused to enter the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association. He was arrested again for the same reason in 1958, but he was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. He was then arrested in 1984, released in 1987, and was arrested yet again in 1990.\n\nDeath \nXie died from leukemia on 25 August 2005 at the age of 88.\n\nHeritage \nA street has been named after him in 2021 in Budapest.\n\nSee also\n\nCatholicism in China\n\nReferences \n\n20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in China\n1917 births\n2005 deaths\n21st-century Roman Catholic bishops in China\nDeaths from leukemia",
"M. A. Aziz (1921 - 11 January 1971) was an Awami League politician and the former Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from Kotwali-Double Mooring, Chittagong.\n\nEarly life\nAziz was born in 1921 in Halishahar, Bengal Presidency, British India. In 1940 he graduated from Pahartali Railway High School and then completed his IA in 1942 from Chittagong College. He was expelled from the college due to his activities with the All Bengal Muslim Students league. After which he joined the Awami Muslim League.\n\nCareer\nAziz was the first general secretary of Chittagong District. He was involved in the Bengali Language Movement and worked as the joint convener \"Sarba Daliya Rashtra Bhasha Sangram Committee\". He was arrested for his involvement. In 1953 he was elected to the central committee of Awami League. In 1954 he was arrested. In 1958 he was arrested again after Martial law was declared. In the 1960s, he started a business with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Bhupati Bhushan Chowdhury named New Agency. The majority of the profits were to be used to finance Awami League.\n\nAziz played an important role in the Six point program led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. On 8 May 1966 he was arrested for his role in the program. On 18 July 1970 he was arrested for protesting martial law. In 1970 general elections he was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan, from Kotwali-Double Mooring constituency as a candidate of Awami League.\n\nDeath\nAziz died on 11 January 1971. M. A. Aziz Stadium in Chittagong was named after him.\n\nReferences\n\nAwami League politicians\n1921 births\n1971 deaths"
] |
[
"Muhammad Ali",
"Early life and amateur career",
"Where was Muhammad Ali born?",
"Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky.",
"Was Muhammad active in his early childhood?",
"He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the \"real training\",",
"How was Muhammad influenced to start boxing?",
"Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming",
"Was he arrested?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_ea7154fd6dfd4adca851d86899f374c6_1
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Has he won any fights during his amateur career?
| 5 |
Did Muhammad Ali win any fights during his amateur career?
|
Muhammad Ali
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Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had a sister and four brothers. He was named for his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. (1912-1990), who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist, Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with smaller amounts of Irish and English heritage. His father painted billboards and signs, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917-1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali) as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. Clay grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store--"They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend's taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local railyard. Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually moulding "my style, my stamina and my system". For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak. Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games. CANNOTANSWER
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Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision.
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Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet and philanthropist. Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He became a Muslim after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. Also that year, he renounced his birth name as a "slave name" and formally became known as Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. However, he had not fought for nearly four years by this point and had lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger 1960s counterculture generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam, and supported racial integration like his former mentor Malcolm X.
He fought in several historic boxing matches, such as his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many boxers let their managers do the talking, and he became renowned for his provocative and outlandish persona. He was known for trash-talking, and often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry incorporating elements of hip hop, and often predicted in which round he would knockout his opponent.
Outside boxing, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, releasing two studio albums: I Am the Greatest! (1963) and The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976). Both albums received Grammy Award nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attributed to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family. Ali died on June 3, 2016.
Early life and amateur career
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. ( ) was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had one brother. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., who had a sister and four brothers and who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with some Irish and English family heritage. Ali's maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland. DNA testing performed in 2018 showed that, through his paternal grandmother, Ali was a descendant of the former slave Archer Alexander, who had been chosen from the building crew as the model of a freed man for the Emancipation Memorial, and was the subject of abolitionist William Greenleaf Eliot's book, The Story of Archer Alexander: From Slavery to Freedom. Like Ali, Alexander fought for his freedom.
His father was a sign and billboard painter, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917–1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother, Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali), as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. He was dyslexic, which led to difficulties in reading and writing, at school and for much of his life. Ali grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store: "They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also strongly affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local rail yard. His daughter Hana later wrote that Ali once told her, "Nothing would ever shake me up (more) than the story of Emmett Till."
Ali was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually molding "my style, my stamina and my system." For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak.
Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.
Early professional boxing career
Early career
Clay made his professional debut on October 29, 1960, winning a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker. From then until the end of 1963, Clay amassed a record of 19–0 with 15 wins by knockout. He defeated boxers including Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, LaMar Clark, Doug Jones and Henry Cooper. Clay also beat his former trainer and veteran boxer Archie Moore in a 1962 match.
These early fights were not without trials. Clay was knocked down by both Sonny Banks and Cooper. In the Cooper fight, Clay was floored by a left hook at the end of round four and was saved by the bell, going on to win in the predicted 5th round due to Cooper's severely cut eye. The fight with Doug Jones on March 13, 1963 was Clay's toughest fight during this stretch. The number two and three heavyweight contenders respectively, Clay and Jones fought on Jones' home turf at New York's Madison Square Garden. Jones staggered Clay in the first round, and the unanimous decision for Clay was greeted by boos and a rain of debris thrown into the ring. Watching on closed-circuit TV, heavyweight champ Sonny Liston quipped that if he fought Clay he might get locked up for murder. The fight was later named "Fight of the Year" by The Ring magazine.
In each of these fights, Clay vocally belittled his opponents and vaunted his abilities. He called Jones "an ugly little man" and Cooper a "bum". He said he was embarrassed to get in the ring with Alex Miteff and claimed that Madison Square Garden was "too small for me." Ali's trash-talk was inspired by professional wrestler "Gorgeous George" Wagner's, after he saw George's talking ability attract huge crowds to events. Ali stated in a 1969 interview with the Associated Press' Hubert Mizel that he met with George in Las Vegas in 1961, that George told him that talking a big game would earn paying fans who either wanted to see him win or wanted to see him lose, thus Ali transformed himself into a self-described "big-mouth and a bragger".
In 1960, Clay left Moore's camp, partially due to Clay's refusal to do chores such as washing dishes and sweeping. To replace Moore, Clay hired Angelo Dundee to be his trainer. Clay had met Dundee in February 1957 during Clay's amateur career. Around this time, Clay sought longtime idol Sugar Ray Robinson to be his manager, but was rebuffed.
World heavyweight champion
Fights against Liston
By late 1963, Clay had become the top contender for Sonny Liston's title. The fight was set for February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach. Liston was an intimidating personality, a dominating fighter with a criminal past and ties to the mob. Based on Clay's uninspired performance against Jones and Cooper in his previous two fights, and Liston's destruction of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in two first-round knockouts, Clay was a 7–1 underdog. Despite this, Clay taunted Liston during the pre-fight buildup, dubbing him "the big ugly bear", stating "Liston even smells like a bear" and claiming "After I beat him I'm going to donate him to the zoo." Clay turned the pre-fight weigh-in into a circus, shouting at Liston that "someone is going to die at ringside tonight." Clay's pulse rate was measured at 120, more than double his normal 54. Many of those in attendance thought Clay's behavior stemmed from fear, and some commentators wondered if he would show up for the bout.
The outcome of the fight was a major upset. At the opening bell, Liston rushed at Clay, seemingly angry and looking for a quick knockout. However, Clay's superior speed and mobility enabled him to elude Liston, making the champion miss and look awkward. At the end of the first round, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston repeatedly with jabs. Liston fought better in round two, but at the beginning of the third round Clay hit Liston with a combination that buckled his knees and opened a cut under his left eye. This was the first time Liston had ever been cut. At the end of round four, Clay was returning to his corner when he began experiencing blinding pain in his eyes and asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to cut off his gloves. Dundee refused. It has been speculated that the problem was due to ointment used to seal Liston's cuts, perhaps deliberately applied by his corner to his gloves. Though unconfirmed, boxing historian Bert Sugar said that two of Liston's opponents also complained about their eyes "burning".
Despite Liston's attempts to knock out a blinded Clay, Clay was able to survive the fifth round until sweat and tears rinsed the irritation from his eyes. In the sixth, Clay dominated, hitting Liston repeatedly. Liston did not answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by TKO. Liston stated that the reason he quit was an injured shoulder. Following the win, a triumphant Clay rushed to the edge of the ring and, pointing to the ringside press, shouted: "Eat your words!" He added, "I am the greatest! I shook up the world. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived."
At ringside post fight, Clay appeared unconvinced that the fight was stopped due to a Liston shoulder injury, saying that the only injury Liston had was "an open eye, a big cut eye!" When told by Joe Louis that the injury was a "left arm thrown out of its socket," Clay quipped, "Yeah, swinging at nothing, who wouldn't?"
In winning this fight at the age of 22, Clay became the youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion. However, Floyd Patterson remained the youngest to win the heavyweight championship, doing so at the age 21 during an elimination bout following Rocky Marciano's retirement. Mike Tyson broke both records in 1986 when he defeated Trevor Berbick to win the heavyweight title at age 20.
Soon after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Cassius X, and then later to Muhammad Ali upon converting to Islam and affiliating with the Nation of Islam. Ali then faced a rematch with Liston scheduled for May 1965 in Lewiston, Maine. It had been scheduled for Boston the previous November, but was postponed for six months due to Ali's emergency surgery for a hernia three days before. The fight was controversial. Midway through the first round, Liston was knocked down by a difficult-to-see blow the press dubbed a "phantom punch". Referee Jersey Joe Walcott did not begin the count immediately after the knockdown, as Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Liston rose after he had been down for about 20 seconds, and the fight momentarily continued. However a few seconds later Walcott, having been informed by the timekeepers that Liston had been down for a count of 10, stopped the match and declared Ali the winner by knockout. The entire fight lasted less than two minutes.
It has since been speculated that Liston purposely dropped to the ground. Proposed motivations include threats on his life from the Nation of Islam, that he had bet against himself and that he "took a dive" to pay off debts. Slow-motion replays show that Liston was jarred by a chopping right from Ali, although it is unclear whether the blow was a genuine knockout punch.
Fight against Patterson
Ali defended his title against former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson on November 22, 1965. Before the match, Ali mocked Patterson, who was widely known to call him by his former name Cassius Clay, as an "Uncle Tom", calling him "The Rabbit". Although Ali clearly had the better of Patterson, who appeared injured during the fight, the match lasted 12 rounds before being called on a technical knockout. Patterson later said he had strained his sacroiliac. Ali was criticized in the sports media for appearing to have toyed with Patterson during the fight. Patterson biographer W. K. Stratton claims that the conflict between Ali and Patterson was not genuine but was staged to increase ticket sales and the closed-circuit viewing audience, with both men complicit in the theatrics. Stratton also cites an interview by Howard Cosell in which Ali explained that rather than toying with Patterson, he refrained from knocking him out after it became apparent Patterson was injured. Patterson later said that he had never been hit by punches as soft as Ali's. Stratton states that Ali arranged the second fight, in 1972, with the financially struggling Patterson to help the former champion earn enough money to pay a debt to the IRS.
Main Bout
After the Patterson fight, Ali founded his own promotion company, Main Bout. The company mainly handled Ali's boxing promotions and pay-per-view closed-circuit television broadcasts. The company's stockholders were mainly fellow Nation of Islam members, along with several others, including Bob Arum.
Ali and then-WBA heavyweight champion boxer Ernie Terrell had agreed to meet for a bout in Chicago on March 29, 1966 (the WBA, one of two boxing associations, had stripped Ali of his title following his joining the Nation of Islam). But in February Ali was reclassified by the Louisville draft board as 1-A from 1-Y, and he indicated that he would refuse to serve, commenting to the press, "I ain't got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me nigger." Amidst the media and public outcry over Ali's stance, the Illinois Athletic Commission refused to sanction the fight, citing technicalities.
Instead, Ali traveled to Canada and Europe and won championship bouts against George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London and Karl Mildenberger.
Ali returned to the United States to fight Cleveland Williams in the Houston Astrodome on November 14, 1966. The bout drew a record-breaking indoor crowd of 35,460 people. Williams had once been considered among the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division, but in 1964 he had been shot at point-blank range by a Texas policeman, resulting in the loss of one kidney and of his small intestine. Ali dominated Williams, winning a third-round technical knockout in what some consider the finest performance of his career.
Ali fought Terrell in Houston on February 6, 1967. Terrell, who was unbeaten in five years and had defeated many of the boxers Ali had faced, was billed as Ali's toughest opponent since Liston; he was big, strong and had a three-inch reach advantage over Ali. During the lead up to the bout, Terrell repeatedly called Ali "Clay", much to Ali's annoyance. The two almost came to blows over the name issue in a pre-fight interview with Howard Cosell. Ali seemed intent on humiliating Terrell. "I want to torture him", he said. "A clean knockout is too good for him." The fight was close until the seventh round, when Ali bloodied Terrell and almost knocked him out. In the eighth round, Ali taunted Terrell, hitting him with jabs and shouting between punches, "What's my name, Uncle Tom ... what's my name?" Ali won a unanimous 15-round decision. Terrell claimed that early in the fight Ali deliberately thumbed him in the eye, forcing him to fight half-blind, and then, in a clinch, rubbed the wounded eye against the ropes. Because of Ali's apparent intent to prolong the fight to inflict maximum punishment, critics described the bout as "one of the ugliest boxing fights." Tex Maule later wrote: "It was a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty." Ali denied the accusations of cruelty but, for Ali's critics, the fight provided more evidence of his arrogance.
After Ali's title defense against Zora Folley on March 22, he was stripped of his title due to his refusal to be drafted to army service. His boxing license was also suspended by the state of New York. He was convicted of draft evasion on June 20 and sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He paid a bond and remained free while the verdict was being appealed.
Vietnam War and resistance to the draft
Ali registered for conscription in the United States military on his 18th birthday and was listed as 1-A in 1962. In 1964, he was reclassified as Class 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after he failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub-standard, due to his dyslexia. (He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest!") By early 1966, the army lowered its standards to permit soldiers above the 15th percentile and Ali was again classified as 1-A. This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army at a time when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, a war which put him further at odds with the white establishment.
When notified of this status, Ali declared that he would refuse to serve in the army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector. Ali stated: "War is against the teachings of the Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger (Elijah Muhammad then leader of Nation of Islam). We don’t take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers". He also said "We are not to be the aggressor but we will defend ourselves if attacked." He stated: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Ali antagonized the white establishment in 1966 by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.
On April 28, 1967, Ali appeared in Houston for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces, but he refused three times to step forward when his name was called. An officer warned him that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called, and he was arrested. Later that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit. Ali remained unable to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years. On June 4, 1967, in a first for sports professionals, a group of high-profile African-American athletes assembled at the Negro Industrial Economic union in Cleveland for a "Muhammad Ali Summit". The meeting was organized by Jim Brown for his peers to question Ali about the seriousness of his convictions, and to decide whether to support him, which they ultimately did.
At the trial on June 20, 1967, the jury found Ali guilty after only 21minutes of deliberation of the criminal offense of violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. After a Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, the case was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
Ali remained free in the years between the Appellate Court decision and the Supreme Court ruling. As public opinion began turning people against the war and the Civil Rights Movement continued to gather momentum, Ali became a popular speaker at colleges and universities across the country; this itinerary was rare if not unprecedented for a prizefighter. At Howard University, for example, he gave his popular "Black Is Best" speech to 4,000 cheering students and community intellectuals, after he was invited to speak by sociology professor Nathan Hare on behalf of the Black Power Committee, a student protest group.
On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. United States overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8–0 decision (Justice Thurgood Marshall recused himself, as he had been the U.S. Solicitor General at the time of Ali's conviction). The decision was not based on, nor did it address, the merits of Ali's claims per se. Rather, the Court held that since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to Ali, that it was therefore impossible to determine which of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status (offered in the Justice Department's brief) the appeal board relied on, and Ali's conviction must be reversed.
Impact of Ali's draft refusal
Ali's example inspired many black Americans and others. However, initially when he refused induction, he became arguably the most hated man in the country and received many death threats. People who supported Ali during this time were also threatened, including sports journalist Jerry Izenberg, whose columns defended Ali's decision not to serve. He wrote, "Bomb threats emptied our office, making the staff stand out in the snow. My car windshield was smashed with a sledgehammer." The New York Times columnist William Rhoden wrote, "Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"
Recalling Ali's anti-war position, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said: "I remember the teachers at my high school didn't like Ali because he was so anti-establishment and he kind of thumbed his nose at authority and got away with it. The fact that he was proud to be a black man and that he had so much talent ... made some people think that he was dangerous. But for those very reasons I enjoyed him."
Civil rights figures came to believe that Ali had an energizing effect on the freedom movement as a whole. Al Sharpton spoke of his bravery at a time when there was still widespread support for the Vietnam War:
Ali was honored with the annual Martin Luther King Award in 1970 by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy, who called him "a living example of soul power, the March on Washington in two fists." Coretta Scott King added that Ali was "a champion of justice and peace and unity."
In speaking of the cost on Ali's career of his refusal to be drafted, his trainer Angelo Dundee said, "One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years."
Bob Arum did not support Ali's choice at the time. More recently, Arum stated that "when I look back at his life, and I was blessed to call him a friend and spent a lot of time with him, it's hard for me to talk about his exploits in boxing because as great as they were they paled in comparison to the impact that he had on the world," and "He did what he thought was right. And it turned out he was right, and I was wrong."
Ali's resistance to the draft was covered in the 2013 documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali.
NSA and FBI monitoring of Ali's communications
In a secret operation code-named "Minaret", the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted the communications of leading Americans, including Ali, Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., prominent U.S. journalists, and others who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam. A review by the NSA of the Minaret program concluded that it was "disreputable if not outright illegal."
In 1971, his Fight of the Century with Frazier was used by an activist group, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, to pull off a burglary at an FBI office in Pennsylvania; the anticipation for the fight was unlike anything else, so they believed the security would also be focused on the fight. This raid exposed the COINTELPRO operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti-war movements. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Ali, and their activities included the FBI gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school; one such record mentioned him loving art as a child.
Exile and comeback
In March 1966, Ali refused to be inducted into the armed forces. He was systematically denied a boxing license in every state and stripped of his passport. As a result, he did not fight from March 1967 to October 1970—from ages 25 to almost 29—as his case worked its way through the appeals process before his conviction was overturned in 1971.
Protesting while exiled
During this time of inactivity, as opposition to the Vietnam War began to grow and Ali's stance gained sympathy, he spoke at colleges across the nation, criticizing the Vietnam War and advocating African-American pride and racial justice. Ali based himself in Chicago. According to most close to him, his Chicago years were formative.
At the time, Ali was widely condemned by the American media, with fears that his actions could potentially lead to mass civil disobedience. Despite this, Ebony magazine noted in the late 1960s that Ali's popularity had increased during this time, especially among black people.
The Super Fight
While banned from sanctioned bouts, Ali settled a $1 million lawsuit against radio producer Murray Woroner by accepting $10,000 to appear in a privately staged fantasy fight against retired champion Rocky Marciano. In 1969 the boxers were filmed sparring for about 75 one-minute rounds; they produced several potential outcomes. A computer program purportedly determined the winner, based on data about the fighters, along with the opinions of approximately 250 boxing experts. Edited versions of the bout were shown in movie theaters in 1970. In the U.S. version Ali lost in a simulated 13th-round knockout, but in the European version Marciano lost due to cuts, also simulated.
Ali suggested that prejudice determined his defeat in the U.S. version. He was reported to jokingly say, "That computer was made in Alabama."
Return to prizefighting
On August 11, 1970, with his case still in appeal, Ali was granted a license to box by the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission. Leroy Johnson, Jesse Hill Jr. and Harry Pett had used their local political influence and set up the company House of Sports to organize the fight, underlining the influential power of Georgia's black politics in Ali' s comeback. Ali's first return bout was against Jerry Quarry on October 26, resulting in a win after three rounds after Quarry was cut.
A month earlier, a victory in federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali's license. He fought Oscar Bonavena at Madison Square Garden in December, an uninspired performance that ended in a dramatic technical knockout of Bonavena in the 15th round. The win left Ali as a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier.
First fight against Joe Frazier
Ali and Frazier's first fight, held at the Garden on March 8, 1971, was nicknamed the "Fight of the Century", due to the tremendous excitement surrounding a bout between two undefeated fighters, each with a legitimate claim to be heavyweight champion. Veteran US boxing writer John Condon called it "the greatest event I've ever worked on in my life." The bout was broadcast to 36 countries; promoters granted 760 press passes.
Adding to the atmosphere were the considerable pre-fight theatrics and name calling. Before the fight Frazier called Ali, "Cassius Clay", this angered Ali and he portrayed Frazier as a "dumb tool of the white establishment." "Frazier is too ugly to be champ", Ali said. "Frazier is too dumb to be champ." Ali also frequently called Frazier an "Uncle Tom". Dave Wolf, who worked in Frazier's camp, recalled that, "Ali was saying 'the only people rooting for Joe Frazier are white people in suits, Alabama sheriffs, and members of the Ku Klux Klan. I'm fighting for the little man in the ghetto.' Joe was sitting there, smashing his fist into the palm of his hand, saying, 'What the fuck does he know about the ghetto?
Ali began training at a farm near Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1971 and, finding the country setting to his liking, sought to develop a real training camp in the countryside. He found a five-acre site on a Pennsylvania country road in the village of Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. On this site, Ali carved out what was to become his training camp, where he trained for all his fights from 1972 to the end of his career in 1981.
The Monday night fight lived up to its billing. In a preview of their two other fights, a crouching, bobbing and weaving Frazier constantly pressured Ali, getting hit regularly by Ali jabs and combinations, but relentlessly attacking and scoring repeatedly, especially to Ali's body. The fight was even in the early rounds, but Ali was taking more punishment than ever in his career. On several occasions in the early rounds he played to the crowd and shook his head "no" after he was hit. In the later rounds—in what was the first appearance of the "rope-a-dope strategy"—Ali leaned against the ropes and absorbed punishment from Frazier, hoping to tire him. In the 11th round, Frazier connected with a left hook that wobbled Ali, but because it appeared that Ali might be clowning as he staggered backwards across the ring, Frazier hesitated to press his advantage, fearing an Ali counter-attack. In the final round, Frazier knocked Ali down with a vicious left hook, which referee Arthur Mercante said was as hard as a man can be hit. Ali was back on his feet in three seconds. Nevertheless, Ali lost by unanimous decision, his first professional defeat.
Chamberlain challenge and Ellis fight
In 1971, basketball star Wilt Chamberlain challenged Ali to a fight, and a bout was scheduled for July 26. Although the seven-foot-two-inch tall Chamberlain had formidable physical advantages over Ali—weighing 60pounds more and able to reach 14inches further—Ali was able to influence Chamberlain into calling off the bout by taunting him with calls of "Timber!" and "The tree will fall" during a shared interview. These statements of confidence unsettled his taller opponent, whom Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had offered a record-setting contract, conditional on Chamberlain agreeing to abandon what Cooke termed "this boxing foolishness", and he did exactly that. To replace Ali's opponent, promoter Bob Arum quickly booked a former sparring partner of Ali's, Jimmy Ellis, who was a childhood friend from Louisville, Kentucky, to fight him.
After his loss
Fights against Quarry, Patterson, Foster and Norton
After the loss to Frazier, Ali fought Jerry Quarry, had a second bout with Floyd Patterson and faced Bob Foster in 1972, winning a total of six fights that year. In 1973, Ken Norton broke Ali's jaw while giving him the second loss of his career. After initially considering retirement, Ali won a controversial decision against Norton in their second bout. This led to a rematch with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 1974; Frazier had recently lost his title to George Foreman.
Second fight against Joe Frazier
Ali was strong in the early rounds of the fight, and staggered Frazier in the second round. Referee Tony Perez mistakenly thought he heard the bell ending the round and stepped between the two fighters as Ali was pressing his attack, giving Frazier time to recover. However, Frazier came on in the middle rounds, snapping Ali's head in round seven and driving him to the ropes at the end of round eight. The last four rounds saw round-to-round shifts in momentum between the two fighters. Throughout most of the bout, however, Ali was able to circle away from Frazier's dangerous left hook and to tie Frazier up when he was cornered, the latter a tactic that Frazier's camp complained of bitterly. Judges awarded Ali a unanimous decision.
World heavyweight champion (second reign)
The Rumble in the Jungle
The defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974—a bout nicknamed The Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. In assessing the fight, analysts pointed out that Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, who had given Ali four tough battles and won two of them, had both been devastated by Foreman in second-round knockouts. Ali was 32 years old, and had clearly lost speed and reflexes since his twenties. Contrary to his later persona, Foreman was at the time a brooding and intimidating presence. Almost no one associated with the sport, not even Ali's long-time supporter Howard Cosell, gave the former champion a chance of winning.
As usual, Ali was confident and colorful before the fight. He told interviewer David Frost, "If you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait till I whup Foreman's behind!" He told the press, "I've done something new for this fight. I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick." Ali was wildly popular in Zaire, with crowds chanting "Ali, bomaye" ("Ali, kill him") wherever he went.
Ali opened the fight moving and scoring with right crosses to Foreman's head. Then, beginning in the second round, and to the consternation of his corner, Ali retreated to the ropes and invited Foreman to hit him while covering up, clinching and counter-punching, all while verbally taunting Foreman. The move, which would later become known as the "Rope-a-dope", so violated conventional boxing wisdom—letting one of the hardest hitters in boxing strike at will—that at ringside writer George Plimpton thought the fight had to be fixed. Foreman, increasingly angered, threw punches that were deflected and did not land squarely. Midway through the fight, as Foreman began tiring, Ali countered more frequently and effectively with punches and flurries, which electrified the pro-Ali crowd. In the eighth round, Ali dropped an exhausted Foreman with a combination at center ring; Foreman failed to make the count. Against the odds, and amidst pandemonium in the ring, Ali had regained the title by knockout. Reflecting on the fight, George Foreman later said: "I thought Ali was just one more knockout victim until, about the seventh round, I hit him hard to the jaw and he held me and whispered in my ear: 'That all you got, George?' I realized that this ain't what I thought it was."
It was a major upset victory, after Ali came in as a 41 underdog against the previously unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight became famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1billion viewers worldwide. It was the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time.
Fights against Wepner, Lyle and Bugner
Ali's next opponents included Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, and Joe Bugner. Wepner, a journeyman known as "The Bayonne Bleeder", stunned Ali with a knockdown in the ninth round; Ali would later say he tripped on Wepner's foot. It was a bout that would inspire Sylvester Stallone to create the acclaimed film, Rocky.
Third fight against Joe Frazier
Ali then agreed to a third match with Joe Frazier in Manila. The bout, known as the "Thrilla in Manila", was held on October 1, 1975, in temperatures approaching . In the first rounds, Ali was aggressive, moving and exchanging blows with Frazier. However, Ali soon appeared to tire and adopted the "rope-a-dope" strategy, frequently resorting to clinches. During this part of the bout Ali did some effective counter-punching, but for the most part absorbed punishment from a relentlessly attacking Frazier. In the 12th round, Frazier began to tire, and Ali scored several sharp blows that closed Frazier's left eye and opened a cut over his right eye. With Frazier's vision now diminished, Ali dominated the 13th and 14th rounds, at times conducting what boxing historian Mike Silver called "target practice" on Frazier's head. The fight was stopped when Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, refused to allow Frazier to answer the bell for the 15th and final round, despite Frazier's protests. Frazier's eyes were both swollen shut. Ali, in his corner, winner by TKO, slumped on his stool, clearly spent.
An ailing Ali said afterwards that the fight "was the closest thing to dying that I know", and, when later asked if he had viewed the fight on videotape, reportedly said, "Why would I want to go back and see Hell?" After the fight he cited Frazier as "the greatest fighter of all times next to me."
After the third fight with Frazier, Ali considered retirement. He said, “I’m sore all over. My arms, my face, my sides all ache. I’m so, so tired. There is a great possibility that I will retire. You might have seen the last of me. I want to sit back and count my money, live in my house and my farm, work for my people and concentrate on my family."
Later career
Following the Manila bout, Ali fought Jean-Pierre Coopman, Jimmy Young, and Richard Dunn, winning the last by knockout.
The punch used to knock Dunn out was taught to Ali by Taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. Rhee called that punch the "Accupunch"; he learned it from Bruce Lee. The Dunn fight was the last time Ali would knock down an opponent in his boxing career.
Ali fought Ken Norton for the third time in September 1976. The bout, which was held at Yankee Stadium, resulted in Ali winning a heavily contested decision that was loudly booed by the audience. Afterwards, he announced he was retiring from boxing to practice his faith, having converted to Sunni Islam after falling out with the Nation of Islam the previous year.
After returning to beat Alfredo Evangelista in May 1977, Ali struggled in his next fight against Earnie Shavers that September, getting pummeled a few times by punches to the head. Ali won the fight by another unanimous decision, but the bout caused his longtime doctor Ferdie Pacheco to quit after he was rebuffed for telling Ali he should retire. Pacheco was quoted as saying, "the New York State Athletic Commission gave me a report that showed Ali's kidneys were falling apart. I wrote to Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer, his wife and Ali himself. I got nothing back in response. That's when I decided enough is enough."
In February 1978, Ali faced Leon Spinks at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. At the time, Spinks had only seven professional fights to his credit, and had recently fought a draw with journeyman Scott LeDoux. Ali sparred less than two dozen rounds in preparation for the fight, and was seriously out of shape by the opening bell. He lost the title by split decision. A rematch occurred in September at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. 70,000 people attended the bout and paid a total of $6 million admission, making it the largest live gate in boxing history at that time. Ali won a unanimous decision in an uninspiring fight, with referee Lucien Joubert scoring rounds 10-4, judge Ernie Cojoe 10-4, and judge Herman Preis 11-4. This made Ali the first heavyweight champion to win the belt three times.
Following this win, on July 27, 1979, Ali announced his retirement from boxing. His retirement was short-lived, however; Ali announced his comeback to face Larry Holmes for the WBC belt in an attempt to win the heavyweight championship an unprecedented fourth time. The fight was largely motivated by Ali's need for money. Boxing writer Richie Giachetti said, "Larry didn't want to fight Ali. He knew Ali had nothing left; he knew it would be a horror."
It was around this time that Ali started struggling with vocal stutters and trembling hands. The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) ordered that he undergo a complete physical in Las Vegas before being allowed to fight again. Ali chose instead to check into the Mayo Clinic, who declared him fit to fight. Their opinion was accepted by the NAC on July 31, 1980, paving the way for Ali's return to the ring.
The fight took place on October 2, 1980, in Las Vegas Valley, with Holmes easily dominating Ali, who was weakened from thyroid medication he had taken to lose weight. Giachetti called the fight "awful ... the worst sports event I ever had to cover." Actor Sylvester Stallone was at ringside and said that it was like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive. After the tenth round, Angelo Dundee told the referee to stop the fight, making it the only time that Ali ever lost by stoppage. The Holmes fight is said to have contributed to Ali's Parkinson's syndrome. Despite pleas to definitively retire, Ali fought one last time on December 11, 1981, in Nassau, Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, losing a ten-round decision.
By the end of his boxing career Ali had absorbed an estimated 200,000 hits.
Exhibition bouts
Ali boxed both well known boxers and celebrities from other walks of life, including Michael Dokes, Antonio Inoki, Lyle Alzado, Dave Semenko, and the famous Puerto Rican comedian Jose Miguel Agrelot (with Iris Chacon acting as Agrelot's corner-woman).
Ali vs Inoki
On June 26, 1976, Ali participated in an exhibition bout in Tokyo against Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist Antonio Inoki. Ali was only able to land two jabs while Inoki's kicks caused two blood clots and an infection that almost resulted in Ali's leg being amputated, as a result of Ali's team insisting on rules restricting Inoki's ability to wrestle. The match was not scripted and ultimately declared a draw. After Ali's death, The New York Times declared it his least memorable fight. Most boxing commentators at the time viewed the fight negatively and hoped it would be forgotten as some considered it a "15-round farce." Today it is considered by some to be one of Ali's most influential fights and CBS Sports said the attention the mixed-style bout received "foretold the arrival of standardized MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) years later." After the fight, Ali and Inoki became friends.
Ali vs Alzado
In 1979, Ali fought an exhibition match against NFL player Lyle Alzado. The fight went 8 rounds and was declared a draw.
Ali vs Semenko
Ali fought NHL player, Dave Semenko in an exhibition on June 12, 1983. The match was officially a draw after going three rounds, but the Associated Press reported Ali was not seriously trying and was just toying with Semenko.
Personal life
Marriages and children
Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. Ali was introduced to cocktail waitress Sonji Roi by Herbert Muhammad and asked her to marry him after their first date. They married approximately one month later on August 14, 1964. They quarreled over Sonji's refusal to join the Nation Of Islam. According to Ali, "She wouldn't do what she was supposed to do. She wore lipstick; she went into bars; she dressed in clothes that were revealing and didn't look right." The marriage was childless and they divorced on January 10, 1966. Just before the divorce was finalized, Ali sent Sonji a note: "You traded heaven for hell, baby." Ali's brother Rahman said that she was Ali's only true love and the Nation of Islam made Ali divorce her and Ali never got over it.
On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. Born into a Chicago family that had converted to the Nation Of Islam, she later changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: author and rapper Maryum "May May" (born 1968); twins Jamillah and Rasheda (born 1970), who married Robert Walsh and has a son, Biaggio Ali, born in 1998; and Muhammad Ali Jr. (born 1972). Rasheda's son Nico is a professional boxer.
Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the early 1970s. At age 32 in 1974, Ali began an extramarital relationship with 16-year-old Wanda Bolton (who subsequently changed her name to Aaisha Ali) with whom he fathered another daughter, Khaliah (born 1974). While still married to Belinda, Ali married Aaisha in an Islamic ceremony that was not legally recognized. According to Khaliah, Aaisha and her mother lived at Ali's Deer Lake training camp alongside Belinda and her children. In January 1985, Aaisha sued Ali for unpaid palimony. The case was settled when Ali agreed to set up a $200,000 trust fund for Khaliah. In 2001 Khaliah was quoted as saying she believed her father viewed her as "a mistake". He had another daughter, Miya (born 1972), from an extramarital relationship with Patricia Harvell.
By the summer of 1977, his second marriage ended due to Ali's repeated infidelity, and he had married actress and model Veronica Porché. At the time of their marriage, they had a daughter, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila Ali, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Porché were divorced due to Ali's continuous infidelity. Porché said of Ali's infidelity, "It was too much temptation for him, with women who threw themselves at him, It didn’t mean anything. He didn't have affairs – he had one-night stands. I knew beyond a doubt there were no feelings involved. It was so obvious, It was easy to forgive him."
On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams. Lonnie first met Ali at the age of 6 when her family moved to Louisville in 1963. In 1982, she became Ali's primary caregiver and in return, he paid for her to attend graduate school at UCLA. Together they adopted a son, Asaad Amin (born 1986), when Asaad was five months old. In 1992, Lonnie incorporated Greatest of All Time, Inc. (G.O.A.T. Inc) to consolidate and license his intellectual properties for commercial purposes. She served as the vice president and treasurer until the sale of the company in 2006.
Kiiursti Mensah-Ali claims she is Ali's biological daughter with Barbara Mensah, with whom he allegedly had a 20-year relationship, citing photographs and a paternity test conducted in 1988. She said he accepted responsibility and took care of her, but all contacts with him were cut off after he married his fourth wife Lonnie. Kiiursti says she has a relationship with his other children. After his death she again made passionate appeals to be allowed to mourn at his funeral.
In 2010, Osmon Williams came forward claiming to be Ali's biological son. His mother Temica Williams (also known as Rebecca Holloway) launched a $3 million lawsuit against Ali in 1981 for sexual assault, claiming that she had started a sexual relationship with him when she was 12, and that her son Osmon (born 1977) was fathered by Ali. She further alleged that Ali had originally supported her and her son financially, but stopped doing so after four years. The case went on until 1986 and was eventually thrown out as her allegations were deemed to be barred by the statute of limitations. According to Veronica, Ali admitted to the affair with Williams, but did not believe Osmon was his son which Veronica supported by saying "Everybody in the camp was going with that girl." Ali biographer and friend Thomas Hauser has said this claim was of "questionable veracity".
Ali then lived in Scottsdale, Arizona with Lonnie. In January 2007, it was reported that they had put their home in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which they had bought in 1975, up for sale and had purchased a home in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000. Both homes were subsequently sold after Ali's death with Lonnie living in their remaining home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Lonnie converted to Islam from Catholicism in her late twenties.
In an interview in 1974, Ali said, "If they say stand and salute the flag I do that out of respect, because I'm in the country". Ali would later say, "If America was in trouble and real war came, I'd be on the front line if we had been attacked. But I could see that (The Vietnam War) wasn't right." He also said, "Black men would go over there and fight, but when they came home, they couldn't even be served a hamburger."
Ali's daughter Laila was a professional boxer from 1999 until 2007, despite her father's previous opposition to women's boxing. In 1978, he said "Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that." Ali still attended a number of his daughter's fights and later admitted to Laila he was wrong. Ali's daughter Hana is married to Bellator middleweight fighter Kevin Casey. Hana wrote about her father, "His love for people was extraordinary. I would get home from school to find homeless families sleeping in our guest room. He’d see them on the street, pile them into his Rolls-Royce and bring them home. He’d buy them clothes, take them to hotels and pay the bills for months in advance." She also said celebrities like Michael Jackson and Clint Eastwood would often visit Ali. After Ali met a lesbian couple who were fans of his in 1997, he smiled and said to his friend Hauser, "They look like they’re happy together." Hauser wrote about the story, "The thought that Liz and Roz (the lesbian couple he met) were happy pleased Muhammad. Ali wanted people to be happy."
Religion and beliefs
Affiliation with the Nation of Islam
Ali said that he first heard of the Nation of Islam when he was fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago in 1959, and attended his first Nation of Islam meeting in 1961. He continued to attend meetings, although keeping his involvement hidden from the public. In 1962, Clay met Malcolm X, who soon became his spiritual and political mentor. By the time of the first Liston fight, Nation of Islam members, including Malcolm X, were visible in his entourage. This led to a story in The Miami Herald just before the fight disclosing that Clay had joined the Nation of Islam, which nearly caused the bout to be canceled. The article quoted Cassius Clay Sr. as saying that his son had joined the Black Muslims when he was 18.
In fact, Clay was initially refused entry to the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) due to his boxing career. However, after he won the championship from Liston in 1964, the Nation of Islam was more receptive and agreed to publicize his membership. Shortly afterwards on March 6, Elijah Muhammad gave a radio address that Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (most high). Around that time Ali moved to the south side of Chicago and lived in a series of houses, always near the Nation of Islam's Mosque Maryam or Elijah Muhammad's residence. He stayed in Chicago for about 12 years.
Only a few journalists, most notably Howard Cosell, accepted the new name at that time. Ali stated that his earlier name was a "slave name," and a "white man's name" and added that "I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it". The person he was named after was a white man and emancipationist who released slaves. Ali explained in his autobiography after studying his works, "While Clay may have gotten rid of his slaves, he "held on to white supremacy." In truth, Cassius Clay's attachment to slavery went farther than Ali knew. In spite of his abolitionist fervor, Clay owned more slaves in 1865, when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally forbade its practice, than he had inherited from his father 37 years earlier.
Not afraid to antagonize the white establishment, Ali stated, "I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me." Ali's friendship with Malcolm X ended as Malcolm split with the Nation of Islam a couple of weeks after Ali joined, and Ali remained with the Nation of Islam. Ali later said that turning his back on Malcolm was one of the mistakes he regretted most in his life.
Aligning himself with the Nation of Islam, its leader Elijah Muhammad, and a narrative that labeled the white race as the perpetrator of genocide against African Americans made Ali a target of public condemnation. The Nation of Islam was widely viewed by whites and some African Americans as a black separatist "hate religion" with a propensity toward violence; Ali had few qualms about using his influential voice to speak Nation of Islam doctrine. In a press conference articulating his opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali stated, "My enemy is the white people, not Vietcong or Chinese or Japanese." In relation to integration, he said: "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all." Further articulating his opposition to integration, he told members of the KKK at a Klan rally in 1975 that "black people should marry their own women... blue birds are blue birds, red birds are red birds, pigeons with pigeons, eagles with eagles, God did not make no mistake".
Writer Jerry Izenberg once noted that, "the Nation became Ali's family and Elijah Muhammad became his father. But there is an irony to the fact that while the Nation branded white people as devils, Ali had more white colleagues than most African American people did at that time in America, and continued to have them throughout his career."
Conversion to Sunni/Sufi Islam
In Hauser's biography Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, Ali says that although he's not a Christian as he thinks the idea of God having a son sounds wrong and doesn't make sense to him, as he believes, "God don't beget; man begets". He still believes that even good Christians or good Jews can receive God's blessing and enter heaven as he stated, "God created all people, no matter what their religion". He also stated, "If you're against someone because he's a Muslim that's wrong. If you're against someone because he's a Christian or a Jew, that's wrong".
In a 2004 autobiography, Ali attributed his conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam to Warith Deen Muhammad, who assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad, and persuaded the Nation's followers to become adherents of Sunni Islam. He said some people didn't like the change and stuck to Elijah's teachings, but he admired it and so left Elijah's teachings and became a follower of Sunni Islam.
Ali had gone on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1972, which inspired him in a similar manner to Malcolm X, meeting people of different colors from all over the world giving him a different outlook and greater spiritual awareness. In 1977, he said that, after he retired, he would dedicate the rest of his life to getting "ready to meet God" by helping people, charitable causes, uniting people and helping to make peace. He went on another Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1988.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he stated that "Islam is a religion of peace" and "does not promote terrorism or killing people", and that he was "angry that the world sees a certain group of Islam followers who caused this destruction, but they are not real Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims." In December 2015, he stated that "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion", that "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda", and that "political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam, and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is."
In later life after retiring from boxing, Ali became a student of the Quran and a devout Muslim. He also developed an interest in Sufism, which he referenced in his autobiography, The Soul of a Butterfly. According to Ali's daughter, Hana Yasmeen Ali, who co-authored The Soul of a Butterfly with him, Ali was attracted to Sufism after reading the books of Inayat Khan, which contain Sufi teachings.
Muhammad Ali received guidance from Islamic scholars such as Grand Mufti of Syria Almarhum Asy-Syaikh Ahmed Kuftaro, Hisham Kabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf, and Timothy J. Gianotti, who was at Ali's bedside during his last days and ensured that although his funeral was interfaith, it was still in accordance with Islamic rites and rituals.
Beatles reunion plan
In 1976, inventor Alan Amron and businessman Joel Sacher partnered with Ali to promote The International Committee to Reunite the Beatles. They asked fans worldwide to contribute a dollar each. Ali said the idea was not to use the proceeds for profit, but to establish an international agency to help poor children. "This is money to help people all over the world", he said. He added, "I love the music. I used to train to their music." He said a reunion of the Beatles "would make a lot of people happy." The former Beatles were indifferent to the plan, which elicited only a tepid response from the public. No reunion happened.
Entertainment career
Acting
Ali had a cameo role in the 1962 film version of Requiem for a Heavyweight, and during his exile from boxing, he starred in the short-lived 1969 Broadway musical, Buck White. He also appeared in the documentary film Black Rodeo (1972) riding both a horse and a bull.
His autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, written with Richard Durham, was published in 1975. In 1977 the book was adapted into a film called The Greatest, in which Ali played himself and Ernest Borgnine played Angelo Dundee.
The film Freedom Road, made in 1978, features Ali in a rare acting role as Gideon Jackson, a former slave and Union (American Civil War) soldier in 1870s Virginia, who gets elected to the U.S. Senate and battles alongside former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they have tended all their lives.
Spoken word poetry and rap music
Ali often used rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash-talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing. He played a role in the shaping of the black poetic tradition, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in the 1970s. According to The Guardian, "Some have argued that" Ali was "the first rapper."
In 1963, Ali released an album of spoken word music on Columbia Records titled, I Am the Greatest, and in 1964, he recorded a cover version of the rhythm and blues song "Stand by Me". I Am the Greatest sold 500,000 copies, and has been identified as an early example of rap music and a precursor to hip hop. It reached number 61 on the album chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award. He later received a second Grammy nomination, for "Best Recording for Children", with his 1976 spoken word novelty record, The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay.
Ali was an influential figure in the world of hip hop music. As a "rhyming trickster", he was noted for his "funky delivery", "boasts", "comical trash-talk", and "endless quotables." According to Rolling Stone, his "freestyle skills" and his "rhymes, flow, and braggadocio" would "one day become typical of old school MCs" like Run–D.M.C. and LL Cool J, and his "outsized ego foreshadowed the vainglorious excesses of Kanye West, while his Afrocentric consciousness and cutting honesty pointed forward to modern bards like Rakim, Nas, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar." “I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning and throw thunder in jail. You know I’m bad. Just last week, I murdered a rock, Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean, I make medicine sick” "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.” Ali spoke like no man the world had seen before. So confident in what he said; fluent, smooth, creative, and intimidating. He was a boxer and an activist, but he also had a role in influencing what now dominated pop-culture, hip-hop. In 2006, the documentary Ali Rap was produced by ESPN. Chuck D, a rapper for the band Public Enemy is the host. Other rappers narrated the documentary as well, including Doug E Fresh, Ludacris and Rakim who all spoke on Ali's behalf in the film.
He has been cited as an inspiration by rappers such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Jay-Z, Eminem, Sean Combs, Slick Rick, Nas and MC Lyte. Ali has been referenced in a number of hip hop songs, including Migos "Fight Night", The Game's "Jesus Piece", Nas' "The Message, The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", the Fugees' "Ready or Not", EPMD's "You're a Customer" and Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It".
Professional wrestling
Ali was involved with professional wrestling at different times in his career.
On June 1, 1976, as Ali was preparing for his bout with Inoki, he attended a match featuring Gorilla Monsoon. After the match was over, Ali removed his shirt and jacket and confronted professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon in the ring after his match at a World Wide Wrestling Federation show in Philadelphia Arena. After dodging a few punches, Monsoon put Ali in an airplane spin and dumped him to the mat. Ali stumbled to the corner, where his associate Butch Lewis convinced him to walk away.
On March 31, 1985, Ali was the special guest referee for the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania event.
In 1995, Ali led a group of Japanese and American professional wrestlers, including his 1976 opponent Antonio Inoki and Ric Flair, on a sports diplomacy mission to North Korea. Ali was guest of honor at the record-breaking Collision in Korea, a wrestling event with the largest attendance of all time.
Television appearances
Muhammad Ali's fights were some of the world's most-watched television broadcasts, setting television viewership records. His most-watched fights drew an estimated 12 billion viewers worldwide between 1974 and 1980, and were the world's most-watched live television broadcasts at the time. Outside of fights, he made many other television appearances. The following table lists known viewership figures of his non-fight television appearances. For television viewership figures of his fights, see Boxing career of Muhammad Ali: Television viewership.
Art
Ali was also an amateur artist and made dozens of drawings and paintings in the 1970s. In 1977, Rodney Hilton Brown, who owned an art gallery in NYC, asked Ali if he was interested in painting. Ali took him up on the offer and produced several paintings for him to sell. Brown is the author of “Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet and Prophet." In October 2021, 26 of his drawings and arts were placed on auction and sold for close to $1 Million USD.
Later years
In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's Syndrome, which sometimes results from head trauma from violent physical activities such as boxing. Ali still remained active during this time, later participating as a guest referee at WrestleMania I.
Philanthropy, humanitarianism and politics
Ali was known for being a humanitarian and philanthropist. He focused on practicing his Islamic duty of charity and good deeds, donating millions to charity organizations and disadvantaged people of all religious backgrounds. It is estimated that Ali helped to feed more than 22million people afflicted by hunger across the world. Early in his career, one of his main focuses was youth education. He spoke at several historically black colleges and universities about the importance of education, and became the largest single black donor to the United Negro College Fund in 1967 by way of a $10,000 donation ($78,000 in 2020 USD). In late 1966, he also pledged to donate a total of $100,000 to the UNCF (specifically promising to donate much of the proceeds of his title defense against Cleveland Williams), and paid $4,500 per closed circuit installation at six HBCUs so they could watch his fights.
Ali began visiting Africa, starting in 1964 when he visited Nigeria and Ghana. In 1974, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, where Ali declared "support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland." In 1978, following his loss to Spinks and before winning the rematch, Ali visited Bangladesh and received honorary citizenship there. The same year, he participated in The Longest Walk, a protest march in the United States in support of Native American rights, along with singer Stevie Wonder and actor Marlon Brando.
In 1980, Ali was recruited by President Jimmy Carter for a diplomatic mission to Africa, in an effort to persuade a number of African governments to join the US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics (in response to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan). According to Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, "at best, it was ill-conceived; at worst, a diplomatic disaster." The Tanzanian government was insulted that Carter had sent an athlete to discuss a serious political issue. One official asked whether the United States would "send Chris Evert to negotiate with London." Consequently, Ali was only received by the youth and culture minister, rather than President Julius Nyerere. Ali was unable to explain why the African countries should join the US boycott when it had failed to support the African boycott of the 1976 Olympics (in protest at Apartheid in South Africa), and was unaware that the Soviet Union was sponsoring popular revolutionary movements in Africa. Ali conceded "They didn't tell me about that in America", and complained that Carter had sent him "around the world to take the whupping over American policies." The Nigerian government also rebuffed him and confirmed that they would be participating in the Moscow games. Ali did, however, convince the government of Kenya to boycott the Olympics.
On January 19, 1981, in Los Angeles, Ali talked a suicidal man down from jumping off a ninth-floor ledge, an event that made national news.
In 1984, Ali announced his support for the re-election of United States President Ronald Reagan. When asked to elaborate on his endorsement of Reagan, Ali told reporters, "He's keeping God in schools and that's enough." In 1985, he visited Israel to request the release of Muslim prisoners at Atlit detainee camp, which Israel declined.
Around 1987, the California Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Constitution selected Ali to personify the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ali rode on a float at the following year's Tournament of Roses Parade, launching the U.S. Constitution's 200th birthday commemoration. In 1988, during the First Intifada, Ali participated in a Chicago rally in support of Palestine. The same year, he visited Sudan to raise awareness about the plight of famine victims. According to Politico, Ali supported Orrin Hatch politically. In 1989, he participated in an Indian charity event with the Muslim Educational Society in Kozhikode, Kerala, along with Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar.
In 1990, Ali traveled to Iraq prior to the Gulf War, and met with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages. Ali secured the release of the hostages, in exchange for promising Hussein that he would bring America "an honest account" of Iraq. Despite arranging the hostages release, he received criticism from President George H. W. Bush, and Joseph C. Wilson, the highest-ranking American diplomat in Baghdad.Ali cooperated with Thomas Hauser on a biography, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. The oral history was published in 1991.
In 1994, Ali campaigned to the United States government to come to the aid of refugees afflicted by the Rwandan genocide, and to donate to organizations helping Rwandan refugees.
In 1996, he lit the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. It was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers worldwide.
On November 17, 2002, Ali went to Afghanistan as the "U.N. Messenger of Peace." He was in Kabul for a three-day goodwill mission as a special guest of the UN.
On September 1, 2009, Ali visited Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, the home of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1860s, eventually settling in Kentucky.
On July 27, 2012, Ali was a titular bearer of the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He was helped to his feet by his wife Lonnie to stand before the flag due to his Parkinson's Syndrome rendering him unable to carry it into the stadium. The same year, he was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal in recognition of his lifelong efforts in activism, philanthropy and humanitarianism.
Earnings
By 1978, Ali's total fight purse earnings were estimated to be nearly $60million (inflation-adjusted ), including an estimated $47.45million grossed between 1970 and 1978. By 1980, his total fight purse earnings were estimated to be up to $70million (inflation-adjusted $million).
In 1978, Ali revealed that he was "broke" and several news outlets reported his net worth to be an estimated (inflation-adjusted $million). The press attributed his decline in wealth to several factors, including taxes consuming at least half of his income, management taking a third of his income, his lifestyle, and spending on family, charity and religious causes.
In 2006, Ali sold his name and image for $50million, after which Forbes estimated his net worth to be $55million in 2006. Following his death in 2016, his fortune was estimated to be between $50million and $80million.
Declining health
Ali's bout with Parkinson's Syndrome led to a gradual decline in his health, though he was still active into the early years of the millennium, promoting his own biopic, Ali, in 2001. That year he also contributed an on-camera segment to the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert.
In 1998, Ali began working with actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, to raise awareness and fund research for a cure. They made a joint appearance before Congress to push the case in 2002. In 2000, Ali worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease to raise awareness and encourage donations for research.
In February 2013, Ali's brother Rahman Ali said Muhammad could no longer speak and could be dead within days. Ali's daughter May May Ali responded to the rumors, stating that she had talked to him on the phone the morning of February 3 and he was fine. On December 20, 2014, Ali was hospitalized for a mild case of pneumonia. Ali was once again hospitalized on January 15, 2015, for a urinary tract infection after being found unresponsive at a guest house in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was released the next day.
Death
Ali was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 2, 2016, with a respiratory illness. Though his condition was initially described as fair, it worsened, and he died the following day at the age of 74 from septic shock.
News coverage and tributes
Following Ali's death, he was the number-one trending topic on Twitter for over 12 hours and on Facebook for several days. BET played their documentary Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami. ESPN played four hours of non-stop commercial-free coverage of Ali. News networks, such as ABC News, BBC, CNN, and Fox News, also covered him extensively.
He was mourned globally, and a family spokesman said the family "certainly believes that Muhammad was a citizen of the world ... and they know that the world grieves with him." Politicians such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, David Cameron and more paid tribute to Ali. Ali also received numerous tributes from the world of sports including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, the Miami Marlins, LeBron James, Steph Curry and more. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer stated, "Muhammad Ali belongs to the world. But he only has one hometown."
The day after Ali's death, the UFC paid tribute to Ali at their UFC 199 event in a lengthy video tribute package, crediting Ali for his accomplishments and inspiring multiple UFC champions.
Memorial
Ali's funeral had been pre-planned by himself and others for several years prior to his actual death. The services began in Louisville on June 9, 2016, with an Islamic Janazah prayer service at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center. On June 10, 2016, the funeral procession passed through the streets of Louisville ending at Cave Hill Cemetery, where his body was interred during a private ceremony. A public memorial service for Ali at downtown Louisville's KFC Yum! Center was held during the afternoon of June 10. The pallbearers included Will Smith, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, with honorary pallbearers including George Chuvalo, Larry Holmes and George Foreman. Ali's memorial was watched by an estimated 1billion viewers worldwide.
Legacy
Ali remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times, and was involved in more Ring "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He was one of only three boxers to be named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. Muhammad Ali was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its first year and held wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees during an era that has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. The Associated Press ranked him as the second best boxer and best heavyweight of the 20th century. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years.
In 1978, three years before Ali's permanent retirement, the Louisville Board of Aldermen in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, voted 6–5 to rename Walnut Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard. This was controversial at the time, as within a week 12 of the 70 street signs were stolen. Earlier that year, a committee of the Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) considered renaming Ali's alma mater, Central High School, in his honor, but the motion failed to pass. In time, Muhammad Ali Boulevard—and Ali himself—came to be well accepted in his hometown.
Ali was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990.
In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athlete, out of over 800 dead or living athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth. He was the recipient of the 1997 Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
At the end of the 20th century he was ranked at or near the top of most lists of the century's greatest athletes. He was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated. Named BBC's Sports Personality of the Century, he received more votes than the other five candidates combined. He was named Athlete of the Century by USA Today, and ranked as the third greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury. Ali was named "Kentucky Athlete of the Century" by the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Galt House East.
In 1999, Time magazine named Ali one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
On January 8, 2001, Muhammad Ali was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton. In November 2005, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, followed by the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold of the UN Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin for his work with the civil rights movement and the United Nations, which he received on December 17, 2005.
On November 19, 2005, Ali and his wife Lonnie Ali opened the $60million non-profit Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville. In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth. On June 5, 2007, he received an honorary doctorate of humanities at Princeton University's 260th graduation ceremony.
Ali Mall, located in Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippines, is named after him. Construction of the mall, the first of its kind in the Philippines, began shortly after Ali's victory in a match with Joe Frazier in nearby Araneta Coliseum in 1975. The mall opened in 1976 with Ali attending its opening.
The 1976 Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight played an important role in the history of mixed martial arts. In Japan, the match inspired Inoki's students Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki to found Pancrase in 1993, which in turn inspired the foundation of Pride Fighting Championships in 1997. Pride was acquired by its rival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, in 2007.
The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was introduced in 1999 and passed in 2000, to protect the rights and welfare of boxers in the United States. In May 2016, a bill was introduced to United States Congress by Markwayne Mullin, a politician and former MMA fighter, to extend the Ali Act to mixed martial arts. In June 2016, US senator Rand Paul proposed an amendment to the US draft laws named after Ali, a proposal to eliminate the Selective Service System.
In 2015, Sports Illustrated renamed its Sportsman Legacy Award to the Sports Illustrateds Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. The annual award was originally created in 2008 and honors former "sports figures who embody the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy as vehicles for changing the world." Ali first appeared on the magazine's cover in 1963 and went on to be featured on numerous covers during his storied career.
On January 13, 2017, seven months or so after Ali's death, and 4 days before what would have been his 75th birthday, the Muhammad Ali Commemorative Coin Act was introduced into the 115th Congress (2017–2019), as H.R. 579 (House of Representatives) and as S. 166 (Senate). However, both "died" within 10 days.
In the media and popular culture
As a world champion boxer, social activist, sex symbol and pop culture icon, Ali was the subject of numerous creative works including books, films, music, video games, TV shows, and other. Muhammad Ali was often dubbed the world's "most famous" person in the media. Several of his fights were watched by an estimated 12 billion viewers between 1974 and 1980, and his lighting of the torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers.
Ali appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 38 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan's 46. He also appeared on the cover of Time Magazine 5 times, the most of any athlete. In 2015, Harris Poll found that Ali was one of the three most recognizable athletes in the United States, along with Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.
Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee was influenced by Ali, whose footwork he studied and incorporated into his own style while developing Jeet Kune Do in the 1960s.
On the set of Freedom Road Ali met Canadian singer-songwriter Michel, and subsequently helped create Michel's album The First Flight of the Gizzelda Dragon and an unaired television special featuring them both.
Ali was the subject of the British television program This Is Your Life in 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. Ali was featured in Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, a 1978 DC Comics comic book pitting the champ against the superhero. In 1979, Ali guest-starred as himself in an episode of the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. The show's title itself was inspired by the quote "Different strokes for different folks" popularized in 1966 by Ali, who also inspired the title of the 1967 Syl Johnson song "Different Strokes", one of the most sampled songs in pop music history.
He also wrote several bestselling books about his career, including The Greatest: My Own Story and The Soul of a Butterfly. The Muhammad Ali effect, named after Ali, is a term that came into use in psychology in the 1980s, as he stated in The Greatest: My Own Story: "I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest." According to this effect, when people are asked to rate their intelligence and moral behavior in comparison to others, people will rate themselves as more moral, but not more intelligent than others.
When We Were Kings, a 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The 2001 biopic Ali garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Will Smith for his portrayal of Ali. Prior to making the film, Smith rejected the role until Ali requested that he accept it. Smith said the first thing Ali told him was: "Man, you're almost pretty enough to play me."
In 2002, Ali was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the entertainment industry. His star is the only one to be mounted on a vertical surface, out of deference to his request that the name Muhammad—a name he shares with the Islamic prophet—not be walked upon.
His 1966 fight against George Chuvalo was the subject of Joseph Blasioli's 2003 documentary film The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali.
The Trials of Muhammad Ali, a documentary directed by Bill Siegel that focuses on Ali's refusal of the draft during the Vietnam War, opened in Manhattan on August 23, 2013. A 2013 made-for-TV movie titled Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight dramatized the same aspect of Ali's life.
Antoine Fuqua's documentary What's My Name: Muhammad Ali was released in 2019.
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns created the four-part documentary film Muhammad Ali, spanning over eight hours on Ali's entire life. Burns worked on the film since early 2016. It is scheduled to release in September 2021 on PBS. Dave Zirin who watched an 8 hour rough cut of this documentary called it "utterly outstanding" and said "the footage they found will blow minds".
Discography
I Am the Greatest (1963)
The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976)
See also
List of heavyweight boxing champions
List of WBA world champions
List of WBC world champions
List of The Ring world champions
List of undisputed boxing champions
Converts to Islam
Notable boxing families
List of people from the Louisville metropolitan area
List of North American Muslims
African-American Muslims
1981 MAPS Wells Fargo embezzlement scandal
Notes
References
Further reading
Online
Muhammad Ali: American boxer, in Encyclopædia Britannica Online, by Thomas Hauser, Adam Augustyn, Piyush Bhathya, Yamini Chauhan, John M. Cunningham, Richard Pallardy, Michael Ray, Emily Rodriguez, Surabhi Sinha, Amy Tikkanen, Grace Young and The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
External links
Official website (archived)
William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services: Ancestry of Muhammad Ali
FBI Records: The Vault – Muhammad Ali at the FBI
Cassius Clay Guilty (1967), Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Photo essays'''
1942 births
2016 deaths
20th-century American rappers
20th-century Muslims
21st-century Muslims
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from Kentucky
African-American activists
African-American boxers
African-American male rappers
African-American Muslims
African-American poets
African-American Sunni Muslims
American anti–Vietnam War activists
American conscientious objectors
American former Protestants
American humanitarians
American male boxers
American male poets
American male rappers
American Muslim activists
American people of Irish descent
American people of Malagasy descent
American philanthropists
American spoken word poets
American Sufis
BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year winners
Boxers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Boxers from Arizona
Boxers from Chicago
Boxers from Louisville, Kentucky
Boxers from New Jersey
Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery
Central High School (Louisville, Kentucky) alumni
COINTELPRO targets
Columbia Records artists
Converts to Sunni Islam from Protestantism
Deaths from sepsis
Former Nation of Islam members
International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees
Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Neurological disease deaths in Arizona
Olympic boxers of the United States
Olympic cauldron lighters
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in boxing
Overturned convictions in the United States
People from Cherry Hill, New Jersey
People from Paradise Valley, Arizona
People with Parkinson's disease
People with traumatic brain injuries
Poets from Arizona
Poets from Kentucky
Poets from New Jersey
Presidential Citizens Medal recipients
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Professional wrestling referees
Rappers from Kentucky
Sportspeople from Camden County, New Jersey
Sportspeople from the Phoenix metropolitan area
The Ring (magazine) champions
Vietnam War draft evaders
Winners of the United States Championship for amateur boxers
World Boxing Association champions
World Boxing Council champions
World heavyweight boxing champions
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
| true |
[
"James Moore (born 26 February 1978 in Arklow, County Wicklow, Ireland), is a professional boxer. Moore currently fights in the Light Middleweight division although he fought as a welterweight during his amateur career.\n\nAmateur titles\nMoore boxed as an amateur for Ireland and won three national senior titles and a bronze medal at the 2001 World Amateur Boxing Championships.\n\nProfessional career\nMoore turned professional in August 2005, winning his first fight at the Manhattan Center, New York, NY, USA, in which Moore knocked out fellow debutant Gabrial Garcia on an undercard that included Jaidon Codrington and Patrick Nwamu.\n\nAlthough a native Wicklowman, Moore, like his fellow Irishman John Duddy emigrated to America and fights out of Gleasons Gym in New York. Moore has fought regularly since debut and is currently ranked 3rd in Irish.boxing.com's rankings of light middleweights.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \nInterview with James Moore\n\nPeople from Arklow\nSportspeople from County Wicklow\n1978 births\nLiving people\nIrish male boxers\nAIBA World Boxing Championships medalists\nMiddleweight boxers",
"Henry Hall (6 September 1922 – 1979) was a British boxer who was British welterweight champion between 1948 and 1949.\n\nCareer\nFrom Sheffield, Hall had success as an amateur, winning the 1944 Amateur Boxing Association British welterweight title, when boxing out of the Hillsborough ABC, before making his professional début in February 1945 with a win over Bob Moorcroft. Initially a welterweight, he won his first 15 fights before losing in April 1946 to Scottish Area champion Ginger Stewart. In September 1946 he met Stewart again in an eliminator for the British title, again losing. Over the next 18 months he won nine fights but lost to Harry Lazar, Eddie Thomas, and Tommy Armour.\n\nHe had a second title eliminator in March 1948, this time against Willie Whyte, winning via a 10th round knockout. He beat Swiss Champion Rock Gianola in May, and beat Armour in a final eliminator in August to set up a title fight against Ernie Roderick in November, which had initially been delayed due to Roderick suffering an arm injury. Hall won a controversial 15 round points decision to take the title and end Roderick's ten-tear reign as champion. Roderick's manager Nel Tarleton officially protested the result, but it was upheld by the BBBofC.\n\nHall won his next two fights, against Belgian champion Willy Wimms and the highly regarded American Tony Janiro, and he was considered a world title contender, but then suffered defeats to French Champion Emmanuel Clavel, Canadian Frankie Cordino, and Ric Sanders. In November 1949 he faced Thomas in his first British title defence; Thomas won on points to take the title.\n\nA local celebrity, Hall was called on to start a walking race in his home town in April 1950, and the same months was a judge in a regional round of the 'Britain's Perfect Man' contest organised by Mecca Dancing.\n\nHall won his next two fights before moving up to middleweight in June 1950 under new manager Nat Seller. He won his first three fights at the weight but couldn't repeat the success he had as a welterweight, and after a mixed record between 1950 and 1951, failed to win any of his last ten fights, before retiring in 1952.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nCareer record at boxrec.com\nCareer record at boxinghistory.org.uk\n\n1922 births\n1979 deaths\nWelterweight boxers\nMiddleweight boxers\nSportspeople from Sheffield\nEnglish male boxers"
] |
[
"Muhammad Ali",
"Early life and amateur career",
"Where was Muhammad Ali born?",
"Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky.",
"Was Muhammad active in his early childhood?",
"He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the \"real training\",",
"How was Muhammad influenced to start boxing?",
"Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming",
"Was he arrested?",
"I don't know.",
"Has he won any fights during his amateur career?",
"Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision."
] |
C_ea7154fd6dfd4adca851d86899f374c6_1
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Did he lose any fights?
| 6 |
Did Muhammad Ali lose any fights?
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Muhammad Ali
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Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had a sister and four brothers. He was named for his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. (1912-1990), who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist, Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with smaller amounts of Irish and English heritage. His father painted billboards and signs, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917-1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali) as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. Clay grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store--"They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend's taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local railyard. Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually moulding "my style, my stamina and my system". For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak. Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games. CANNOTANSWER
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Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses.
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Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet and philanthropist. Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He became a Muslim after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. Also that year, he renounced his birth name as a "slave name" and formally became known as Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. However, he had not fought for nearly four years by this point and had lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger 1960s counterculture generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam, and supported racial integration like his former mentor Malcolm X.
He fought in several historic boxing matches, such as his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many boxers let their managers do the talking, and he became renowned for his provocative and outlandish persona. He was known for trash-talking, and often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry incorporating elements of hip hop, and often predicted in which round he would knockout his opponent.
Outside boxing, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, releasing two studio albums: I Am the Greatest! (1963) and The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976). Both albums received Grammy Award nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attributed to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family. Ali died on June 3, 2016.
Early life and amateur career
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. ( ) was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had one brother. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., who had a sister and four brothers and who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with some Irish and English family heritage. Ali's maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland. DNA testing performed in 2018 showed that, through his paternal grandmother, Ali was a descendant of the former slave Archer Alexander, who had been chosen from the building crew as the model of a freed man for the Emancipation Memorial, and was the subject of abolitionist William Greenleaf Eliot's book, The Story of Archer Alexander: From Slavery to Freedom. Like Ali, Alexander fought for his freedom.
His father was a sign and billboard painter, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917–1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother, Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali), as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. He was dyslexic, which led to difficulties in reading and writing, at school and for much of his life. Ali grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store: "They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also strongly affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local rail yard. His daughter Hana later wrote that Ali once told her, "Nothing would ever shake me up (more) than the story of Emmett Till."
Ali was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually molding "my style, my stamina and my system." For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak.
Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.
Early professional boxing career
Early career
Clay made his professional debut on October 29, 1960, winning a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker. From then until the end of 1963, Clay amassed a record of 19–0 with 15 wins by knockout. He defeated boxers including Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, LaMar Clark, Doug Jones and Henry Cooper. Clay also beat his former trainer and veteran boxer Archie Moore in a 1962 match.
These early fights were not without trials. Clay was knocked down by both Sonny Banks and Cooper. In the Cooper fight, Clay was floored by a left hook at the end of round four and was saved by the bell, going on to win in the predicted 5th round due to Cooper's severely cut eye. The fight with Doug Jones on March 13, 1963 was Clay's toughest fight during this stretch. The number two and three heavyweight contenders respectively, Clay and Jones fought on Jones' home turf at New York's Madison Square Garden. Jones staggered Clay in the first round, and the unanimous decision for Clay was greeted by boos and a rain of debris thrown into the ring. Watching on closed-circuit TV, heavyweight champ Sonny Liston quipped that if he fought Clay he might get locked up for murder. The fight was later named "Fight of the Year" by The Ring magazine.
In each of these fights, Clay vocally belittled his opponents and vaunted his abilities. He called Jones "an ugly little man" and Cooper a "bum". He said he was embarrassed to get in the ring with Alex Miteff and claimed that Madison Square Garden was "too small for me." Ali's trash-talk was inspired by professional wrestler "Gorgeous George" Wagner's, after he saw George's talking ability attract huge crowds to events. Ali stated in a 1969 interview with the Associated Press' Hubert Mizel that he met with George in Las Vegas in 1961, that George told him that talking a big game would earn paying fans who either wanted to see him win or wanted to see him lose, thus Ali transformed himself into a self-described "big-mouth and a bragger".
In 1960, Clay left Moore's camp, partially due to Clay's refusal to do chores such as washing dishes and sweeping. To replace Moore, Clay hired Angelo Dundee to be his trainer. Clay had met Dundee in February 1957 during Clay's amateur career. Around this time, Clay sought longtime idol Sugar Ray Robinson to be his manager, but was rebuffed.
World heavyweight champion
Fights against Liston
By late 1963, Clay had become the top contender for Sonny Liston's title. The fight was set for February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach. Liston was an intimidating personality, a dominating fighter with a criminal past and ties to the mob. Based on Clay's uninspired performance against Jones and Cooper in his previous two fights, and Liston's destruction of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in two first-round knockouts, Clay was a 7–1 underdog. Despite this, Clay taunted Liston during the pre-fight buildup, dubbing him "the big ugly bear", stating "Liston even smells like a bear" and claiming "After I beat him I'm going to donate him to the zoo." Clay turned the pre-fight weigh-in into a circus, shouting at Liston that "someone is going to die at ringside tonight." Clay's pulse rate was measured at 120, more than double his normal 54. Many of those in attendance thought Clay's behavior stemmed from fear, and some commentators wondered if he would show up for the bout.
The outcome of the fight was a major upset. At the opening bell, Liston rushed at Clay, seemingly angry and looking for a quick knockout. However, Clay's superior speed and mobility enabled him to elude Liston, making the champion miss and look awkward. At the end of the first round, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston repeatedly with jabs. Liston fought better in round two, but at the beginning of the third round Clay hit Liston with a combination that buckled his knees and opened a cut under his left eye. This was the first time Liston had ever been cut. At the end of round four, Clay was returning to his corner when he began experiencing blinding pain in his eyes and asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to cut off his gloves. Dundee refused. It has been speculated that the problem was due to ointment used to seal Liston's cuts, perhaps deliberately applied by his corner to his gloves. Though unconfirmed, boxing historian Bert Sugar said that two of Liston's opponents also complained about their eyes "burning".
Despite Liston's attempts to knock out a blinded Clay, Clay was able to survive the fifth round until sweat and tears rinsed the irritation from his eyes. In the sixth, Clay dominated, hitting Liston repeatedly. Liston did not answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by TKO. Liston stated that the reason he quit was an injured shoulder. Following the win, a triumphant Clay rushed to the edge of the ring and, pointing to the ringside press, shouted: "Eat your words!" He added, "I am the greatest! I shook up the world. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived."
At ringside post fight, Clay appeared unconvinced that the fight was stopped due to a Liston shoulder injury, saying that the only injury Liston had was "an open eye, a big cut eye!" When told by Joe Louis that the injury was a "left arm thrown out of its socket," Clay quipped, "Yeah, swinging at nothing, who wouldn't?"
In winning this fight at the age of 22, Clay became the youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion. However, Floyd Patterson remained the youngest to win the heavyweight championship, doing so at the age 21 during an elimination bout following Rocky Marciano's retirement. Mike Tyson broke both records in 1986 when he defeated Trevor Berbick to win the heavyweight title at age 20.
Soon after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Cassius X, and then later to Muhammad Ali upon converting to Islam and affiliating with the Nation of Islam. Ali then faced a rematch with Liston scheduled for May 1965 in Lewiston, Maine. It had been scheduled for Boston the previous November, but was postponed for six months due to Ali's emergency surgery for a hernia three days before. The fight was controversial. Midway through the first round, Liston was knocked down by a difficult-to-see blow the press dubbed a "phantom punch". Referee Jersey Joe Walcott did not begin the count immediately after the knockdown, as Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Liston rose after he had been down for about 20 seconds, and the fight momentarily continued. However a few seconds later Walcott, having been informed by the timekeepers that Liston had been down for a count of 10, stopped the match and declared Ali the winner by knockout. The entire fight lasted less than two minutes.
It has since been speculated that Liston purposely dropped to the ground. Proposed motivations include threats on his life from the Nation of Islam, that he had bet against himself and that he "took a dive" to pay off debts. Slow-motion replays show that Liston was jarred by a chopping right from Ali, although it is unclear whether the blow was a genuine knockout punch.
Fight against Patterson
Ali defended his title against former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson on November 22, 1965. Before the match, Ali mocked Patterson, who was widely known to call him by his former name Cassius Clay, as an "Uncle Tom", calling him "The Rabbit". Although Ali clearly had the better of Patterson, who appeared injured during the fight, the match lasted 12 rounds before being called on a technical knockout. Patterson later said he had strained his sacroiliac. Ali was criticized in the sports media for appearing to have toyed with Patterson during the fight. Patterson biographer W. K. Stratton claims that the conflict between Ali and Patterson was not genuine but was staged to increase ticket sales and the closed-circuit viewing audience, with both men complicit in the theatrics. Stratton also cites an interview by Howard Cosell in which Ali explained that rather than toying with Patterson, he refrained from knocking him out after it became apparent Patterson was injured. Patterson later said that he had never been hit by punches as soft as Ali's. Stratton states that Ali arranged the second fight, in 1972, with the financially struggling Patterson to help the former champion earn enough money to pay a debt to the IRS.
Main Bout
After the Patterson fight, Ali founded his own promotion company, Main Bout. The company mainly handled Ali's boxing promotions and pay-per-view closed-circuit television broadcasts. The company's stockholders were mainly fellow Nation of Islam members, along with several others, including Bob Arum.
Ali and then-WBA heavyweight champion boxer Ernie Terrell had agreed to meet for a bout in Chicago on March 29, 1966 (the WBA, one of two boxing associations, had stripped Ali of his title following his joining the Nation of Islam). But in February Ali was reclassified by the Louisville draft board as 1-A from 1-Y, and he indicated that he would refuse to serve, commenting to the press, "I ain't got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me nigger." Amidst the media and public outcry over Ali's stance, the Illinois Athletic Commission refused to sanction the fight, citing technicalities.
Instead, Ali traveled to Canada and Europe and won championship bouts against George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London and Karl Mildenberger.
Ali returned to the United States to fight Cleveland Williams in the Houston Astrodome on November 14, 1966. The bout drew a record-breaking indoor crowd of 35,460 people. Williams had once been considered among the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division, but in 1964 he had been shot at point-blank range by a Texas policeman, resulting in the loss of one kidney and of his small intestine. Ali dominated Williams, winning a third-round technical knockout in what some consider the finest performance of his career.
Ali fought Terrell in Houston on February 6, 1967. Terrell, who was unbeaten in five years and had defeated many of the boxers Ali had faced, was billed as Ali's toughest opponent since Liston; he was big, strong and had a three-inch reach advantage over Ali. During the lead up to the bout, Terrell repeatedly called Ali "Clay", much to Ali's annoyance. The two almost came to blows over the name issue in a pre-fight interview with Howard Cosell. Ali seemed intent on humiliating Terrell. "I want to torture him", he said. "A clean knockout is too good for him." The fight was close until the seventh round, when Ali bloodied Terrell and almost knocked him out. In the eighth round, Ali taunted Terrell, hitting him with jabs and shouting between punches, "What's my name, Uncle Tom ... what's my name?" Ali won a unanimous 15-round decision. Terrell claimed that early in the fight Ali deliberately thumbed him in the eye, forcing him to fight half-blind, and then, in a clinch, rubbed the wounded eye against the ropes. Because of Ali's apparent intent to prolong the fight to inflict maximum punishment, critics described the bout as "one of the ugliest boxing fights." Tex Maule later wrote: "It was a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty." Ali denied the accusations of cruelty but, for Ali's critics, the fight provided more evidence of his arrogance.
After Ali's title defense against Zora Folley on March 22, he was stripped of his title due to his refusal to be drafted to army service. His boxing license was also suspended by the state of New York. He was convicted of draft evasion on June 20 and sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He paid a bond and remained free while the verdict was being appealed.
Vietnam War and resistance to the draft
Ali registered for conscription in the United States military on his 18th birthday and was listed as 1-A in 1962. In 1964, he was reclassified as Class 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after he failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub-standard, due to his dyslexia. (He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest!") By early 1966, the army lowered its standards to permit soldiers above the 15th percentile and Ali was again classified as 1-A. This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army at a time when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, a war which put him further at odds with the white establishment.
When notified of this status, Ali declared that he would refuse to serve in the army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector. Ali stated: "War is against the teachings of the Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger (Elijah Muhammad then leader of Nation of Islam). We don’t take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers". He also said "We are not to be the aggressor but we will defend ourselves if attacked." He stated: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Ali antagonized the white establishment in 1966 by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.
On April 28, 1967, Ali appeared in Houston for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces, but he refused three times to step forward when his name was called. An officer warned him that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called, and he was arrested. Later that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit. Ali remained unable to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years. On June 4, 1967, in a first for sports professionals, a group of high-profile African-American athletes assembled at the Negro Industrial Economic union in Cleveland for a "Muhammad Ali Summit". The meeting was organized by Jim Brown for his peers to question Ali about the seriousness of his convictions, and to decide whether to support him, which they ultimately did.
At the trial on June 20, 1967, the jury found Ali guilty after only 21minutes of deliberation of the criminal offense of violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. After a Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, the case was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
Ali remained free in the years between the Appellate Court decision and the Supreme Court ruling. As public opinion began turning people against the war and the Civil Rights Movement continued to gather momentum, Ali became a popular speaker at colleges and universities across the country; this itinerary was rare if not unprecedented for a prizefighter. At Howard University, for example, he gave his popular "Black Is Best" speech to 4,000 cheering students and community intellectuals, after he was invited to speak by sociology professor Nathan Hare on behalf of the Black Power Committee, a student protest group.
On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. United States overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8–0 decision (Justice Thurgood Marshall recused himself, as he had been the U.S. Solicitor General at the time of Ali's conviction). The decision was not based on, nor did it address, the merits of Ali's claims per se. Rather, the Court held that since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to Ali, that it was therefore impossible to determine which of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status (offered in the Justice Department's brief) the appeal board relied on, and Ali's conviction must be reversed.
Impact of Ali's draft refusal
Ali's example inspired many black Americans and others. However, initially when he refused induction, he became arguably the most hated man in the country and received many death threats. People who supported Ali during this time were also threatened, including sports journalist Jerry Izenberg, whose columns defended Ali's decision not to serve. He wrote, "Bomb threats emptied our office, making the staff stand out in the snow. My car windshield was smashed with a sledgehammer." The New York Times columnist William Rhoden wrote, "Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"
Recalling Ali's anti-war position, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said: "I remember the teachers at my high school didn't like Ali because he was so anti-establishment and he kind of thumbed his nose at authority and got away with it. The fact that he was proud to be a black man and that he had so much talent ... made some people think that he was dangerous. But for those very reasons I enjoyed him."
Civil rights figures came to believe that Ali had an energizing effect on the freedom movement as a whole. Al Sharpton spoke of his bravery at a time when there was still widespread support for the Vietnam War:
Ali was honored with the annual Martin Luther King Award in 1970 by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy, who called him "a living example of soul power, the March on Washington in two fists." Coretta Scott King added that Ali was "a champion of justice and peace and unity."
In speaking of the cost on Ali's career of his refusal to be drafted, his trainer Angelo Dundee said, "One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years."
Bob Arum did not support Ali's choice at the time. More recently, Arum stated that "when I look back at his life, and I was blessed to call him a friend and spent a lot of time with him, it's hard for me to talk about his exploits in boxing because as great as they were they paled in comparison to the impact that he had on the world," and "He did what he thought was right. And it turned out he was right, and I was wrong."
Ali's resistance to the draft was covered in the 2013 documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali.
NSA and FBI monitoring of Ali's communications
In a secret operation code-named "Minaret", the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted the communications of leading Americans, including Ali, Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., prominent U.S. journalists, and others who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam. A review by the NSA of the Minaret program concluded that it was "disreputable if not outright illegal."
In 1971, his Fight of the Century with Frazier was used by an activist group, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, to pull off a burglary at an FBI office in Pennsylvania; the anticipation for the fight was unlike anything else, so they believed the security would also be focused on the fight. This raid exposed the COINTELPRO operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti-war movements. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Ali, and their activities included the FBI gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school; one such record mentioned him loving art as a child.
Exile and comeback
In March 1966, Ali refused to be inducted into the armed forces. He was systematically denied a boxing license in every state and stripped of his passport. As a result, he did not fight from March 1967 to October 1970—from ages 25 to almost 29—as his case worked its way through the appeals process before his conviction was overturned in 1971.
Protesting while exiled
During this time of inactivity, as opposition to the Vietnam War began to grow and Ali's stance gained sympathy, he spoke at colleges across the nation, criticizing the Vietnam War and advocating African-American pride and racial justice. Ali based himself in Chicago. According to most close to him, his Chicago years were formative.
At the time, Ali was widely condemned by the American media, with fears that his actions could potentially lead to mass civil disobedience. Despite this, Ebony magazine noted in the late 1960s that Ali's popularity had increased during this time, especially among black people.
The Super Fight
While banned from sanctioned bouts, Ali settled a $1 million lawsuit against radio producer Murray Woroner by accepting $10,000 to appear in a privately staged fantasy fight against retired champion Rocky Marciano. In 1969 the boxers were filmed sparring for about 75 one-minute rounds; they produced several potential outcomes. A computer program purportedly determined the winner, based on data about the fighters, along with the opinions of approximately 250 boxing experts. Edited versions of the bout were shown in movie theaters in 1970. In the U.S. version Ali lost in a simulated 13th-round knockout, but in the European version Marciano lost due to cuts, also simulated.
Ali suggested that prejudice determined his defeat in the U.S. version. He was reported to jokingly say, "That computer was made in Alabama."
Return to prizefighting
On August 11, 1970, with his case still in appeal, Ali was granted a license to box by the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission. Leroy Johnson, Jesse Hill Jr. and Harry Pett had used their local political influence and set up the company House of Sports to organize the fight, underlining the influential power of Georgia's black politics in Ali' s comeback. Ali's first return bout was against Jerry Quarry on October 26, resulting in a win after three rounds after Quarry was cut.
A month earlier, a victory in federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali's license. He fought Oscar Bonavena at Madison Square Garden in December, an uninspired performance that ended in a dramatic technical knockout of Bonavena in the 15th round. The win left Ali as a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier.
First fight against Joe Frazier
Ali and Frazier's first fight, held at the Garden on March 8, 1971, was nicknamed the "Fight of the Century", due to the tremendous excitement surrounding a bout between two undefeated fighters, each with a legitimate claim to be heavyweight champion. Veteran US boxing writer John Condon called it "the greatest event I've ever worked on in my life." The bout was broadcast to 36 countries; promoters granted 760 press passes.
Adding to the atmosphere were the considerable pre-fight theatrics and name calling. Before the fight Frazier called Ali, "Cassius Clay", this angered Ali and he portrayed Frazier as a "dumb tool of the white establishment." "Frazier is too ugly to be champ", Ali said. "Frazier is too dumb to be champ." Ali also frequently called Frazier an "Uncle Tom". Dave Wolf, who worked in Frazier's camp, recalled that, "Ali was saying 'the only people rooting for Joe Frazier are white people in suits, Alabama sheriffs, and members of the Ku Klux Klan. I'm fighting for the little man in the ghetto.' Joe was sitting there, smashing his fist into the palm of his hand, saying, 'What the fuck does he know about the ghetto?
Ali began training at a farm near Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1971 and, finding the country setting to his liking, sought to develop a real training camp in the countryside. He found a five-acre site on a Pennsylvania country road in the village of Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. On this site, Ali carved out what was to become his training camp, where he trained for all his fights from 1972 to the end of his career in 1981.
The Monday night fight lived up to its billing. In a preview of their two other fights, a crouching, bobbing and weaving Frazier constantly pressured Ali, getting hit regularly by Ali jabs and combinations, but relentlessly attacking and scoring repeatedly, especially to Ali's body. The fight was even in the early rounds, but Ali was taking more punishment than ever in his career. On several occasions in the early rounds he played to the crowd and shook his head "no" after he was hit. In the later rounds—in what was the first appearance of the "rope-a-dope strategy"—Ali leaned against the ropes and absorbed punishment from Frazier, hoping to tire him. In the 11th round, Frazier connected with a left hook that wobbled Ali, but because it appeared that Ali might be clowning as he staggered backwards across the ring, Frazier hesitated to press his advantage, fearing an Ali counter-attack. In the final round, Frazier knocked Ali down with a vicious left hook, which referee Arthur Mercante said was as hard as a man can be hit. Ali was back on his feet in three seconds. Nevertheless, Ali lost by unanimous decision, his first professional defeat.
Chamberlain challenge and Ellis fight
In 1971, basketball star Wilt Chamberlain challenged Ali to a fight, and a bout was scheduled for July 26. Although the seven-foot-two-inch tall Chamberlain had formidable physical advantages over Ali—weighing 60pounds more and able to reach 14inches further—Ali was able to influence Chamberlain into calling off the bout by taunting him with calls of "Timber!" and "The tree will fall" during a shared interview. These statements of confidence unsettled his taller opponent, whom Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had offered a record-setting contract, conditional on Chamberlain agreeing to abandon what Cooke termed "this boxing foolishness", and he did exactly that. To replace Ali's opponent, promoter Bob Arum quickly booked a former sparring partner of Ali's, Jimmy Ellis, who was a childhood friend from Louisville, Kentucky, to fight him.
After his loss
Fights against Quarry, Patterson, Foster and Norton
After the loss to Frazier, Ali fought Jerry Quarry, had a second bout with Floyd Patterson and faced Bob Foster in 1972, winning a total of six fights that year. In 1973, Ken Norton broke Ali's jaw while giving him the second loss of his career. After initially considering retirement, Ali won a controversial decision against Norton in their second bout. This led to a rematch with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 1974; Frazier had recently lost his title to George Foreman.
Second fight against Joe Frazier
Ali was strong in the early rounds of the fight, and staggered Frazier in the second round. Referee Tony Perez mistakenly thought he heard the bell ending the round and stepped between the two fighters as Ali was pressing his attack, giving Frazier time to recover. However, Frazier came on in the middle rounds, snapping Ali's head in round seven and driving him to the ropes at the end of round eight. The last four rounds saw round-to-round shifts in momentum between the two fighters. Throughout most of the bout, however, Ali was able to circle away from Frazier's dangerous left hook and to tie Frazier up when he was cornered, the latter a tactic that Frazier's camp complained of bitterly. Judges awarded Ali a unanimous decision.
World heavyweight champion (second reign)
The Rumble in the Jungle
The defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974—a bout nicknamed The Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. In assessing the fight, analysts pointed out that Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, who had given Ali four tough battles and won two of them, had both been devastated by Foreman in second-round knockouts. Ali was 32 years old, and had clearly lost speed and reflexes since his twenties. Contrary to his later persona, Foreman was at the time a brooding and intimidating presence. Almost no one associated with the sport, not even Ali's long-time supporter Howard Cosell, gave the former champion a chance of winning.
As usual, Ali was confident and colorful before the fight. He told interviewer David Frost, "If you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait till I whup Foreman's behind!" He told the press, "I've done something new for this fight. I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick." Ali was wildly popular in Zaire, with crowds chanting "Ali, bomaye" ("Ali, kill him") wherever he went.
Ali opened the fight moving and scoring with right crosses to Foreman's head. Then, beginning in the second round, and to the consternation of his corner, Ali retreated to the ropes and invited Foreman to hit him while covering up, clinching and counter-punching, all while verbally taunting Foreman. The move, which would later become known as the "Rope-a-dope", so violated conventional boxing wisdom—letting one of the hardest hitters in boxing strike at will—that at ringside writer George Plimpton thought the fight had to be fixed. Foreman, increasingly angered, threw punches that were deflected and did not land squarely. Midway through the fight, as Foreman began tiring, Ali countered more frequently and effectively with punches and flurries, which electrified the pro-Ali crowd. In the eighth round, Ali dropped an exhausted Foreman with a combination at center ring; Foreman failed to make the count. Against the odds, and amidst pandemonium in the ring, Ali had regained the title by knockout. Reflecting on the fight, George Foreman later said: "I thought Ali was just one more knockout victim until, about the seventh round, I hit him hard to the jaw and he held me and whispered in my ear: 'That all you got, George?' I realized that this ain't what I thought it was."
It was a major upset victory, after Ali came in as a 41 underdog against the previously unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight became famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1billion viewers worldwide. It was the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time.
Fights against Wepner, Lyle and Bugner
Ali's next opponents included Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, and Joe Bugner. Wepner, a journeyman known as "The Bayonne Bleeder", stunned Ali with a knockdown in the ninth round; Ali would later say he tripped on Wepner's foot. It was a bout that would inspire Sylvester Stallone to create the acclaimed film, Rocky.
Third fight against Joe Frazier
Ali then agreed to a third match with Joe Frazier in Manila. The bout, known as the "Thrilla in Manila", was held on October 1, 1975, in temperatures approaching . In the first rounds, Ali was aggressive, moving and exchanging blows with Frazier. However, Ali soon appeared to tire and adopted the "rope-a-dope" strategy, frequently resorting to clinches. During this part of the bout Ali did some effective counter-punching, but for the most part absorbed punishment from a relentlessly attacking Frazier. In the 12th round, Frazier began to tire, and Ali scored several sharp blows that closed Frazier's left eye and opened a cut over his right eye. With Frazier's vision now diminished, Ali dominated the 13th and 14th rounds, at times conducting what boxing historian Mike Silver called "target practice" on Frazier's head. The fight was stopped when Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, refused to allow Frazier to answer the bell for the 15th and final round, despite Frazier's protests. Frazier's eyes were both swollen shut. Ali, in his corner, winner by TKO, slumped on his stool, clearly spent.
An ailing Ali said afterwards that the fight "was the closest thing to dying that I know", and, when later asked if he had viewed the fight on videotape, reportedly said, "Why would I want to go back and see Hell?" After the fight he cited Frazier as "the greatest fighter of all times next to me."
After the third fight with Frazier, Ali considered retirement. He said, “I’m sore all over. My arms, my face, my sides all ache. I’m so, so tired. There is a great possibility that I will retire. You might have seen the last of me. I want to sit back and count my money, live in my house and my farm, work for my people and concentrate on my family."
Later career
Following the Manila bout, Ali fought Jean-Pierre Coopman, Jimmy Young, and Richard Dunn, winning the last by knockout.
The punch used to knock Dunn out was taught to Ali by Taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. Rhee called that punch the "Accupunch"; he learned it from Bruce Lee. The Dunn fight was the last time Ali would knock down an opponent in his boxing career.
Ali fought Ken Norton for the third time in September 1976. The bout, which was held at Yankee Stadium, resulted in Ali winning a heavily contested decision that was loudly booed by the audience. Afterwards, he announced he was retiring from boxing to practice his faith, having converted to Sunni Islam after falling out with the Nation of Islam the previous year.
After returning to beat Alfredo Evangelista in May 1977, Ali struggled in his next fight against Earnie Shavers that September, getting pummeled a few times by punches to the head. Ali won the fight by another unanimous decision, but the bout caused his longtime doctor Ferdie Pacheco to quit after he was rebuffed for telling Ali he should retire. Pacheco was quoted as saying, "the New York State Athletic Commission gave me a report that showed Ali's kidneys were falling apart. I wrote to Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer, his wife and Ali himself. I got nothing back in response. That's when I decided enough is enough."
In February 1978, Ali faced Leon Spinks at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. At the time, Spinks had only seven professional fights to his credit, and had recently fought a draw with journeyman Scott LeDoux. Ali sparred less than two dozen rounds in preparation for the fight, and was seriously out of shape by the opening bell. He lost the title by split decision. A rematch occurred in September at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. 70,000 people attended the bout and paid a total of $6 million admission, making it the largest live gate in boxing history at that time. Ali won a unanimous decision in an uninspiring fight, with referee Lucien Joubert scoring rounds 10-4, judge Ernie Cojoe 10-4, and judge Herman Preis 11-4. This made Ali the first heavyweight champion to win the belt three times.
Following this win, on July 27, 1979, Ali announced his retirement from boxing. His retirement was short-lived, however; Ali announced his comeback to face Larry Holmes for the WBC belt in an attempt to win the heavyweight championship an unprecedented fourth time. The fight was largely motivated by Ali's need for money. Boxing writer Richie Giachetti said, "Larry didn't want to fight Ali. He knew Ali had nothing left; he knew it would be a horror."
It was around this time that Ali started struggling with vocal stutters and trembling hands. The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) ordered that he undergo a complete physical in Las Vegas before being allowed to fight again. Ali chose instead to check into the Mayo Clinic, who declared him fit to fight. Their opinion was accepted by the NAC on July 31, 1980, paving the way for Ali's return to the ring.
The fight took place on October 2, 1980, in Las Vegas Valley, with Holmes easily dominating Ali, who was weakened from thyroid medication he had taken to lose weight. Giachetti called the fight "awful ... the worst sports event I ever had to cover." Actor Sylvester Stallone was at ringside and said that it was like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive. After the tenth round, Angelo Dundee told the referee to stop the fight, making it the only time that Ali ever lost by stoppage. The Holmes fight is said to have contributed to Ali's Parkinson's syndrome. Despite pleas to definitively retire, Ali fought one last time on December 11, 1981, in Nassau, Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, losing a ten-round decision.
By the end of his boxing career Ali had absorbed an estimated 200,000 hits.
Exhibition bouts
Ali boxed both well known boxers and celebrities from other walks of life, including Michael Dokes, Antonio Inoki, Lyle Alzado, Dave Semenko, and the famous Puerto Rican comedian Jose Miguel Agrelot (with Iris Chacon acting as Agrelot's corner-woman).
Ali vs Inoki
On June 26, 1976, Ali participated in an exhibition bout in Tokyo against Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist Antonio Inoki. Ali was only able to land two jabs while Inoki's kicks caused two blood clots and an infection that almost resulted in Ali's leg being amputated, as a result of Ali's team insisting on rules restricting Inoki's ability to wrestle. The match was not scripted and ultimately declared a draw. After Ali's death, The New York Times declared it his least memorable fight. Most boxing commentators at the time viewed the fight negatively and hoped it would be forgotten as some considered it a "15-round farce." Today it is considered by some to be one of Ali's most influential fights and CBS Sports said the attention the mixed-style bout received "foretold the arrival of standardized MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) years later." After the fight, Ali and Inoki became friends.
Ali vs Alzado
In 1979, Ali fought an exhibition match against NFL player Lyle Alzado. The fight went 8 rounds and was declared a draw.
Ali vs Semenko
Ali fought NHL player, Dave Semenko in an exhibition on June 12, 1983. The match was officially a draw after going three rounds, but the Associated Press reported Ali was not seriously trying and was just toying with Semenko.
Personal life
Marriages and children
Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. Ali was introduced to cocktail waitress Sonji Roi by Herbert Muhammad and asked her to marry him after their first date. They married approximately one month later on August 14, 1964. They quarreled over Sonji's refusal to join the Nation Of Islam. According to Ali, "She wouldn't do what she was supposed to do. She wore lipstick; she went into bars; she dressed in clothes that were revealing and didn't look right." The marriage was childless and they divorced on January 10, 1966. Just before the divorce was finalized, Ali sent Sonji a note: "You traded heaven for hell, baby." Ali's brother Rahman said that she was Ali's only true love and the Nation of Islam made Ali divorce her and Ali never got over it.
On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. Born into a Chicago family that had converted to the Nation Of Islam, she later changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: author and rapper Maryum "May May" (born 1968); twins Jamillah and Rasheda (born 1970), who married Robert Walsh and has a son, Biaggio Ali, born in 1998; and Muhammad Ali Jr. (born 1972). Rasheda's son Nico is a professional boxer.
Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the early 1970s. At age 32 in 1974, Ali began an extramarital relationship with 16-year-old Wanda Bolton (who subsequently changed her name to Aaisha Ali) with whom he fathered another daughter, Khaliah (born 1974). While still married to Belinda, Ali married Aaisha in an Islamic ceremony that was not legally recognized. According to Khaliah, Aaisha and her mother lived at Ali's Deer Lake training camp alongside Belinda and her children. In January 1985, Aaisha sued Ali for unpaid palimony. The case was settled when Ali agreed to set up a $200,000 trust fund for Khaliah. In 2001 Khaliah was quoted as saying she believed her father viewed her as "a mistake". He had another daughter, Miya (born 1972), from an extramarital relationship with Patricia Harvell.
By the summer of 1977, his second marriage ended due to Ali's repeated infidelity, and he had married actress and model Veronica Porché. At the time of their marriage, they had a daughter, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila Ali, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Porché were divorced due to Ali's continuous infidelity. Porché said of Ali's infidelity, "It was too much temptation for him, with women who threw themselves at him, It didn’t mean anything. He didn't have affairs – he had one-night stands. I knew beyond a doubt there were no feelings involved. It was so obvious, It was easy to forgive him."
On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams. Lonnie first met Ali at the age of 6 when her family moved to Louisville in 1963. In 1982, she became Ali's primary caregiver and in return, he paid for her to attend graduate school at UCLA. Together they adopted a son, Asaad Amin (born 1986), when Asaad was five months old. In 1992, Lonnie incorporated Greatest of All Time, Inc. (G.O.A.T. Inc) to consolidate and license his intellectual properties for commercial purposes. She served as the vice president and treasurer until the sale of the company in 2006.
Kiiursti Mensah-Ali claims she is Ali's biological daughter with Barbara Mensah, with whom he allegedly had a 20-year relationship, citing photographs and a paternity test conducted in 1988. She said he accepted responsibility and took care of her, but all contacts with him were cut off after he married his fourth wife Lonnie. Kiiursti says she has a relationship with his other children. After his death she again made passionate appeals to be allowed to mourn at his funeral.
In 2010, Osmon Williams came forward claiming to be Ali's biological son. His mother Temica Williams (also known as Rebecca Holloway) launched a $3 million lawsuit against Ali in 1981 for sexual assault, claiming that she had started a sexual relationship with him when she was 12, and that her son Osmon (born 1977) was fathered by Ali. She further alleged that Ali had originally supported her and her son financially, but stopped doing so after four years. The case went on until 1986 and was eventually thrown out as her allegations were deemed to be barred by the statute of limitations. According to Veronica, Ali admitted to the affair with Williams, but did not believe Osmon was his son which Veronica supported by saying "Everybody in the camp was going with that girl." Ali biographer and friend Thomas Hauser has said this claim was of "questionable veracity".
Ali then lived in Scottsdale, Arizona with Lonnie. In January 2007, it was reported that they had put their home in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which they had bought in 1975, up for sale and had purchased a home in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000. Both homes were subsequently sold after Ali's death with Lonnie living in their remaining home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Lonnie converted to Islam from Catholicism in her late twenties.
In an interview in 1974, Ali said, "If they say stand and salute the flag I do that out of respect, because I'm in the country". Ali would later say, "If America was in trouble and real war came, I'd be on the front line if we had been attacked. But I could see that (The Vietnam War) wasn't right." He also said, "Black men would go over there and fight, but when they came home, they couldn't even be served a hamburger."
Ali's daughter Laila was a professional boxer from 1999 until 2007, despite her father's previous opposition to women's boxing. In 1978, he said "Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that." Ali still attended a number of his daughter's fights and later admitted to Laila he was wrong. Ali's daughter Hana is married to Bellator middleweight fighter Kevin Casey. Hana wrote about her father, "His love for people was extraordinary. I would get home from school to find homeless families sleeping in our guest room. He’d see them on the street, pile them into his Rolls-Royce and bring them home. He’d buy them clothes, take them to hotels and pay the bills for months in advance." She also said celebrities like Michael Jackson and Clint Eastwood would often visit Ali. After Ali met a lesbian couple who were fans of his in 1997, he smiled and said to his friend Hauser, "They look like they’re happy together." Hauser wrote about the story, "The thought that Liz and Roz (the lesbian couple he met) were happy pleased Muhammad. Ali wanted people to be happy."
Religion and beliefs
Affiliation with the Nation of Islam
Ali said that he first heard of the Nation of Islam when he was fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago in 1959, and attended his first Nation of Islam meeting in 1961. He continued to attend meetings, although keeping his involvement hidden from the public. In 1962, Clay met Malcolm X, who soon became his spiritual and political mentor. By the time of the first Liston fight, Nation of Islam members, including Malcolm X, were visible in his entourage. This led to a story in The Miami Herald just before the fight disclosing that Clay had joined the Nation of Islam, which nearly caused the bout to be canceled. The article quoted Cassius Clay Sr. as saying that his son had joined the Black Muslims when he was 18.
In fact, Clay was initially refused entry to the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) due to his boxing career. However, after he won the championship from Liston in 1964, the Nation of Islam was more receptive and agreed to publicize his membership. Shortly afterwards on March 6, Elijah Muhammad gave a radio address that Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (most high). Around that time Ali moved to the south side of Chicago and lived in a series of houses, always near the Nation of Islam's Mosque Maryam or Elijah Muhammad's residence. He stayed in Chicago for about 12 years.
Only a few journalists, most notably Howard Cosell, accepted the new name at that time. Ali stated that his earlier name was a "slave name," and a "white man's name" and added that "I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it". The person he was named after was a white man and emancipationist who released slaves. Ali explained in his autobiography after studying his works, "While Clay may have gotten rid of his slaves, he "held on to white supremacy." In truth, Cassius Clay's attachment to slavery went farther than Ali knew. In spite of his abolitionist fervor, Clay owned more slaves in 1865, when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally forbade its practice, than he had inherited from his father 37 years earlier.
Not afraid to antagonize the white establishment, Ali stated, "I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me." Ali's friendship with Malcolm X ended as Malcolm split with the Nation of Islam a couple of weeks after Ali joined, and Ali remained with the Nation of Islam. Ali later said that turning his back on Malcolm was one of the mistakes he regretted most in his life.
Aligning himself with the Nation of Islam, its leader Elijah Muhammad, and a narrative that labeled the white race as the perpetrator of genocide against African Americans made Ali a target of public condemnation. The Nation of Islam was widely viewed by whites and some African Americans as a black separatist "hate religion" with a propensity toward violence; Ali had few qualms about using his influential voice to speak Nation of Islam doctrine. In a press conference articulating his opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali stated, "My enemy is the white people, not Vietcong or Chinese or Japanese." In relation to integration, he said: "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all." Further articulating his opposition to integration, he told members of the KKK at a Klan rally in 1975 that "black people should marry their own women... blue birds are blue birds, red birds are red birds, pigeons with pigeons, eagles with eagles, God did not make no mistake".
Writer Jerry Izenberg once noted that, "the Nation became Ali's family and Elijah Muhammad became his father. But there is an irony to the fact that while the Nation branded white people as devils, Ali had more white colleagues than most African American people did at that time in America, and continued to have them throughout his career."
Conversion to Sunni/Sufi Islam
In Hauser's biography Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, Ali says that although he's not a Christian as he thinks the idea of God having a son sounds wrong and doesn't make sense to him, as he believes, "God don't beget; man begets". He still believes that even good Christians or good Jews can receive God's blessing and enter heaven as he stated, "God created all people, no matter what their religion". He also stated, "If you're against someone because he's a Muslim that's wrong. If you're against someone because he's a Christian or a Jew, that's wrong".
In a 2004 autobiography, Ali attributed his conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam to Warith Deen Muhammad, who assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad, and persuaded the Nation's followers to become adherents of Sunni Islam. He said some people didn't like the change and stuck to Elijah's teachings, but he admired it and so left Elijah's teachings and became a follower of Sunni Islam.
Ali had gone on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1972, which inspired him in a similar manner to Malcolm X, meeting people of different colors from all over the world giving him a different outlook and greater spiritual awareness. In 1977, he said that, after he retired, he would dedicate the rest of his life to getting "ready to meet God" by helping people, charitable causes, uniting people and helping to make peace. He went on another Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1988.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he stated that "Islam is a religion of peace" and "does not promote terrorism or killing people", and that he was "angry that the world sees a certain group of Islam followers who caused this destruction, but they are not real Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims." In December 2015, he stated that "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion", that "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda", and that "political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam, and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is."
In later life after retiring from boxing, Ali became a student of the Quran and a devout Muslim. He also developed an interest in Sufism, which he referenced in his autobiography, The Soul of a Butterfly. According to Ali's daughter, Hana Yasmeen Ali, who co-authored The Soul of a Butterfly with him, Ali was attracted to Sufism after reading the books of Inayat Khan, which contain Sufi teachings.
Muhammad Ali received guidance from Islamic scholars such as Grand Mufti of Syria Almarhum Asy-Syaikh Ahmed Kuftaro, Hisham Kabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf, and Timothy J. Gianotti, who was at Ali's bedside during his last days and ensured that although his funeral was interfaith, it was still in accordance with Islamic rites and rituals.
Beatles reunion plan
In 1976, inventor Alan Amron and businessman Joel Sacher partnered with Ali to promote The International Committee to Reunite the Beatles. They asked fans worldwide to contribute a dollar each. Ali said the idea was not to use the proceeds for profit, but to establish an international agency to help poor children. "This is money to help people all over the world", he said. He added, "I love the music. I used to train to their music." He said a reunion of the Beatles "would make a lot of people happy." The former Beatles were indifferent to the plan, which elicited only a tepid response from the public. No reunion happened.
Entertainment career
Acting
Ali had a cameo role in the 1962 film version of Requiem for a Heavyweight, and during his exile from boxing, he starred in the short-lived 1969 Broadway musical, Buck White. He also appeared in the documentary film Black Rodeo (1972) riding both a horse and a bull.
His autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, written with Richard Durham, was published in 1975. In 1977 the book was adapted into a film called The Greatest, in which Ali played himself and Ernest Borgnine played Angelo Dundee.
The film Freedom Road, made in 1978, features Ali in a rare acting role as Gideon Jackson, a former slave and Union (American Civil War) soldier in 1870s Virginia, who gets elected to the U.S. Senate and battles alongside former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they have tended all their lives.
Spoken word poetry and rap music
Ali often used rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash-talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing. He played a role in the shaping of the black poetic tradition, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in the 1970s. According to The Guardian, "Some have argued that" Ali was "the first rapper."
In 1963, Ali released an album of spoken word music on Columbia Records titled, I Am the Greatest, and in 1964, he recorded a cover version of the rhythm and blues song "Stand by Me". I Am the Greatest sold 500,000 copies, and has been identified as an early example of rap music and a precursor to hip hop. It reached number 61 on the album chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award. He later received a second Grammy nomination, for "Best Recording for Children", with his 1976 spoken word novelty record, The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay.
Ali was an influential figure in the world of hip hop music. As a "rhyming trickster", he was noted for his "funky delivery", "boasts", "comical trash-talk", and "endless quotables." According to Rolling Stone, his "freestyle skills" and his "rhymes, flow, and braggadocio" would "one day become typical of old school MCs" like Run–D.M.C. and LL Cool J, and his "outsized ego foreshadowed the vainglorious excesses of Kanye West, while his Afrocentric consciousness and cutting honesty pointed forward to modern bards like Rakim, Nas, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar." “I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning and throw thunder in jail. You know I’m bad. Just last week, I murdered a rock, Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean, I make medicine sick” "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.” Ali spoke like no man the world had seen before. So confident in what he said; fluent, smooth, creative, and intimidating. He was a boxer and an activist, but he also had a role in influencing what now dominated pop-culture, hip-hop. In 2006, the documentary Ali Rap was produced by ESPN. Chuck D, a rapper for the band Public Enemy is the host. Other rappers narrated the documentary as well, including Doug E Fresh, Ludacris and Rakim who all spoke on Ali's behalf in the film.
He has been cited as an inspiration by rappers such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Jay-Z, Eminem, Sean Combs, Slick Rick, Nas and MC Lyte. Ali has been referenced in a number of hip hop songs, including Migos "Fight Night", The Game's "Jesus Piece", Nas' "The Message, The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", the Fugees' "Ready or Not", EPMD's "You're a Customer" and Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It".
Professional wrestling
Ali was involved with professional wrestling at different times in his career.
On June 1, 1976, as Ali was preparing for his bout with Inoki, he attended a match featuring Gorilla Monsoon. After the match was over, Ali removed his shirt and jacket and confronted professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon in the ring after his match at a World Wide Wrestling Federation show in Philadelphia Arena. After dodging a few punches, Monsoon put Ali in an airplane spin and dumped him to the mat. Ali stumbled to the corner, where his associate Butch Lewis convinced him to walk away.
On March 31, 1985, Ali was the special guest referee for the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania event.
In 1995, Ali led a group of Japanese and American professional wrestlers, including his 1976 opponent Antonio Inoki and Ric Flair, on a sports diplomacy mission to North Korea. Ali was guest of honor at the record-breaking Collision in Korea, a wrestling event with the largest attendance of all time.
Television appearances
Muhammad Ali's fights were some of the world's most-watched television broadcasts, setting television viewership records. His most-watched fights drew an estimated 12 billion viewers worldwide between 1974 and 1980, and were the world's most-watched live television broadcasts at the time. Outside of fights, he made many other television appearances. The following table lists known viewership figures of his non-fight television appearances. For television viewership figures of his fights, see Boxing career of Muhammad Ali: Television viewership.
Art
Ali was also an amateur artist and made dozens of drawings and paintings in the 1970s. In 1977, Rodney Hilton Brown, who owned an art gallery in NYC, asked Ali if he was interested in painting. Ali took him up on the offer and produced several paintings for him to sell. Brown is the author of “Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet and Prophet." In October 2021, 26 of his drawings and arts were placed on auction and sold for close to $1 Million USD.
Later years
In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's Syndrome, which sometimes results from head trauma from violent physical activities such as boxing. Ali still remained active during this time, later participating as a guest referee at WrestleMania I.
Philanthropy, humanitarianism and politics
Ali was known for being a humanitarian and philanthropist. He focused on practicing his Islamic duty of charity and good deeds, donating millions to charity organizations and disadvantaged people of all religious backgrounds. It is estimated that Ali helped to feed more than 22million people afflicted by hunger across the world. Early in his career, one of his main focuses was youth education. He spoke at several historically black colleges and universities about the importance of education, and became the largest single black donor to the United Negro College Fund in 1967 by way of a $10,000 donation ($78,000 in 2020 USD). In late 1966, he also pledged to donate a total of $100,000 to the UNCF (specifically promising to donate much of the proceeds of his title defense against Cleveland Williams), and paid $4,500 per closed circuit installation at six HBCUs so they could watch his fights.
Ali began visiting Africa, starting in 1964 when he visited Nigeria and Ghana. In 1974, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, where Ali declared "support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland." In 1978, following his loss to Spinks and before winning the rematch, Ali visited Bangladesh and received honorary citizenship there. The same year, he participated in The Longest Walk, a protest march in the United States in support of Native American rights, along with singer Stevie Wonder and actor Marlon Brando.
In 1980, Ali was recruited by President Jimmy Carter for a diplomatic mission to Africa, in an effort to persuade a number of African governments to join the US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics (in response to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan). According to Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, "at best, it was ill-conceived; at worst, a diplomatic disaster." The Tanzanian government was insulted that Carter had sent an athlete to discuss a serious political issue. One official asked whether the United States would "send Chris Evert to negotiate with London." Consequently, Ali was only received by the youth and culture minister, rather than President Julius Nyerere. Ali was unable to explain why the African countries should join the US boycott when it had failed to support the African boycott of the 1976 Olympics (in protest at Apartheid in South Africa), and was unaware that the Soviet Union was sponsoring popular revolutionary movements in Africa. Ali conceded "They didn't tell me about that in America", and complained that Carter had sent him "around the world to take the whupping over American policies." The Nigerian government also rebuffed him and confirmed that they would be participating in the Moscow games. Ali did, however, convince the government of Kenya to boycott the Olympics.
On January 19, 1981, in Los Angeles, Ali talked a suicidal man down from jumping off a ninth-floor ledge, an event that made national news.
In 1984, Ali announced his support for the re-election of United States President Ronald Reagan. When asked to elaborate on his endorsement of Reagan, Ali told reporters, "He's keeping God in schools and that's enough." In 1985, he visited Israel to request the release of Muslim prisoners at Atlit detainee camp, which Israel declined.
Around 1987, the California Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Constitution selected Ali to personify the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ali rode on a float at the following year's Tournament of Roses Parade, launching the U.S. Constitution's 200th birthday commemoration. In 1988, during the First Intifada, Ali participated in a Chicago rally in support of Palestine. The same year, he visited Sudan to raise awareness about the plight of famine victims. According to Politico, Ali supported Orrin Hatch politically. In 1989, he participated in an Indian charity event with the Muslim Educational Society in Kozhikode, Kerala, along with Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar.
In 1990, Ali traveled to Iraq prior to the Gulf War, and met with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages. Ali secured the release of the hostages, in exchange for promising Hussein that he would bring America "an honest account" of Iraq. Despite arranging the hostages release, he received criticism from President George H. W. Bush, and Joseph C. Wilson, the highest-ranking American diplomat in Baghdad.Ali cooperated with Thomas Hauser on a biography, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. The oral history was published in 1991.
In 1994, Ali campaigned to the United States government to come to the aid of refugees afflicted by the Rwandan genocide, and to donate to organizations helping Rwandan refugees.
In 1996, he lit the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. It was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers worldwide.
On November 17, 2002, Ali went to Afghanistan as the "U.N. Messenger of Peace." He was in Kabul for a three-day goodwill mission as a special guest of the UN.
On September 1, 2009, Ali visited Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, the home of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1860s, eventually settling in Kentucky.
On July 27, 2012, Ali was a titular bearer of the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He was helped to his feet by his wife Lonnie to stand before the flag due to his Parkinson's Syndrome rendering him unable to carry it into the stadium. The same year, he was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal in recognition of his lifelong efforts in activism, philanthropy and humanitarianism.
Earnings
By 1978, Ali's total fight purse earnings were estimated to be nearly $60million (inflation-adjusted ), including an estimated $47.45million grossed between 1970 and 1978. By 1980, his total fight purse earnings were estimated to be up to $70million (inflation-adjusted $million).
In 1978, Ali revealed that he was "broke" and several news outlets reported his net worth to be an estimated (inflation-adjusted $million). The press attributed his decline in wealth to several factors, including taxes consuming at least half of his income, management taking a third of his income, his lifestyle, and spending on family, charity and religious causes.
In 2006, Ali sold his name and image for $50million, after which Forbes estimated his net worth to be $55million in 2006. Following his death in 2016, his fortune was estimated to be between $50million and $80million.
Declining health
Ali's bout with Parkinson's Syndrome led to a gradual decline in his health, though he was still active into the early years of the millennium, promoting his own biopic, Ali, in 2001. That year he also contributed an on-camera segment to the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert.
In 1998, Ali began working with actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, to raise awareness and fund research for a cure. They made a joint appearance before Congress to push the case in 2002. In 2000, Ali worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease to raise awareness and encourage donations for research.
In February 2013, Ali's brother Rahman Ali said Muhammad could no longer speak and could be dead within days. Ali's daughter May May Ali responded to the rumors, stating that she had talked to him on the phone the morning of February 3 and he was fine. On December 20, 2014, Ali was hospitalized for a mild case of pneumonia. Ali was once again hospitalized on January 15, 2015, for a urinary tract infection after being found unresponsive at a guest house in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was released the next day.
Death
Ali was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 2, 2016, with a respiratory illness. Though his condition was initially described as fair, it worsened, and he died the following day at the age of 74 from septic shock.
News coverage and tributes
Following Ali's death, he was the number-one trending topic on Twitter for over 12 hours and on Facebook for several days. BET played their documentary Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami. ESPN played four hours of non-stop commercial-free coverage of Ali. News networks, such as ABC News, BBC, CNN, and Fox News, also covered him extensively.
He was mourned globally, and a family spokesman said the family "certainly believes that Muhammad was a citizen of the world ... and they know that the world grieves with him." Politicians such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, David Cameron and more paid tribute to Ali. Ali also received numerous tributes from the world of sports including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, the Miami Marlins, LeBron James, Steph Curry and more. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer stated, "Muhammad Ali belongs to the world. But he only has one hometown."
The day after Ali's death, the UFC paid tribute to Ali at their UFC 199 event in a lengthy video tribute package, crediting Ali for his accomplishments and inspiring multiple UFC champions.
Memorial
Ali's funeral had been pre-planned by himself and others for several years prior to his actual death. The services began in Louisville on June 9, 2016, with an Islamic Janazah prayer service at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center. On June 10, 2016, the funeral procession passed through the streets of Louisville ending at Cave Hill Cemetery, where his body was interred during a private ceremony. A public memorial service for Ali at downtown Louisville's KFC Yum! Center was held during the afternoon of June 10. The pallbearers included Will Smith, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, with honorary pallbearers including George Chuvalo, Larry Holmes and George Foreman. Ali's memorial was watched by an estimated 1billion viewers worldwide.
Legacy
Ali remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times, and was involved in more Ring "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He was one of only three boxers to be named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. Muhammad Ali was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its first year and held wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees during an era that has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. The Associated Press ranked him as the second best boxer and best heavyweight of the 20th century. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years.
In 1978, three years before Ali's permanent retirement, the Louisville Board of Aldermen in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, voted 6–5 to rename Walnut Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard. This was controversial at the time, as within a week 12 of the 70 street signs were stolen. Earlier that year, a committee of the Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) considered renaming Ali's alma mater, Central High School, in his honor, but the motion failed to pass. In time, Muhammad Ali Boulevard—and Ali himself—came to be well accepted in his hometown.
Ali was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990.
In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athlete, out of over 800 dead or living athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth. He was the recipient of the 1997 Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
At the end of the 20th century he was ranked at or near the top of most lists of the century's greatest athletes. He was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated. Named BBC's Sports Personality of the Century, he received more votes than the other five candidates combined. He was named Athlete of the Century by USA Today, and ranked as the third greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury. Ali was named "Kentucky Athlete of the Century" by the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Galt House East.
In 1999, Time magazine named Ali one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
On January 8, 2001, Muhammad Ali was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton. In November 2005, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, followed by the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold of the UN Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin for his work with the civil rights movement and the United Nations, which he received on December 17, 2005.
On November 19, 2005, Ali and his wife Lonnie Ali opened the $60million non-profit Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville. In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth. On June 5, 2007, he received an honorary doctorate of humanities at Princeton University's 260th graduation ceremony.
Ali Mall, located in Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippines, is named after him. Construction of the mall, the first of its kind in the Philippines, began shortly after Ali's victory in a match with Joe Frazier in nearby Araneta Coliseum in 1975. The mall opened in 1976 with Ali attending its opening.
The 1976 Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight played an important role in the history of mixed martial arts. In Japan, the match inspired Inoki's students Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki to found Pancrase in 1993, which in turn inspired the foundation of Pride Fighting Championships in 1997. Pride was acquired by its rival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, in 2007.
The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was introduced in 1999 and passed in 2000, to protect the rights and welfare of boxers in the United States. In May 2016, a bill was introduced to United States Congress by Markwayne Mullin, a politician and former MMA fighter, to extend the Ali Act to mixed martial arts. In June 2016, US senator Rand Paul proposed an amendment to the US draft laws named after Ali, a proposal to eliminate the Selective Service System.
In 2015, Sports Illustrated renamed its Sportsman Legacy Award to the Sports Illustrateds Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. The annual award was originally created in 2008 and honors former "sports figures who embody the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy as vehicles for changing the world." Ali first appeared on the magazine's cover in 1963 and went on to be featured on numerous covers during his storied career.
On January 13, 2017, seven months or so after Ali's death, and 4 days before what would have been his 75th birthday, the Muhammad Ali Commemorative Coin Act was introduced into the 115th Congress (2017–2019), as H.R. 579 (House of Representatives) and as S. 166 (Senate). However, both "died" within 10 days.
In the media and popular culture
As a world champion boxer, social activist, sex symbol and pop culture icon, Ali was the subject of numerous creative works including books, films, music, video games, TV shows, and other. Muhammad Ali was often dubbed the world's "most famous" person in the media. Several of his fights were watched by an estimated 12 billion viewers between 1974 and 1980, and his lighting of the torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers.
Ali appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 38 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan's 46. He also appeared on the cover of Time Magazine 5 times, the most of any athlete. In 2015, Harris Poll found that Ali was one of the three most recognizable athletes in the United States, along with Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.
Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee was influenced by Ali, whose footwork he studied and incorporated into his own style while developing Jeet Kune Do in the 1960s.
On the set of Freedom Road Ali met Canadian singer-songwriter Michel, and subsequently helped create Michel's album The First Flight of the Gizzelda Dragon and an unaired television special featuring them both.
Ali was the subject of the British television program This Is Your Life in 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. Ali was featured in Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, a 1978 DC Comics comic book pitting the champ against the superhero. In 1979, Ali guest-starred as himself in an episode of the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. The show's title itself was inspired by the quote "Different strokes for different folks" popularized in 1966 by Ali, who also inspired the title of the 1967 Syl Johnson song "Different Strokes", one of the most sampled songs in pop music history.
He also wrote several bestselling books about his career, including The Greatest: My Own Story and The Soul of a Butterfly. The Muhammad Ali effect, named after Ali, is a term that came into use in psychology in the 1980s, as he stated in The Greatest: My Own Story: "I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest." According to this effect, when people are asked to rate their intelligence and moral behavior in comparison to others, people will rate themselves as more moral, but not more intelligent than others.
When We Were Kings, a 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The 2001 biopic Ali garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Will Smith for his portrayal of Ali. Prior to making the film, Smith rejected the role until Ali requested that he accept it. Smith said the first thing Ali told him was: "Man, you're almost pretty enough to play me."
In 2002, Ali was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the entertainment industry. His star is the only one to be mounted on a vertical surface, out of deference to his request that the name Muhammad—a name he shares with the Islamic prophet—not be walked upon.
His 1966 fight against George Chuvalo was the subject of Joseph Blasioli's 2003 documentary film The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali.
The Trials of Muhammad Ali, a documentary directed by Bill Siegel that focuses on Ali's refusal of the draft during the Vietnam War, opened in Manhattan on August 23, 2013. A 2013 made-for-TV movie titled Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight dramatized the same aspect of Ali's life.
Antoine Fuqua's documentary What's My Name: Muhammad Ali was released in 2019.
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns created the four-part documentary film Muhammad Ali, spanning over eight hours on Ali's entire life. Burns worked on the film since early 2016. It is scheduled to release in September 2021 on PBS. Dave Zirin who watched an 8 hour rough cut of this documentary called it "utterly outstanding" and said "the footage they found will blow minds".
Discography
I Am the Greatest (1963)
The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976)
See also
List of heavyweight boxing champions
List of WBA world champions
List of WBC world champions
List of The Ring world champions
List of undisputed boxing champions
Converts to Islam
Notable boxing families
List of people from the Louisville metropolitan area
List of North American Muslims
African-American Muslims
1981 MAPS Wells Fargo embezzlement scandal
Notes
References
Further reading
Online
Muhammad Ali: American boxer, in Encyclopædia Britannica Online, by Thomas Hauser, Adam Augustyn, Piyush Bhathya, Yamini Chauhan, John M. Cunningham, Richard Pallardy, Michael Ray, Emily Rodriguez, Surabhi Sinha, Amy Tikkanen, Grace Young and The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
External links
Official website (archived)
William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services: Ancestry of Muhammad Ali
FBI Records: The Vault – Muhammad Ali at the FBI
Cassius Clay Guilty (1967), Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Photo essays'''
1942 births
2016 deaths
20th-century American rappers
20th-century Muslims
21st-century Muslims
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from Kentucky
African-American activists
African-American boxers
African-American male rappers
African-American Muslims
African-American poets
African-American Sunni Muslims
American anti–Vietnam War activists
American conscientious objectors
American former Protestants
American humanitarians
American male boxers
American male poets
American male rappers
American Muslim activists
American people of Irish descent
American people of Malagasy descent
American philanthropists
American spoken word poets
American Sufis
BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year winners
Boxers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Boxers from Arizona
Boxers from Chicago
Boxers from Louisville, Kentucky
Boxers from New Jersey
Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery
Central High School (Louisville, Kentucky) alumni
COINTELPRO targets
Columbia Records artists
Converts to Sunni Islam from Protestantism
Deaths from sepsis
Former Nation of Islam members
International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees
Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Neurological disease deaths in Arizona
Olympic boxers of the United States
Olympic cauldron lighters
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in boxing
Overturned convictions in the United States
People from Cherry Hill, New Jersey
People from Paradise Valley, Arizona
People with Parkinson's disease
People with traumatic brain injuries
Poets from Arizona
Poets from Kentucky
Poets from New Jersey
Presidential Citizens Medal recipients
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Professional wrestling referees
Rappers from Kentucky
Sportspeople from Camden County, New Jersey
Sportspeople from the Phoenix metropolitan area
The Ring (magazine) champions
Vietnam War draft evaders
Winners of the United States Championship for amateur boxers
World Boxing Association champions
World Boxing Council champions
World heavyweight boxing champions
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
| true |
[
"The year 2009 is the second year in the history of Shark Fights, a mixed martial arts promotion based in the United States. In 2009 Shark Fights held 5 events beginning with, Shark Fights 3.\n\nEvents list\n\nShark Fights 3\n\nShark Fights 3 was an event held on March 14, 2009, at the Azteca Music Hall in Amarillo, Texas.\n\nResults\n\nShark Fights 4: Richards vs Schoonover\n\nShark Fights 4: Richards vs Schoonover was an event held on May 2, 2009, at the Citibank Coliseum in Lubbock, Texas.\n\nResults\n\nShark Fights 5.5: Nothing To Lose\n\nShark Fights 5.5: Nothing To Lose was an event held on July 18, 2009, at the Gamboa's Outdoor Event Center in Amarillo, Texas.\n\nResults\n\nShark Fights 6: Stars & Stripes\n\nShark Fights 6: Stars & Stripes was an event held on September 12, 2009, at the Amarillo National Center in Amarillo, Texas.\n\nResults\n\nShark Fights 7: Sursa vs Prangley\n\nShark Fights 7: Sursa vs Prangley was an event held on November 28, 2009, at the Azteca Music Hall in Amarillo, Texas.\n\nResults\n\nSee also \n Shark Fights\n\nReferences\n\nShark Fights events\n2009 in mixed martial arts",
"Patrick Mallane, alias Irish, was a lightweight professional boxer from Connecticut.\n\nPersonal life\nPat Mallane was a native of Union City, Connecticut. He died in 2007 at the age of 74.\n\nProfessional career\nMallane made his professional debut on January 27, 1951 with a fourth round knockout of Pearl Robinson. After winning his first two bouts Mallane suffered a draw against Lem Harvey. The draw against Harvey remained the only blemish on Mallane's record through ten fights, when he lost by knockout to Willie Stevenson on August 16 of 1951. Mallane didn't lose again in his next thirteen fights, though he did have three more draws to think about. When Mallane fought for the New England Lightweight Title against Redtop Davis on June 30, 1954 he was sporting a record of 29-4-4. Mallane lost to Davis, then went on a slide, compiling a less than stellar record of 3-7-4 before retiring after a knockout loss to Bobby Bartels on March 17, 1960. At his retirement Mallane had a career record of 32 wins (27 by knockout), 12 losses, and 8 draws.\n\nNotes\n\nAmerican male boxers\n2007 deaths\nLightweight boxers\n\nExternal links"
] |
[
"Muhammad Ali",
"Early life and amateur career",
"Where was Muhammad Ali born?",
"Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky.",
"Was Muhammad active in his early childhood?",
"He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the \"real training\",",
"How was Muhammad influenced to start boxing?",
"Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming",
"Was he arrested?",
"I don't know.",
"Has he won any fights during his amateur career?",
"Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision.",
"Did he lose any fights?",
"Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses."
] |
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Other than Muhammad Ali's early career and training, are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Muhammad Ali
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Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had a sister and four brothers. He was named for his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. (1912-1990), who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist, Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with smaller amounts of Irish and English heritage. His father painted billboards and signs, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917-1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali) as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. Clay grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store--"They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend's taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local railyard. Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually moulding "my style, my stamina and my system". For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak. Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games. CANNOTANSWER
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He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first.
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Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet and philanthropist. Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He became a Muslim after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. Also that year, he renounced his birth name as a "slave name" and formally became known as Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. However, he had not fought for nearly four years by this point and had lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger 1960s counterculture generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam, and supported racial integration like his former mentor Malcolm X.
He fought in several historic boxing matches, such as his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many boxers let their managers do the talking, and he became renowned for his provocative and outlandish persona. He was known for trash-talking, and often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry incorporating elements of hip hop, and often predicted in which round he would knockout his opponent.
Outside boxing, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, releasing two studio albums: I Am the Greatest! (1963) and The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976). Both albums received Grammy Award nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attributed to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family. Ali died on June 3, 2016.
Early life and amateur career
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. ( ) was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had one brother. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., who had a sister and four brothers and who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with some Irish and English family heritage. Ali's maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland. DNA testing performed in 2018 showed that, through his paternal grandmother, Ali was a descendant of the former slave Archer Alexander, who had been chosen from the building crew as the model of a freed man for the Emancipation Memorial, and was the subject of abolitionist William Greenleaf Eliot's book, The Story of Archer Alexander: From Slavery to Freedom. Like Ali, Alexander fought for his freedom.
His father was a sign and billboard painter, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917–1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother, Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali), as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. He was dyslexic, which led to difficulties in reading and writing, at school and for much of his life. Ali grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store: "They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also strongly affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local rail yard. His daughter Hana later wrote that Ali once told her, "Nothing would ever shake me up (more) than the story of Emmett Till."
Ali was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually molding "my style, my stamina and my system." For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak.
Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.
Early professional boxing career
Early career
Clay made his professional debut on October 29, 1960, winning a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker. From then until the end of 1963, Clay amassed a record of 19–0 with 15 wins by knockout. He defeated boxers including Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, LaMar Clark, Doug Jones and Henry Cooper. Clay also beat his former trainer and veteran boxer Archie Moore in a 1962 match.
These early fights were not without trials. Clay was knocked down by both Sonny Banks and Cooper. In the Cooper fight, Clay was floored by a left hook at the end of round four and was saved by the bell, going on to win in the predicted 5th round due to Cooper's severely cut eye. The fight with Doug Jones on March 13, 1963 was Clay's toughest fight during this stretch. The number two and three heavyweight contenders respectively, Clay and Jones fought on Jones' home turf at New York's Madison Square Garden. Jones staggered Clay in the first round, and the unanimous decision for Clay was greeted by boos and a rain of debris thrown into the ring. Watching on closed-circuit TV, heavyweight champ Sonny Liston quipped that if he fought Clay he might get locked up for murder. The fight was later named "Fight of the Year" by The Ring magazine.
In each of these fights, Clay vocally belittled his opponents and vaunted his abilities. He called Jones "an ugly little man" and Cooper a "bum". He said he was embarrassed to get in the ring with Alex Miteff and claimed that Madison Square Garden was "too small for me." Ali's trash-talk was inspired by professional wrestler "Gorgeous George" Wagner's, after he saw George's talking ability attract huge crowds to events. Ali stated in a 1969 interview with the Associated Press' Hubert Mizel that he met with George in Las Vegas in 1961, that George told him that talking a big game would earn paying fans who either wanted to see him win or wanted to see him lose, thus Ali transformed himself into a self-described "big-mouth and a bragger".
In 1960, Clay left Moore's camp, partially due to Clay's refusal to do chores such as washing dishes and sweeping. To replace Moore, Clay hired Angelo Dundee to be his trainer. Clay had met Dundee in February 1957 during Clay's amateur career. Around this time, Clay sought longtime idol Sugar Ray Robinson to be his manager, but was rebuffed.
World heavyweight champion
Fights against Liston
By late 1963, Clay had become the top contender for Sonny Liston's title. The fight was set for February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach. Liston was an intimidating personality, a dominating fighter with a criminal past and ties to the mob. Based on Clay's uninspired performance against Jones and Cooper in his previous two fights, and Liston's destruction of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in two first-round knockouts, Clay was a 7–1 underdog. Despite this, Clay taunted Liston during the pre-fight buildup, dubbing him "the big ugly bear", stating "Liston even smells like a bear" and claiming "After I beat him I'm going to donate him to the zoo." Clay turned the pre-fight weigh-in into a circus, shouting at Liston that "someone is going to die at ringside tonight." Clay's pulse rate was measured at 120, more than double his normal 54. Many of those in attendance thought Clay's behavior stemmed from fear, and some commentators wondered if he would show up for the bout.
The outcome of the fight was a major upset. At the opening bell, Liston rushed at Clay, seemingly angry and looking for a quick knockout. However, Clay's superior speed and mobility enabled him to elude Liston, making the champion miss and look awkward. At the end of the first round, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston repeatedly with jabs. Liston fought better in round two, but at the beginning of the third round Clay hit Liston with a combination that buckled his knees and opened a cut under his left eye. This was the first time Liston had ever been cut. At the end of round four, Clay was returning to his corner when he began experiencing blinding pain in his eyes and asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to cut off his gloves. Dundee refused. It has been speculated that the problem was due to ointment used to seal Liston's cuts, perhaps deliberately applied by his corner to his gloves. Though unconfirmed, boxing historian Bert Sugar said that two of Liston's opponents also complained about their eyes "burning".
Despite Liston's attempts to knock out a blinded Clay, Clay was able to survive the fifth round until sweat and tears rinsed the irritation from his eyes. In the sixth, Clay dominated, hitting Liston repeatedly. Liston did not answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by TKO. Liston stated that the reason he quit was an injured shoulder. Following the win, a triumphant Clay rushed to the edge of the ring and, pointing to the ringside press, shouted: "Eat your words!" He added, "I am the greatest! I shook up the world. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived."
At ringside post fight, Clay appeared unconvinced that the fight was stopped due to a Liston shoulder injury, saying that the only injury Liston had was "an open eye, a big cut eye!" When told by Joe Louis that the injury was a "left arm thrown out of its socket," Clay quipped, "Yeah, swinging at nothing, who wouldn't?"
In winning this fight at the age of 22, Clay became the youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion. However, Floyd Patterson remained the youngest to win the heavyweight championship, doing so at the age 21 during an elimination bout following Rocky Marciano's retirement. Mike Tyson broke both records in 1986 when he defeated Trevor Berbick to win the heavyweight title at age 20.
Soon after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Cassius X, and then later to Muhammad Ali upon converting to Islam and affiliating with the Nation of Islam. Ali then faced a rematch with Liston scheduled for May 1965 in Lewiston, Maine. It had been scheduled for Boston the previous November, but was postponed for six months due to Ali's emergency surgery for a hernia three days before. The fight was controversial. Midway through the first round, Liston was knocked down by a difficult-to-see blow the press dubbed a "phantom punch". Referee Jersey Joe Walcott did not begin the count immediately after the knockdown, as Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Liston rose after he had been down for about 20 seconds, and the fight momentarily continued. However a few seconds later Walcott, having been informed by the timekeepers that Liston had been down for a count of 10, stopped the match and declared Ali the winner by knockout. The entire fight lasted less than two minutes.
It has since been speculated that Liston purposely dropped to the ground. Proposed motivations include threats on his life from the Nation of Islam, that he had bet against himself and that he "took a dive" to pay off debts. Slow-motion replays show that Liston was jarred by a chopping right from Ali, although it is unclear whether the blow was a genuine knockout punch.
Fight against Patterson
Ali defended his title against former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson on November 22, 1965. Before the match, Ali mocked Patterson, who was widely known to call him by his former name Cassius Clay, as an "Uncle Tom", calling him "The Rabbit". Although Ali clearly had the better of Patterson, who appeared injured during the fight, the match lasted 12 rounds before being called on a technical knockout. Patterson later said he had strained his sacroiliac. Ali was criticized in the sports media for appearing to have toyed with Patterson during the fight. Patterson biographer W. K. Stratton claims that the conflict between Ali and Patterson was not genuine but was staged to increase ticket sales and the closed-circuit viewing audience, with both men complicit in the theatrics. Stratton also cites an interview by Howard Cosell in which Ali explained that rather than toying with Patterson, he refrained from knocking him out after it became apparent Patterson was injured. Patterson later said that he had never been hit by punches as soft as Ali's. Stratton states that Ali arranged the second fight, in 1972, with the financially struggling Patterson to help the former champion earn enough money to pay a debt to the IRS.
Main Bout
After the Patterson fight, Ali founded his own promotion company, Main Bout. The company mainly handled Ali's boxing promotions and pay-per-view closed-circuit television broadcasts. The company's stockholders were mainly fellow Nation of Islam members, along with several others, including Bob Arum.
Ali and then-WBA heavyweight champion boxer Ernie Terrell had agreed to meet for a bout in Chicago on March 29, 1966 (the WBA, one of two boxing associations, had stripped Ali of his title following his joining the Nation of Islam). But in February Ali was reclassified by the Louisville draft board as 1-A from 1-Y, and he indicated that he would refuse to serve, commenting to the press, "I ain't got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me nigger." Amidst the media and public outcry over Ali's stance, the Illinois Athletic Commission refused to sanction the fight, citing technicalities.
Instead, Ali traveled to Canada and Europe and won championship bouts against George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London and Karl Mildenberger.
Ali returned to the United States to fight Cleveland Williams in the Houston Astrodome on November 14, 1966. The bout drew a record-breaking indoor crowd of 35,460 people. Williams had once been considered among the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division, but in 1964 he had been shot at point-blank range by a Texas policeman, resulting in the loss of one kidney and of his small intestine. Ali dominated Williams, winning a third-round technical knockout in what some consider the finest performance of his career.
Ali fought Terrell in Houston on February 6, 1967. Terrell, who was unbeaten in five years and had defeated many of the boxers Ali had faced, was billed as Ali's toughest opponent since Liston; he was big, strong and had a three-inch reach advantage over Ali. During the lead up to the bout, Terrell repeatedly called Ali "Clay", much to Ali's annoyance. The two almost came to blows over the name issue in a pre-fight interview with Howard Cosell. Ali seemed intent on humiliating Terrell. "I want to torture him", he said. "A clean knockout is too good for him." The fight was close until the seventh round, when Ali bloodied Terrell and almost knocked him out. In the eighth round, Ali taunted Terrell, hitting him with jabs and shouting between punches, "What's my name, Uncle Tom ... what's my name?" Ali won a unanimous 15-round decision. Terrell claimed that early in the fight Ali deliberately thumbed him in the eye, forcing him to fight half-blind, and then, in a clinch, rubbed the wounded eye against the ropes. Because of Ali's apparent intent to prolong the fight to inflict maximum punishment, critics described the bout as "one of the ugliest boxing fights." Tex Maule later wrote: "It was a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty." Ali denied the accusations of cruelty but, for Ali's critics, the fight provided more evidence of his arrogance.
After Ali's title defense against Zora Folley on March 22, he was stripped of his title due to his refusal to be drafted to army service. His boxing license was also suspended by the state of New York. He was convicted of draft evasion on June 20 and sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He paid a bond and remained free while the verdict was being appealed.
Vietnam War and resistance to the draft
Ali registered for conscription in the United States military on his 18th birthday and was listed as 1-A in 1962. In 1964, he was reclassified as Class 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after he failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub-standard, due to his dyslexia. (He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest!") By early 1966, the army lowered its standards to permit soldiers above the 15th percentile and Ali was again classified as 1-A. This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army at a time when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, a war which put him further at odds with the white establishment.
When notified of this status, Ali declared that he would refuse to serve in the army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector. Ali stated: "War is against the teachings of the Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger (Elijah Muhammad then leader of Nation of Islam). We don’t take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers". He also said "We are not to be the aggressor but we will defend ourselves if attacked." He stated: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Ali antagonized the white establishment in 1966 by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.
On April 28, 1967, Ali appeared in Houston for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces, but he refused three times to step forward when his name was called. An officer warned him that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called, and he was arrested. Later that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit. Ali remained unable to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years. On June 4, 1967, in a first for sports professionals, a group of high-profile African-American athletes assembled at the Negro Industrial Economic union in Cleveland for a "Muhammad Ali Summit". The meeting was organized by Jim Brown for his peers to question Ali about the seriousness of his convictions, and to decide whether to support him, which they ultimately did.
At the trial on June 20, 1967, the jury found Ali guilty after only 21minutes of deliberation of the criminal offense of violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. After a Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, the case was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
Ali remained free in the years between the Appellate Court decision and the Supreme Court ruling. As public opinion began turning people against the war and the Civil Rights Movement continued to gather momentum, Ali became a popular speaker at colleges and universities across the country; this itinerary was rare if not unprecedented for a prizefighter. At Howard University, for example, he gave his popular "Black Is Best" speech to 4,000 cheering students and community intellectuals, after he was invited to speak by sociology professor Nathan Hare on behalf of the Black Power Committee, a student protest group.
On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. United States overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8–0 decision (Justice Thurgood Marshall recused himself, as he had been the U.S. Solicitor General at the time of Ali's conviction). The decision was not based on, nor did it address, the merits of Ali's claims per se. Rather, the Court held that since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to Ali, that it was therefore impossible to determine which of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status (offered in the Justice Department's brief) the appeal board relied on, and Ali's conviction must be reversed.
Impact of Ali's draft refusal
Ali's example inspired many black Americans and others. However, initially when he refused induction, he became arguably the most hated man in the country and received many death threats. People who supported Ali during this time were also threatened, including sports journalist Jerry Izenberg, whose columns defended Ali's decision not to serve. He wrote, "Bomb threats emptied our office, making the staff stand out in the snow. My car windshield was smashed with a sledgehammer." The New York Times columnist William Rhoden wrote, "Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"
Recalling Ali's anti-war position, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said: "I remember the teachers at my high school didn't like Ali because he was so anti-establishment and he kind of thumbed his nose at authority and got away with it. The fact that he was proud to be a black man and that he had so much talent ... made some people think that he was dangerous. But for those very reasons I enjoyed him."
Civil rights figures came to believe that Ali had an energizing effect on the freedom movement as a whole. Al Sharpton spoke of his bravery at a time when there was still widespread support for the Vietnam War:
Ali was honored with the annual Martin Luther King Award in 1970 by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy, who called him "a living example of soul power, the March on Washington in two fists." Coretta Scott King added that Ali was "a champion of justice and peace and unity."
In speaking of the cost on Ali's career of his refusal to be drafted, his trainer Angelo Dundee said, "One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years."
Bob Arum did not support Ali's choice at the time. More recently, Arum stated that "when I look back at his life, and I was blessed to call him a friend and spent a lot of time with him, it's hard for me to talk about his exploits in boxing because as great as they were they paled in comparison to the impact that he had on the world," and "He did what he thought was right. And it turned out he was right, and I was wrong."
Ali's resistance to the draft was covered in the 2013 documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali.
NSA and FBI monitoring of Ali's communications
In a secret operation code-named "Minaret", the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted the communications of leading Americans, including Ali, Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., prominent U.S. journalists, and others who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam. A review by the NSA of the Minaret program concluded that it was "disreputable if not outright illegal."
In 1971, his Fight of the Century with Frazier was used by an activist group, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, to pull off a burglary at an FBI office in Pennsylvania; the anticipation for the fight was unlike anything else, so they believed the security would also be focused on the fight. This raid exposed the COINTELPRO operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti-war movements. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Ali, and their activities included the FBI gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school; one such record mentioned him loving art as a child.
Exile and comeback
In March 1966, Ali refused to be inducted into the armed forces. He was systematically denied a boxing license in every state and stripped of his passport. As a result, he did not fight from March 1967 to October 1970—from ages 25 to almost 29—as his case worked its way through the appeals process before his conviction was overturned in 1971.
Protesting while exiled
During this time of inactivity, as opposition to the Vietnam War began to grow and Ali's stance gained sympathy, he spoke at colleges across the nation, criticizing the Vietnam War and advocating African-American pride and racial justice. Ali based himself in Chicago. According to most close to him, his Chicago years were formative.
At the time, Ali was widely condemned by the American media, with fears that his actions could potentially lead to mass civil disobedience. Despite this, Ebony magazine noted in the late 1960s that Ali's popularity had increased during this time, especially among black people.
The Super Fight
While banned from sanctioned bouts, Ali settled a $1 million lawsuit against radio producer Murray Woroner by accepting $10,000 to appear in a privately staged fantasy fight against retired champion Rocky Marciano. In 1969 the boxers were filmed sparring for about 75 one-minute rounds; they produced several potential outcomes. A computer program purportedly determined the winner, based on data about the fighters, along with the opinions of approximately 250 boxing experts. Edited versions of the bout were shown in movie theaters in 1970. In the U.S. version Ali lost in a simulated 13th-round knockout, but in the European version Marciano lost due to cuts, also simulated.
Ali suggested that prejudice determined his defeat in the U.S. version. He was reported to jokingly say, "That computer was made in Alabama."
Return to prizefighting
On August 11, 1970, with his case still in appeal, Ali was granted a license to box by the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission. Leroy Johnson, Jesse Hill Jr. and Harry Pett had used their local political influence and set up the company House of Sports to organize the fight, underlining the influential power of Georgia's black politics in Ali' s comeback. Ali's first return bout was against Jerry Quarry on October 26, resulting in a win after three rounds after Quarry was cut.
A month earlier, a victory in federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali's license. He fought Oscar Bonavena at Madison Square Garden in December, an uninspired performance that ended in a dramatic technical knockout of Bonavena in the 15th round. The win left Ali as a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier.
First fight against Joe Frazier
Ali and Frazier's first fight, held at the Garden on March 8, 1971, was nicknamed the "Fight of the Century", due to the tremendous excitement surrounding a bout between two undefeated fighters, each with a legitimate claim to be heavyweight champion. Veteran US boxing writer John Condon called it "the greatest event I've ever worked on in my life." The bout was broadcast to 36 countries; promoters granted 760 press passes.
Adding to the atmosphere were the considerable pre-fight theatrics and name calling. Before the fight Frazier called Ali, "Cassius Clay", this angered Ali and he portrayed Frazier as a "dumb tool of the white establishment." "Frazier is too ugly to be champ", Ali said. "Frazier is too dumb to be champ." Ali also frequently called Frazier an "Uncle Tom". Dave Wolf, who worked in Frazier's camp, recalled that, "Ali was saying 'the only people rooting for Joe Frazier are white people in suits, Alabama sheriffs, and members of the Ku Klux Klan. I'm fighting for the little man in the ghetto.' Joe was sitting there, smashing his fist into the palm of his hand, saying, 'What the fuck does he know about the ghetto?
Ali began training at a farm near Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1971 and, finding the country setting to his liking, sought to develop a real training camp in the countryside. He found a five-acre site on a Pennsylvania country road in the village of Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. On this site, Ali carved out what was to become his training camp, where he trained for all his fights from 1972 to the end of his career in 1981.
The Monday night fight lived up to its billing. In a preview of their two other fights, a crouching, bobbing and weaving Frazier constantly pressured Ali, getting hit regularly by Ali jabs and combinations, but relentlessly attacking and scoring repeatedly, especially to Ali's body. The fight was even in the early rounds, but Ali was taking more punishment than ever in his career. On several occasions in the early rounds he played to the crowd and shook his head "no" after he was hit. In the later rounds—in what was the first appearance of the "rope-a-dope strategy"—Ali leaned against the ropes and absorbed punishment from Frazier, hoping to tire him. In the 11th round, Frazier connected with a left hook that wobbled Ali, but because it appeared that Ali might be clowning as he staggered backwards across the ring, Frazier hesitated to press his advantage, fearing an Ali counter-attack. In the final round, Frazier knocked Ali down with a vicious left hook, which referee Arthur Mercante said was as hard as a man can be hit. Ali was back on his feet in three seconds. Nevertheless, Ali lost by unanimous decision, his first professional defeat.
Chamberlain challenge and Ellis fight
In 1971, basketball star Wilt Chamberlain challenged Ali to a fight, and a bout was scheduled for July 26. Although the seven-foot-two-inch tall Chamberlain had formidable physical advantages over Ali—weighing 60pounds more and able to reach 14inches further—Ali was able to influence Chamberlain into calling off the bout by taunting him with calls of "Timber!" and "The tree will fall" during a shared interview. These statements of confidence unsettled his taller opponent, whom Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had offered a record-setting contract, conditional on Chamberlain agreeing to abandon what Cooke termed "this boxing foolishness", and he did exactly that. To replace Ali's opponent, promoter Bob Arum quickly booked a former sparring partner of Ali's, Jimmy Ellis, who was a childhood friend from Louisville, Kentucky, to fight him.
After his loss
Fights against Quarry, Patterson, Foster and Norton
After the loss to Frazier, Ali fought Jerry Quarry, had a second bout with Floyd Patterson and faced Bob Foster in 1972, winning a total of six fights that year. In 1973, Ken Norton broke Ali's jaw while giving him the second loss of his career. After initially considering retirement, Ali won a controversial decision against Norton in their second bout. This led to a rematch with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 1974; Frazier had recently lost his title to George Foreman.
Second fight against Joe Frazier
Ali was strong in the early rounds of the fight, and staggered Frazier in the second round. Referee Tony Perez mistakenly thought he heard the bell ending the round and stepped between the two fighters as Ali was pressing his attack, giving Frazier time to recover. However, Frazier came on in the middle rounds, snapping Ali's head in round seven and driving him to the ropes at the end of round eight. The last four rounds saw round-to-round shifts in momentum between the two fighters. Throughout most of the bout, however, Ali was able to circle away from Frazier's dangerous left hook and to tie Frazier up when he was cornered, the latter a tactic that Frazier's camp complained of bitterly. Judges awarded Ali a unanimous decision.
World heavyweight champion (second reign)
The Rumble in the Jungle
The defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974—a bout nicknamed The Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. In assessing the fight, analysts pointed out that Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, who had given Ali four tough battles and won two of them, had both been devastated by Foreman in second-round knockouts. Ali was 32 years old, and had clearly lost speed and reflexes since his twenties. Contrary to his later persona, Foreman was at the time a brooding and intimidating presence. Almost no one associated with the sport, not even Ali's long-time supporter Howard Cosell, gave the former champion a chance of winning.
As usual, Ali was confident and colorful before the fight. He told interviewer David Frost, "If you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait till I whup Foreman's behind!" He told the press, "I've done something new for this fight. I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick." Ali was wildly popular in Zaire, with crowds chanting "Ali, bomaye" ("Ali, kill him") wherever he went.
Ali opened the fight moving and scoring with right crosses to Foreman's head. Then, beginning in the second round, and to the consternation of his corner, Ali retreated to the ropes and invited Foreman to hit him while covering up, clinching and counter-punching, all while verbally taunting Foreman. The move, which would later become known as the "Rope-a-dope", so violated conventional boxing wisdom—letting one of the hardest hitters in boxing strike at will—that at ringside writer George Plimpton thought the fight had to be fixed. Foreman, increasingly angered, threw punches that were deflected and did not land squarely. Midway through the fight, as Foreman began tiring, Ali countered more frequently and effectively with punches and flurries, which electrified the pro-Ali crowd. In the eighth round, Ali dropped an exhausted Foreman with a combination at center ring; Foreman failed to make the count. Against the odds, and amidst pandemonium in the ring, Ali had regained the title by knockout. Reflecting on the fight, George Foreman later said: "I thought Ali was just one more knockout victim until, about the seventh round, I hit him hard to the jaw and he held me and whispered in my ear: 'That all you got, George?' I realized that this ain't what I thought it was."
It was a major upset victory, after Ali came in as a 41 underdog against the previously unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight became famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1billion viewers worldwide. It was the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time.
Fights against Wepner, Lyle and Bugner
Ali's next opponents included Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, and Joe Bugner. Wepner, a journeyman known as "The Bayonne Bleeder", stunned Ali with a knockdown in the ninth round; Ali would later say he tripped on Wepner's foot. It was a bout that would inspire Sylvester Stallone to create the acclaimed film, Rocky.
Third fight against Joe Frazier
Ali then agreed to a third match with Joe Frazier in Manila. The bout, known as the "Thrilla in Manila", was held on October 1, 1975, in temperatures approaching . In the first rounds, Ali was aggressive, moving and exchanging blows with Frazier. However, Ali soon appeared to tire and adopted the "rope-a-dope" strategy, frequently resorting to clinches. During this part of the bout Ali did some effective counter-punching, but for the most part absorbed punishment from a relentlessly attacking Frazier. In the 12th round, Frazier began to tire, and Ali scored several sharp blows that closed Frazier's left eye and opened a cut over his right eye. With Frazier's vision now diminished, Ali dominated the 13th and 14th rounds, at times conducting what boxing historian Mike Silver called "target practice" on Frazier's head. The fight was stopped when Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, refused to allow Frazier to answer the bell for the 15th and final round, despite Frazier's protests. Frazier's eyes were both swollen shut. Ali, in his corner, winner by TKO, slumped on his stool, clearly spent.
An ailing Ali said afterwards that the fight "was the closest thing to dying that I know", and, when later asked if he had viewed the fight on videotape, reportedly said, "Why would I want to go back and see Hell?" After the fight he cited Frazier as "the greatest fighter of all times next to me."
After the third fight with Frazier, Ali considered retirement. He said, “I’m sore all over. My arms, my face, my sides all ache. I’m so, so tired. There is a great possibility that I will retire. You might have seen the last of me. I want to sit back and count my money, live in my house and my farm, work for my people and concentrate on my family."
Later career
Following the Manila bout, Ali fought Jean-Pierre Coopman, Jimmy Young, and Richard Dunn, winning the last by knockout.
The punch used to knock Dunn out was taught to Ali by Taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. Rhee called that punch the "Accupunch"; he learned it from Bruce Lee. The Dunn fight was the last time Ali would knock down an opponent in his boxing career.
Ali fought Ken Norton for the third time in September 1976. The bout, which was held at Yankee Stadium, resulted in Ali winning a heavily contested decision that was loudly booed by the audience. Afterwards, he announced he was retiring from boxing to practice his faith, having converted to Sunni Islam after falling out with the Nation of Islam the previous year.
After returning to beat Alfredo Evangelista in May 1977, Ali struggled in his next fight against Earnie Shavers that September, getting pummeled a few times by punches to the head. Ali won the fight by another unanimous decision, but the bout caused his longtime doctor Ferdie Pacheco to quit after he was rebuffed for telling Ali he should retire. Pacheco was quoted as saying, "the New York State Athletic Commission gave me a report that showed Ali's kidneys were falling apart. I wrote to Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer, his wife and Ali himself. I got nothing back in response. That's when I decided enough is enough."
In February 1978, Ali faced Leon Spinks at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. At the time, Spinks had only seven professional fights to his credit, and had recently fought a draw with journeyman Scott LeDoux. Ali sparred less than two dozen rounds in preparation for the fight, and was seriously out of shape by the opening bell. He lost the title by split decision. A rematch occurred in September at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. 70,000 people attended the bout and paid a total of $6 million admission, making it the largest live gate in boxing history at that time. Ali won a unanimous decision in an uninspiring fight, with referee Lucien Joubert scoring rounds 10-4, judge Ernie Cojoe 10-4, and judge Herman Preis 11-4. This made Ali the first heavyweight champion to win the belt three times.
Following this win, on July 27, 1979, Ali announced his retirement from boxing. His retirement was short-lived, however; Ali announced his comeback to face Larry Holmes for the WBC belt in an attempt to win the heavyweight championship an unprecedented fourth time. The fight was largely motivated by Ali's need for money. Boxing writer Richie Giachetti said, "Larry didn't want to fight Ali. He knew Ali had nothing left; he knew it would be a horror."
It was around this time that Ali started struggling with vocal stutters and trembling hands. The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) ordered that he undergo a complete physical in Las Vegas before being allowed to fight again. Ali chose instead to check into the Mayo Clinic, who declared him fit to fight. Their opinion was accepted by the NAC on July 31, 1980, paving the way for Ali's return to the ring.
The fight took place on October 2, 1980, in Las Vegas Valley, with Holmes easily dominating Ali, who was weakened from thyroid medication he had taken to lose weight. Giachetti called the fight "awful ... the worst sports event I ever had to cover." Actor Sylvester Stallone was at ringside and said that it was like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive. After the tenth round, Angelo Dundee told the referee to stop the fight, making it the only time that Ali ever lost by stoppage. The Holmes fight is said to have contributed to Ali's Parkinson's syndrome. Despite pleas to definitively retire, Ali fought one last time on December 11, 1981, in Nassau, Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, losing a ten-round decision.
By the end of his boxing career Ali had absorbed an estimated 200,000 hits.
Exhibition bouts
Ali boxed both well known boxers and celebrities from other walks of life, including Michael Dokes, Antonio Inoki, Lyle Alzado, Dave Semenko, and the famous Puerto Rican comedian Jose Miguel Agrelot (with Iris Chacon acting as Agrelot's corner-woman).
Ali vs Inoki
On June 26, 1976, Ali participated in an exhibition bout in Tokyo against Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist Antonio Inoki. Ali was only able to land two jabs while Inoki's kicks caused two blood clots and an infection that almost resulted in Ali's leg being amputated, as a result of Ali's team insisting on rules restricting Inoki's ability to wrestle. The match was not scripted and ultimately declared a draw. After Ali's death, The New York Times declared it his least memorable fight. Most boxing commentators at the time viewed the fight negatively and hoped it would be forgotten as some considered it a "15-round farce." Today it is considered by some to be one of Ali's most influential fights and CBS Sports said the attention the mixed-style bout received "foretold the arrival of standardized MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) years later." After the fight, Ali and Inoki became friends.
Ali vs Alzado
In 1979, Ali fought an exhibition match against NFL player Lyle Alzado. The fight went 8 rounds and was declared a draw.
Ali vs Semenko
Ali fought NHL player, Dave Semenko in an exhibition on June 12, 1983. The match was officially a draw after going three rounds, but the Associated Press reported Ali was not seriously trying and was just toying with Semenko.
Personal life
Marriages and children
Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. Ali was introduced to cocktail waitress Sonji Roi by Herbert Muhammad and asked her to marry him after their first date. They married approximately one month later on August 14, 1964. They quarreled over Sonji's refusal to join the Nation Of Islam. According to Ali, "She wouldn't do what she was supposed to do. She wore lipstick; she went into bars; she dressed in clothes that were revealing and didn't look right." The marriage was childless and they divorced on January 10, 1966. Just before the divorce was finalized, Ali sent Sonji a note: "You traded heaven for hell, baby." Ali's brother Rahman said that she was Ali's only true love and the Nation of Islam made Ali divorce her and Ali never got over it.
On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. Born into a Chicago family that had converted to the Nation Of Islam, she later changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: author and rapper Maryum "May May" (born 1968); twins Jamillah and Rasheda (born 1970), who married Robert Walsh and has a son, Biaggio Ali, born in 1998; and Muhammad Ali Jr. (born 1972). Rasheda's son Nico is a professional boxer.
Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the early 1970s. At age 32 in 1974, Ali began an extramarital relationship with 16-year-old Wanda Bolton (who subsequently changed her name to Aaisha Ali) with whom he fathered another daughter, Khaliah (born 1974). While still married to Belinda, Ali married Aaisha in an Islamic ceremony that was not legally recognized. According to Khaliah, Aaisha and her mother lived at Ali's Deer Lake training camp alongside Belinda and her children. In January 1985, Aaisha sued Ali for unpaid palimony. The case was settled when Ali agreed to set up a $200,000 trust fund for Khaliah. In 2001 Khaliah was quoted as saying she believed her father viewed her as "a mistake". He had another daughter, Miya (born 1972), from an extramarital relationship with Patricia Harvell.
By the summer of 1977, his second marriage ended due to Ali's repeated infidelity, and he had married actress and model Veronica Porché. At the time of their marriage, they had a daughter, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila Ali, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Porché were divorced due to Ali's continuous infidelity. Porché said of Ali's infidelity, "It was too much temptation for him, with women who threw themselves at him, It didn’t mean anything. He didn't have affairs – he had one-night stands. I knew beyond a doubt there were no feelings involved. It was so obvious, It was easy to forgive him."
On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams. Lonnie first met Ali at the age of 6 when her family moved to Louisville in 1963. In 1982, she became Ali's primary caregiver and in return, he paid for her to attend graduate school at UCLA. Together they adopted a son, Asaad Amin (born 1986), when Asaad was five months old. In 1992, Lonnie incorporated Greatest of All Time, Inc. (G.O.A.T. Inc) to consolidate and license his intellectual properties for commercial purposes. She served as the vice president and treasurer until the sale of the company in 2006.
Kiiursti Mensah-Ali claims she is Ali's biological daughter with Barbara Mensah, with whom he allegedly had a 20-year relationship, citing photographs and a paternity test conducted in 1988. She said he accepted responsibility and took care of her, but all contacts with him were cut off after he married his fourth wife Lonnie. Kiiursti says she has a relationship with his other children. After his death she again made passionate appeals to be allowed to mourn at his funeral.
In 2010, Osmon Williams came forward claiming to be Ali's biological son. His mother Temica Williams (also known as Rebecca Holloway) launched a $3 million lawsuit against Ali in 1981 for sexual assault, claiming that she had started a sexual relationship with him when she was 12, and that her son Osmon (born 1977) was fathered by Ali. She further alleged that Ali had originally supported her and her son financially, but stopped doing so after four years. The case went on until 1986 and was eventually thrown out as her allegations were deemed to be barred by the statute of limitations. According to Veronica, Ali admitted to the affair with Williams, but did not believe Osmon was his son which Veronica supported by saying "Everybody in the camp was going with that girl." Ali biographer and friend Thomas Hauser has said this claim was of "questionable veracity".
Ali then lived in Scottsdale, Arizona with Lonnie. In January 2007, it was reported that they had put their home in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which they had bought in 1975, up for sale and had purchased a home in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000. Both homes were subsequently sold after Ali's death with Lonnie living in their remaining home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Lonnie converted to Islam from Catholicism in her late twenties.
In an interview in 1974, Ali said, "If they say stand and salute the flag I do that out of respect, because I'm in the country". Ali would later say, "If America was in trouble and real war came, I'd be on the front line if we had been attacked. But I could see that (The Vietnam War) wasn't right." He also said, "Black men would go over there and fight, but when they came home, they couldn't even be served a hamburger."
Ali's daughter Laila was a professional boxer from 1999 until 2007, despite her father's previous opposition to women's boxing. In 1978, he said "Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that." Ali still attended a number of his daughter's fights and later admitted to Laila he was wrong. Ali's daughter Hana is married to Bellator middleweight fighter Kevin Casey. Hana wrote about her father, "His love for people was extraordinary. I would get home from school to find homeless families sleeping in our guest room. He’d see them on the street, pile them into his Rolls-Royce and bring them home. He’d buy them clothes, take them to hotels and pay the bills for months in advance." She also said celebrities like Michael Jackson and Clint Eastwood would often visit Ali. After Ali met a lesbian couple who were fans of his in 1997, he smiled and said to his friend Hauser, "They look like they’re happy together." Hauser wrote about the story, "The thought that Liz and Roz (the lesbian couple he met) were happy pleased Muhammad. Ali wanted people to be happy."
Religion and beliefs
Affiliation with the Nation of Islam
Ali said that he first heard of the Nation of Islam when he was fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago in 1959, and attended his first Nation of Islam meeting in 1961. He continued to attend meetings, although keeping his involvement hidden from the public. In 1962, Clay met Malcolm X, who soon became his spiritual and political mentor. By the time of the first Liston fight, Nation of Islam members, including Malcolm X, were visible in his entourage. This led to a story in The Miami Herald just before the fight disclosing that Clay had joined the Nation of Islam, which nearly caused the bout to be canceled. The article quoted Cassius Clay Sr. as saying that his son had joined the Black Muslims when he was 18.
In fact, Clay was initially refused entry to the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) due to his boxing career. However, after he won the championship from Liston in 1964, the Nation of Islam was more receptive and agreed to publicize his membership. Shortly afterwards on March 6, Elijah Muhammad gave a radio address that Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (most high). Around that time Ali moved to the south side of Chicago and lived in a series of houses, always near the Nation of Islam's Mosque Maryam or Elijah Muhammad's residence. He stayed in Chicago for about 12 years.
Only a few journalists, most notably Howard Cosell, accepted the new name at that time. Ali stated that his earlier name was a "slave name," and a "white man's name" and added that "I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it". The person he was named after was a white man and emancipationist who released slaves. Ali explained in his autobiography after studying his works, "While Clay may have gotten rid of his slaves, he "held on to white supremacy." In truth, Cassius Clay's attachment to slavery went farther than Ali knew. In spite of his abolitionist fervor, Clay owned more slaves in 1865, when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally forbade its practice, than he had inherited from his father 37 years earlier.
Not afraid to antagonize the white establishment, Ali stated, "I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me." Ali's friendship with Malcolm X ended as Malcolm split with the Nation of Islam a couple of weeks after Ali joined, and Ali remained with the Nation of Islam. Ali later said that turning his back on Malcolm was one of the mistakes he regretted most in his life.
Aligning himself with the Nation of Islam, its leader Elijah Muhammad, and a narrative that labeled the white race as the perpetrator of genocide against African Americans made Ali a target of public condemnation. The Nation of Islam was widely viewed by whites and some African Americans as a black separatist "hate religion" with a propensity toward violence; Ali had few qualms about using his influential voice to speak Nation of Islam doctrine. In a press conference articulating his opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali stated, "My enemy is the white people, not Vietcong or Chinese or Japanese." In relation to integration, he said: "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all." Further articulating his opposition to integration, he told members of the KKK at a Klan rally in 1975 that "black people should marry their own women... blue birds are blue birds, red birds are red birds, pigeons with pigeons, eagles with eagles, God did not make no mistake".
Writer Jerry Izenberg once noted that, "the Nation became Ali's family and Elijah Muhammad became his father. But there is an irony to the fact that while the Nation branded white people as devils, Ali had more white colleagues than most African American people did at that time in America, and continued to have them throughout his career."
Conversion to Sunni/Sufi Islam
In Hauser's biography Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, Ali says that although he's not a Christian as he thinks the idea of God having a son sounds wrong and doesn't make sense to him, as he believes, "God don't beget; man begets". He still believes that even good Christians or good Jews can receive God's blessing and enter heaven as he stated, "God created all people, no matter what their religion". He also stated, "If you're against someone because he's a Muslim that's wrong. If you're against someone because he's a Christian or a Jew, that's wrong".
In a 2004 autobiography, Ali attributed his conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam to Warith Deen Muhammad, who assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad, and persuaded the Nation's followers to become adherents of Sunni Islam. He said some people didn't like the change and stuck to Elijah's teachings, but he admired it and so left Elijah's teachings and became a follower of Sunni Islam.
Ali had gone on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1972, which inspired him in a similar manner to Malcolm X, meeting people of different colors from all over the world giving him a different outlook and greater spiritual awareness. In 1977, he said that, after he retired, he would dedicate the rest of his life to getting "ready to meet God" by helping people, charitable causes, uniting people and helping to make peace. He went on another Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1988.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he stated that "Islam is a religion of peace" and "does not promote terrorism or killing people", and that he was "angry that the world sees a certain group of Islam followers who caused this destruction, but they are not real Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims." In December 2015, he stated that "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion", that "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda", and that "political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam, and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is."
In later life after retiring from boxing, Ali became a student of the Quran and a devout Muslim. He also developed an interest in Sufism, which he referenced in his autobiography, The Soul of a Butterfly. According to Ali's daughter, Hana Yasmeen Ali, who co-authored The Soul of a Butterfly with him, Ali was attracted to Sufism after reading the books of Inayat Khan, which contain Sufi teachings.
Muhammad Ali received guidance from Islamic scholars such as Grand Mufti of Syria Almarhum Asy-Syaikh Ahmed Kuftaro, Hisham Kabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf, and Timothy J. Gianotti, who was at Ali's bedside during his last days and ensured that although his funeral was interfaith, it was still in accordance with Islamic rites and rituals.
Beatles reunion plan
In 1976, inventor Alan Amron and businessman Joel Sacher partnered with Ali to promote The International Committee to Reunite the Beatles. They asked fans worldwide to contribute a dollar each. Ali said the idea was not to use the proceeds for profit, but to establish an international agency to help poor children. "This is money to help people all over the world", he said. He added, "I love the music. I used to train to their music." He said a reunion of the Beatles "would make a lot of people happy." The former Beatles were indifferent to the plan, which elicited only a tepid response from the public. No reunion happened.
Entertainment career
Acting
Ali had a cameo role in the 1962 film version of Requiem for a Heavyweight, and during his exile from boxing, he starred in the short-lived 1969 Broadway musical, Buck White. He also appeared in the documentary film Black Rodeo (1972) riding both a horse and a bull.
His autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, written with Richard Durham, was published in 1975. In 1977 the book was adapted into a film called The Greatest, in which Ali played himself and Ernest Borgnine played Angelo Dundee.
The film Freedom Road, made in 1978, features Ali in a rare acting role as Gideon Jackson, a former slave and Union (American Civil War) soldier in 1870s Virginia, who gets elected to the U.S. Senate and battles alongside former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they have tended all their lives.
Spoken word poetry and rap music
Ali often used rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash-talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing. He played a role in the shaping of the black poetic tradition, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in the 1970s. According to The Guardian, "Some have argued that" Ali was "the first rapper."
In 1963, Ali released an album of spoken word music on Columbia Records titled, I Am the Greatest, and in 1964, he recorded a cover version of the rhythm and blues song "Stand by Me". I Am the Greatest sold 500,000 copies, and has been identified as an early example of rap music and a precursor to hip hop. It reached number 61 on the album chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award. He later received a second Grammy nomination, for "Best Recording for Children", with his 1976 spoken word novelty record, The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay.
Ali was an influential figure in the world of hip hop music. As a "rhyming trickster", he was noted for his "funky delivery", "boasts", "comical trash-talk", and "endless quotables." According to Rolling Stone, his "freestyle skills" and his "rhymes, flow, and braggadocio" would "one day become typical of old school MCs" like Run–D.M.C. and LL Cool J, and his "outsized ego foreshadowed the vainglorious excesses of Kanye West, while his Afrocentric consciousness and cutting honesty pointed forward to modern bards like Rakim, Nas, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar." “I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning and throw thunder in jail. You know I’m bad. Just last week, I murdered a rock, Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean, I make medicine sick” "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.” Ali spoke like no man the world had seen before. So confident in what he said; fluent, smooth, creative, and intimidating. He was a boxer and an activist, but he also had a role in influencing what now dominated pop-culture, hip-hop. In 2006, the documentary Ali Rap was produced by ESPN. Chuck D, a rapper for the band Public Enemy is the host. Other rappers narrated the documentary as well, including Doug E Fresh, Ludacris and Rakim who all spoke on Ali's behalf in the film.
He has been cited as an inspiration by rappers such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Jay-Z, Eminem, Sean Combs, Slick Rick, Nas and MC Lyte. Ali has been referenced in a number of hip hop songs, including Migos "Fight Night", The Game's "Jesus Piece", Nas' "The Message, The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", the Fugees' "Ready or Not", EPMD's "You're a Customer" and Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It".
Professional wrestling
Ali was involved with professional wrestling at different times in his career.
On June 1, 1976, as Ali was preparing for his bout with Inoki, he attended a match featuring Gorilla Monsoon. After the match was over, Ali removed his shirt and jacket and confronted professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon in the ring after his match at a World Wide Wrestling Federation show in Philadelphia Arena. After dodging a few punches, Monsoon put Ali in an airplane spin and dumped him to the mat. Ali stumbled to the corner, where his associate Butch Lewis convinced him to walk away.
On March 31, 1985, Ali was the special guest referee for the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania event.
In 1995, Ali led a group of Japanese and American professional wrestlers, including his 1976 opponent Antonio Inoki and Ric Flair, on a sports diplomacy mission to North Korea. Ali was guest of honor at the record-breaking Collision in Korea, a wrestling event with the largest attendance of all time.
Television appearances
Muhammad Ali's fights were some of the world's most-watched television broadcasts, setting television viewership records. His most-watched fights drew an estimated 12 billion viewers worldwide between 1974 and 1980, and were the world's most-watched live television broadcasts at the time. Outside of fights, he made many other television appearances. The following table lists known viewership figures of his non-fight television appearances. For television viewership figures of his fights, see Boxing career of Muhammad Ali: Television viewership.
Art
Ali was also an amateur artist and made dozens of drawings and paintings in the 1970s. In 1977, Rodney Hilton Brown, who owned an art gallery in NYC, asked Ali if he was interested in painting. Ali took him up on the offer and produced several paintings for him to sell. Brown is the author of “Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet and Prophet." In October 2021, 26 of his drawings and arts were placed on auction and sold for close to $1 Million USD.
Later years
In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's Syndrome, which sometimes results from head trauma from violent physical activities such as boxing. Ali still remained active during this time, later participating as a guest referee at WrestleMania I.
Philanthropy, humanitarianism and politics
Ali was known for being a humanitarian and philanthropist. He focused on practicing his Islamic duty of charity and good deeds, donating millions to charity organizations and disadvantaged people of all religious backgrounds. It is estimated that Ali helped to feed more than 22million people afflicted by hunger across the world. Early in his career, one of his main focuses was youth education. He spoke at several historically black colleges and universities about the importance of education, and became the largest single black donor to the United Negro College Fund in 1967 by way of a $10,000 donation ($78,000 in 2020 USD). In late 1966, he also pledged to donate a total of $100,000 to the UNCF (specifically promising to donate much of the proceeds of his title defense against Cleveland Williams), and paid $4,500 per closed circuit installation at six HBCUs so they could watch his fights.
Ali began visiting Africa, starting in 1964 when he visited Nigeria and Ghana. In 1974, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, where Ali declared "support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland." In 1978, following his loss to Spinks and before winning the rematch, Ali visited Bangladesh and received honorary citizenship there. The same year, he participated in The Longest Walk, a protest march in the United States in support of Native American rights, along with singer Stevie Wonder and actor Marlon Brando.
In 1980, Ali was recruited by President Jimmy Carter for a diplomatic mission to Africa, in an effort to persuade a number of African governments to join the US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics (in response to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan). According to Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, "at best, it was ill-conceived; at worst, a diplomatic disaster." The Tanzanian government was insulted that Carter had sent an athlete to discuss a serious political issue. One official asked whether the United States would "send Chris Evert to negotiate with London." Consequently, Ali was only received by the youth and culture minister, rather than President Julius Nyerere. Ali was unable to explain why the African countries should join the US boycott when it had failed to support the African boycott of the 1976 Olympics (in protest at Apartheid in South Africa), and was unaware that the Soviet Union was sponsoring popular revolutionary movements in Africa. Ali conceded "They didn't tell me about that in America", and complained that Carter had sent him "around the world to take the whupping over American policies." The Nigerian government also rebuffed him and confirmed that they would be participating in the Moscow games. Ali did, however, convince the government of Kenya to boycott the Olympics.
On January 19, 1981, in Los Angeles, Ali talked a suicidal man down from jumping off a ninth-floor ledge, an event that made national news.
In 1984, Ali announced his support for the re-election of United States President Ronald Reagan. When asked to elaborate on his endorsement of Reagan, Ali told reporters, "He's keeping God in schools and that's enough." In 1985, he visited Israel to request the release of Muslim prisoners at Atlit detainee camp, which Israel declined.
Around 1987, the California Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Constitution selected Ali to personify the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ali rode on a float at the following year's Tournament of Roses Parade, launching the U.S. Constitution's 200th birthday commemoration. In 1988, during the First Intifada, Ali participated in a Chicago rally in support of Palestine. The same year, he visited Sudan to raise awareness about the plight of famine victims. According to Politico, Ali supported Orrin Hatch politically. In 1989, he participated in an Indian charity event with the Muslim Educational Society in Kozhikode, Kerala, along with Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar.
In 1990, Ali traveled to Iraq prior to the Gulf War, and met with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages. Ali secured the release of the hostages, in exchange for promising Hussein that he would bring America "an honest account" of Iraq. Despite arranging the hostages release, he received criticism from President George H. W. Bush, and Joseph C. Wilson, the highest-ranking American diplomat in Baghdad.Ali cooperated with Thomas Hauser on a biography, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. The oral history was published in 1991.
In 1994, Ali campaigned to the United States government to come to the aid of refugees afflicted by the Rwandan genocide, and to donate to organizations helping Rwandan refugees.
In 1996, he lit the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. It was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers worldwide.
On November 17, 2002, Ali went to Afghanistan as the "U.N. Messenger of Peace." He was in Kabul for a three-day goodwill mission as a special guest of the UN.
On September 1, 2009, Ali visited Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, the home of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1860s, eventually settling in Kentucky.
On July 27, 2012, Ali was a titular bearer of the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He was helped to his feet by his wife Lonnie to stand before the flag due to his Parkinson's Syndrome rendering him unable to carry it into the stadium. The same year, he was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal in recognition of his lifelong efforts in activism, philanthropy and humanitarianism.
Earnings
By 1978, Ali's total fight purse earnings were estimated to be nearly $60million (inflation-adjusted ), including an estimated $47.45million grossed between 1970 and 1978. By 1980, his total fight purse earnings were estimated to be up to $70million (inflation-adjusted $million).
In 1978, Ali revealed that he was "broke" and several news outlets reported his net worth to be an estimated (inflation-adjusted $million). The press attributed his decline in wealth to several factors, including taxes consuming at least half of his income, management taking a third of his income, his lifestyle, and spending on family, charity and religious causes.
In 2006, Ali sold his name and image for $50million, after which Forbes estimated his net worth to be $55million in 2006. Following his death in 2016, his fortune was estimated to be between $50million and $80million.
Declining health
Ali's bout with Parkinson's Syndrome led to a gradual decline in his health, though he was still active into the early years of the millennium, promoting his own biopic, Ali, in 2001. That year he also contributed an on-camera segment to the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert.
In 1998, Ali began working with actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, to raise awareness and fund research for a cure. They made a joint appearance before Congress to push the case in 2002. In 2000, Ali worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease to raise awareness and encourage donations for research.
In February 2013, Ali's brother Rahman Ali said Muhammad could no longer speak and could be dead within days. Ali's daughter May May Ali responded to the rumors, stating that she had talked to him on the phone the morning of February 3 and he was fine. On December 20, 2014, Ali was hospitalized for a mild case of pneumonia. Ali was once again hospitalized on January 15, 2015, for a urinary tract infection after being found unresponsive at a guest house in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was released the next day.
Death
Ali was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 2, 2016, with a respiratory illness. Though his condition was initially described as fair, it worsened, and he died the following day at the age of 74 from septic shock.
News coverage and tributes
Following Ali's death, he was the number-one trending topic on Twitter for over 12 hours and on Facebook for several days. BET played their documentary Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami. ESPN played four hours of non-stop commercial-free coverage of Ali. News networks, such as ABC News, BBC, CNN, and Fox News, also covered him extensively.
He was mourned globally, and a family spokesman said the family "certainly believes that Muhammad was a citizen of the world ... and they know that the world grieves with him." Politicians such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, David Cameron and more paid tribute to Ali. Ali also received numerous tributes from the world of sports including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, the Miami Marlins, LeBron James, Steph Curry and more. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer stated, "Muhammad Ali belongs to the world. But he only has one hometown."
The day after Ali's death, the UFC paid tribute to Ali at their UFC 199 event in a lengthy video tribute package, crediting Ali for his accomplishments and inspiring multiple UFC champions.
Memorial
Ali's funeral had been pre-planned by himself and others for several years prior to his actual death. The services began in Louisville on June 9, 2016, with an Islamic Janazah prayer service at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center. On June 10, 2016, the funeral procession passed through the streets of Louisville ending at Cave Hill Cemetery, where his body was interred during a private ceremony. A public memorial service for Ali at downtown Louisville's KFC Yum! Center was held during the afternoon of June 10. The pallbearers included Will Smith, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, with honorary pallbearers including George Chuvalo, Larry Holmes and George Foreman. Ali's memorial was watched by an estimated 1billion viewers worldwide.
Legacy
Ali remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times, and was involved in more Ring "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He was one of only three boxers to be named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. Muhammad Ali was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its first year and held wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees during an era that has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. The Associated Press ranked him as the second best boxer and best heavyweight of the 20th century. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years.
In 1978, three years before Ali's permanent retirement, the Louisville Board of Aldermen in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, voted 6–5 to rename Walnut Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard. This was controversial at the time, as within a week 12 of the 70 street signs were stolen. Earlier that year, a committee of the Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) considered renaming Ali's alma mater, Central High School, in his honor, but the motion failed to pass. In time, Muhammad Ali Boulevard—and Ali himself—came to be well accepted in his hometown.
Ali was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990.
In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athlete, out of over 800 dead or living athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth. He was the recipient of the 1997 Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
At the end of the 20th century he was ranked at or near the top of most lists of the century's greatest athletes. He was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated. Named BBC's Sports Personality of the Century, he received more votes than the other five candidates combined. He was named Athlete of the Century by USA Today, and ranked as the third greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury. Ali was named "Kentucky Athlete of the Century" by the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Galt House East.
In 1999, Time magazine named Ali one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
On January 8, 2001, Muhammad Ali was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton. In November 2005, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, followed by the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold of the UN Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin for his work with the civil rights movement and the United Nations, which he received on December 17, 2005.
On November 19, 2005, Ali and his wife Lonnie Ali opened the $60million non-profit Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville. In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth. On June 5, 2007, he received an honorary doctorate of humanities at Princeton University's 260th graduation ceremony.
Ali Mall, located in Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippines, is named after him. Construction of the mall, the first of its kind in the Philippines, began shortly after Ali's victory in a match with Joe Frazier in nearby Araneta Coliseum in 1975. The mall opened in 1976 with Ali attending its opening.
The 1976 Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight played an important role in the history of mixed martial arts. In Japan, the match inspired Inoki's students Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki to found Pancrase in 1993, which in turn inspired the foundation of Pride Fighting Championships in 1997. Pride was acquired by its rival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, in 2007.
The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was introduced in 1999 and passed in 2000, to protect the rights and welfare of boxers in the United States. In May 2016, a bill was introduced to United States Congress by Markwayne Mullin, a politician and former MMA fighter, to extend the Ali Act to mixed martial arts. In June 2016, US senator Rand Paul proposed an amendment to the US draft laws named after Ali, a proposal to eliminate the Selective Service System.
In 2015, Sports Illustrated renamed its Sportsman Legacy Award to the Sports Illustrateds Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. The annual award was originally created in 2008 and honors former "sports figures who embody the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy as vehicles for changing the world." Ali first appeared on the magazine's cover in 1963 and went on to be featured on numerous covers during his storied career.
On January 13, 2017, seven months or so after Ali's death, and 4 days before what would have been his 75th birthday, the Muhammad Ali Commemorative Coin Act was introduced into the 115th Congress (2017–2019), as H.R. 579 (House of Representatives) and as S. 166 (Senate). However, both "died" within 10 days.
In the media and popular culture
As a world champion boxer, social activist, sex symbol and pop culture icon, Ali was the subject of numerous creative works including books, films, music, video games, TV shows, and other. Muhammad Ali was often dubbed the world's "most famous" person in the media. Several of his fights were watched by an estimated 12 billion viewers between 1974 and 1980, and his lighting of the torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers.
Ali appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 38 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan's 46. He also appeared on the cover of Time Magazine 5 times, the most of any athlete. In 2015, Harris Poll found that Ali was one of the three most recognizable athletes in the United States, along with Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.
Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee was influenced by Ali, whose footwork he studied and incorporated into his own style while developing Jeet Kune Do in the 1960s.
On the set of Freedom Road Ali met Canadian singer-songwriter Michel, and subsequently helped create Michel's album The First Flight of the Gizzelda Dragon and an unaired television special featuring them both.
Ali was the subject of the British television program This Is Your Life in 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. Ali was featured in Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, a 1978 DC Comics comic book pitting the champ against the superhero. In 1979, Ali guest-starred as himself in an episode of the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. The show's title itself was inspired by the quote "Different strokes for different folks" popularized in 1966 by Ali, who also inspired the title of the 1967 Syl Johnson song "Different Strokes", one of the most sampled songs in pop music history.
He also wrote several bestselling books about his career, including The Greatest: My Own Story and The Soul of a Butterfly. The Muhammad Ali effect, named after Ali, is a term that came into use in psychology in the 1980s, as he stated in The Greatest: My Own Story: "I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest." According to this effect, when people are asked to rate their intelligence and moral behavior in comparison to others, people will rate themselves as more moral, but not more intelligent than others.
When We Were Kings, a 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The 2001 biopic Ali garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Will Smith for his portrayal of Ali. Prior to making the film, Smith rejected the role until Ali requested that he accept it. Smith said the first thing Ali told him was: "Man, you're almost pretty enough to play me."
In 2002, Ali was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the entertainment industry. His star is the only one to be mounted on a vertical surface, out of deference to his request that the name Muhammad—a name he shares with the Islamic prophet—not be walked upon.
His 1966 fight against George Chuvalo was the subject of Joseph Blasioli's 2003 documentary film The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali.
The Trials of Muhammad Ali, a documentary directed by Bill Siegel that focuses on Ali's refusal of the draft during the Vietnam War, opened in Manhattan on August 23, 2013. A 2013 made-for-TV movie titled Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight dramatized the same aspect of Ali's life.
Antoine Fuqua's documentary What's My Name: Muhammad Ali was released in 2019.
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns created the four-part documentary film Muhammad Ali, spanning over eight hours on Ali's entire life. Burns worked on the film since early 2016. It is scheduled to release in September 2021 on PBS. Dave Zirin who watched an 8 hour rough cut of this documentary called it "utterly outstanding" and said "the footage they found will blow minds".
Discography
I Am the Greatest (1963)
The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976)
See also
List of heavyweight boxing champions
List of WBA world champions
List of WBC world champions
List of The Ring world champions
List of undisputed boxing champions
Converts to Islam
Notable boxing families
List of people from the Louisville metropolitan area
List of North American Muslims
African-American Muslims
1981 MAPS Wells Fargo embezzlement scandal
Notes
References
Further reading
Online
Muhammad Ali: American boxer, in Encyclopædia Britannica Online, by Thomas Hauser, Adam Augustyn, Piyush Bhathya, Yamini Chauhan, John M. Cunningham, Richard Pallardy, Michael Ray, Emily Rodriguez, Surabhi Sinha, Amy Tikkanen, Grace Young and The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
External links
Official website (archived)
William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services: Ancestry of Muhammad Ali
FBI Records: The Vault – Muhammad Ali at the FBI
Cassius Clay Guilty (1967), Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Photo essays'''
1942 births
2016 deaths
20th-century American rappers
20th-century Muslims
21st-century Muslims
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from Kentucky
African-American activists
African-American boxers
African-American male rappers
African-American Muslims
African-American poets
African-American Sunni Muslims
American anti–Vietnam War activists
American conscientious objectors
American former Protestants
American humanitarians
American male boxers
American male poets
American male rappers
American Muslim activists
American people of Irish descent
American people of Malagasy descent
American philanthropists
American spoken word poets
American Sufis
BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year winners
Boxers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Boxers from Arizona
Boxers from Chicago
Boxers from Louisville, Kentucky
Boxers from New Jersey
Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery
Central High School (Louisville, Kentucky) alumni
COINTELPRO targets
Columbia Records artists
Converts to Sunni Islam from Protestantism
Deaths from sepsis
Former Nation of Islam members
International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees
Medalists at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Neurological disease deaths in Arizona
Olympic boxers of the United States
Olympic cauldron lighters
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in boxing
Overturned convictions in the United States
People from Cherry Hill, New Jersey
People from Paradise Valley, Arizona
People with Parkinson's disease
People with traumatic brain injuries
Poets from Arizona
Poets from Kentucky
Poets from New Jersey
Presidential Citizens Medal recipients
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Professional wrestling referees
Rappers from Kentucky
Sportspeople from Camden County, New Jersey
Sportspeople from the Phoenix metropolitan area
The Ring (magazine) champions
Vietnam War draft evaders
Winners of the United States Championship for amateur boxers
World Boxing Association champions
World Boxing Council champions
World heavyweight boxing champions
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
| 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"
] |
[
"Muhammad Ali",
"Early life and amateur career",
"Where was Muhammad Ali born?",
"Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky.",
"Was Muhammad active in his early childhood?",
"He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the \"real training\",",
"How was Muhammad influenced to start boxing?",
"Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming",
"Was he arrested?",
"I don't know.",
"Has he won any fights during his amateur career?",
"Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision.",
"Did he lose any fights?",
"Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"He told the officer he was going to \"whup\" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first."
] |
C_ea7154fd6dfd4adca851d86899f374c6_1
|
Did clay learn to box right after that?
| 8 |
Did Muhammad Ali learn to box right after talking to the police officer?
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Muhammad Ali
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Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. () was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had a sister and four brothers. He was named for his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr. (1912-1990), who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist, Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with smaller amounts of Irish and English heritage. His father painted billboards and signs, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917-1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali) as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. Clay grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store--"They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend's taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local railyard. Clay was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually moulding "my style, my stamina and my system". For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak. Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the Light Heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games. CANNOTANSWER
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Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested
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Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer, activist, entertainer, poet and philanthropist. Nicknamed The Greatest, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century, and is frequently ranked as the greatest heavyweight boxer of all time. In 1999, he was named Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated and the Sports Personality of the Century by the BBC.
Born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, he began training as an amateur boxer at age 12. At 18, he won a gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the 1960 Summer Olympics and turned professional later that year. He became a Muslim after 1961. He won the world heavyweight championship from Sonny Liston in a major upset on February 25, 1964, at age 22. Also that year, he renounced his birth name as a "slave name" and formally became known as Muhammad Ali. In 1966, Ali refused to be drafted into the military owing to his religious beliefs and ethical opposition to the Vietnam War and was found guilty of draft evasion and stripped of his boxing titles. He stayed out of prison while appealing the decision to the Supreme Court, where his conviction was overturned in 1971. However, he had not fought for nearly four years by this point and had lost a period of peak performance as an athlete. Ali's actions as a conscientious objector to the Vietnam War made him an icon for the larger 1960s counterculture generation, and he was a very high-profile figure of racial pride for African Americans during the civil rights movement and throughout his career. As a Muslim, Ali was initially affiliated with Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam (NOI). He later disavowed the NOI, adhering to Sunni Islam, and supported racial integration like his former mentor Malcolm X.
He fought in several historic boxing matches, such as his highly publicized fights with Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier (including the Fight of the Century, the biggest boxing event up until then), the Thrilla in Manila, and his fight with George Foreman in The Rumble in the Jungle. Ali thrived in the spotlight at a time when many boxers let their managers do the talking, and he became renowned for his provocative and outlandish persona. He was known for trash-talking, and often free-styled with rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry incorporating elements of hip hop, and often predicted in which round he would knockout his opponent.
Outside boxing, Ali attained success as a spoken word artist, releasing two studio albums: I Am the Greatest! (1963) and The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976). Both albums received Grammy Award nominations. He also featured as an actor and writer, releasing two autobiographies. Ali retired from boxing in 1981 and focused on religion, philanthropy and activism. In 1984, he made public his diagnosis of Parkinson's syndrome, which some reports attributed to boxing-related injuries, though he and his specialist physicians disputed this. He remained an active public figure globally, but in his later years made fewer public appearances as his condition worsened, and he was cared for by his family. Ali died on June 3, 2016.
Early life and amateur career
Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. ( ) was born on January 17, 1942, in Louisville, Kentucky. He had one brother. He was named after his father, Cassius Marcellus Clay Sr., who had a sister and four brothers and who himself was named in honor of the 19th-century Republican politician and staunch abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay, also from the state of Kentucky. Clay's father's paternal grandparents were John Clay and Sallie Anne Clay; Clay's sister Eva claimed that Sallie was a native of Madagascar. He was a descendant of slaves of the antebellum South, and was predominantly of African descent, with some Irish and English family heritage. Ali's maternal great-grandfather, Abe Grady, emigrated from Ennis, Co. Clare, Ireland. DNA testing performed in 2018 showed that, through his paternal grandmother, Ali was a descendant of the former slave Archer Alexander, who had been chosen from the building crew as the model of a freed man for the Emancipation Memorial, and was the subject of abolitionist William Greenleaf Eliot's book, The Story of Archer Alexander: From Slavery to Freedom. Like Ali, Alexander fought for his freedom.
His father was a sign and billboard painter, and his mother, Odessa O'Grady Clay (1917–1994), was a domestic helper. Although Cassius Sr. was a Methodist, he allowed Odessa to bring up both Cassius Jr. and his younger brother, Rudolph "Rudy" Clay (later renamed Rahman Ali), as Baptists. Cassius Jr. attended Central High School in Louisville. He was dyslexic, which led to difficulties in reading and writing, at school and for much of his life. Ali grew up amid racial segregation. His mother recalled one occasion when he was denied a drink of water at a store: "They wouldn't give him one because of his color. That really affected him." He was also strongly affected by the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, which led to young Clay and a friend taking out their frustration by vandalizing a local rail yard. His daughter Hana later wrote that Ali once told her, "Nothing would ever shake me up (more) than the story of Emmett Till."
Ali was first directed toward boxing by Louisville police officer and boxing coach Joe E. Martin, who encountered the 12-year-old fuming over a thief's having taken his bicycle. He told the officer he was going to "whup" the thief. The officer told Clay he had better learn how to box first. Initially, Clay did not take up Martin's offer, but after seeing amateur boxers on a local television boxing program called Tomorrow's Champions, Clay was interested in the prospect of fighting. He then began to work with trainer Fred Stoner, whom he credits with giving him the "real training", eventually molding "my style, my stamina and my system." For the last four years of Clay's amateur career he was trained by boxing cutman Chuck Bodak.
Clay made his amateur boxing debut in 1954 against local amateur boxer Ronnie O'Keefe. He won by split decision. He went on to win six Kentucky Golden Gloves titles, two national Golden Gloves titles, an Amateur Athletic Union national title, and the light heavyweight gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome. Clay's amateur record was 100 wins with five losses. Ali said in his 1975 autobiography that shortly after his return from the Rome Olympics, he threw his gold medal into the Ohio River after he and a friend were refused service at a "whites-only" restaurant and fought with a white gang. The story was later disputed, and several of Ali's friends, including Bundini Brown and photographer Howard Bingham, denied it. Brown told Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram, "Honkies sure bought into that one!" Thomas Hauser's biography of Ali stated that Ali was refused service at the diner but that he lost his medal a year after he won it. Ali received a replacement medal at a basketball intermission during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he lit the torch to start the games.
Early professional boxing career
Early career
Clay made his professional debut on October 29, 1960, winning a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker. From then until the end of 1963, Clay amassed a record of 19–0 with 15 wins by knockout. He defeated boxers including Tony Esperti, Jim Robinson, Donnie Fleeman, Alonzo Johnson, George Logan, Willi Besmanoff, LaMar Clark, Doug Jones and Henry Cooper. Clay also beat his former trainer and veteran boxer Archie Moore in a 1962 match.
These early fights were not without trials. Clay was knocked down by both Sonny Banks and Cooper. In the Cooper fight, Clay was floored by a left hook at the end of round four and was saved by the bell, going on to win in the predicted 5th round due to Cooper's severely cut eye. The fight with Doug Jones on March 13, 1963 was Clay's toughest fight during this stretch. The number two and three heavyweight contenders respectively, Clay and Jones fought on Jones' home turf at New York's Madison Square Garden. Jones staggered Clay in the first round, and the unanimous decision for Clay was greeted by boos and a rain of debris thrown into the ring. Watching on closed-circuit TV, heavyweight champ Sonny Liston quipped that if he fought Clay he might get locked up for murder. The fight was later named "Fight of the Year" by The Ring magazine.
In each of these fights, Clay vocally belittled his opponents and vaunted his abilities. He called Jones "an ugly little man" and Cooper a "bum". He said he was embarrassed to get in the ring with Alex Miteff and claimed that Madison Square Garden was "too small for me." Ali's trash-talk was inspired by professional wrestler "Gorgeous George" Wagner's, after he saw George's talking ability attract huge crowds to events. Ali stated in a 1969 interview with the Associated Press' Hubert Mizel that he met with George in Las Vegas in 1961, that George told him that talking a big game would earn paying fans who either wanted to see him win or wanted to see him lose, thus Ali transformed himself into a self-described "big-mouth and a bragger".
In 1960, Clay left Moore's camp, partially due to Clay's refusal to do chores such as washing dishes and sweeping. To replace Moore, Clay hired Angelo Dundee to be his trainer. Clay had met Dundee in February 1957 during Clay's amateur career. Around this time, Clay sought longtime idol Sugar Ray Robinson to be his manager, but was rebuffed.
World heavyweight champion
Fights against Liston
By late 1963, Clay had become the top contender for Sonny Liston's title. The fight was set for February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach. Liston was an intimidating personality, a dominating fighter with a criminal past and ties to the mob. Based on Clay's uninspired performance against Jones and Cooper in his previous two fights, and Liston's destruction of former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson in two first-round knockouts, Clay was a 7–1 underdog. Despite this, Clay taunted Liston during the pre-fight buildup, dubbing him "the big ugly bear", stating "Liston even smells like a bear" and claiming "After I beat him I'm going to donate him to the zoo." Clay turned the pre-fight weigh-in into a circus, shouting at Liston that "someone is going to die at ringside tonight." Clay's pulse rate was measured at 120, more than double his normal 54. Many of those in attendance thought Clay's behavior stemmed from fear, and some commentators wondered if he would show up for the bout.
The outcome of the fight was a major upset. At the opening bell, Liston rushed at Clay, seemingly angry and looking for a quick knockout. However, Clay's superior speed and mobility enabled him to elude Liston, making the champion miss and look awkward. At the end of the first round, Clay opened up his attack and hit Liston repeatedly with jabs. Liston fought better in round two, but at the beginning of the third round Clay hit Liston with a combination that buckled his knees and opened a cut under his left eye. This was the first time Liston had ever been cut. At the end of round four, Clay was returning to his corner when he began experiencing blinding pain in his eyes and asked his trainer, Angelo Dundee, to cut off his gloves. Dundee refused. It has been speculated that the problem was due to ointment used to seal Liston's cuts, perhaps deliberately applied by his corner to his gloves. Though unconfirmed, boxing historian Bert Sugar said that two of Liston's opponents also complained about their eyes "burning".
Despite Liston's attempts to knock out a blinded Clay, Clay was able to survive the fifth round until sweat and tears rinsed the irritation from his eyes. In the sixth, Clay dominated, hitting Liston repeatedly. Liston did not answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by TKO. Liston stated that the reason he quit was an injured shoulder. Following the win, a triumphant Clay rushed to the edge of the ring and, pointing to the ringside press, shouted: "Eat your words!" He added, "I am the greatest! I shook up the world. I'm the prettiest thing that ever lived."
At ringside post fight, Clay appeared unconvinced that the fight was stopped due to a Liston shoulder injury, saying that the only injury Liston had was "an open eye, a big cut eye!" When told by Joe Louis that the injury was a "left arm thrown out of its socket," Clay quipped, "Yeah, swinging at nothing, who wouldn't?"
In winning this fight at the age of 22, Clay became the youngest boxer to take the title from a reigning heavyweight champion. However, Floyd Patterson remained the youngest to win the heavyweight championship, doing so at the age 21 during an elimination bout following Rocky Marciano's retirement. Mike Tyson broke both records in 1986 when he defeated Trevor Berbick to win the heavyweight title at age 20.
Soon after the Liston fight, Clay changed his name to Cassius X, and then later to Muhammad Ali upon converting to Islam and affiliating with the Nation of Islam. Ali then faced a rematch with Liston scheduled for May 1965 in Lewiston, Maine. It had been scheduled for Boston the previous November, but was postponed for six months due to Ali's emergency surgery for a hernia three days before. The fight was controversial. Midway through the first round, Liston was knocked down by a difficult-to-see blow the press dubbed a "phantom punch". Referee Jersey Joe Walcott did not begin the count immediately after the knockdown, as Ali refused to retreat to a neutral corner. Liston rose after he had been down for about 20 seconds, and the fight momentarily continued. However a few seconds later Walcott, having been informed by the timekeepers that Liston had been down for a count of 10, stopped the match and declared Ali the winner by knockout. The entire fight lasted less than two minutes.
It has since been speculated that Liston purposely dropped to the ground. Proposed motivations include threats on his life from the Nation of Islam, that he had bet against himself and that he "took a dive" to pay off debts. Slow-motion replays show that Liston was jarred by a chopping right from Ali, although it is unclear whether the blow was a genuine knockout punch.
Fight against Patterson
Ali defended his title against former heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson on November 22, 1965. Before the match, Ali mocked Patterson, who was widely known to call him by his former name Cassius Clay, as an "Uncle Tom", calling him "The Rabbit". Although Ali clearly had the better of Patterson, who appeared injured during the fight, the match lasted 12 rounds before being called on a technical knockout. Patterson later said he had strained his sacroiliac. Ali was criticized in the sports media for appearing to have toyed with Patterson during the fight. Patterson biographer W. K. Stratton claims that the conflict between Ali and Patterson was not genuine but was staged to increase ticket sales and the closed-circuit viewing audience, with both men complicit in the theatrics. Stratton also cites an interview by Howard Cosell in which Ali explained that rather than toying with Patterson, he refrained from knocking him out after it became apparent Patterson was injured. Patterson later said that he had never been hit by punches as soft as Ali's. Stratton states that Ali arranged the second fight, in 1972, with the financially struggling Patterson to help the former champion earn enough money to pay a debt to the IRS.
Main Bout
After the Patterson fight, Ali founded his own promotion company, Main Bout. The company mainly handled Ali's boxing promotions and pay-per-view closed-circuit television broadcasts. The company's stockholders were mainly fellow Nation of Islam members, along with several others, including Bob Arum.
Ali and then-WBA heavyweight champion boxer Ernie Terrell had agreed to meet for a bout in Chicago on March 29, 1966 (the WBA, one of two boxing associations, had stripped Ali of his title following his joining the Nation of Islam). But in February Ali was reclassified by the Louisville draft board as 1-A from 1-Y, and he indicated that he would refuse to serve, commenting to the press, "I ain't got nothing against no Viet Cong; no Viet Cong never called me nigger." Amidst the media and public outcry over Ali's stance, the Illinois Athletic Commission refused to sanction the fight, citing technicalities.
Instead, Ali traveled to Canada and Europe and won championship bouts against George Chuvalo, Henry Cooper, Brian London and Karl Mildenberger.
Ali returned to the United States to fight Cleveland Williams in the Houston Astrodome on November 14, 1966. The bout drew a record-breaking indoor crowd of 35,460 people. Williams had once been considered among the hardest punchers in the heavyweight division, but in 1964 he had been shot at point-blank range by a Texas policeman, resulting in the loss of one kidney and of his small intestine. Ali dominated Williams, winning a third-round technical knockout in what some consider the finest performance of his career.
Ali fought Terrell in Houston on February 6, 1967. Terrell, who was unbeaten in five years and had defeated many of the boxers Ali had faced, was billed as Ali's toughest opponent since Liston; he was big, strong and had a three-inch reach advantage over Ali. During the lead up to the bout, Terrell repeatedly called Ali "Clay", much to Ali's annoyance. The two almost came to blows over the name issue in a pre-fight interview with Howard Cosell. Ali seemed intent on humiliating Terrell. "I want to torture him", he said. "A clean knockout is too good for him." The fight was close until the seventh round, when Ali bloodied Terrell and almost knocked him out. In the eighth round, Ali taunted Terrell, hitting him with jabs and shouting between punches, "What's my name, Uncle Tom ... what's my name?" Ali won a unanimous 15-round decision. Terrell claimed that early in the fight Ali deliberately thumbed him in the eye, forcing him to fight half-blind, and then, in a clinch, rubbed the wounded eye against the ropes. Because of Ali's apparent intent to prolong the fight to inflict maximum punishment, critics described the bout as "one of the ugliest boxing fights." Tex Maule later wrote: "It was a wonderful demonstration of boxing skill and a barbarous display of cruelty." Ali denied the accusations of cruelty but, for Ali's critics, the fight provided more evidence of his arrogance.
After Ali's title defense against Zora Folley on March 22, he was stripped of his title due to his refusal to be drafted to army service. His boxing license was also suspended by the state of New York. He was convicted of draft evasion on June 20 and sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. He paid a bond and remained free while the verdict was being appealed.
Vietnam War and resistance to the draft
Ali registered for conscription in the United States military on his 18th birthday and was listed as 1-A in 1962. In 1964, he was reclassified as Class 1-Y (fit for service only in times of national emergency) after he failed the U.S. Armed Forces qualifying test because his writing and spelling skills were sub-standard, due to his dyslexia. (He was quoted as saying, "I said I was the greatest, not the smartest!") By early 1966, the army lowered its standards to permit soldiers above the 15th percentile and Ali was again classified as 1-A. This classification meant he was now eligible for the draft and induction into the U.S. Army at a time when the U.S. was involved in the Vietnam War, a war which put him further at odds with the white establishment.
When notified of this status, Ali declared that he would refuse to serve in the army and publicly considered himself a conscientious objector. Ali stated: "War is against the teachings of the Qur'an. I'm not trying to dodge the draft. We are not supposed to take part in no wars unless declared by Allah or The Messenger (Elijah Muhammad then leader of Nation of Islam). We don’t take part in Christian wars or wars of any unbelievers". He also said "We are not to be the aggressor but we will defend ourselves if attacked." He stated: "Man, I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong." Ali elaborated: "Why should they ask me to put on a uniform and go ten thousand miles from home and drop bombs and bullets on brown people in Vietnam while so-called Negro people in Louisville are treated like dogs and denied simple human rights?" Ali antagonized the white establishment in 1966 by refusing to be drafted into the U.S. military, citing his religious beliefs and opposition to American involvement in the Vietnam War.
On April 28, 1967, Ali appeared in Houston for his scheduled induction into the U.S. Armed Forces, but he refused three times to step forward when his name was called. An officer warned him that he was committing a felony punishable by five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. Once more, Ali refused to budge when his name was called, and he was arrested. Later that same day, the New York State Athletic Commission suspended his boxing license and stripped him of his title. Other boxing commissions followed suit. Ali remained unable to obtain a license to box in any state for over three years. On June 4, 1967, in a first for sports professionals, a group of high-profile African-American athletes assembled at the Negro Industrial Economic union in Cleveland for a "Muhammad Ali Summit". The meeting was organized by Jim Brown for his peers to question Ali about the seriousness of his convictions, and to decide whether to support him, which they ultimately did.
At the trial on June 20, 1967, the jury found Ali guilty after only 21minutes of deliberation of the criminal offense of violating the Selective Service laws by refusing to be drafted. After a Court of Appeals upheld the conviction, the case was reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1971.
Ali remained free in the years between the Appellate Court decision and the Supreme Court ruling. As public opinion began turning people against the war and the Civil Rights Movement continued to gather momentum, Ali became a popular speaker at colleges and universities across the country; this itinerary was rare if not unprecedented for a prizefighter. At Howard University, for example, he gave his popular "Black Is Best" speech to 4,000 cheering students and community intellectuals, after he was invited to speak by sociology professor Nathan Hare on behalf of the Black Power Committee, a student protest group.
On June 28, 1971, the Supreme Court of the United States in Clay v. United States overturned Ali's conviction by a unanimous 8–0 decision (Justice Thurgood Marshall recused himself, as he had been the U.S. Solicitor General at the time of Ali's conviction). The decision was not based on, nor did it address, the merits of Ali's claims per se. Rather, the Court held that since the appeal board gave no reason for the denial of a conscientious objector exemption to Ali, that it was therefore impossible to determine which of the three basic tests for conscientious objector status (offered in the Justice Department's brief) the appeal board relied on, and Ali's conviction must be reversed.
Impact of Ali's draft refusal
Ali's example inspired many black Americans and others. However, initially when he refused induction, he became arguably the most hated man in the country and received many death threats. People who supported Ali during this time were also threatened, including sports journalist Jerry Izenberg, whose columns defended Ali's decision not to serve. He wrote, "Bomb threats emptied our office, making the staff stand out in the snow. My car windshield was smashed with a sledgehammer." The New York Times columnist William Rhoden wrote, "Ali's actions changed my standard of what constituted an athlete's greatness. Possessing a killer jump shot or the ability to stop on a dime was no longer enough. What were you doing for the liberation of your people? What were you doing to help your country live up to the covenant of its founding principles?"
Recalling Ali's anti-war position, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said: "I remember the teachers at my high school didn't like Ali because he was so anti-establishment and he kind of thumbed his nose at authority and got away with it. The fact that he was proud to be a black man and that he had so much talent ... made some people think that he was dangerous. But for those very reasons I enjoyed him."
Civil rights figures came to believe that Ali had an energizing effect on the freedom movement as a whole. Al Sharpton spoke of his bravery at a time when there was still widespread support for the Vietnam War:
Ali was honored with the annual Martin Luther King Award in 1970 by civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy, who called him "a living example of soul power, the March on Washington in two fists." Coretta Scott King added that Ali was "a champion of justice and peace and unity."
In speaking of the cost on Ali's career of his refusal to be drafted, his trainer Angelo Dundee said, "One thing must be taken into account when talking about Ali: He was robbed of his best years, his prime years."
Bob Arum did not support Ali's choice at the time. More recently, Arum stated that "when I look back at his life, and I was blessed to call him a friend and spent a lot of time with him, it's hard for me to talk about his exploits in boxing because as great as they were they paled in comparison to the impact that he had on the world," and "He did what he thought was right. And it turned out he was right, and I was wrong."
Ali's resistance to the draft was covered in the 2013 documentary The Trials of Muhammad Ali.
NSA and FBI monitoring of Ali's communications
In a secret operation code-named "Minaret", the National Security Agency (NSA) intercepted the communications of leading Americans, including Ali, Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., prominent U.S. journalists, and others who criticized the U.S. war in Vietnam. A review by the NSA of the Minaret program concluded that it was "disreputable if not outright illegal."
In 1971, his Fight of the Century with Frazier was used by an activist group, the Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI, to pull off a burglary at an FBI office in Pennsylvania; the anticipation for the fight was unlike anything else, so they believed the security would also be focused on the fight. This raid exposed the COINTELPRO operations that included illegal spying on activists involved with the civil rights and anti-war movements. One of the COINTELPRO targets was Ali, and their activities included the FBI gaining access to his records as far back as elementary school; one such record mentioned him loving art as a child.
Exile and comeback
In March 1966, Ali refused to be inducted into the armed forces. He was systematically denied a boxing license in every state and stripped of his passport. As a result, he did not fight from March 1967 to October 1970—from ages 25 to almost 29—as his case worked its way through the appeals process before his conviction was overturned in 1971.
Protesting while exiled
During this time of inactivity, as opposition to the Vietnam War began to grow and Ali's stance gained sympathy, he spoke at colleges across the nation, criticizing the Vietnam War and advocating African-American pride and racial justice. Ali based himself in Chicago. According to most close to him, his Chicago years were formative.
At the time, Ali was widely condemned by the American media, with fears that his actions could potentially lead to mass civil disobedience. Despite this, Ebony magazine noted in the late 1960s that Ali's popularity had increased during this time, especially among black people.
The Super Fight
While banned from sanctioned bouts, Ali settled a $1 million lawsuit against radio producer Murray Woroner by accepting $10,000 to appear in a privately staged fantasy fight against retired champion Rocky Marciano. In 1969 the boxers were filmed sparring for about 75 one-minute rounds; they produced several potential outcomes. A computer program purportedly determined the winner, based on data about the fighters, along with the opinions of approximately 250 boxing experts. Edited versions of the bout were shown in movie theaters in 1970. In the U.S. version Ali lost in a simulated 13th-round knockout, but in the European version Marciano lost due to cuts, also simulated.
Ali suggested that prejudice determined his defeat in the U.S. version. He was reported to jokingly say, "That computer was made in Alabama."
Return to prizefighting
On August 11, 1970, with his case still in appeal, Ali was granted a license to box by the City of Atlanta Athletic Commission. Leroy Johnson, Jesse Hill Jr. and Harry Pett had used their local political influence and set up the company House of Sports to organize the fight, underlining the influential power of Georgia's black politics in Ali' s comeback. Ali's first return bout was against Jerry Quarry on October 26, resulting in a win after three rounds after Quarry was cut.
A month earlier, a victory in federal court forced the New York State Boxing Commission to reinstate Ali's license. He fought Oscar Bonavena at Madison Square Garden in December, an uninspired performance that ended in a dramatic technical knockout of Bonavena in the 15th round. The win left Ali as a top contender against heavyweight champion Joe Frazier.
First fight against Joe Frazier
Ali and Frazier's first fight, held at the Garden on March 8, 1971, was nicknamed the "Fight of the Century", due to the tremendous excitement surrounding a bout between two undefeated fighters, each with a legitimate claim to be heavyweight champion. Veteran US boxing writer John Condon called it "the greatest event I've ever worked on in my life." The bout was broadcast to 36 countries; promoters granted 760 press passes.
Adding to the atmosphere were the considerable pre-fight theatrics and name calling. Before the fight Frazier called Ali, "Cassius Clay", this angered Ali and he portrayed Frazier as a "dumb tool of the white establishment." "Frazier is too ugly to be champ", Ali said. "Frazier is too dumb to be champ." Ali also frequently called Frazier an "Uncle Tom". Dave Wolf, who worked in Frazier's camp, recalled that, "Ali was saying 'the only people rooting for Joe Frazier are white people in suits, Alabama sheriffs, and members of the Ku Klux Klan. I'm fighting for the little man in the ghetto.' Joe was sitting there, smashing his fist into the palm of his hand, saying, 'What the fuck does he know about the ghetto?
Ali began training at a farm near Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1971 and, finding the country setting to his liking, sought to develop a real training camp in the countryside. He found a five-acre site on a Pennsylvania country road in the village of Deer Lake, Pennsylvania. On this site, Ali carved out what was to become his training camp, where he trained for all his fights from 1972 to the end of his career in 1981.
The Monday night fight lived up to its billing. In a preview of their two other fights, a crouching, bobbing and weaving Frazier constantly pressured Ali, getting hit regularly by Ali jabs and combinations, but relentlessly attacking and scoring repeatedly, especially to Ali's body. The fight was even in the early rounds, but Ali was taking more punishment than ever in his career. On several occasions in the early rounds he played to the crowd and shook his head "no" after he was hit. In the later rounds—in what was the first appearance of the "rope-a-dope strategy"—Ali leaned against the ropes and absorbed punishment from Frazier, hoping to tire him. In the 11th round, Frazier connected with a left hook that wobbled Ali, but because it appeared that Ali might be clowning as he staggered backwards across the ring, Frazier hesitated to press his advantage, fearing an Ali counter-attack. In the final round, Frazier knocked Ali down with a vicious left hook, which referee Arthur Mercante said was as hard as a man can be hit. Ali was back on his feet in three seconds. Nevertheless, Ali lost by unanimous decision, his first professional defeat.
Chamberlain challenge and Ellis fight
In 1971, basketball star Wilt Chamberlain challenged Ali to a fight, and a bout was scheduled for July 26. Although the seven-foot-two-inch tall Chamberlain had formidable physical advantages over Ali—weighing 60pounds more and able to reach 14inches further—Ali was able to influence Chamberlain into calling off the bout by taunting him with calls of "Timber!" and "The tree will fall" during a shared interview. These statements of confidence unsettled his taller opponent, whom Los Angeles Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had offered a record-setting contract, conditional on Chamberlain agreeing to abandon what Cooke termed "this boxing foolishness", and he did exactly that. To replace Ali's opponent, promoter Bob Arum quickly booked a former sparring partner of Ali's, Jimmy Ellis, who was a childhood friend from Louisville, Kentucky, to fight him.
After his loss
Fights against Quarry, Patterson, Foster and Norton
After the loss to Frazier, Ali fought Jerry Quarry, had a second bout with Floyd Patterson and faced Bob Foster in 1972, winning a total of six fights that year. In 1973, Ken Norton broke Ali's jaw while giving him the second loss of his career. After initially considering retirement, Ali won a controversial decision against Norton in their second bout. This led to a rematch with Joe Frazier at Madison Square Garden on January 28, 1974; Frazier had recently lost his title to George Foreman.
Second fight against Joe Frazier
Ali was strong in the early rounds of the fight, and staggered Frazier in the second round. Referee Tony Perez mistakenly thought he heard the bell ending the round and stepped between the two fighters as Ali was pressing his attack, giving Frazier time to recover. However, Frazier came on in the middle rounds, snapping Ali's head in round seven and driving him to the ropes at the end of round eight. The last four rounds saw round-to-round shifts in momentum between the two fighters. Throughout most of the bout, however, Ali was able to circle away from Frazier's dangerous left hook and to tie Frazier up when he was cornered, the latter a tactic that Frazier's camp complained of bitterly. Judges awarded Ali a unanimous decision.
World heavyweight champion (second reign)
The Rumble in the Jungle
The defeat of Frazier set the stage for a title fight against heavyweight champion George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, on October 30, 1974—a bout nicknamed The Rumble in the Jungle. Foreman was considered one of the hardest punchers in heavyweight history. In assessing the fight, analysts pointed out that Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, who had given Ali four tough battles and won two of them, had both been devastated by Foreman in second-round knockouts. Ali was 32 years old, and had clearly lost speed and reflexes since his twenties. Contrary to his later persona, Foreman was at the time a brooding and intimidating presence. Almost no one associated with the sport, not even Ali's long-time supporter Howard Cosell, gave the former champion a chance of winning.
As usual, Ali was confident and colorful before the fight. He told interviewer David Frost, "If you think the world was surprised when Nixon resigned, wait till I whup Foreman's behind!" He told the press, "I've done something new for this fight. I done wrestled with an alligator, I done tussled with a whale; handcuffed lightning, thrown thunder in jail; only last week, I murdered a rock, injured a stone, hospitalized a brick; I'm so mean I make medicine sick." Ali was wildly popular in Zaire, with crowds chanting "Ali, bomaye" ("Ali, kill him") wherever he went.
Ali opened the fight moving and scoring with right crosses to Foreman's head. Then, beginning in the second round, and to the consternation of his corner, Ali retreated to the ropes and invited Foreman to hit him while covering up, clinching and counter-punching, all while verbally taunting Foreman. The move, which would later become known as the "Rope-a-dope", so violated conventional boxing wisdom—letting one of the hardest hitters in boxing strike at will—that at ringside writer George Plimpton thought the fight had to be fixed. Foreman, increasingly angered, threw punches that were deflected and did not land squarely. Midway through the fight, as Foreman began tiring, Ali countered more frequently and effectively with punches and flurries, which electrified the pro-Ali crowd. In the eighth round, Ali dropped an exhausted Foreman with a combination at center ring; Foreman failed to make the count. Against the odds, and amidst pandemonium in the ring, Ali had regained the title by knockout. Reflecting on the fight, George Foreman later said: "I thought Ali was just one more knockout victim until, about the seventh round, I hit him hard to the jaw and he held me and whispered in my ear: 'That all you got, George?' I realized that this ain't what I thought it was."
It was a major upset victory, after Ali came in as a 41 underdog against the previously unbeaten, heavy-hitting Foreman. The fight became famous for Ali's introduction of the rope-a-dope tactic. The fight was watched by a record estimated television audience of 1billion viewers worldwide. It was the world's most-watched live television broadcast at the time.
Fights against Wepner, Lyle and Bugner
Ali's next opponents included Chuck Wepner, Ron Lyle, and Joe Bugner. Wepner, a journeyman known as "The Bayonne Bleeder", stunned Ali with a knockdown in the ninth round; Ali would later say he tripped on Wepner's foot. It was a bout that would inspire Sylvester Stallone to create the acclaimed film, Rocky.
Third fight against Joe Frazier
Ali then agreed to a third match with Joe Frazier in Manila. The bout, known as the "Thrilla in Manila", was held on October 1, 1975, in temperatures approaching . In the first rounds, Ali was aggressive, moving and exchanging blows with Frazier. However, Ali soon appeared to tire and adopted the "rope-a-dope" strategy, frequently resorting to clinches. During this part of the bout Ali did some effective counter-punching, but for the most part absorbed punishment from a relentlessly attacking Frazier. In the 12th round, Frazier began to tire, and Ali scored several sharp blows that closed Frazier's left eye and opened a cut over his right eye. With Frazier's vision now diminished, Ali dominated the 13th and 14th rounds, at times conducting what boxing historian Mike Silver called "target practice" on Frazier's head. The fight was stopped when Frazier's trainer, Eddie Futch, refused to allow Frazier to answer the bell for the 15th and final round, despite Frazier's protests. Frazier's eyes were both swollen shut. Ali, in his corner, winner by TKO, slumped on his stool, clearly spent.
An ailing Ali said afterwards that the fight "was the closest thing to dying that I know", and, when later asked if he had viewed the fight on videotape, reportedly said, "Why would I want to go back and see Hell?" After the fight he cited Frazier as "the greatest fighter of all times next to me."
After the third fight with Frazier, Ali considered retirement. He said, “I’m sore all over. My arms, my face, my sides all ache. I’m so, so tired. There is a great possibility that I will retire. You might have seen the last of me. I want to sit back and count my money, live in my house and my farm, work for my people and concentrate on my family."
Later career
Following the Manila bout, Ali fought Jean-Pierre Coopman, Jimmy Young, and Richard Dunn, winning the last by knockout.
The punch used to knock Dunn out was taught to Ali by Taekwondo Grandmaster Jhoon Rhee. Rhee called that punch the "Accupunch"; he learned it from Bruce Lee. The Dunn fight was the last time Ali would knock down an opponent in his boxing career.
Ali fought Ken Norton for the third time in September 1976. The bout, which was held at Yankee Stadium, resulted in Ali winning a heavily contested decision that was loudly booed by the audience. Afterwards, he announced he was retiring from boxing to practice his faith, having converted to Sunni Islam after falling out with the Nation of Islam the previous year.
After returning to beat Alfredo Evangelista in May 1977, Ali struggled in his next fight against Earnie Shavers that September, getting pummeled a few times by punches to the head. Ali won the fight by another unanimous decision, but the bout caused his longtime doctor Ferdie Pacheco to quit after he was rebuffed for telling Ali he should retire. Pacheco was quoted as saying, "the New York State Athletic Commission gave me a report that showed Ali's kidneys were falling apart. I wrote to Angelo Dundee, Ali's trainer, his wife and Ali himself. I got nothing back in response. That's when I decided enough is enough."
In February 1978, Ali faced Leon Spinks at the Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas. At the time, Spinks had only seven professional fights to his credit, and had recently fought a draw with journeyman Scott LeDoux. Ali sparred less than two dozen rounds in preparation for the fight, and was seriously out of shape by the opening bell. He lost the title by split decision. A rematch occurred in September at the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. 70,000 people attended the bout and paid a total of $6 million admission, making it the largest live gate in boxing history at that time. Ali won a unanimous decision in an uninspiring fight, with referee Lucien Joubert scoring rounds 10-4, judge Ernie Cojoe 10-4, and judge Herman Preis 11-4. This made Ali the first heavyweight champion to win the belt three times.
Following this win, on July 27, 1979, Ali announced his retirement from boxing. His retirement was short-lived, however; Ali announced his comeback to face Larry Holmes for the WBC belt in an attempt to win the heavyweight championship an unprecedented fourth time. The fight was largely motivated by Ali's need for money. Boxing writer Richie Giachetti said, "Larry didn't want to fight Ali. He knew Ali had nothing left; he knew it would be a horror."
It was around this time that Ali started struggling with vocal stutters and trembling hands. The Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) ordered that he undergo a complete physical in Las Vegas before being allowed to fight again. Ali chose instead to check into the Mayo Clinic, who declared him fit to fight. Their opinion was accepted by the NAC on July 31, 1980, paving the way for Ali's return to the ring.
The fight took place on October 2, 1980, in Las Vegas Valley, with Holmes easily dominating Ali, who was weakened from thyroid medication he had taken to lose weight. Giachetti called the fight "awful ... the worst sports event I ever had to cover." Actor Sylvester Stallone was at ringside and said that it was like watching an autopsy on a man who is still alive. After the tenth round, Angelo Dundee told the referee to stop the fight, making it the only time that Ali ever lost by stoppage. The Holmes fight is said to have contributed to Ali's Parkinson's syndrome. Despite pleas to definitively retire, Ali fought one last time on December 11, 1981, in Nassau, Bahamas, against Trevor Berbick, losing a ten-round decision.
By the end of his boxing career Ali had absorbed an estimated 200,000 hits.
Exhibition bouts
Ali boxed both well known boxers and celebrities from other walks of life, including Michael Dokes, Antonio Inoki, Lyle Alzado, Dave Semenko, and the famous Puerto Rican comedian Jose Miguel Agrelot (with Iris Chacon acting as Agrelot's corner-woman).
Ali vs Inoki
On June 26, 1976, Ali participated in an exhibition bout in Tokyo against Japanese professional wrestler and martial artist Antonio Inoki. Ali was only able to land two jabs while Inoki's kicks caused two blood clots and an infection that almost resulted in Ali's leg being amputated, as a result of Ali's team insisting on rules restricting Inoki's ability to wrestle. The match was not scripted and ultimately declared a draw. After Ali's death, The New York Times declared it his least memorable fight. Most boxing commentators at the time viewed the fight negatively and hoped it would be forgotten as some considered it a "15-round farce." Today it is considered by some to be one of Ali's most influential fights and CBS Sports said the attention the mixed-style bout received "foretold the arrival of standardized MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) years later." After the fight, Ali and Inoki became friends.
Ali vs Alzado
In 1979, Ali fought an exhibition match against NFL player Lyle Alzado. The fight went 8 rounds and was declared a draw.
Ali vs Semenko
Ali fought NHL player, Dave Semenko in an exhibition on June 12, 1983. The match was officially a draw after going three rounds, but the Associated Press reported Ali was not seriously trying and was just toying with Semenko.
Personal life
Marriages and children
Ali was married four times and had seven daughters and two sons. Ali was introduced to cocktail waitress Sonji Roi by Herbert Muhammad and asked her to marry him after their first date. They married approximately one month later on August 14, 1964. They quarreled over Sonji's refusal to join the Nation Of Islam. According to Ali, "She wouldn't do what she was supposed to do. She wore lipstick; she went into bars; she dressed in clothes that were revealing and didn't look right." The marriage was childless and they divorced on January 10, 1966. Just before the divorce was finalized, Ali sent Sonji a note: "You traded heaven for hell, baby." Ali's brother Rahman said that she was Ali's only true love and the Nation of Islam made Ali divorce her and Ali never got over it.
On August 17, 1967, Ali married Belinda Boyd. Born into a Chicago family that had converted to the Nation Of Islam, she later changed her name to Khalilah Ali, though she was still called Belinda by old friends and family. They had four children: author and rapper Maryum "May May" (born 1968); twins Jamillah and Rasheda (born 1970), who married Robert Walsh and has a son, Biaggio Ali, born in 1998; and Muhammad Ali Jr. (born 1972). Rasheda's son Nico is a professional boxer.
Ali was a resident of Cherry Hill, New Jersey in the early 1970s. At age 32 in 1974, Ali began an extramarital relationship with 16-year-old Wanda Bolton (who subsequently changed her name to Aaisha Ali) with whom he fathered another daughter, Khaliah (born 1974). While still married to Belinda, Ali married Aaisha in an Islamic ceremony that was not legally recognized. According to Khaliah, Aaisha and her mother lived at Ali's Deer Lake training camp alongside Belinda and her children. In January 1985, Aaisha sued Ali for unpaid palimony. The case was settled when Ali agreed to set up a $200,000 trust fund for Khaliah. In 2001 Khaliah was quoted as saying she believed her father viewed her as "a mistake". He had another daughter, Miya (born 1972), from an extramarital relationship with Patricia Harvell.
By the summer of 1977, his second marriage ended due to Ali's repeated infidelity, and he had married actress and model Veronica Porché. At the time of their marriage, they had a daughter, Hana, and Veronica was pregnant with their second child. Their second daughter, Laila Ali, was born in December 1977. By 1986, Ali and Porché were divorced due to Ali's continuous infidelity. Porché said of Ali's infidelity, "It was too much temptation for him, with women who threw themselves at him, It didn’t mean anything. He didn't have affairs – he had one-night stands. I knew beyond a doubt there were no feelings involved. It was so obvious, It was easy to forgive him."
On November 19, 1986, Ali married Yolanda "Lonnie" Williams. Lonnie first met Ali at the age of 6 when her family moved to Louisville in 1963. In 1982, she became Ali's primary caregiver and in return, he paid for her to attend graduate school at UCLA. Together they adopted a son, Asaad Amin (born 1986), when Asaad was five months old. In 1992, Lonnie incorporated Greatest of All Time, Inc. (G.O.A.T. Inc) to consolidate and license his intellectual properties for commercial purposes. She served as the vice president and treasurer until the sale of the company in 2006.
Kiiursti Mensah-Ali claims she is Ali's biological daughter with Barbara Mensah, with whom he allegedly had a 20-year relationship, citing photographs and a paternity test conducted in 1988. She said he accepted responsibility and took care of her, but all contacts with him were cut off after he married his fourth wife Lonnie. Kiiursti says she has a relationship with his other children. After his death she again made passionate appeals to be allowed to mourn at his funeral.
In 2010, Osmon Williams came forward claiming to be Ali's biological son. His mother Temica Williams (also known as Rebecca Holloway) launched a $3 million lawsuit against Ali in 1981 for sexual assault, claiming that she had started a sexual relationship with him when she was 12, and that her son Osmon (born 1977) was fathered by Ali. She further alleged that Ali had originally supported her and her son financially, but stopped doing so after four years. The case went on until 1986 and was eventually thrown out as her allegations were deemed to be barred by the statute of limitations. According to Veronica, Ali admitted to the affair with Williams, but did not believe Osmon was his son which Veronica supported by saying "Everybody in the camp was going with that girl." Ali biographer and friend Thomas Hauser has said this claim was of "questionable veracity".
Ali then lived in Scottsdale, Arizona with Lonnie. In January 2007, it was reported that they had put their home in Berrien Springs, Michigan, which they had bought in 1975, up for sale and had purchased a home in eastern Jefferson County, Kentucky for $1,875,000. Both homes were subsequently sold after Ali's death with Lonnie living in their remaining home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Lonnie converted to Islam from Catholicism in her late twenties.
In an interview in 1974, Ali said, "If they say stand and salute the flag I do that out of respect, because I'm in the country". Ali would later say, "If America was in trouble and real war came, I'd be on the front line if we had been attacked. But I could see that (The Vietnam War) wasn't right." He also said, "Black men would go over there and fight, but when they came home, they couldn't even be served a hamburger."
Ali's daughter Laila was a professional boxer from 1999 until 2007, despite her father's previous opposition to women's boxing. In 1978, he said "Women are not made to be hit in the breast, and face like that." Ali still attended a number of his daughter's fights and later admitted to Laila he was wrong. Ali's daughter Hana is married to Bellator middleweight fighter Kevin Casey. Hana wrote about her father, "His love for people was extraordinary. I would get home from school to find homeless families sleeping in our guest room. He’d see them on the street, pile them into his Rolls-Royce and bring them home. He’d buy them clothes, take them to hotels and pay the bills for months in advance." She also said celebrities like Michael Jackson and Clint Eastwood would often visit Ali. After Ali met a lesbian couple who were fans of his in 1997, he smiled and said to his friend Hauser, "They look like they’re happy together." Hauser wrote about the story, "The thought that Liz and Roz (the lesbian couple he met) were happy pleased Muhammad. Ali wanted people to be happy."
Religion and beliefs
Affiliation with the Nation of Islam
Ali said that he first heard of the Nation of Islam when he was fighting in the Golden Gloves tournament in Chicago in 1959, and attended his first Nation of Islam meeting in 1961. He continued to attend meetings, although keeping his involvement hidden from the public. In 1962, Clay met Malcolm X, who soon became his spiritual and political mentor. By the time of the first Liston fight, Nation of Islam members, including Malcolm X, were visible in his entourage. This led to a story in The Miami Herald just before the fight disclosing that Clay had joined the Nation of Islam, which nearly caused the bout to be canceled. The article quoted Cassius Clay Sr. as saying that his son had joined the Black Muslims when he was 18.
In fact, Clay was initially refused entry to the Nation of Islam (often called the Black Muslims at the time) due to his boxing career. However, after he won the championship from Liston in 1964, the Nation of Islam was more receptive and agreed to publicize his membership. Shortly afterwards on March 6, Elijah Muhammad gave a radio address that Clay would be renamed Muhammad (one who is worthy of praise) Ali (most high). Around that time Ali moved to the south side of Chicago and lived in a series of houses, always near the Nation of Islam's Mosque Maryam or Elijah Muhammad's residence. He stayed in Chicago for about 12 years.
Only a few journalists, most notably Howard Cosell, accepted the new name at that time. Ali stated that his earlier name was a "slave name," and a "white man's name" and added that "I didn’t choose it and I don’t want it". The person he was named after was a white man and emancipationist who released slaves. Ali explained in his autobiography after studying his works, "While Clay may have gotten rid of his slaves, he "held on to white supremacy." In truth, Cassius Clay's attachment to slavery went farther than Ali knew. In spite of his abolitionist fervor, Clay owned more slaves in 1865, when the 13th Amendment to the Constitution finally forbade its practice, than he had inherited from his father 37 years earlier.
Not afraid to antagonize the white establishment, Ali stated, "I am America. I am the part you won't recognize. But get used to me. Black, confident, cocky; my name, not yours; my religion, not yours; my goals, my own; get used to me." Ali's friendship with Malcolm X ended as Malcolm split with the Nation of Islam a couple of weeks after Ali joined, and Ali remained with the Nation of Islam. Ali later said that turning his back on Malcolm was one of the mistakes he regretted most in his life.
Aligning himself with the Nation of Islam, its leader Elijah Muhammad, and a narrative that labeled the white race as the perpetrator of genocide against African Americans made Ali a target of public condemnation. The Nation of Islam was widely viewed by whites and some African Americans as a black separatist "hate religion" with a propensity toward violence; Ali had few qualms about using his influential voice to speak Nation of Islam doctrine. In a press conference articulating his opposition to the Vietnam War, Ali stated, "My enemy is the white people, not Vietcong or Chinese or Japanese." In relation to integration, he said: "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong. We don't want to live with the white man; that's all." Further articulating his opposition to integration, he told members of the KKK at a Klan rally in 1975 that "black people should marry their own women... blue birds are blue birds, red birds are red birds, pigeons with pigeons, eagles with eagles, God did not make no mistake".
Writer Jerry Izenberg once noted that, "the Nation became Ali's family and Elijah Muhammad became his father. But there is an irony to the fact that while the Nation branded white people as devils, Ali had more white colleagues than most African American people did at that time in America, and continued to have them throughout his career."
Conversion to Sunni/Sufi Islam
In Hauser's biography Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times, Ali says that although he's not a Christian as he thinks the idea of God having a son sounds wrong and doesn't make sense to him, as he believes, "God don't beget; man begets". He still believes that even good Christians or good Jews can receive God's blessing and enter heaven as he stated, "God created all people, no matter what their religion". He also stated, "If you're against someone because he's a Muslim that's wrong. If you're against someone because he's a Christian or a Jew, that's wrong".
In a 2004 autobiography, Ali attributed his conversion to mainstream Sunni Islam to Warith Deen Muhammad, who assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam upon the death of his father Elijah Muhammad, and persuaded the Nation's followers to become adherents of Sunni Islam. He said some people didn't like the change and stuck to Elijah's teachings, but he admired it and so left Elijah's teachings and became a follower of Sunni Islam.
Ali had gone on the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1972, which inspired him in a similar manner to Malcolm X, meeting people of different colors from all over the world giving him a different outlook and greater spiritual awareness. In 1977, he said that, after he retired, he would dedicate the rest of his life to getting "ready to meet God" by helping people, charitable causes, uniting people and helping to make peace. He went on another Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca in 1988.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, he stated that "Islam is a religion of peace" and "does not promote terrorism or killing people", and that he was "angry that the world sees a certain group of Islam followers who caused this destruction, but they are not real Muslims. They are racist fanatics who call themselves Muslims." In December 2015, he stated that "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so-called Islamic jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion", that "We as Muslims have to stand up to those who use Islam to advance their own personal agenda", and that "political leaders should use their position to bring understanding about the religion of Islam, and clarify that these misguided murderers have perverted people's views on what Islam really is."
In later life after retiring from boxing, Ali became a student of the Quran and a devout Muslim. He also developed an interest in Sufism, which he referenced in his autobiography, The Soul of a Butterfly. According to Ali's daughter, Hana Yasmeen Ali, who co-authored The Soul of a Butterfly with him, Ali was attracted to Sufism after reading the books of Inayat Khan, which contain Sufi teachings.
Muhammad Ali received guidance from Islamic scholars such as Grand Mufti of Syria Almarhum Asy-Syaikh Ahmed Kuftaro, Hisham Kabbani, Imam Zaid Shakir, Hamza Yusuf, and Timothy J. Gianotti, who was at Ali's bedside during his last days and ensured that although his funeral was interfaith, it was still in accordance with Islamic rites and rituals.
Beatles reunion plan
In 1976, inventor Alan Amron and businessman Joel Sacher partnered with Ali to promote The International Committee to Reunite the Beatles. They asked fans worldwide to contribute a dollar each. Ali said the idea was not to use the proceeds for profit, but to establish an international agency to help poor children. "This is money to help people all over the world", he said. He added, "I love the music. I used to train to their music." He said a reunion of the Beatles "would make a lot of people happy." The former Beatles were indifferent to the plan, which elicited only a tepid response from the public. No reunion happened.
Entertainment career
Acting
Ali had a cameo role in the 1962 film version of Requiem for a Heavyweight, and during his exile from boxing, he starred in the short-lived 1969 Broadway musical, Buck White. He also appeared in the documentary film Black Rodeo (1972) riding both a horse and a bull.
His autobiography The Greatest: My Own Story, written with Richard Durham, was published in 1975. In 1977 the book was adapted into a film called The Greatest, in which Ali played himself and Ernest Borgnine played Angelo Dundee.
The film Freedom Road, made in 1978, features Ali in a rare acting role as Gideon Jackson, a former slave and Union (American Civil War) soldier in 1870s Virginia, who gets elected to the U.S. Senate and battles alongside former slaves and white sharecroppers to keep the land they have tended all their lives.
Spoken word poetry and rap music
Ali often used rhyme schemes and spoken word poetry, both for when he was trash-talking in boxing and as political poetry for his activism outside of boxing. He played a role in the shaping of the black poetic tradition, paving the way for The Last Poets in 1968, Gil Scott-Heron in 1970, and the emergence of rap music in the 1970s. According to The Guardian, "Some have argued that" Ali was "the first rapper."
In 1963, Ali released an album of spoken word music on Columbia Records titled, I Am the Greatest, and in 1964, he recorded a cover version of the rhythm and blues song "Stand by Me". I Am the Greatest sold 500,000 copies, and has been identified as an early example of rap music and a precursor to hip hop. It reached number 61 on the album chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award. He later received a second Grammy nomination, for "Best Recording for Children", with his 1976 spoken word novelty record, The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay.
Ali was an influential figure in the world of hip hop music. As a "rhyming trickster", he was noted for his "funky delivery", "boasts", "comical trash-talk", and "endless quotables." According to Rolling Stone, his "freestyle skills" and his "rhymes, flow, and braggadocio" would "one day become typical of old school MCs" like Run–D.M.C. and LL Cool J, and his "outsized ego foreshadowed the vainglorious excesses of Kanye West, while his Afrocentric consciousness and cutting honesty pointed forward to modern bards like Rakim, Nas, Jay-Z, and Kendrick Lamar." “I’ve wrestled with alligators, I’ve tussled with a whale. I done handcuffed lightning and throw thunder in jail. You know I’m bad. Just last week, I murdered a rock, Injured a stone, Hospitalized a brick. I’m so mean, I make medicine sick” "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. His hands can't hit what his eyes can't see. Now you see me, now you don't. George thinks he will, but I know he won't.” Ali spoke like no man the world had seen before. So confident in what he said; fluent, smooth, creative, and intimidating. He was a boxer and an activist, but he also had a role in influencing what now dominated pop-culture, hip-hop. In 2006, the documentary Ali Rap was produced by ESPN. Chuck D, a rapper for the band Public Enemy is the host. Other rappers narrated the documentary as well, including Doug E Fresh, Ludacris and Rakim who all spoke on Ali's behalf in the film.
He has been cited as an inspiration by rappers such as LL Cool J, Public Enemy's Chuck D, Jay-Z, Eminem, Sean Combs, Slick Rick, Nas and MC Lyte. Ali has been referenced in a number of hip hop songs, including Migos "Fight Night", The Game's "Jesus Piece", Nas' "The Message, The Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight", the Fugees' "Ready or Not", EPMD's "You're a Customer" and Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy wit It".
Professional wrestling
Ali was involved with professional wrestling at different times in his career.
On June 1, 1976, as Ali was preparing for his bout with Inoki, he attended a match featuring Gorilla Monsoon. After the match was over, Ali removed his shirt and jacket and confronted professional wrestler Gorilla Monsoon in the ring after his match at a World Wide Wrestling Federation show in Philadelphia Arena. After dodging a few punches, Monsoon put Ali in an airplane spin and dumped him to the mat. Ali stumbled to the corner, where his associate Butch Lewis convinced him to walk away.
On March 31, 1985, Ali was the special guest referee for the main event of the inaugural WrestleMania event.
In 1995, Ali led a group of Japanese and American professional wrestlers, including his 1976 opponent Antonio Inoki and Ric Flair, on a sports diplomacy mission to North Korea. Ali was guest of honor at the record-breaking Collision in Korea, a wrestling event with the largest attendance of all time.
Television appearances
Muhammad Ali's fights were some of the world's most-watched television broadcasts, setting television viewership records. His most-watched fights drew an estimated 12 billion viewers worldwide between 1974 and 1980, and were the world's most-watched live television broadcasts at the time. Outside of fights, he made many other television appearances. The following table lists known viewership figures of his non-fight television appearances. For television viewership figures of his fights, see Boxing career of Muhammad Ali: Television viewership.
Art
Ali was also an amateur artist and made dozens of drawings and paintings in the 1970s. In 1977, Rodney Hilton Brown, who owned an art gallery in NYC, asked Ali if he was interested in painting. Ali took him up on the offer and produced several paintings for him to sell. Brown is the author of “Muhammad Ali: The Untold Story: Painter, Poet and Prophet." In October 2021, 26 of his drawings and arts were placed on auction and sold for close to $1 Million USD.
Later years
In 1984, Ali was diagnosed with Parkinson's Syndrome, which sometimes results from head trauma from violent physical activities such as boxing. Ali still remained active during this time, later participating as a guest referee at WrestleMania I.
Philanthropy, humanitarianism and politics
Ali was known for being a humanitarian and philanthropist. He focused on practicing his Islamic duty of charity and good deeds, donating millions to charity organizations and disadvantaged people of all religious backgrounds. It is estimated that Ali helped to feed more than 22million people afflicted by hunger across the world. Early in his career, one of his main focuses was youth education. He spoke at several historically black colleges and universities about the importance of education, and became the largest single black donor to the United Negro College Fund in 1967 by way of a $10,000 donation ($78,000 in 2020 USD). In late 1966, he also pledged to donate a total of $100,000 to the UNCF (specifically promising to donate much of the proceeds of his title defense against Cleveland Williams), and paid $4,500 per closed circuit installation at six HBCUs so they could watch his fights.
Ali began visiting Africa, starting in 1964 when he visited Nigeria and Ghana. In 1974, he visited a Palestinian refugee camp in Southern Lebanon, where Ali declared "support for the Palestinian struggle to liberate their homeland." In 1978, following his loss to Spinks and before winning the rematch, Ali visited Bangladesh and received honorary citizenship there. The same year, he participated in The Longest Walk, a protest march in the United States in support of Native American rights, along with singer Stevie Wonder and actor Marlon Brando.
In 1980, Ali was recruited by President Jimmy Carter for a diplomatic mission to Africa, in an effort to persuade a number of African governments to join the US-led boycott of the Moscow Olympics (in response to the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan). According to Ali biographer Thomas Hauser, "at best, it was ill-conceived; at worst, a diplomatic disaster." The Tanzanian government was insulted that Carter had sent an athlete to discuss a serious political issue. One official asked whether the United States would "send Chris Evert to negotiate with London." Consequently, Ali was only received by the youth and culture minister, rather than President Julius Nyerere. Ali was unable to explain why the African countries should join the US boycott when it had failed to support the African boycott of the 1976 Olympics (in protest at Apartheid in South Africa), and was unaware that the Soviet Union was sponsoring popular revolutionary movements in Africa. Ali conceded "They didn't tell me about that in America", and complained that Carter had sent him "around the world to take the whupping over American policies." The Nigerian government also rebuffed him and confirmed that they would be participating in the Moscow games. Ali did, however, convince the government of Kenya to boycott the Olympics.
On January 19, 1981, in Los Angeles, Ali talked a suicidal man down from jumping off a ninth-floor ledge, an event that made national news.
In 1984, Ali announced his support for the re-election of United States President Ronald Reagan. When asked to elaborate on his endorsement of Reagan, Ali told reporters, "He's keeping God in schools and that's enough." In 1985, he visited Israel to request the release of Muslim prisoners at Atlit detainee camp, which Israel declined.
Around 1987, the California Bicentennial Foundation for the U.S. Constitution selected Ali to personify the vitality of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Ali rode on a float at the following year's Tournament of Roses Parade, launching the U.S. Constitution's 200th birthday commemoration. In 1988, during the First Intifada, Ali participated in a Chicago rally in support of Palestine. The same year, he visited Sudan to raise awareness about the plight of famine victims. According to Politico, Ali supported Orrin Hatch politically. In 1989, he participated in an Indian charity event with the Muslim Educational Society in Kozhikode, Kerala, along with Bollywood actor Dilip Kumar.
In 1990, Ali traveled to Iraq prior to the Gulf War, and met with Saddam Hussein in an attempt to negotiate the release of American hostages. Ali secured the release of the hostages, in exchange for promising Hussein that he would bring America "an honest account" of Iraq. Despite arranging the hostages release, he received criticism from President George H. W. Bush, and Joseph C. Wilson, the highest-ranking American diplomat in Baghdad.Ali cooperated with Thomas Hauser on a biography, Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times. The oral history was published in 1991.
In 1994, Ali campaigned to the United States government to come to the aid of refugees afflicted by the Rwandan genocide, and to donate to organizations helping Rwandan refugees.
In 1996, he lit the flame at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. It was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers worldwide.
On November 17, 2002, Ali went to Afghanistan as the "U.N. Messenger of Peace." He was in Kabul for a three-day goodwill mission as a special guest of the UN.
On September 1, 2009, Ali visited Ennis, County Clare, Ireland, the home of his great-grandfather, Abe Grady, who emigrated to the U.S. in the 1860s, eventually settling in Kentucky.
On July 27, 2012, Ali was a titular bearer of the Olympic flag during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. He was helped to his feet by his wife Lonnie to stand before the flag due to his Parkinson's Syndrome rendering him unable to carry it into the stadium. The same year, he was awarded the Philadelphia Liberty Medal in recognition of his lifelong efforts in activism, philanthropy and humanitarianism.
Earnings
By 1978, Ali's total fight purse earnings were estimated to be nearly $60million (inflation-adjusted ), including an estimated $47.45million grossed between 1970 and 1978. By 1980, his total fight purse earnings were estimated to be up to $70million (inflation-adjusted $million).
In 1978, Ali revealed that he was "broke" and several news outlets reported his net worth to be an estimated (inflation-adjusted $million). The press attributed his decline in wealth to several factors, including taxes consuming at least half of his income, management taking a third of his income, his lifestyle, and spending on family, charity and religious causes.
In 2006, Ali sold his name and image for $50million, after which Forbes estimated his net worth to be $55million in 2006. Following his death in 2016, his fortune was estimated to be between $50million and $80million.
Declining health
Ali's bout with Parkinson's Syndrome led to a gradual decline in his health, though he was still active into the early years of the millennium, promoting his own biopic, Ali, in 2001. That year he also contributed an on-camera segment to the America: A Tribute to Heroes benefit concert.
In 1998, Ali began working with actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, to raise awareness and fund research for a cure. They made a joint appearance before Congress to push the case in 2002. In 2000, Ali worked with the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Disease to raise awareness and encourage donations for research.
In February 2013, Ali's brother Rahman Ali said Muhammad could no longer speak and could be dead within days. Ali's daughter May May Ali responded to the rumors, stating that she had talked to him on the phone the morning of February 3 and he was fine. On December 20, 2014, Ali was hospitalized for a mild case of pneumonia. Ali was once again hospitalized on January 15, 2015, for a urinary tract infection after being found unresponsive at a guest house in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was released the next day.
Death
Ali was hospitalized in Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 2, 2016, with a respiratory illness. Though his condition was initially described as fair, it worsened, and he died the following day at the age of 74 from septic shock.
News coverage and tributes
Following Ali's death, he was the number-one trending topic on Twitter for over 12 hours and on Facebook for several days. BET played their documentary Muhammad Ali: Made In Miami. ESPN played four hours of non-stop commercial-free coverage of Ali. News networks, such as ABC News, BBC, CNN, and Fox News, also covered him extensively.
He was mourned globally, and a family spokesman said the family "certainly believes that Muhammad was a citizen of the world ... and they know that the world grieves with him." Politicians such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, David Cameron and more paid tribute to Ali. Ali also received numerous tributes from the world of sports including Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Floyd Mayweather, Mike Tyson, the Miami Marlins, LeBron James, Steph Curry and more. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer stated, "Muhammad Ali belongs to the world. But he only has one hometown."
The day after Ali's death, the UFC paid tribute to Ali at their UFC 199 event in a lengthy video tribute package, crediting Ali for his accomplishments and inspiring multiple UFC champions.
Memorial
Ali's funeral had been pre-planned by himself and others for several years prior to his actual death. The services began in Louisville on June 9, 2016, with an Islamic Janazah prayer service at Freedom Hall on the grounds of the Kentucky Exposition Center. On June 10, 2016, the funeral procession passed through the streets of Louisville ending at Cave Hill Cemetery, where his body was interred during a private ceremony. A public memorial service for Ali at downtown Louisville's KFC Yum! Center was held during the afternoon of June 10. The pallbearers included Will Smith, Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson, with honorary pallbearers including George Chuvalo, Larry Holmes and George Foreman. Ali's memorial was watched by an estimated 1billion viewers worldwide.
Legacy
Ali remains the only three-time lineal heavyweight champion. He is the only boxer to be named The Ring magazine Fighter of the Year six times, and was involved in more Ring "Fight of the Year" bouts than any other fighter. He was one of only three boxers to be named "Sportsman of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. Muhammad Ali was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in its first year and held wins over seven other Hall of Fame inductees during an era that has been called the golden age of heavyweight boxing. The Associated Press ranked him as the second best boxer and best heavyweight of the 20th century. His joint records of beating 21 boxers for the world heavyweight title and winning 14 unified title bouts stood for 35 years.
In 1978, three years before Ali's permanent retirement, the Louisville Board of Aldermen in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, voted 6–5 to rename Walnut Street to Muhammad Ali Boulevard. This was controversial at the time, as within a week 12 of the 70 street signs were stolen. Earlier that year, a committee of the Jefferson County Public Schools (Kentucky) considered renaming Ali's alma mater, Central High School, in his honor, but the motion failed to pass. In time, Muhammad Ali Boulevard—and Ali himself—came to be well accepted in his hometown.
Ali was named one of the 100 most influential Americans of the 20th century by Life magazine in 1990.
In 1993, the Associated Press reported that Ali was tied with Babe Ruth as the most recognized athlete, out of over 800 dead or living athletes, in America. The study found that over 97% of Americans over 12 years of age identified both Ali and Ruth. He was the recipient of the 1997 Arthur Ashe Courage Award.
At the end of the 20th century he was ranked at or near the top of most lists of the century's greatest athletes. He was crowned Sportsman of the Century by Sports Illustrated. Named BBC's Sports Personality of the Century, he received more votes than the other five candidates combined. He was named Athlete of the Century by USA Today, and ranked as the third greatest athlete of the 20th century by ESPN SportsCentury. Ali was named "Kentucky Athlete of the Century" by the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Galt House East.
In 1999, Time magazine named Ali one of the 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.
On January 8, 2001, Muhammad Ali was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal by President Bill Clinton. In November 2005, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush, followed by the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold of the UN Association of Germany (DGVN) in Berlin for his work with the civil rights movement and the United Nations, which he received on December 17, 2005.
On November 19, 2005, Ali and his wife Lonnie Ali opened the $60million non-profit Muhammad Ali Center in downtown Louisville. In addition to displaying his boxing memorabilia, the center focuses on core themes of peace, social responsibility, respect, and personal growth. On June 5, 2007, he received an honorary doctorate of humanities at Princeton University's 260th graduation ceremony.
Ali Mall, located in Araneta Center, Quezon City, Philippines, is named after him. Construction of the mall, the first of its kind in the Philippines, began shortly after Ali's victory in a match with Joe Frazier in nearby Araneta Coliseum in 1975. The mall opened in 1976 with Ali attending its opening.
The 1976 Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight played an important role in the history of mixed martial arts. In Japan, the match inspired Inoki's students Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki to found Pancrase in 1993, which in turn inspired the foundation of Pride Fighting Championships in 1997. Pride was acquired by its rival, Ultimate Fighting Championship, in 2007.
The Muhammad Ali Boxing Reform Act was introduced in 1999 and passed in 2000, to protect the rights and welfare of boxers in the United States. In May 2016, a bill was introduced to United States Congress by Markwayne Mullin, a politician and former MMA fighter, to extend the Ali Act to mixed martial arts. In June 2016, US senator Rand Paul proposed an amendment to the US draft laws named after Ali, a proposal to eliminate the Selective Service System.
In 2015, Sports Illustrated renamed its Sportsman Legacy Award to the Sports Illustrateds Muhammad Ali Legacy Award. The annual award was originally created in 2008 and honors former "sports figures who embody the ideals of sportsmanship, leadership and philanthropy as vehicles for changing the world." Ali first appeared on the magazine's cover in 1963 and went on to be featured on numerous covers during his storied career.
On January 13, 2017, seven months or so after Ali's death, and 4 days before what would have been his 75th birthday, the Muhammad Ali Commemorative Coin Act was introduced into the 115th Congress (2017–2019), as H.R. 579 (House of Representatives) and as S. 166 (Senate). However, both "died" within 10 days.
In the media and popular culture
As a world champion boxer, social activist, sex symbol and pop culture icon, Ali was the subject of numerous creative works including books, films, music, video games, TV shows, and other. Muhammad Ali was often dubbed the world's "most famous" person in the media. Several of his fights were watched by an estimated 12 billion viewers between 1974 and 1980, and his lighting of the torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics was watched by an estimated 3.5billion viewers.
Ali appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on 38 different occasions, second only to Michael Jordan's 46. He also appeared on the cover of Time Magazine 5 times, the most of any athlete. In 2015, Harris Poll found that Ali was one of the three most recognizable athletes in the United States, along with Michael Jordan and Babe Ruth.
Martial artist and actor Bruce Lee was influenced by Ali, whose footwork he studied and incorporated into his own style while developing Jeet Kune Do in the 1960s.
On the set of Freedom Road Ali met Canadian singer-songwriter Michel, and subsequently helped create Michel's album The First Flight of the Gizzelda Dragon and an unaired television special featuring them both.
Ali was the subject of the British television program This Is Your Life in 1978 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews. Ali was featured in Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, a 1978 DC Comics comic book pitting the champ against the superhero. In 1979, Ali guest-starred as himself in an episode of the NBC sitcom Diff'rent Strokes. The show's title itself was inspired by the quote "Different strokes for different folks" popularized in 1966 by Ali, who also inspired the title of the 1967 Syl Johnson song "Different Strokes", one of the most sampled songs in pop music history.
He also wrote several bestselling books about his career, including The Greatest: My Own Story and The Soul of a Butterfly. The Muhammad Ali effect, named after Ali, is a term that came into use in psychology in the 1980s, as he stated in The Greatest: My Own Story: "I only said I was the greatest, not the smartest." According to this effect, when people are asked to rate their intelligence and moral behavior in comparison to others, people will rate themselves as more moral, but not more intelligent than others.
When We Were Kings, a 1996 documentary about the Rumble in the Jungle, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The 2001 biopic Ali garnered a Best Actor Oscar nomination for Will Smith for his portrayal of Ali. Prior to making the film, Smith rejected the role until Ali requested that he accept it. Smith said the first thing Ali told him was: "Man, you're almost pretty enough to play me."
In 2002, Ali was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the entertainment industry. His star is the only one to be mounted on a vertical surface, out of deference to his request that the name Muhammad—a name he shares with the Islamic prophet—not be walked upon.
His 1966 fight against George Chuvalo was the subject of Joseph Blasioli's 2003 documentary film The Last Round: Chuvalo vs. Ali.
The Trials of Muhammad Ali, a documentary directed by Bill Siegel that focuses on Ali's refusal of the draft during the Vietnam War, opened in Manhattan on August 23, 2013. A 2013 made-for-TV movie titled Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight dramatized the same aspect of Ali's life.
Antoine Fuqua's documentary What's My Name: Muhammad Ali was released in 2019.
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns created the four-part documentary film Muhammad Ali, spanning over eight hours on Ali's entire life. Burns worked on the film since early 2016. It is scheduled to release in September 2021 on PBS. Dave Zirin who watched an 8 hour rough cut of this documentary called it "utterly outstanding" and said "the footage they found will blow minds".
Discography
I Am the Greatest (1963)
The Adventures of Ali and His Gang vs. Mr. Tooth Decay (1976)
See also
List of heavyweight boxing champions
List of WBA world champions
List of WBC world champions
List of The Ring world champions
List of undisputed boxing champions
Converts to Islam
Notable boxing families
List of people from the Louisville metropolitan area
List of North American Muslims
African-American Muslims
1981 MAPS Wells Fargo embezzlement scandal
Notes
References
Further reading
Online
Muhammad Ali: American boxer, in Encyclopædia Britannica Online, by Thomas Hauser, Adam Augustyn, Piyush Bhathya, Yamini Chauhan, John M. Cunningham, Richard Pallardy, Michael Ray, Emily Rodriguez, Surabhi Sinha, Amy Tikkanen, Grace Young and The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
External links
Official website (archived)
William Addams Reitwiesner Genealogical Services: Ancestry of Muhammad Ali
FBI Records: The Vault – Muhammad Ali at the FBI
Cassius Clay Guilty (1967), Texas Archive of the Moving Image
Photo essays'''
1942 births
2016 deaths
20th-century American rappers
20th-century Muslims
21st-century Muslims
Activists for African-American civil rights
Activists from Kentucky
African-American activists
African-American boxers
African-American male rappers
African-American Muslims
African-American poets
African-American Sunni Muslims
American anti–Vietnam War activists
American conscientious objectors
American former Protestants
American humanitarians
American male boxers
American male poets
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American Muslim activists
American people of Irish descent
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American philanthropists
American spoken word poets
American Sufis
BBC Sports Personality World Sport Star of the Year winners
Boxers at the 1960 Summer Olympics
Boxers from Arizona
Boxers from Chicago
Boxers from Louisville, Kentucky
Boxers from New Jersey
Burials at Cave Hill Cemetery
Central High School (Louisville, Kentucky) alumni
COINTELPRO targets
Columbia Records artists
Converts to Sunni Islam from Protestantism
Deaths from sepsis
Former Nation of Islam members
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Olympic boxers of the United States
Olympic cauldron lighters
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People from Cherry Hill, New Jersey
People from Paradise Valley, Arizona
People with Parkinson's disease
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Sportspeople from Camden County, New Jersey
Sportspeople from the Phoenix metropolitan area
The Ring (magazine) champions
Vietnam War draft evaders
Winners of the United States Championship for amateur boxers
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World heavyweight boxing champions
Writers from Louisville, Kentucky
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"Laura Clay (February 9, 1849June 29, 1941), co-founder and first president of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, was a leader of the American women's suffrage movement. She was one of the most important suffragists in the South, favoring the states' rights approach to suffrage. A powerful orator, she was active in the Democratic Party and had important leadership roles in local, state and national politics. In 1920 at the Democratic National Convention, she was one of two women, alongside Cora Wilson Stewart, to be the first women to have their names placed into nomination for the presidency at the convention of a major political party.\n\nFamily and early life\nA daughter of Cassius Marcellus Clay and his wife Mary Jane Warfield, Clay was born at their estate, White Hall, near Richmond, Kentucky. The youngest of four daughters, Laura was raised largely by her mother, due to her father's long absences as he pursued his political career and activities as an abolitionist. At age 15, Laura started to question the inferior status of women in society by confiding in her diary that “I think I have a mind superior to that of many boys my age.” Clay was educated at Sayre School in Lexington, Kentucky, Mrs. Sarah Hoffman's Finishing School in New York City, the University of Michigan, and the University of Kentucky.\n\nClay's parents divorced in 1878, leaving Mary Jane Warfield Clay homeless after she had managed White Hall for 45 years. After the divorce, Clay became aware of the equities between married men and women and their property rights. This inequality galvanized Clay's older sisters, Mary and Sarah \"Sallie\" Clay Bennett into joining the women's rights movement, as well as Laura and her younger sister, Annie (later Mrs. Dabney Crenshaw, a co-founder of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia).\n\nKentucky Woman Suffrage Association\nThe 11th Annual Meeting of the American Woman Suffrage Association (AWSA) held in Louisville, Kentucky on October 26 and 27, 1881. This was the first time Louisville hosted a national suffrage event - and the first in the South. AWSA President Lucy Stone and Mary Barr Clay (who became AWSA president in 1883) met at the home of Mary Jane Warfield Clay in Lexington, Kentucky, and Stone convinced the younger sister Laura to present at the convention. The a post-convention gave birth to Kentucky's first suffrage organization (and the first in the South), the Kentucky Woman Suffrage Association. While there was some individual projects undertaken by this new organization, Laura admitted herself later in life that she was not up to the task. She kept copies of the original constitution which included a list of charter members.\n\nThe Kentucky Equal Rights Association \nAfter the AWSA convention in Cincinnati in 1888 the Clay sisters and a group of other women including Josephine K. Henry founded the Kentucky Equal Rights Association (KERA). Laura Clay was again elected president and served until 1912. One of the missions of the KERA was to improve the legal status of women in Kentucky and increase educational opportunities. She was succeeded by her distant cousin Madeline McDowell Breckinridge. The organization lobbied successfully for a range of legislative reforms, such as protecting married women's wages and property, requiring state women's mental hospitals to have female doctors on staff, inducing Transylvania University and Central University to admit women students, raising the age of marriage consent for girls to 16 from 12, and establishing juvenile courts. They also inspired the University of Kentucky to build its first dormitory for women.\n\nInvolvement with the National American Woman Suffrage Association \nDuring the 1890s, Clay became active in the National American Woman Suffrage Association and became a colleague of Carrie Chapman Catt, Alice Stone Blackwell, Catherine Waugh McCulloch, Alice Lloyd, and other national leaders of the women's rights movement. She traveled nationally speaking on behalf of women's suffrage and established suffrage societies in nine states. She worked closely with Henry Blackwell, who proposed the Southern Strategy. He wanted to convince southern legislators that they could maintain their white supremacy by only allowing educated women to vote. After being an ally with Blackwell, Clay convinced the NAWSA to adopt the Southern Strategy, which would lobby for only educated (primary white women) to vote. Clay understood that NAWSA would only gain support if they accepted the white supremacist politics, so she was eventually able to convince Anthony to accept this racist strategy. By 1903, NAWSA excluded black members from their New Orleans convention.\n\nThe Kentucky Plan\nKnown as one of \"Aunt Susan's Girls,\" Laura Clay took on a national leadership role as chair of NAWSA's Southern Committee, and then in 1896 she was elected auditor. She had much influence on the NAWSA Business Committee that set the national organization's priorities. In 1903 Clay was elected to chair of NAWSA's new Increase of Membership Committee and served in that role for twenty years. She developed a new approach to gaining members that came to be known as \"The Kentucky Plan.\" Her idea was to be able to demonstrate through growth in suffrage clubs' membership numbers that a significant number of women would identify themselves as wanting the right to vote. This fit neatly into the NAWSA strategies of producing statistics and quantification through graphics explaining the need for - and the progress toward - women gaining the right to vote. To get those higher numbers of membership rolls, Clay recommended that local clubs hold only one meeting per year, and that one only for collecting names and dues. Clay saw that in Kentucky it was difficult to maintain active interest in the rural areas for the movement, and she made membership dues optional as long as local groups would keep on file signed pledges for support. These numbers of pledges would count then as membership numbers. However, this method did not build enough enthusiasm to gain supporters needed at the local levels to convince male legislators of the need for change.\n\nWoman's Peace Party\nClay joined the Woman's Peace Party (a forerunner of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom), which had been founded in 1915 by Carrie Chapman Catt, Jane Addams, and others. Clay served as the party's chairman in Kentucky's 7th Congressional District. She left the party when the United States entered World War I and actively supported the war effort.\n\nFrom NAWSA's Southern Strategy to Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference\nClay also was an advocate of states' rights. After Kate M. Gordon organized the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference to lobby state legislatures for laws to enfranchise only white women, Clay advocated rejection of a federal solution for women's voting rights. In 1916 she was elected vice-president-at-large of the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference, which opposed obtaining suffrage through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Clay opposed passage of the Nineteenth Amendment as she believed that it violated states' rights. To see a detailed argument by Clay on this subject, read the \"Debate before the Woman’s Club of Central Kentucky, October 18th, 1919. Won by the Negative - Miss Clay.\"\n\nOpposition to federal amendment for woman suffrage \nIn 1913, Clay broke from the KERA and the NAWSA because of her opposition to the Susan B. Anthony Amendment. The tension between Clay and Catt increased when Catt decided that all state action should be put off, instead focusing on the national amendment. Since Clay was a Democrat and favored states’ rights, she aligned closely with President Wilson's stance on the issue: suffrage should be up to each individual state, and there should be no national amendment. She believed that enfranchising a large number of “inexperienced voters,” code language for black women, was not such a good idea. She furthered her opposition to the federal amendment by saying that the amendment was just the national government supervising state elections, and thus infringing on states’ choices in the matter. Clay wanted the KERA to campaign separately for suffrage and not resort to a national amendment and extend its supremacy over the states. Clay believed that the Enforcing Clause of the Nineteenth Amendment, and the resulting supervision of state elections, would lead to tyranny and centralized power in Washington, D.C. Although many claimed that Clay opposed the national amendment on racial grounds, she denied that was the case, insisting that the amendment infringed on states’ rights.\n\nLater years\nA devout Episcopalian, Clay also worked for decades to open lay leadership of the Episcopal Church to women.\n\nIn 1920 Laura Clay was a founder of the Democratic Women's Club of Kentucky. That same year, she served as a delegate at the 1920 Democratic National Convention held in San Francisco between 28 June and 6 July 1920. Laura Clay made American history as one of the first women (alongside fellow Kentucky delegate Cora Wilson Stewart) to be put forward as a candidate for the Presidential nomination of a major political party; and, thanks to the Kentucky delegates' chairman Augustus Owsley Stanley and Stewart were the first two women to receive a vote each for candidate for president. On the 44th ballot, Governor James M. Cox of Ohio was nominated as the Democratic Party candidate for president with Franklin D. Roosevelt, the assistant secretary of the Navy from New York, as his vice-presidential running mate. The Democratic Party's platform supported women's suffrage; after a hard-fought series of votes in the U.S. Congress and in state legislatures, the Nineteenth Amendment became part of the U.S. Constitution on August 26, 1920. (It states, \"The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.\")\n\nIn 1928 Clay actively supported the presidential candidacy of Governor Al Smith of New York and opposed Prohibition. In 1933, she served as temporary chairman of the Kentucky Convention to ratify the Twenty-First Amendment, which was ratified on December 5, 1933, and repealed the Eighteenth Amendment (that had introduced Prohibition when ratified on January 16, 1919).\n\nClay slipped from the public life in her last decade. After her death in 1941, she was interred at Lexington Cemetery.\n\nKey speeches\n \"The Race Question Again,\" Kentucky Gazette, April 1890. Box 17, Scrapbook. Laura Clay Papers, Special Collections, University of Kentucky (hereafter LCP).\n \"Elections.\" December 12, 1890. Proceedings and Debates in the Convention Assembled at Frankfort, on the eighth day of September, 1890, to adopt, amend or change the Constitution of the State of Kentucky. 2:2090-2093. Frankfort, Ky.: E. Polk Johnson, 1890.\n \"Speech on Partial Suffrage (Kentucky Constitutional Convention, December 12, 1890) WikiSource\n \"Argument from Bible Teachings.\" Address, 1894 NAWSA Convention. Woman's Tribune (February 20, 1894). Box 17, Scrapbook, LCP.\n \"A New Tool.\" Address, WCTU Banquet. Lexington, Kentucky. February 11, 1913. Box 16, LCP.\n \"Women and the Ballot.\" February 1919, Box 11, LCP.\n \"The Citizens Committee for a State Suffrage Amendment: Open Letter to the Public.\" June 12, 1919. Box 11, LCP.\n \"Why I Am a Democrat.\" Democratic Woman's Journal. December 1929. Box 12, LCP.\n\nSee also\n Clay family\n Cassius Marcellus Clay (politician)\n Mary Barr Clay\n Mary Jane Warfield Clay\n Lucy Stone\n Susan B. Anthony\n Madeline McDowell Breckinridge\n Josephine K. Henry\n Kentucky Equal Rights Association\n National American Woman Suffrage Association\n Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference\n Women's Christian Temperance Union\n\nReferences\n\nBibliography\nPaul E. Fuller, Laura Clay and the Woman's Rights Movement Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1975. \n\nJohn M. Murphy, \"Laura Clay (1894–1941), a Southern Voice for Woman's Rights,\" pp. 99–111 in Women Public Speakers in the United States, 1800–1925: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook. Karlyn Kohrs Campbell, ed. ABC-CLIO, 1993. \n\nMary Jane Smith, \"Laura Clay (1849-1941): States' Rights and Southern Suffrage Reform,\" pp. 119–139 in Kentucky Women: Their Lives and Times. Melissa A. McEuen and Thomas H. Appleton Jr., eds. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2015.\n\nExternal links\n\n Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives https://web.archive.org/web/20060925215855/http://www.kdla.ky.gov/resources/kylauraclay.htm\n \"Chevy Chaser History: Those Clay Women,\" The Bluegrass Historian, Lexington History Museum, http://lexingtonhistory.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/chevy-chaser-history-those-clay-women\n Laura Clay entry in the National Women's History Museum's Education and Resources Biography Index\n White Hall Historic Site, Kentucky State Parks https://web.archive.org/web/20101128230926/http://parks.ky.gov/findparks/histparks/wh/\n \n Laura Clay in undergraduate student research journal entries, http://www.kywcrh.org/archives/tag/laura-clay, Kentucky Women in the Civil Rights Era, University of Kentucky\n Laura Clay in the Kentucky Woman Suffrage Project databases, https://networks.h-net.org/node/2289/search/Laura%2520Clay\n\n1849 births\n1941 deaths\nGreen Clay family\nSayre School alumni\nAmerican suffragists\nUniversity of Michigan alumni\nUniversity of Kentucky alumni\nPeople from Kentucky\nAmerican political activists\nAmerican Episcopalians\nWomen's International League for Peace and Freedom people\nWomen in Kentucky politics\nKentucky women activists",
"Awake is a 2007 American conspiracy thriller film written and directed by Joby Harold (in his directorial debut). It stars Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Terrence Howard and Lena Olin. The film was released in the United States and Canada on November 30, 2007.\n\nPlot\nYoung billionaire Clay Beresford, Jr. is in love with beautiful Samantha \"Sam\" Lockwood, his mother's personal assistant. Clay requires a heart transplant. Dr. Jack Harper is Clay's heart surgeon and friend. Clay asks Dr. Harper to arrange his elopement with Sam. They marry privately at midnight, then Clay goes to the hospital for the operation. While Clay's mother Lilith awaits completion of his surgery, Clay encounters anesthesia awareness. The surgical pain causes Clay to have a clairvoyant experience exposing Dr. Harper's plot to murder him, also revealing that Sam worked at the hospital under Dr. Harper and has conspired with him against Clay. Sam's plan was to poison the donor heart by injecting Adriamycin to cause its rejection, thus murdering Clay to collect insurance money to pay off Dr. Harper's malpractice lawsuits.\n\nThe scheme unravels and Lilith, realizing what has happened, sacrifices her own life so that Clay, who is close to death, can live: she dies by suicide so her heart can be switched for the poisoned one, and save Clay. While Sam tries to get away with what she did, Dr. Harper feels guilty and he holds onto proof so she can be arrested too. Another surgical team takes over the operation, as Clay barely clings to life and the conspirators are arrested. The new team takes Lilith's heart and transplants it into Clay's body, as Clay and Lilith have their final moments together in spirit (in an out-of-body experience).\n\nThe new head surgeon announces that Clay has come back to life, as the new team stitch Clay's wound. Clay, in spirit, is still in the afterlife with Lilith, tries to take his own life to stay with his mother. Clay makes his new heart stop beating and the surgeons have to use the defibrillator in attempt to revive Clay. As Clay resists being revived, Lilith forces Clay (in the \"afterlife-world\") to revisit a scene from his childhood, when Lilith accidentally killed Clay's abusive father. This scene reveals the truth for Clay and connects his childhood flashbacks. After seeing this scene, Clay gives away to revival, and before the surgeons could shock his body again, Clay allows his new heart to begin beating. Clay opens his eyes when the surgeons remove the eye tapes while Harper ends his narratings with \"He is awake\".\n\nCast\n Hayden Christensen as Clay Beresford, Jr. \n Jessica Alba as Samantha \"Sam\" Lockwood/Tunnel \n Terrence Howard as Dr. Jack Harper \n Lena Olin as Lilith Beresford \n Nathalie Efron as Mary Beresford \n Fisher Stevens as Dr. Puttnam \n Arliss Howard as Dr. Neyer \n Christopher McDonald as Dr. Larry Lupin \n Georgina Chapman as Nurse Penny Carver \nDavid Harbour as Dracula\nSam Robards as Clay Beresford, Sr. \n Steven Hinkle as Young Clay\n\nProduction\nPortions of Awake were filmed on Fordham University's Lincoln Center campus (Lowenstein Hall is converted to look like a hospital; the statue of \"St. Peter: Fisher of Men\" is visible in the film). In addition, many scenes, including Dr. Jack Harper's office, the cafeteria where Lilith dies by suicide, and the elevator bank, were filmed in Bellevue Hospital.\n\nReception\nThe film was not screened in advance for critics. The film opened at #5 at the U.S. Box office in its first opening weekend. As of July 11, 2008 it had a domestic box office gross of $14,377,198 in the U.S., and a total of $32,685,679 worldwide.\n\nAwake received generally negative reviews upon release. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 24% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 62 reviews, with an average rating of 4.23/10. The site's critics consensus reads, \"Awake has an interesting premise but would have benefited from tighter performances and more efficient direction and editing.\" On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 33 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating \"generally unfavorable reviews\". Dennis Harvey of Variety said the film \"does have an attention-getting plot hook, but piles on too many narrative gimmicks to maintain suspense or credibility.\" Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times defended the film, saying, \"I went to a regular theater to see it Friday afternoon, knowing nothing about it except that the buzz was lethal, and sat there completely absorbed. ... I did not anticipate the surprises, did not anticipate them piling on after one another, got very involved in the gory surgical details, and found the supporting soap opera good as such things go\". Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter said \"[Harold] succeeds in creating a quietly ominous tone that never lets up, with this being the rare modern horror effort that relies on suspense rather than bloodshed.\"\n\nA group representing anesthesiologists in Ontario criticized the film following its release for having its \"science completely wrong.\" Ontario's Anesthesiologists, a section of the Ontario Medical Association, declared numerous scientific and procedural distortions in the film such as the presentation of improper anesthetic techniques. The group disputes the film's claim that anaesthesia awareness occurred as frequently as one in every 700 patients, although this in turn is debated by anesthesia awareness advocate Carol Weihrer.\n\nHome media\nThe Region 1-DVD was released on March 4, 2008. Bonus material included an audio commentary by writer/director Joby Harold, seven deleted scenes with optional audio commentary, a behind the scenes featurette, and storyboard-to-film comparisons.\n\nA \"Blockbuster Exclusive\" edition was also available for rental through Blockbuster Video which includes audio commentary, theatrical trailer, as well as outtakes and bloopers. However, it does not include the other extras included with the original DVD release.\n\nA Blu-ray version was released on November 18, 2008.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n \n \n DVD Talk discusses the Awake release delay\n\n2007 films\n2007 psychological thriller films\n2000s English-language films\nAmerican psychological thriller films\nAmerican films\nFilms shot in New York City\nHospital films\nMariticide in fiction\nMedical-themed films\nFilms scored by Graeme Revell\nFilms about organ transplantation\nThe Weinstein Company films\nMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer films"
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When did the first series start?
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When did the Iron Man first series start?
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Iron Man
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After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series' indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man. Artist George Tuska began a decade long association with the character with Iron Man #5 (Sept. 1968). Writer Mike Friedrich and artist Jim Starlin's brief collaboration on the Iron Man series introduced Mentor, Starfox, and Thanos in issue #55 (Feb. 1973). Friedrich scripted a metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists. He then wrote the multi-issue "War of the Super-Villains" storyline which ran through 1975. Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978). Micheline and Layton established Tony Stark's alcoholism with the story "Demon in a Bottle", and introduced several supporting characters, including Stark's bodyguard girlfriend Bethany Cabe; Stark's personal pilot and confidant James Rhodes, who later became the superhero War Machine; and rival industrialist Justin Hammer, who was revealed to be the employer of numerous high-tech armed enemies Iron Man fought over the years. The duo also introduced the concept of Stark's specialized armors as he acquired a dangerous vendetta with Doctor Doom. The team worked together through #154 (Jan. 1982), with Michelinie writing three issues without Layton. Following Michelinie and Layton's departures, Dennis O'Neil became the new writer of the series and had Stark relapse into alcoholism. Much of O'Neil's work on this plot thread was based on experiences with alcoholics he knew personally. Jim Rhodes replaced Stark as Iron Man in issue #169 (April 1983) and wore the armor for the next two years of stories. O'Neil returned Tony Stark to the Iron Man role in issue #200 (Nov. 1985). Michelinie and Layton became the creative team once again in issue #215 (Feb. 1987). They crafted the "Armor Wars" storyline beginning in #225 (Dec. 1987) through #231 (June 1988). John Byrne and John Romita Jr. produced a sequel titled "Armor Wars II" in issues #258 (July 1990) to #266 (March 1991). The series had a crossover with the other Avengers related titles as part of the "Operation: Galactic Storm" storyline. CANNOTANSWER
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After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner
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Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The character made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963), and received his own title in Iron Man #1 (May 1968). Also in 1963, the character founded the Avengers alongside Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp and the Hulk.
A wealthy American business magnate, playboy, philanthropist, inventor and ingenious scientist, Anthony Edward Stark suffers a severe chest injury during a kidnapping. When his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction, he instead creates a mechanized suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. Later, Stark develops his suit, adding weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company, Stark Industries. He uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man. Although at first concealing his true identity, Stark eventually publicly reveals himself to be Iron Man.
Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology and industry in the fight against communism. Subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War motifs to contemporary matters of the time.
Throughout most of the character's publication history, Iron Man has been a founding member of the superhero team the Avengers and has been featured in several incarnations of his own various comic book series. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated TV shows and films. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., appearing in the films Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008) in a cameo, Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). The character also appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
Iron Man was ranked 12th on IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes" in 2011 and third in their list of "The Top 50 Avengers" in 2012.
Publication history
Premiere
Iron Man's Marvel Comics premiere in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963) was a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, story-artist Don Heck, and cover-artist and character-designer Jack Kirby. In 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the "quintessential capitalist", a character that would go against the spirit of the times and Marvel's readership. Lee said:
He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies' man, but one with a secret that would plague and torment him as well. Writer Gerry Conway said, "Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just can't be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken. But there's a metaphor going on there. And that's, I think, what made that character interesting." Lee based this playboy's looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, "Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies' man and finally a nutcase." "Without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes," Lee said.
While Lee intended to write the story himself, a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the premiere issue to Lieber, who fleshed out the story. The art was split between Kirby and Heck. "He designed the costume," Heck said of Kirby, "because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts." In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had "a specific model for Tony Stark and the other characters?", Heck replied "No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the same kind of characters that Alex Toth liked, which was an Errol Flynn type." Iron Man first appeared in 13- to 18-page stories in Tales of Suspense, which featured anthology science fiction and supernatural stories. The character's original costume was a bulky gray armored suit, replaced by a golden version in the second story (issue #40 April 1963). It was redesigned as sleeker, red-and-golden armor in issue #48 (December 1963) by that issue's interior artist, Steve Ditko, although Kirby drew it on the cover. As Heck recalled in 1985, "[T]he second costume, the red and yellow one, was designed by Steve Ditko. I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing. The earlier design, the robot-looking one, was more Kirbyish."
In his premiere, Iron Man was an anti-communist hero, defeating various Vietnamese agents. Lee later regretted this early focus. Throughout the character's comic book series, technological advancement and national defense were constant themes for Iron Man, but later issues developed Stark into a more complex and vulnerable character as they depicted his battle with alcoholism (as in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline) and other personal difficulties.
From issue #59 (November 1964) to its final issue #99 (March 1968), the anthological science-fiction backup stories in Tales of Suspense were replaced by a feature starring the superhero Captain America. Lee and Heck introduced several adversaries for the character including the Mandarin in issue #50 (February 1964), the Black Widow in #52 (April 1964) and Hawkeye five issues later.
Lee said that "of all the comic books we published at Marvel, we got more fan mail for Iron Man from women, from females, than any other title ... We didn't get much fan mail from girls, but whenever we did, the letter was usually addressed to Iron Man."
Lee and Kirby included Iron Man in The Avengers #1 (September 1963) as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has since appeared in every subsequent volume of the series.
Writers have updated the war and locale in which Stark is injured. In the original 1963 story, it was the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, it was updated to be the first Gulf War, and in the 2000s updated again to be the war in Afghanistan. Stark's time with the Asian Nobel Prize-winning scientist Ho Yinsen is consistent through nearly all incarnations of the Iron Man origin, depicting Stark and Yinsen building the original armor together. One exception is the direct-to-DVD animated feature film The Invincible Iron Man, in which the armor Stark uses to escape his captors is not the first Iron Man suit.
Themes
The original Iron Man title explored Cold War themes, as did other Stan Lee projects in the early years of Marvel Comics. Where The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk respectively focused on American domestic and government responses to the Communist threat, Iron Man explored industry's role in the struggle. Tony Stark's real-life model, Howard Hughes, was a significant defense contractor who developed new weapons technologies. Hughes was an icon both of American individualism and of the burdens of fame.
Historian Robert Genter, in The Journal of Popular Culture, writes that Tony Stark specifically presents an idealized portrait of the American inventor. Where earlier decades had seen important technological innovations come from famous individuals (e.g., Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers), the 1960s saw new technologies (including weapons) being developed mainly by the research teams of corporations. As a result, little room remained for the inventor who wanted credit for, and creative and economic control over, their own creations.
Issues of entrepreneurial autonomy, government supervision of research, and ultimate loyalty figured prominently in early Iron Man stories—the same issues affecting American scientists and engineers of that era. Tony Stark, writes Genter, is an inventor who finds motive in his emasculation as an autonomous creative individual. This blow is symbolized by his chest wound, inflicted at the moment he is forced to invent things for the purposes of others, instead of just himself. To Genter, Stark's transformation into Iron Man represents Stark's effort to reclaim his autonomy, and thus his manhood. The character's pursuit of women in bed or in battle, writes Genter, represents another aspect of this effort. The pattern finds parallels in other works of 1960s popular fiction by authors such as "Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond), Mickey Spillane (Mike Hammer), and Norman Mailer, who made unregulated sexuality a form of authenticity."
Solo series
After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series's indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man.
This initial series ended with issue #332 (September 1996). Jim Lee, Scott Lobdell, and Jeph Loeb authored a second volume of the series which was drawn primarily by Whilce Portacio and Ryan Benjamin. This volume took place in a parallel universe and ran 13 issues (November 1996 – November 1997). Volume 3, whose first 25 issues were written by Kurt Busiek and then by Busiek and Roger Stern, ran 89 issues (February 1998 – December 2004). Later writers included Joe Quesada, Frank Tieri, Mike Grell, and John Jackson Miller. Issue #41 (June 2001) was additionally numbered #386, reflecting the start of dual numbering starting from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968. The final issue was dual-numbered as #434. The next Iron Man series, Iron Man vol. 4, debuted in early 2005 with the Warren Ellis-written storyline "Extremis", with artist Adi Granov. It ran 35 issues (January 2005 – January 2009), with the cover logo simply Iron Man beginning with issue #13, and Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., beginning issue #15. On the final three issues, the cover logo was overwritten by "War Machine, Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D.", which led to the launch of a War Machine ongoing series.
The Invincible Iron Man by writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca, began with a premiere issue cover-dated July 2008. For a seven-month overlap, Marvel published both volume four and volume five simultaneously. This Invincible volume jumped its numbering of issues from #33 to #500, cover dated March 2011, to reflect the start from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968.
After the conclusion of The Invincible Iron Man a new Iron Man series was started as a part of Marvel Now!. Written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Greg Land, it began with issue #1 in November 2012.
Many Iron Man annuals, miniseries, and one-shot titles have been published through the years, such as Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man (February 1996), Iron Man: The Iron Age #1–2 (August – September 1998), Iron Man: Bad Blood #1–4 (September – December 2000), Iron Man House of M #1–3 (September – November 2005), Fantastic Four / Iron Man: Big in Japan #1–4 (December 2005 – March 2006), Iron Man: The Inevitable #1–6 (February – July 2006), Iron Man / Captain America: Casualties of War (February 2007), Iron Man: Hypervelocity #1–6 (March – August 2007), Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #1–6 (November 2007 – April 2008), and Iron Man: Legacy of Doom (June – September 2008). Publications have included such spin-offs as the one-shot Iron Man 2020 (June 1994), featuring a different Iron Man in the future, and the animated TV series adaptations Marvel Action Hour, Featuring Iron Man #1–8 (November 1994 – June 1995) and Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1–12 (July 2007 – June 2008).
Fictional character biography
Origins
Anthony Edward Stark is the son of wealthy industrialist and head of Stark Industries, Howard Stark, and Maria Stark. A boy genius, he enters MIT at the age of 15 to study engineering and later receives master's degrees in engineering and physics. After his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his father's company.
Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured by enemy forces led by Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu orders Stark to build weapons, but Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow prisoner, Ho Yinsen, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work Stark had greatly admired during college, constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart. In secret, Stark and Yinsen use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor, which Stark uses to escape. During the escape attempt, Yinsen sacrifices his life to save Stark's by distracting the enemy as Stark recharges. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers and rejoins the American forces, on his way meeting a wounded American Marine fighter pilot, James "Rhodey" Rhodes.
Back home, Stark discovers that the shrapnel fragment lodged in his chest cannot be removed without killing him, and he is forced to wear the armor's chestplate beneath his clothes to act as a regulator for his heart. He must recharge the chestplate every day or else risk the shrapnel killing him. The cover story that Stark tells the news media and general public is that Iron Man is his robotic personal bodyguard, and corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fights threats to his company (e.g., Communist opponents Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo, and the Titanium Man), as well as independent villains like the Mandarin (who becomes his greatest enemy). No one suspects Stark of being Iron Man, as he cultivates a strong public image of being a rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable members of the series's supporting cast, at this point, are his personal chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan, and secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts—to both of whom he eventually reveals his dual identity. Meanwhile, James Rhodes finds his own niche as Stark's personal pilot, ultimately revealing himself to be a man of extraordinary skill and daring in his own right.
The series took an anti-Communist stance in its early years, which was softened as public (and therefore, presumably, reader) opposition rose to the Vietnam War. This change evolved in a series of storylines featuring Stark reconsidering his political opinions, and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the U.S. military. Stark shows himself to be occasionally arrogant, and willing to act unethically in order to 'let the ends justify the means'. This leads to personal conflicts with the people around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities. Stark uses his vast personal fortune not only to outfit his own armor, but also to develop weapons for S.H.I.E.L.D.; other technologies (e.g., Quinjets used by the Avengers); and the image inducers used by the X-Men. Eventually, Stark's heart condition is publicly discovered when he was summoned for a Congressional hearing and Stark collapsed when his chestpiece's power failed, causing a heart attack. Stark was medically examined, which revealed his hidden equipment, and was hospitalized, forcing Pepper to have Happy don his employer's armor to pose as Iron Man to protect his boss's secret identity. Eventually, that specific medical issue was resolved with an artificial heart transplant, which still required the chestplate for some time to support the replacement organ.
1970s and early 1980s
Stark expands on his armor designs and begins to build his arsenal of specialized armors for particular situations such as for space travel and stealth. Stark also develops a serious dependency on alcohol in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline. The first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them. At the same time, it is revealed that several minor supervillains armed with advanced weapons who had bedeviled Stark throughout his superhero career are in fact in the employ of Stark's business rival, Justin Hammer, who begins to plague Stark more directly. At one point in Hammer's manipulations, the Iron Man armor is taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man is not immediately under suspicion, Stark is forced to hand the armor over to the authorities. Eventually Stark and Rhodes, who is now his personal pilot and confidant, track down and defeat those responsible, although Hammer would return to bedevil Stark again. With the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe, his friends and his employees, Stark pulls through these crises and overcomes his dependency on alcohol. Even as he recovers from this harrowing personal trial, Stark's life is further complicated when he has a confrontation with Doctor Doom that is interrupted by an opportunistic enemy sending them back in time to the time of King Arthur. Once there, Iron Man thwarts Doom's attempt to solicit the aid of Morgan Le Fay, and the Latverian ruler swears deadly vengeance—to be indulged sometime after the two return to their own time. This incident was collected and published as Doomquest.
Some time later, a ruthless rival, Obadiah Stane, manipulates Stark emotionally into a serious relapse. As a result, Stark loses control of Stark International to Stane, becomes a homeless alcoholic vagrant and gives up his armored identity to Rhodes, who becomes the new Iron Man. Eventually, Stark recovers and joins a new startup, Circuits Maximus. Stark concentrates on new technological designs, including building a new set of armor as part of his recuperative therapy. Rhodes continues to act as Iron Man but steadily grows more aggressive and paranoid, due to the armor not having been calibrated properly for his use. Eventually Rhodes goes on a rampage, and Stark has to don a replica of his original armor to stop him. Fully recovered, Stark confronts Stane who has himself designed armor based on designs seized along with Stark International, dubbing himself the 'Iron Monger'. Defeated in battle, Stane, rather than give Stark the satisfaction of taking him to trial, commits suicide. Shortly thereafter, Stark regains his personal fortune, but decides against repurchasing Stark International until much later; he instead creates Stark Enterprises, headquartered in Los Angeles.
Late 1980s and 1990s
In an attempt to stop other people from misusing his designs, Stark goes about disabling other armored heroes and villains who are using suits based on the Iron Man technology, the designs of which were stolen by his enemy Spymaster. His quest to destroy the stolen technology—originally called "Stark Wars" but is more commonly known as the "Armor Wars"—severely hurts his reputation as Iron Man. After attacking and disabling a series of minor villains such as Stilt-Man, he attacks and defeats the government operative known as Stingray. The situation worsens when Stark realizes that Stingray's armor does not incorporate any of his designs. He publicly "fires" Iron Man while covertly pursuing his agenda. He uses the cover story of wanting to help disable the rogue Iron Man to infiltrate and disable the armor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives known as the Mandroids, as well as the armor of the Guardsmen. In the process, Iron Man and Jim Rhodes allow some of the villains in the Vault to escape. This leads the United States government to declare Iron Man a danger and an outlaw, and severely sours Stark's relationship with Steve Rogers (Captain America, who was in his "Captain" persona at the time). Iron Man travels to Russia where he inadvertently causes the death of the Soviet Titanium Man during a fight. Returning to the U.S., he faces an enemy commissioned by the government named Firepower. Unable to defeat him head on, Stark fakes Iron Man's demise, intending to retire the suit permanently. When Firepower goes rogue, Stark creates a new suit, claiming a new person is in the armor.
Soon after, Stark is nearly killed by Kathy Dare, a mentally unbalanced former lover. She shoots him dead center in his torso which injures his spine, paralyzing him. Stark undergoes special surgery to have a nerve chip implanted into his spine to regain his mobility. Unbeknownst to the industrialist, the nerve chip is a clandestine means by which to gain control over his body. Rival businessmen the Marrs Twins and their cohort Kearson DeWitt are behind the machinations in what came to be known as "Armor Wars II." After several successful tests by DeWitt at manipulating Stark, Tony finds that using his Encephalo Armor can counteract DeWitt's controls. In response, DeWitt suddenly releases his control resulting in excruciating agony throughout Stark's body. The constant "battle" for control of Stark's nervous system and subsequent abdication on DeWitt's end lead to massive nerve damage throughout Tony's body. Stark's nervous system continues its slide towards failure, and he constructs a "skin" made up of artificial nerve circuitry to assist it. Stark begins to pilot a remote-controlled Iron Man armor, but when faced with the Masters of Silence, the telepresence suit proves inadequate. Stark designs a more heavily armed version of the suit to wear, the "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit", which becomes known as the War Machine armor. Ultimately, the damage to his nervous system becomes too extensive. Faking his death, Stark places himself in suspended animation to heal as Rhodes takes over both the running of Stark Enterprises and the mantle of Iron Man, although he uses the War Machine armor. Stark eventually makes a full recovery by using a chip to create an entirely new (artificial) nervous system, and resumes as Iron Man in a new Telepresence Armor. When Rhodes learns that Stark has manipulated his friends by faking his own death, he becomes enraged and the two friends part ways. Rhodes continues on as War Machine in a solo career.
The Avengers story arc "The Crossing" reveals Iron Man as a traitor among the team's ranks, due to years of manipulation by the time-traveling dictator Kang the Conqueror. Stark, as a sleeper agent in Kang's thrall, kills Marilla, the nanny of Crystal and Quicksilver's daughter Luna, as well as Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, then Amanda Chaney, an ally of the Avengers. The "Avengers Forever" limited series retcons these events as the work of a disguised Immortus, not Kang, and that the mental control had gone back only a few months.
Needing help to defeat both Stark and Kang, the team travels back in time to recruit a teenaged Anthony Stark from an alternate timeline to assist them. The young Stark steals an Iron Man suit in order to aid the Avengers against his older self. The sight of his younger self shocks the older Stark enough for him to regain momentary control of his actions, and he sacrifices his life to stop Kang. The young Stark later builds his own suit to become the new Iron Man and remains in the present day.
During the battle with the creature called Onslaught, the teenage Stark dies, along with many other superheroes. Franklin Richards preserves these "dead" heroes in the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe, in which Stark is once again an adult hero; Franklin recreates the heroes in the pocket universe in the forms he is most familiar with rather than what they are at the present. The reborn adult Stark, upon returning to the normal Marvel Universe, merges with the original Stark, who had died during "The Crossing", but was resurrected by Franklin Richards. This new Anthony Stark possesses the memories of both the original and teenage Anthony Stark, and thus considers himself to be essentially both of them. With the aid of the law firm Nelson & Murdock, he regains his fortune and, with Stark Enterprises having been sold to the Fujikawa Corporation following Stark's death, sets up a new company, Stark Solutions. He returns from the pocket universe with a restored and healthy heart. After the Avengers reform, Stark demands a hearing be convened to look into his actions just prior to the Onslaught incident. Cleared of wrongdoing, he rejoins the Avengers.
2000s
At one point, Stark's armor becomes sentient despite fail-safes to prevent its increasingly sophisticated computer systems from doing so. Initially, Stark welcomes this "living" armor for its improved tactical abilities. The armor begins to grow more aggressive, killing indiscriminately and eventually desiring to replace Stark altogether. In the final confrontation on a desert island, Stark suffers another heart attack. The armor sacrifices its own existence to save its creator's life, giving up essential components to give Stark a new, artificial heart. This new heart solves Stark's health problems, but it does not have an internal power supply, so Stark becomes once again dependent on periodic recharging. The sentient armor incident so disturbs Stark that he temporarily returns to using an unsophisticated early model version of his armor to avoid a repeat incident. He dabbles with using liquid metal circuitry known as S.K.I.N. that forms into a protective shell around his body, but eventually returns to more conventional hard metal armors.
During this time, Stark engages in a romance with Rumiko Fujikawa, a wealthy heiress and daughter of the man who had taken over his company during the "Heroes Reborn" period. Her relationship with Stark endures many highs and lows, including infidelity with Stark's rival, Tiberius Stone, in part because the fun-loving Rumiko believes that Stark is too serious and dull. Their relationship ends with Rumiko's death at the hands of an Iron Man impostor in Iron Man vol. 3 #87.
In Iron Man vol. 3 #55 (July 2002), Stark publicly reveals his dual identity as Iron Man, not realizing that by doing so, he has invalidated the agreements protecting his armor from government duplication, since those contracts state that the Iron Man armor would be used by an employee of Tony Stark, not by Stark himself. When he discovers that the United States military is again using his technology, and its defective nature nearly causes a disaster in Washington, D.C. which Iron Man barely manages to avert, Stark accepts a Presidential appointment as Secretary of Defense. In this way, he hopes to monitor and direct how his designs are used.
In the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline, Stark is forced to resign after launching into a tirade against the Latverian ambassador at the United Nations, being manipulated by the mentally imbalanced Scarlet Witch, who destroys Avengers Mansion and kills several members. Stark publicly stands down as Iron Man, but continues using the costume. He joins the Avengers in stopping the breakout in progress from the Raft and even saves Captain America from falling. Tony changes the Avengers base to Stark Tower. The Ghost, the Living Laser and Spymaster reappear and shift Iron Man from standard superhero stories to dealing with politics and industrialism.
New Avengers: Illuminati #1 (June 2006) reveals that years before, Stark had participated with a secret group that included the Black Panther, Professor X, Mister Fantastic, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Namor. The goal of the group (dubbed the Illuminati by Marvel) was to strategize overarching menaces, in which the Black Panther rejects a membership offer. Stark's goal is to create a governing body for all superheroes in the world, but the beliefs of its members instead force them all to share vital information.
"Civil War"
In the "Civil War" storyline, after the actions of inexperienced superheroes the New Warriors result in the destruction of several city blocks in Stamford, Connecticut, there is an outcry across America against superhumans. Learning of the Government's proposed plans, Tony Stark suggests a new plan to instigate a Superhuman Registration Act. The Act would force every superpowered individual in the U.S. to register their identity with the government and act as licensed agents. The Act would force inexperienced superhumans to receive training in how to use and control their abilities, something in which Tony strongly believes. Since his struggle with alcoholism, Stark has carried a tremendous burden of guilt after nearly killing an innocent bystander while piloting the armor drunk. While Reed Richards and Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym both agree with Stark's proposal, not everyone does. After Captain America is ordered to bring in anyone who refuses to register, he and other anti-registration superheroes go rogue, coming into conflict with the pro-registration heroes, led by Iron Man. The war ends when Captain America surrenders to prevent further collateral damage and civilian casualties, although he had defeated Stark by defusing his armor. Stark is appointed the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and organizes a new government-sanctioned group of Avengers. Shortly afterwards, Captain America is assassinated while in custody. This leaves Stark with a great amount of guilt and misgivings about the cost of his victory.
"Secret Invasion"
To tie into the 2008 Iron Man feature film, Marvel launched a new Iron Man ongoing series, The Invincible Iron Man, with writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca. The series inaugural six-part storyline was "The Five Nightmares", which saw Stark targeted by Ezekiel Stane, the son of Stark's former nemesis, Obadiah Stane.
In the "Secret Invasion" storyline, after Tony Stark survives an attempt by Ultron to take over his body, he is confronted in the hospital by Spider-Woman, holding the corpse of a Skrull posing as Elektra. Realizing this is the start of an invasion by the Skrulls, Tony reveals the corpse to the Illuminati and declares that they are at war. After Black Bolt reveals himself as a Skrull and is killed by Namor, a squadron of Skrulls attack, forcing Tony to evacuate the other Illuminati members and destroy the area, killing all the Skrulls. Realizing that they are incapable of trusting each other, the members all separate to form individual plans for the oncoming invasion.
Stark is discredited and publicly vilified after his inability to anticipate or prevent the secret infiltration and invasion of Earth by the Skrulls, and by the Skrull disabling of his StarkTech technology, which had a virtual monopoly on worldwide defense. After the invasion, the U.S. government removes him as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and disbands the Avengers, handing control of the Initiative over to Norman Osborn.
"Dark Reign"
With his Extremis powers failing, Stark uploads a virus to destroy all records of the Registration Act, thus preventing Osborn from learning the identities of his fellow heroes and anything that Osborn could use, including his repulsor generators. The only copy of the database is in Stark's brain, which he tries to delete while on the run from Osborn. Stark goes so far as to inflict brain damage on himself in order to ensure that the relevant information is wiped. When Osborn catches up to the debilitated Stark and beats him savagely, Pepper Potts broadcasts the beatings worldwide, costing Osborn credibility and giving Stark public sympathy. Stark goes into a vegetative state, having previously granted Donald Blake (alter ego of the superhero Thor) power of attorney. A holographic message stored in Pepper's armor reveals that Stark had developed a means of 'rebooting' his mind from his current state prior to his destruction of the database, with Blake and Bucky resolving to use it to restore him to normal. Meanwhile, Stark is trapped in his subconscious, where figments of his own mind prevent him from returning to the waking world. When the procedure fails to work, Bucky calls in Doctor Strange, who succeeds in restoring Stark back to consciousness. The backup Stark created was made prior to the Civil War, and as such he does not remember anything that took place during the event, although he still concludes after reviewing his past actions that he would not have done anything differently. His brain damage means he is now dependent on an arc reactor to sustain his body's autonomous functions.
2010s
"Siege"
In the "Siege" storyline, Tony Stark is seen under the care of Dr. Donald Blake and Maria Hill when Asgard is attacked. Thor is ambushed by Osborn and the Sentry, but rescued by Hill. Osborn declares martial law and unleashes Daken and the Sentry on Broxton to root out Thor and Hill. Hill returns to Stark's hiding place to move him to a safer location and are joined by Speed of the Young Avengers, who has a set of Iron Man's MK III armor that Edwin Jarvis had given Captain America. While Osborn is battling the New Avengers, Stark appears and disables Osborn's Iron Patriot armor. Osborn orders the Sentry to annihilate Asgard, rather than allow the Avengers to have it. After Asgard falls, Stark stands alongside his fellow heroes, as Osborn exclaims they are all doomed and he 'was saving them from him' pointing up towards a Void-possessed Sentry. As the Void tears apart the teams, Loki gives them the power to fight back through the Norn Stones. The Void kills Loki, enraging Thor. Tony tells Thor to get the Void away from Asgard, which allows Tony to drop a commandeered H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarrier on the Void. Thor is forced to killed Sentry when the Void resurfaces. Sometime later, the Super-Human Registration Act is repealed and Tony is given back his company and armor. As a symbol for their heroics and their new unity, Thor places an Asgardian tower on Stark Tower where the Watchtower once stood.
"Heroic Age"
In the 2010–2011 "Stark: Resilient" storyline, Tony builds the Bleeding Edge armor with the help of Mister Fantastic. This new armor fully uses the repulsor tech battery embedded in his chest to power Tony's entire body and mind, thus allowing him access to Extremis once more. Furthermore, the battery operates as his "heart" and is the only thing keeping him alive. Tony announces he will form a new company, Stark Resilient. He states that he will no longer develop weapons, but will use his repulsor technology to give free energy to the world. Justine and Sasha Hammer create their own armored hero, Detroit Steel, to take Stark's place as the Army's leading weapons-builder. Stark's plan consists of building two repulsor-powered cars. The Hammers try to foil his efforts. The first car is destroyed by sabotage, while Detroit Steel attacks Stark Resilient's facilities while Tony tests the second car. Through a legal maneuver, Tony is able to get the Hammers to stop their attacks and releases a successful commercial about his new car.
"Fear Itself"
In the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, Earth is attacked by the Serpent, the God of Fear and the long-forgotten brother of Odin. In Paris, Iron Man fights Grey Gargoyle, who has become Mokk, Breaker of Faith, one of the Serpent's Worthy. Mokk leaves Iron Man unconscious and transforms Detroit Steel and the citizens of Paris into stone. To defeat the Serpent's army, Tony drinks a bottle of wine (thus 'sacrificing' his sobriety) to gain an audience with Odin, who allows Tony to enter the realm of Svartalfheim. Tony and the dwarves of Svartalfheim build enchanted weapons. Tony upgrades his armor with uru-infused enchantments and delivers the finished weapons to the Avengers, who use them for the final battle against the Serpent's forces. Iron Man watches as Thor kills the Serpent, but dies in the process. After the battle is over, Tony melts down the weapons he created and repairs Captain America's shield, which had been broken by Serpent, and gives it back to Captain America. During a subsequent argument with Odin about the gods' lack of involvement in the recent crisis, Odin gives Tony a brief opportunity to see the vastness of the universe the way he sees it. As thanks for Tony's role in the recent crisis, Odin restores all the people that the Grey Gargoyle killed during his rampage.
Return of the Mandarin and Marvel NOW!
In the storylines "Demon" and "The Long Way Down", Stark is subpoenaed by the U.S. government after evidence surfaces of him using the Iron Man armor while under the influence. Mandarin and Zeke Stane upgrade some of Iron Man's old enemies and send them to commit acts of terrorism across the world, intending to discredit Iron Man. General Bruce Babbage forces Stark to wear a tech governor, a device that allows Babbage to deactivate Stark's armor whenever he wants. To fight back, Tony undergoes a surgical procedure that expels the Bleeding Edge technology out of his body and replaces his repulsor node with a new model, forcing Babbage to remove the tech governor off his chest. He announces his retirement as Iron Man, faking Rhodes's death and giving him a new armor so that he becomes the new Iron Man. This leads into the next storyline, "The Future", in which the Mandarin takes control of Stark's mind and uses him to create new armored bodies for the alien spirits inhabiting his rings, but Stark allies himself with some of his old enemies, who have also been imprisoned by Mandarin, and manages to defeat him. The final issue of this storyline concluded Matt Fraction's series.
In the ongoing series that premiered in 2012 as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, Tony Stark has hit a technological ceiling. After the death of Dr. Maya Hansen and the destruction of all of the Extremis Version 2 kits that were being sold to the black market, Tony decides that the Earth is not safe without him learning more from what's in the final frontier. He takes his new suit, enhanced with an artificial intelligence named P.E.P.P.E.R. and joins Peter Quill and The Guardians of the Galaxy after helping them thwart a Badoon attack on Earth.
Superior Iron Man
Tony Stark's personality is inverted during the events of AXIS, bringing out more dark aspects of himself like irresponsibility, egotism and alcoholism. Stark relocates to San Francisco and builds a new, all-white armor. He supplies the citizens of San Francisco with the Extremis 3.0 app, a version of the techno-virus that offers beauty, health or even immortality, free. When every person in the city viewed Iron Man as a messiah for making their dreams come true, he ended the free trial mode and started charging a daily fee of $99.99, causing many to resort to crime to pay for the upgrade. Daredevil confronts Stark at his new Alcatraz Island penthouse, but is easily brushed off. Iron Man uses Extremis 3.0 to temporarily restore Daredevil's sight, just to prove his point. Daredevil deduces that Stark had added Extremis to the water supply and the phones only transmit an activation signal, but Stark subjects Murdock to minor brain damage to prevent him from sharing this revelation with others.
After discovering that new villain Teen Abomination is the son of Happy Hogan, Stark decides to help him, but this minor act of redemption is too late for Pepper Potts, who attacks Stark with the aid of an AI based on Stark's mind. This culminates in a confrontation between the two Starks, as Stark calls on the unwitting aid of all 'infected' with the Extremis upgrade while the AI uses Stark's various old armors to attack him. Although Stark technically wins the battle as he destroys his other armors and deletes the AI backup, Pepper states that she plans to reveal the truth about his goals with Extremis, bluntly informing him that if he continues his Extremis upgrade project, he will have to do it alone, accepting his fate of being regarded as a monster by all who know him.
Time Runs Out
During the "Time Runs Out" storyline, an attempt at reclaiming Wakanda from the Cabal that Namor had created to destroy incursive Earths results in Tony being held captive in the Necropolis. After the Cabal are apparently killed, the Illuminati free Tony, who is forced to flee due to the Illuminati's unwillingness to let Stark be there with them when they meet Rogers and the Avengers. When the Shi'ar and their allies arrive to destroy Earth, the Avengers and the Illuminati unsuccessfully try to retaliate. Iron Man uses Sol's Hammer to destroy the fleet. The incursions continue, and Rogers confronts Stark about what he knows. A fight ensues between them and Stark admits that he had lied and had known about the incursions all along. During the final incursion, Earth-1610's S.H.I.E.L.D. launches a full-scale attack on Earth-616, during which Stark and Rogers are crushed by a Helicarrier.
All-New, All-Different Marvel
After the events of the Secret Wars crossover, Stark returns to his normal self with no signs of his inverted personality. Eight months following the return of the universe as seen in the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event, Tony works in his laboratory non-stop after his position as an innovator had been put in doubt. Because an M.I.T. student reverse-engineered some of his technology, Stark develops a new armor which can change shape according to the situation he would find himself. When Stark's new AI F.R.I.D.A.Y. informs him that Madame Masque has broken into the ruins of Castle Doom, he travels to Latveria to investigate and runs into some revolutionaries who are then defeated by a man in a suit. To his amazement, Iron Man's armor computer identifies him as Doctor Doom with his face restored. Doctor Doom claims that he wanted to help Iron Man.
After learning from Doctor Doom that Madame Masque has taken a decoy of the Wand of Watoomb, Tony Stark confronts Madame Masque. Upon learning that Madame Masque is not allied with Doctor Doom, Tony is attacked by her with a burst of energy that damages his armor. F.R.I.D.A.Y. manages to gain control of the suit and takes Tony to a safe location. Iron Man tracks Madame Masque to Marina del Rey. After finding a tape recorder with her messages, Tony is attacked by several black silhouettes with swords.
Iron Man escapes the ninjas that are attacking him and manages to defeat most of them, but they kill themselves before he can interrogate any of them. Iron Man and Doctor Doom arrive at Mary Jane Watson's newest Chicago night club Jackpot when Madame Masque attacks it. As Mary Jane distracts Madame Masque by knocking off her mask, Iron Man and Doctor Doom discover that Madame Masque is possessed by a demon. Doctor Doom is able to perform an exorcism on her.
Doctor Strange arrives and tells Iron Man he will take Madame Masque with him to fix her metaphysically and then hand her over at S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man also informs him of Doctor Doom's help who had left the scene some time ago. Three days later, Iron Man offers Mary Jane a job to make up for the damage to her nightclub. After speaking with War Machine, Tony Stark meets up at a diner with Amara Perera when they are unexpectedly joined by Doctor Doom who wanted to make sure that the demonic possession that affected Madame Masque has not affected Stark or Amara. Stark shows Mary Jane the demonstration on the people that he will be working with. They are interrupted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. who tells Tony that War Machine is missing. Before heading to Tokyo, Tony receives from Mary Jane the emergency number for Peter Parker. In Tokyo, Iron Man is contacted by Spider-Man at War Machine's last known location as he is being observed by ninjas.
During the Civil War II storyline, Iron Man protests the logic of using precognitive powers to stop future crimes after the recently emerged Inhuman Ulysses predicted Thanos's attack on Project Pegasus. Three weeks later, Iron Man is summoned to the Triskelion after War Machine is killed in battle against Thanos. When Iron Man learns that War Machine and the Ultimates used Ulysses's power to ambush Thanos, he vows to stop anyone from using that power again. Iron Man infiltrates New Attilan and makes off with Ulysses. At Stark Tower, Iron Man vows to find out how Ulysses's precognition works. The Inhumans attack Stark Tower but are stopped by the Avengers, the Ultimates, and S.H.I.E.L.D. During the confrontation, Ulysses has another vision which he projects to Iron Man and everyone present, showing a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of the defeated superheroes. The heroes confront Banner, who is killed by Hawkeye. Barton claims that Banner was about to transform and Banner had previously asked Hawkeye to kill him if he should turn back into the Hulk. Tony is disgusted at this use of Ulysses's power. When his analysis of Ulysses brain is completed, Tony reveals that Ulysses does not actually see the future, but simply assembles large quantities of data to project likely outcomes. While Danvers continues to use the visions as a resource, Tony objects to the concept of profiling people. This results in a stand-off when Tony's side abducts a woman from custody after Ulysses's visions identified her as a deep-cover HYDRA agent, despite the lack of supporting evidence.
Iron Man learns that his biological mother was actually Amanda Armstrong, who had given him up for adoption and that his biological father was a Hydra double agent named Jude. S.H.I.E.L.D. had Armstrong's baby adopted by Howard and Maria Stark.
Marvel NOW! 2016
In July 2016, it was announced that Tony Stark would hand off the mantle of Iron Man to a 15-year-old girl named Riri Williams. Riri is an MIT student who built her own Iron Man suit out of scrap pieces and, as such, attracted Stark's attention. Early depictions of Williams' suit depict it without the Arc Reactor, but leaves the power source for the suit unclear. Another Iron Man-based series titled Infamous Iron Man debuted featuring Doctor Doom sporting his version of the Iron Man armor. This is revealed to be the result of serious injuries sustained by Stark during his final confrontation with Captain Marvel. Danvers' beating leaves Stark in a coma, but he is left alive due to unspecified experiments Stark has carried out on himself over the years.
Existing as an AI
Following the revelation that Stark experimented on himself at the end of Civil War II, Beast concludes that the only option is to let the experiments do their job in healing Tony and recover on his own. In Invincible Iron Man #1, an employee of Stark sends Riri Williams an artificial intelligence housing a copy of Tony Stark's consciousness to help her control and mentor in her own version of the Iron Man armor. This AI is directly copied from Tony's brain, granting sentience, with Williams commenting on Stark existing as a "techno-ghost". As an AI, Stark can walk around as a hard-light object and gains the ability to remote control his vast armory of Iron Man suits. In The Mighty Captain Marvel #3, the Tony Stark AI goes to Antarctica and visits Captain Marvel with the intent on settling their differences from the Second Civil War, she apologizes to him for her regrets, reconciles with him eventually and they become allies once more. Then in Secret Empire, the Tony Stark AI suits up as Iron Man once again and learns of Captain America's betrayal to Hydra and how he ended up like this. As Hydra tightens its grip across America, the Tony Stark AI leads a team known as the Underground to find the Cosmic Cubes to restore Rogers to his normal self. When things start to escalate, Tony and his crew go rogue and in search for answers for the Cube. As Iron Man and the Underground search for them they are intercepted by Captain America and his Hydra team. With both teams encountering each other, they are captured by the Ultron/Hank Pym hybrid, who forces both teams to sit at a dinner table. During "dinner", Ultron reveals information about the Hydra Avengers – such as Odinson working with Hydra to reclaim Mjolnir, Scarlet Witch being possessed by Chthon, and Vision being affected by an AI virus. Ultron argues that he is doing this because the Avengers have become less of a family over the years as so many of them jump to obey Captain America or Iron Man, despite past experience confirming that this is not always a good idea, but Tony counters that the only reason the team failed as a family was because of Hank's abuse towards Wasp. Enraged, Ultron is about to kill everyone, but Ant-Man is able to calm him down by arguing that Hank remains his own inspiration. Ultron allows the Underground to leave with the fragment, arguing that neither side should have an advantage over the other. Back in America, Hydra Supreme has put Namor in a position where he will be forced to sign a peace treaty that gives Rogers access to the Cosmic Cube fragment in Atlantis, but Hydra Supreme muses that he is unconcerned about who will acquire the fragments, as he has an inside man in the Underground. After the Mount was attacked by Thor and the resurrected Hulk led by Hydra, the Underground evacuated the civilians thanks to Hawkeye and the rest of the heroes. Captain America and Iron Man fight as the Mount collapses around them. The Tony Stark AI initiates the Mount's "Clean Slate Protocol", and blows up the Mount, killing Madame Hydra, then apologizes to Steve Rogers about their past differences, but the A.I survives and, in the aftermath, helps the heroes pull the pieces back together to take down Hydra. When Iron Man confronts Hydra Supreme, he and the other heroes are easily overpowered by him and watch the original Captain America defeat his Hydra self and into celebrating their victory.
Marvel Legacy
Mary Jane Watson and other Stark employees find that Stark's body has completely vanished from its pod, despite tests taken mere hours ago showing no sign of improvement or brain activity. It was discovered that Tony Stark's comatose body was taken to the Stark Industries Complex in Dover. Upon awakening when his biological systems rebooted, Tony Stark went into hiding until he fully recovered. Wanting to make sure that James Rhodes was in a similar state that he was in, Tony Stark exhumed his body from Arlington Cemetery and kick-started the biological systems in him. Afterwards, Iron Man and War Machine fought Hood to keep Stark Industries from falling into Hood's hands where he switched to a version of his Extremis armor. Then he proceeded to defeat Jude when he turned up alive.
During "The Ultron Agenda" arc, Iron Man went up against the Ultron/Hank Pym who begun a plan to merge humans with robots while taking up the name "Ultron Pym." Iron Man was briefly fused with his armor. After using Stark Unlimited's atomic separator on himself, Iron Man figured out that Hank Pym was dead the moment he accidentally fused with Ultron. Not wanting to prove Tony right, Ultron Pym surrendered to Iron Man and the Avengers. As it turned out that Iron Man actually died during the Civil War II storyline, Arno Stark used this to his advantage to acquire Stark Unlimited through a merger with Baintronics. With the combined resources, he built the Iron Man Armor Model 66 as his attempt to recreate the Godbuster Armor. Now having a new destiny, Arno Stark became the latest person to take on the Iron Man mantle.
Because of his revelation that he is now a simulated AI at the start of the "Iron Man 2020" storyline, Tony Stark became Mark One and started to establish the A.I. Army which also consists of Albert, Awesome Android, Egghead II, H.E.R.B.I.E., M-11, Machine Man, Machinesmith, Quasimodo, Super-Adaptoid, Walking Stiletto, the Dreadnoughts, a Sentinel, several Constructo-Bots, several Nick Fury LMDs, and an unnamed bomb disposal robot. This group of robots and androids want to obtain equal rights with organic beings through whatever way possible. Mark One provided them with a hideout on Floor Thirteen, a solid light construct that can only be accessed by robots and androids. With the establishment of Floor Thirteen, Mark One keeps the A.I. Army safe from their enemies and oppressors.
Powers, abilities, and equipment
Armor
Iron Man possesses powered armor that gives him superhuman strength and durability, flight, and an array of weapons. The armor is invented and worn by Stark (with occasional short-term exceptions). Other people who have assumed the Iron Man identity include Stark's long-time partner and best friend James Rhodes; close associates Harold "Happy" Hogan; Eddie March; (briefly) Michael O'Brien and Riri Williams.
The weapons systems of the suit have changed over the years, but Iron Man's standard offensive weapons have always been the repulsor rays that are fired from the palms of his gauntlets. Other weapons built into various incarnations of the armor include: the uni-beam projector in its chest; pulse bolts (that pick up kinetic energy along the way; so the farther they travel, the harder they hit); an electromagnetic pulse generator; and a defensive energy shield that can be extended up to 360 degrees. Other capabilities include: generating ultra-freon (i.e., a freeze-beam); creating and manipulating magnetic fields; emitting sonic blasts; and projecting 3-dimensional holograms (to create decoys).
In addition to the general-purpose model he wears, Stark has developed several specialized suits for space travel, deep-sea diving, stealth, and other special purposes. Stark has modified suits, like the Hulkbuster heavy armor. The Hulkbuster armor is composed of add-ons to his so-called modular armor, designed to enhance its strength and durability enough to engage the Hulk in a fight. A later model, created with the help of Odin and the Asgardian metal Uru, is similar to the Destroyer. Stark develops an electronics pack during the Armor Wars that, when attached to armors that use Stark technologies, will burn out those components, rendering the suit useless. This pack is ineffective on later models. While it is typically associated with James Rhodes, the War Machine armor began as one of Stark's specialty armors.
The most recent models of Stark's armor, beginning with the Extremis armor, are now stored in the hollow portions of Stark's bones, and the personal area networking implement used to control it is implanted into his forearm, and connected directly to his central nervous system.
The Extremis has since been removed, and he now uses more conventional armors. Some armors still take a liquid form, but are not stored within his body. His Endo-Sym Armor incorporates a combination of the liquid smart-metal with the alien Venom symbiote, psionically controlled by Stark.
Post-Secret Wars, Stark uses a more streamlined suit of armor that uses nanotechnology to shape shift into other armors or weapons.
Powers
After being critically injured during a battle with the Extremis-enhanced Mallen, Stark injects his nervous system with modified techno-organic virus-like body restructuring machines (the Extremis process). By rewriting his own biology, Stark is able to save his life, gain an enhanced healing factor, and partially merge with the Iron Man armor, superseding the need for bulky, AI-controlled armors in favor of lighter designs, technopathically controlled by his own brain. His enhanced technopathy extends to every piece of technology, limitless and effortlessly due to his ability to interface with communication satellites and wireless connections to increase his "range". Some components of the armor-sheath are now stored in Tony's body, able to be recalled, and extruded from his own skin, at will.
During the "Secret Invasion" storyline the Extremis package is catastrophically shut down by a virus, forcing him again to rely on the previous iteration of his armor, and restoring his previous limitations. Furthermore, Osborn's takeover of most of the few remaining Starktech factories, with Ezekiel Stane systematically crippling the others, limits Tony to the use of lesser, older and weaker armors.
After being forced to "wipe out" his brain to prevent Norman Osborn from gaining his information, Tony Stark is forced to have a new arc reactor, of Rand design installed in his chest. The process greatly improves his strength, stamina and intellect. The procedure left him with virtually no autonomic functions: as his brain was stripped of every biological function, Tony is forced to rely on a digital backup of his memories (leaving him with severe gaps and lapses in his long-term memory) and on software routine in the arc reactor for basic stimuli reaction, such as blinking and breathing. The Bleeding Edge package of armor and physical enhancement is now equal in power, if not a more advanced, version of the old Extremis tech.
Skills
Tony Stark is an inventive genius whose expertise in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science rivals that of Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner, and his expertise in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering surpasses even theirs. He is regarded as one of the most intelligent characters in the Marvel Universe. He graduated with advanced degrees in physics and engineering at the age of 17 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and further developed his knowledge ranging from artificial intelligence to quantum mechanics as time progressed. His expertise extends to his ingenuity in dealing with difficult situations, such as difficult foes and deathtraps, in which he is capable of using available tools, including his suit, in unorthodox but effective ways. For instance, in Stark's final confrontation with Obadiah Stane, the villain managed to have Stark's companions in an unconscious state in a room with motion sensors; when Stark entered the room, Stane warned him that the slightest move would trigger a fatal electrical current to his hostages, thus forcing Stark to stay still and slowly die of dehydration lest he wants his friends to die. However, while Stane was confident that such a trap was inescapable, Stark is able to outwit and defeat its mechanism in seconds, thus freeing the hostages and allowing him to continue the battle against Stane.
He is well respected in the business world, able to command people's attention when he speaks on economic matters, having over the years built up several multimillion-dollar companies from virtually nothing. He is noted for the loyalty he commands from and returns to those who work for him, as well as for his business ethics. Thus he immediately fired an employee who made profitable, but illegal, sales to Doctor Doom. He strives to be environmentally responsible in his businesses.
At a time when Stark was unable to use his armor for a period, he received some combat training from Captain America and has become physically formidable on his own when the situation demands it. In addition, Stark possesses great business and political acumen. On multiple occasions he reacquired control of his companies after losing them amid corporate takeovers.
Due to his membership in the Illuminati, Iron Man was given the Space Infinity Gem to safeguard. It allows the user to exist in any location (or all locations), move any object anywhere throughout the universe and warp or rearrange space.
Supporting characters
Other versions
1602
1602: New World features a 17th-century Spanish Iron Man named Lord Iron. Taken captive in the Holy Land during the English / Spanish war, he is forced to make weapons for them after being tortured by David Banner, the later Hulk of that world. He needs his massive armor to survive. The armor is powered by "lightning bottles" and provides him with super-strength and invulnerability as well as several electricity-powered
With his Moorish associate, Rhodes, Lord Iron is assigned by King James to put an end to the traitors and witchbreed in the New World. Instead, he realizes he has let bitterness consume him, and makes his peace with Banner. He is last seen using his armor to power the colony's printing press.
1872
The Secret Wars War Zone tie-in 1872 reimagines Tony in the Wild West. Tony was once a respected inventor who lives in the town of Timely. When the Union army used his repeating rifle to slaughter a large group of Confederates rather let them surrender, Tony spirals into alcoholism. After Sheriff Steve Rogers is murdered by Mayor Wilson Fisk and his cohorts, Tony builds a large suit of armor resembling the original Iron Man suit to aid Red Wolf in bringing him down. After Fisk is defeated, Tony dedicates his time to aiding the people of Timely with his new invention.
2020
Iron Man 2020 features Arno Stark as a mercenary in the employ of Sunset Bain. In 2012, Arno had traveled to the past in an effort to save his family from a madman's bomb. All he needs are the retinal patterns of the bomb maker, but he runs into the original Blizzard who mistakes him for the "real" Iron Man/Tony Stark. Not having time to deal with this threat, Arno kills Blizzard. While attempting to scan the retinal patterns of the young terrorist, Spider-Man snatches the scanner with his webbing and asks IM 2020 what he is doing. The two battle one another (Arno is "against the clock") when suddenly Arno is pulled back to his time to discover the bomb had a design flaw and exploded prematurely. His wife, son, employees, and factory have all been destroyed.
2093
Tony Stark and Doctor Doom are brought to the year 2093 by Merlin to stop a plot by a primarily robotic Doom and the Iron Man of 2093, Andros Stark. Andros is a psychotic madman and uses his grandfather Arno's armor. Tony defeats Andros while wielding the legendary sword Excalibur.
Andros Stark/Iron Man 2099 voiced by Alessandro Juliani would later be adopted into the second season of Iron Man: Armored Adventures with him being from the year 2099 and traveling back when Tony was a teenager before inventing a AI named "Vortex". Vortex dooms the entire human race with Andros donning a futuristic suit (classed "Hyperspace Mark XL") and the Extremis to kill Tony/Iron Man but goes to S.H.I.E.L.D. for assistance. Andros destroys Iron Man with his ultra-beam, afterward, Hawkeye managed to implant the virus on Andros's armor, and realized that all this is because Tony was trying to save himself by using the virus to stop Andros using his nano-virus which is actually the original seed for the Vortex virus. He travels back in time for a short moment to warn Iron Man that his nano-virus chips were actually the Vortex virus. He quickly destroys the last nano-virus arrow, saving Andros. As a result of this change in the timeline, the future was saved and because of this, Andros is erased from existence after saying his last words to his grandfather.
2099
In the Marvel 2099 line, the new Iron Man of that era is a man named Sonny Frisco. Despite piloting a normal-sized suit of Iron Man armor, Frisco actually suffers from dwarfism. He is a member of the Alchemax corporation's team of Avengers, and secretly uses the help of Vision, a woman with precognitive abilities.
3030
The Iron Man of 3030 is Tony Stark's biracial granddaughter, Rhodey Stark (named after Stark's close friend James Rhodes). She travels to the present in order to help the Avengers save Earth from a rogue planet that had been fired from the future, and departs after warning her grandfather that his life is in danger.
Adam Warlock
In Adam Warlock #2 (1972), Peter Parker's counterpart on Counter-Earth mentions that "the heart of Tony Stark beats unscathed".
Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse, Tony Stark is an agent of the Human High Council. The injury that compromised his heart is caused by the attack of a mutant.
Age of X
Officially code named Iron Man, he prefers the name Steel Corpse. Iron Man was infected by a disease, thought to be of mutant origin, that bonded him permanently to his armor. Not only can he never remove the armor, the disease is causing the armor to slowly consume his flesh, meaning that one day Tony Stark will cease to exist and only the armor will be left. He works with this reality's version of the Avengers to exterminate all mutants, but eventually rebels against his purpose when a 'Trojan horse' in the armor nearly drives him to kill innocent mutant children, forcing his teammates to kill him.
Avataars
In the sword and sorcery world of the Avataars: Covenant of the Shield miniseries, Iron Man's counterpart is Ironheart, one of the Champions of the Realm. A powerful warrior, he wears a huge suit of grey armor.
Bullet Points
In Bullet Points, Iron Man is Steve Rogers, who, due to the assassination of Dr. Abraham Erskine occurring earlier than in the mainstream Marvel universe, never receives the Super-Soldier formula. Instead, he agrees to be bonded to the prototype 'Iron Man' armor despite the intense physical pain and discomfort this will cause. Rogers is later killed fighting an alternative version of the Hulk. Tony Stark, in this reality a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., expresses a desire to continue in Rogers' footsteps as Iron Man, but is rejected owing to a heart condition. He later disobeys this command and adopts the mantle upon the arrival of Galactus.
Contest of Champions
The 2015 Contest of Champions series has a version of Tony Stark that won Civil War with nearly everything working out in his favor. Five years later, Tony has donned the Iron Patriot armor and is the President of the United States. He and his Mighty Avengers team are kidnapped by Maestro and placed onto Battleworld, where Maestro alters their memories to believe the remaining heroes are unregistered and need to be taken in. Their fight is interrupted by that universe's Thunderbolts (led by Steve Rogers). In the next issue, the Mighty Avengers battle the Thunderbolts and Renegade Champions, during which Tony kills Steve and reveals that the reason the Civil War went completely in his favor was because he used the Reality Gem from the Infinity Gauntlet. When he tries to use it again on Battleworld, it doesn't work because he's in a different dimension, and he's killed by Maestro.
Earth X
In the alternative reality of Earth X, Tony Stark builds a headquarters that protects himself from a plague that grants all humans superpowers. Afterwards, he builds the Iron Avengers. His headquarters is revealed to be a giant armor, based on the old Godzilla fighting mecha, the Red Ronin, which he uses to delay the Celestial attack until the coming of Galactus, sacrificing his life in the process. In Paradise X, he becomes part of the angelic Avenging Host of Marvel's "Paradise", with an Iron Man motif.
Earth-691
In the continuity of Earth-691, Tony Stark is devastated by the horrors of the Martian invasion and jettisons his technology into space. It is found by a primitive alien race who use it to become an interstellar menace calling themselves the Stark, who subsequently clash with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 31st century. "Standard" continuity Iron Man (Earth-616) encountered his "creations" when a cadre of rational, scientific members of the Stark called the Programmers bring Tony Stark to the future to help them solve various planet-wide problems.
Earth-2122
In the continuity of Earth-2122, the home of Crusader X, where the British won the American Revolution and still control North America, Anthony Stark is a member of a group called the Sons of Liberty. In this reality, Stark is willing to kill innocent people.
Earth-3490
In the continuity of Earth-3490, Tony Stark was born a woman (Natasha Stark) rather than a man; Stark's superhero alter-ego in this universe is Iron Woman. The Civil War between superheroes in Earth-3490 was averted due to the fact that Stark and Steve Rogers (Captain America) are romantically involved, and have since married.
Exiles
In Exiles, a villainous alternative Iron Man of Earth-2020 is a member of Weapon X, the more ruthless team of reality fixers. After ending up at the 'Crystal Palace' (the Exiles' headquarters) and fighting them there, he is eventually exposed and sent back to his own timeline where he is arrested by the Army for starting a world war.
In one alternative reality Tony Stark has become the absolute ruler of the entire planet Earth, and kills many of that Earth's heroes and mutants. Weapon X arrives on this reality to help him conquer Attilan, though their true purpose is to cause his downfall. Tony is eventually killed by Susan Storm.
In one alternative reality he is partners with both Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Octopus before he created the Iron Man suit.
On an alternative world devastated by the Hulk's Annihilation Wave, Iron Man was one of those killed in the attack. When the Exiles arrange for the dead heroes to be replaced by alternatives, Iron Man's replacement is a version of Spitfire, on the grounds that they have never got along with any alternative Tony Starks.
The Sons of Iron are a group of armor-wearing warriors from an Earth shared by humans and reptilian humanoids. Because they are completely concealed by the Iron Man armor, no-one can tell which they are.
Fantastic Four: The End
In the miniseries Fantastic Four: The End, which is set in a future where Reed Richards' technology has launched humanity into a golden age, Tony Stark has died long ago - but his consciousness survives, 'hopping' from artificial body to artificial body. Most of the bodies shown in the miniseries resemble Iron Man armors, often being identical to existing armors. One notable exception was the bulky, stocky space-armor which played an important role in the battle of humanity's heroes versus several alien armadas.
House of M
Born to Howard and Maria Stark, the heads of the powerful business conglomerate Stark Industries, Tony Stark grew to be an imaginative and brilliant inventor. He worked with his father from an early age, and surpassed his father's technical brilliance by the age of 16. Stark became the key supplier of hi-tech weaponry used to fight mutants, and was on the verge of a technological breakthrough when the Mutant-Human war came to an end. The suits are powered down to become part of a game called Robo Death Match, a television sport with giant robots fighting each other. Stark Industries scored its biggest victory when it secured the Sentinel production contracts, pushing major competitor, Jason Wyngarde, out of business. Erik Magnus and Sebastian Shaw awarded Tony the contract under the condition that he would hire Beast and Forge as observers. McCoy became a key contributor along with Doctor Pym on The Vision project. Tony secretly worked on a special project beneath Stark Industries: a brand new suit of hi-tech armor he planned to use as his new Robo Death Match suit.
Iron Man: The End
In the one-shot Iron Man: The End, an aging Tony Stark works on his greatest creation, a space elevator called "Big Jump." Stark faces retirement due to age and the physical toll of an illness, no longer allowing him to run his business "Stark Universal" and continue to be Iron Man. This leads to the need to groom a replacement.
Iron Maniac
Iron Maniac is an evil alternative universe version of Iron Man from Earth-5012. He first appeared in Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 #2, wearing armor that resembles that of Doctor Doom's. He comes from an alternative reality where most of the Avengers were killed when they encountered the vicious alien Titannus in space. While the team is rescued by the reserve Avengers five years later, it takes another five years to fight back the Trellions, the alien race that has brainwashed Titannus. During that time, a power-hungry Reed Richards turns his back on the surviving heroes. Scarred for life due to an attack from the Human Torch, Iron Man sets his own operation base in Latveria to "take over the world to save it from Richards." Richards somehow manages to banish him into Earth-616 Other differences between his world and Earth-616 include that there is no Spider-Man, and that Hank Pym is another version of the Hulk.
After being transported to Earth-616, Iron Maniac fights the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange, all of whom mistake him for their Doctor Doom. After unmasking himself, they learn his true identity, shortly before he manages to temporarily negate the FF's powers and escape, concluding that he has no reason to trust that they will not turn on him like the FF of his world did. Capturing a recently discovered mutant, the alternative Iron Man attempts to return to his home dimension by using the mutant as a power source, but is attacked by Spider-Man and X-23 as they investigate the situation. After the appearance of Captain America and Black Widow, he realizes that he is in an alternative world, but continues to fight the heroes, calling them all 'Richards' lackeys', proclaiming that he can't trust that they won't turn into 'villains' just as his own former allies did. He is defeated thanks to Spider-Man and X-23's use of their own version of the fastball special to destroy his equipment, shortly after 'warning' the other heroes of the Titannus War (by saying that he would not kill them now because it would be a kindness).
While the alternative Tony Stark is kept locked up and drugged in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, he is briefly visited by his counterpart in this universe, although he is unaware of the visit. Shortly after the alternative Stark is transferred to a conventional cell, Titannus soon arrives and fights the heroes, this time confronting a new group of Defenders assembled by Doctor Strange. When Titannus' comatose lover is revived, she tells him that she never loved him and that he was insane, causing Titannus to kill himself. The alternative Iron Man later discovers from Spider-Man and Wolverine that the Avengers were never massacred in space in this reality because the group had been disassembled; as a result, other heroes only encountered Titannus after he had attacked Tokyo in a rage, leaving the heroes who did encounter him less inclined to believe his story and averting the so-called 'Titannus War'.
Stark subsequently broke free from captivity, having immunized himself to the gas that was used to keep him sedated on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. In the process, he gained the unwilling alliance of the LMD Diamondback. Having convinced her that he is the "real" Tony, the AU Tony Stark erased her memories, reshaping the former LMD into an advanced suit of armor. This armor, even more advanced than the pre-Extremis suit Iron Man wore at that time, was able to replicate any weapon from the wearer's memory. He subsequently battled Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Luke Cage, but was only defeated after the sacrifice of rookie hero Freedom Ring, who kept Iron Maniac occupied long enough for Captain America to knock him out with a shield thrown at the back of his neck.
The name Iron Maniac is what he calls himself, due to being the "sole survivor of a sane world living in a backwards, insane world".
Iron Maniac is known to be at least partially cyberized, with armor plating implanted in his chest (revealed during his escape from the Helicarrier, when he is shot). It is unknown whether the rest of his body is similarly armored or if he possesses other cybernetic enhancements.
He has been briefly mentioned as being held in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier recently in The Irredeemable Ant-Man.
Iron Man Noir
In Iron Man Noir, Tony Stark is an industrialist in the 1930s. He is also an adventurer, whose exploits are recorded in Marvels: A Magazine Of Men's Adventure. He is initially accompanied by his associate James Rhodes, his personal assistant Giulietta Nefaria and his biographer Vergil Munsey. When Nefaria is revealed as working with the Nazis (specifically Baron Zemo and Baron von Strucker) and Vergil is killed, their role in the story is taken by Stark's new biographer Pepper Potts. His heart having been damaged on an earlier adventure, Stark keeps it going with repulsor technology installed and recharged by Stark Industries engineer Edwin Jarvis.
While investigating a mysterious power source in the ruins of Atlantis, Pepper Potts gets kidnapped by the Nazis and taken to their stronghold in Norway. To rescue her, Stark and Rhodes don suits of bulky power armour built by Jarvis, but are shocked to discover that 'Baron Zemo' is actually Tony's missing father Howard Stark, brainwashed by a unique chemical compound to serve the Nazis. Despite his depleted power supply, Tony manages to destroy the various suits of armor that Zemo had built for the Nazis, concluding that his father had died long ago, before returning to the USA.
Inter-company crossovers
In Marvel and DC's Amalgam Comics, Stark is merged with the Green Lantern Hal Jordan into the Iron Lantern. "Hal Stark" wears a suit resembling a green Iron Man armor, powered by a Green Lantern battery.
In the miniseries JLA/Avengers, Iron Man aids the Avengers in the battle against Starro the Conqueror. Afterwards, he creates a dimensional alarm in order to tell when invaders from another dimension come into their universe. After a brief scuffle with the JLA in the Savage Land, the Avengers are confronted by Metron, who gives Tony a Mother Box. Using this, Tony is able to get the Avengers to Metropolis, where the Avengers confront the JLA again. The Avengers escape, but Tony and Hawkeye manage to take Green Lantern's Power Battery before they leave, with Tony able to stop the Flash in his tracks. The two later take down Captain Atom and Green Arrow in order to collect the Casket of Ancient Winters. Tony then leaves and arrives to save Photon and Quasar from Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, allowing them to take the Spear of Destiny. After the battle in the Savage Land, Tony is one of the Avengers and is clueless as to the dimensional shifts that are happening around him. After Cap and Superman attack each other, Tony ends up in Metropolis. When the two worlds are briefly corrected by the Grandmaster, Tony is shown his true future with his alcoholism and his defeat by Obadiah Stane. Accepting this, he aids the JLA and the Avengers in the final battle and helped build the ship that took them to Krona's base. During the battle, he teams up with Kyle Rayner to create a weapon to use against their enemies and the two are shown to be impressed by one another, Kyle expressing his awe at Tony's engineering prowess and Tony asking Kyle where he could get a Green Lantern ring.
Mangaverse
In the Marvel Mangaverse reality, Tony Stark creates the original armor together with Dr. Ho Yinsen and acts as Iron Man for a time, but eventually vanishes after a battle with Namor, the Submariner. He is succeeded by Antoinette (Toni) Stark, his twin sister, a former agent of SHIELD, who turns Iron Man into a massive operation - a veritable army of Iron Men in many forms, with herself as Iron Woman. After she dies in battle against the Hulk, Tony Stark reveals himself again; he has gone underground after spinal cancer reduced him to a disembodied head hooked up to a life support system. However, he has designed a new armor, and a body that he can integrate with.
He also had designed four massive vehicles for the Avengers of his world to use, which could combine (in a manner resembling old fashioned combining super robots like Combattler V and Voltes V) into a skyscraper-sized Iron Man-mecha (Dubbed Ultimate Iron Man in its first appearance, then the Iron Avenger in its battle with the Hulk and finally simply called "the Avenger's mecha" in Volume 2 of the series). Unfortunately it was quickly destroyed by that world's Hulk. Apparently, however, it was rebuilt again by the time of the second volume, this time as a single robotic unit without transformation (or, if it was capable of transformation, it was never demonstrated). This unit helped fight off the giant Galactus spores, but was later destroyed, along with most of the Avengers, single-handedly by the Mangaverse version of Dr. Doom.
Marvel Adventures
The Marvel Adventures Iron Man is very similar to the Earth-616 Iron Man, but with some changes. Instead of suffering damage to his heart due to a booby trap in Vietnam, Tony Stark's heart was damaged when an experimental plane he was flying was brought down by AIM. AIM wanted Stark to build weapons and devices for them. Dr. Gia-Bao Yinsen aided Tony in escaping AIM, but Yinsen died saving his country from AIM. Iron Man does not seem to have problems with alcoholism, since the Marvel Adventures is aimed at a younger demographic. Iron Man's armor resembles his Extremis armor although Iron Man has other armors that fit over his regular armor, as in the case of his underwater armor.
Marvel Apes
The version of Iron Man appearing in the Marvel Apes mini-series is a mandrill, appropriately being named the Iron Mandrill. He is a member of the Apevengers. At one point, he is attacked by the zombified Wasp of the Marvel Zombies universe and infected, though he is later apparently cured when these events are undone via time travel.
Marvel Zombies
The first series
In the Marvel Zombies universe, Tony Stark has been infected by the zombie virus. Alongside a horde of starving undead superhuman zombies, Iron Man attacks the Silver Surfer. The attack is successful, but one of the Surfer's energy bolts hits Iron Man's lower torso, cutting him in half. The zombie "survives" this wound and later gains cosmic powers (including flight) by eating part of the Surfer's corpse. When Galactus arrives, Iron Man and the five other surviving zombies devour him. They are able to absorb Galactus' power, and call themselves "The Galacti".
Marvel Zombies 2
He also appears in Marvel Zombies 2, one of the small group of super-powered zombies that have eaten their way across all known space. Here Stark has had his entire lost lower body replaced with cybernetics. He also appears to have forgotten he had some design in the machine which opened a link to the Ultimate Universe. He was shocked to see Forge, one of the surviving X-Men, wearing his Mark I armored suit. The zombified Hulk kills Iron Man when he stomps through the armor, forcing Tony Stark's flesh and blood through any openings left in the armor. However Iron Man had recently revived next issue, but only as a cameo, on Marvel Zombies 3.
Marvel Zombies Return
In the final issue of Marvel Zombies 2, the remaining zombies are transported to another universe. At the point where the zombies reach this new reality, the period is nearly identical to the one where Tony Stark was an alcoholic. Zombie Giant Man infects Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and a number of other people at Stark Industries. A drunken Tony Stark lacks the will power to become Iron Man despite Pepper Potts' requests, so James Rhodes dons the suit to save him. Crucial to fate of the multiverse are the nanites that Stark has accidentally created, which destroy damaged flesh and tissue as a cure for cancer, and prove to be a potent weapon against the zombies. This was grafted onto Flint Marko's body. He sacrifices himself to kill several zombies in Stark Tower, with Rhodes permanently succeeding him in the role of Iron Man. His nanites are then used by his successor, now a member of the New Avengers, years later to kill the remaining super-powered zombies and end the inter-dimensional zombie threat.
MC2
In the alternative future of MC2, Tony Stark retires after the loss of many heroes in battle, but eventually creates the armored computer program Mainframe, which joins the next generation of Avengers.
Mini Marvels
Iron Man is a recurring character in "Mini Marvels". He appears in story arcs like "The Armored Avengers" & "World War Hulk". He is portrayed as conceited and thinks himself the best of the team. He has a friendly rivalry with Hawkeye.
Newuniversal
In the alternative world of newuniversal, Tony Stark is one of three humans altered by the Fireworks on April 26, 1953, gaining abilities associated with the Cipher glyph. Prior to the Fireworks, Stark is unexceptional, but he then becomes a technological genius. His discoveries revitalise his father's company, Stark Industries, and are "five years ahead of everything everyone else is working on". There are suggestions that he is capable of more, but is not making all of his discoveries public.
Stark's transformation is noticed by the National Security Agency's Project Spitfire, which is discreetly monitoring the superhumans created by the Fireworks. In March 1959, Stark's plane crashes in North Vietnam and he is imprisoned. He escapes by constructing an Iron Man suit from "spare parts" and flying out of the country.
On April 4, 1959, when he returns to the US, the NSA takes Stark to a San Diego naval base, ostensibly to debrief him. Stark is then shot dead by Philip L. Voight, a Project Spitfire agent, to prevent him from making contact with the other superhumans.
The Iron Man suit is seized by Project Spitfire and reverse engineered by Doctor Joe Swann, eventually becoming the basis of the project's H.E.X suit, an exoskeleton designed for combat with superhumans.
Ruins
In the two issue Warren Ellis series Ruins, Tony Stark is a rich industrialist who supplied weapons for the US military in an attempt to win the Vietnam War. This version of Iron Man was injured while mediating between US forces and pro-secessionist Californians by a piece of shrapnel thrown by the National Guard. This embittered Stark who formed a revolutionary cell named the Avengers. This version of Iron Man was betrayed by Scarlet Witch who provided the United States military information to crush the Avengers. Tony Stark is presumably killed.
Spider-Verse
In the Amazing Spider-Man comic's event Spider-Verse, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Scarlet Spider (Kaine) and Spider-man (Ben Reily) meet and fight a clone of Tony Stark (Earth-802) as Iron Man serving one of the Inheritors, Jennix.
Spider-Island
In a Secret Wars Warzone version of Spider-Island, he is mutated into one of the Spider Queen's spider minions and battles Agent Venom and the now monstrous Avengers. Venom sprays Tony with Norman Osborn's Green Goblin formula, freeing Tony from the Queen, but slowly making him insane. He modifies Norman's armor and becomes the Iron Goblin to aid the resistance. When they are surrounded by a number of spider creatures (including Giant Man) with few means of escape, Tony sacrifices himself using the Black Knight's Ebony Blade so he can aid them and die before the Goblin formula completely takes him over.
Spider-Gwen
In Spider-Gwen Tony Stark of Earth-65 is an arms dealer, the owner of global private military company WAR MACHINE, and owner of the coffee chain StarkBucks.
Spider-Man: Life Story
In Spider-Man: Life Story, Tony Stark/Iron Man does not face a traumatizing experience that leads to stop weapons manufacturing as his Earth-616 counterpart did instead he continues to produce them and play a key role in the Vietnam War and a World War III-esque conflict known as "The Russian War" as well as participating in Secret Wars while on Battleworld. Iron Man also became Secretary of Defense in the United States government and was one of the two leaders alongside Captain America in the Superhuman Civil War.
Squadron Supreme
In the Squadron Supreme series, the equivalent of Iron Man is Tucker Ford. Tucker was a very intelligent boy since his early years, however since being raised by his strong-willed mother along with never going to school with anyone his own age made Tucker to have difficulty to make any kind of meaningful personal relationship and because of this, he became very introverted.
As he grew up, he had built an imaginative world where he was a superhero. When trying to explain his imaginations to his therapist, they turned around and mocked him before their colleagues, however being unaware that Tucker had them under electronic surveillance. This experience motivated him to follow his dream and become a real superhero.
As a young adult, he built a powerful, but unstable armour made from nanotechnology in order to achieve his dream, eventually meeting the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury and offered his intelligence and company to Nick Fury to help defend America.
He fails to gain the affection of Nick Fury and to get a kiss from the spider-powered superhuman, Nell Ruggles, also known as Arachnophilia.
He offers to build a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier as a base for the organization and to be a member of the team in order to live out of his imagination. The only person that Tucker had the closest relationship with is Nell, expressing romantic feelings towards her.
Ultimate Marvel
What If
Newer Fantastic Four
In the timeline of What if: Newer Fantastic Four, the Fantastic Four were killed by De'Lila (a rogue Skrull) and the Hulk, so Spider-Man, the Ghost Rider and Wolverine joined together to avenge them as the New Fantastic Four. Thanos of Titan, as in the mainline universe, came into possession of the six Infinity Gems and became ruler of all reality, before erasing half of all living beings from existence. Among those who vanished was Ghost Rider, and, being present at the battle during which he was erased, Iron Man takes his place. The Newer Fantastic Four soon realize they are outmatched. Stark, with help from the Hulk, manages to salvage the empty armor of Ziran, a Celestial, and realizes it can be controlled by thoughts. Stark takes control of the armor and connects it to the Negative Zone, allowing him to call on all the power of that reality. Despite this, he is defeated by Thanos. Stark's sacrifice allows Wolverine to trick Thanos into a position where the Gauntlet could be removed. Spider-Man subsequently uses the Gauntlet to undo the damage Thanos had caused.
Iron Man: Demon in an Armor
In What If: Iron Man: Demon in an Armor, Tony Stark is Doom's college roommate rather than Reed Richards, inspiring Doom to develop a machine that allows him to transfer his mind into Stark's body while leaving Stark trapped in Doom's body with no memory of his past. While Doom uses Stark's connections and company to establish himself, the amnesic Stark- believing himself to be Doom- works to rebuild his life, creating his own company and forming his own reputation from the ground up. This culminates in a confrontation between the two wearing early versions of their respective armours- Doom having developed a green-and-silver Iron Man armour while Stark has created Doom's costume with gold and a red cloak-, during which Doom reveals the truth about their switch, only for Stark to reject the offer to switch back because Doom has destroyed the name of Tony Stark while Doctor von Doom has developed an honorable reputation.
Realm of Kings
In this one-shot, Quasar, the newly resurrected Protector of the Universe travels into the Fault, the immense tear which has appeared in the fabric of spacetime itself after the catastrophic battle between Vulcan and Black Bolt. Reaching what he perceives to be the other end of the tunnel that is the Fault, he arrives in another universe... a dark, twisted universe, the `corpse of a universe´, possessed by Lovecraftian horrors which are worshipped by all the denizens of that universe, including Earth's mightiest heroes. Iron Man is never seen outside his armor, but he, like the others, serves the "Many-angled ones" with total devotion.
X-Men Forever
In this alternative universe of X-Men Forever, Tony Stark, while still publicly the super-hero Iron Man, is also the head of the shadowy organization known as The Consortium. The scientific wing of the organization is headed by the Trask family, who turn out to be his relatives. They create newer versions of the Sentinels and kidnap mutants to use in experimentation to find the cause of the so-called "Burnout" syndrome that causes mutants to die early. However, as part of his efforts to undermine the Consortium's anti-mutant agenda, he becomes Nick Fury's insider and eventually sacrifices his life along with Beast. He assists Storm- who has been split into an amnesic child version of herself and an energy form with full memory and no body- by providing her energy self with a suit based on the now-deceased Black Panther so that her energy can maintain corporeal form, although he is subsequently killed by a twisted clone of Storm before he can reveal her existence to anyone else.
Mutant X
In Mutant X, Tony Stark is Iron Giant Man and part of the anti-mutant group the Avengers. He was later killed by X-Man Captain America along with the other Avengers.
Infinity Warps
During the Infinity Wars storyline, where the universe was combined in half, Iron Man was fused with Thor creating Iron Hammer. Sigurd Stark was the fifth richest person on the world thanks to his genius about technology, however due to his lack of memories before five years, taunted him driving to drink. After going through the Norvegian, he was attacked by some Dark Elves, lead by Krimson Kurse (fusion Crimson Dynamo and Kurse). He got poisoned by an arrow, slowing killing him and taken by the Elves to aid their other prisoner Eitri (fusion of Eitri and Ho Yinsen) in order to build powerful weapons for the Elves. Then, Sigurd became friend with Eitri and together build an armor, that prevented the poison from killing Sigurd, along with a hammer in order to escape the Dark Elves. However, during their escape Eitri is killed and after Sigurd defeated the Elves and Krimson Kurse, he discovered that Krimson was his lost friend who had turned into a Thrall to be a servant to Dark Elves and after that he mercy killed his friend. Sigurd then decided to the All-Father on Asgard to seek help into defeating Malekith (fusion of Malekith and Mandarin) and with the help of his AI assistant H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L. (fusion of Heimdall and J.A.R.V.I.S.) opened the B.I.F.R.O.S.T. and went to Asgard. When travelling, he remembered his old memories: his true name was Stark Odinson, who due to his arrogance, his father Howard Odin (fusion of Howard Stark and Odin) banished his son to Earth where he would learn to how is like to be a mortal. Upon arriving, Malekith had trapped the Aesir and had allied with Madame Hel (fusion of Madame Masque and Hela and Stane Odinson (fusion of Loki and Obadiah Stane). Luckily, Iron Hammer was able to defeat Malekith and Odin allowed his son to become a god again, however Sigurd refused, feeling better as a human.
In other media
In 1966, Iron Man was featured in a series of cartoons. In 1981, Iron Man guest appeared in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, but only as Tony Stark. He went on to feature again in his own series in the 1990s as part of the Marvel Action Hour with the Fantastic Four; Robert Hays provided his voice in these animated cartoons. Iron Man makes an appearance in the episode "Shell Games" of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.
Apart from comic books, Iron Man appears in Capcom's "Vs." video games, including Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Iron Man is a playable character in Iron Man, the 1992 arcade game Captain America and the Avengers, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and its sequel, and Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, as well as being featured as an unlockable character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and Tony Hawk's Underground. In the 2009 animated series, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, most of the characters, including Tony Stark, are teenagers. An anime adaptation aired in Japan in late 2010 as part of a collaboration between Marvel Animation and Madhouse, in which Stark, voiced by Keiji Fujiwara, travels to Japan where he ends up facing off against the Zodiac.
In 2008, a film adaptation titled Iron Man was released, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and directed by Jon Favreau. Iron Man received very positive reviews from film critics, grossing $318 million domestically and $585 million worldwide, and became the first in a series of over 20 films known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character of Tony Stark, again played by Robert Downey Jr., appeared at the end of the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk. Downey reprised his role in Iron Man 2 (2010), Marvel's The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
In 2009, Playtech released an online casino slot machine game called Iron Man. After that they created two more games, Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3.
In October 2016, Eoin Colfer released a young adult novel called Iron Man: The Gauntlet.
Cultural influence and legacy
The rapper Ghostface Killah, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, titled his 1996 debut solo album Ironman, and has since continued to use lyrics related to the Iron Man comics and samples from the animated TV shows on his records. He has adopted the nickname Tony Starks as one of his numerous alter-egos, and was featured in a scene deleted from the Iron Man film.
Paul McCartney's song "Magneto and Titanium Man" was inspired by the X-Men's nemesis and the original version of the Iron Man villain. Another Iron Man villain, the Crimson Dynamo, is mentioned in the lyrics to this song.
The British band Razorlight mentions Tony Stark in a verse of their song, "Hang By, Hang By".
The character of Nathan Stark on the television show Eureka is inspired by Tony Stark.
In 2011, IGN ranked Iron Man 12th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.
Two Iron Man-themed trucks compete in the Monster Jam monster truck racing series. Debuted in Atlanta on 9 January 2010, they are driven by Lee O' Donnell and Morgan Kane.
In 2015, University of Central Florida engineering student Albert Manero, who builds and donates affordable 3D-printed bionic limbs to those in need, constructed a bionic arm based on Iron Man's suit for 7-year-old Alex Pring, a superhero fan who was born with a partially formed right arm. He then delivered the Iron Man arm to Pring with the help of Robert Downey Jr. in character as Tony Stark.
For Major League Baseball Players Weekend in August 2018, New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres designed his custom cleats after Iron Man's suit.
A TV show demonstrated a hovering bullet-mitigating suit with some of the official Marvel design features in 2019.
See also
List of Iron Man enemies
Jetpack man
References
Further reading
Will Cooley and Mark C. Rogers, "Ike's Nightmare: Iron Man and the Military-Industrial Complex," in Ages of Iron Man, Joseph Dorowski, ed., 2015.
Tom DeFalco, Avengers: The Ultimate Guide, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Mark D. White (ed.), Iron Man and Philosophy: Facing the Stark Reality, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
External links
"Stark Reality: A Different Hero for Different Times" by Ian Chant - PopMatters.com
Advanced Iron (fanzine)
Iron Man Library
Tony Stark at Spider-Man Wiki
Avengers (comics) characters
Characters created by Don Heck
Characters created by Jack Kirby
Characters created by Larry Lieber
Characters created by Stan Lee
Cold War in popular culture
Comics characters introduced in 1963
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Fictional alcohol abusers
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Fictional business executives
Fictional characters from New York City
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Fictional electronic engineers
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Marvel Comics adapted into films
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Marvel Comics American superheroes
Marvel Comics film characters
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Superheroes who are adopted
Telepresence in fiction
Fictional hackers
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[
"Richard Gonzalez (born February 3, 1966) is an American professional stock car racing driver who competed in one NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race in 2004 and a number of ARCA Re/Max Series races from 2004 to 2007. He became the first Hispanic-American driver to compete in ARCA.\n\nRacing career\n\nEarly career and Truck Series\nGonzalez began getting interested in racing when he watched a race at Flemington Speedway that his father's friend was competing in. Gonzalez started racing motorcross bikes and then moved up the racing ladder, where he next would race go-karts, microstocks, and legends cars. He then competed in the American Race Trucks Series and the now-defunct NASCAR Goody's Dash Series. In order to have enough money to move up the ranks, Gonzalez had to sell his old equipment from the previous series he raced in as well as his own personal motorcycle.\n\nGonzalez reached the Craftsman Truck Series in 2004 and would attempt two races for Troxell Racing in a partnership with Rick Ware Racing. Driving their No. 93 Dodge, he failed to qualify in his first attempt at Martinsville. In the next race at Mansfield, which was his other start, he did qualify for the race and finished 26th, nine laps down. \n\nGonzalez's next race of the year was scheduled to be in the Busch Series' race at IRP, the Kroger 200, in August. It would have been his debut in that series. He was to drive for a team called Coqui Motorsports. This planned start did not happen, and Gonzalez would never get to make a start in the Busch Series. Also, Coqui was a new team that had never made any Busch starts before, and never would get to after this deal fell through. Gonzalez would not make another start in the Truck Series either, and the rest of his stock car starts came in the ARCA Re/Max Series.\n\nARCA\nHe made his ARCA debut at Chicago in Wayne Peterson Racing's No. 06 Chevrolet, and would make one other start in that car in the next race at Salem. He crashed out of both races and would finish 27th and 26th, respectively. With these starts, Gonzalez became the first Hispanic American to start an ARCA race. In 2005, Gonzalez would run full-time and for rookie of the year with the Peterson team split between their various entries (No. 6, No. 16 and No. 06). He was not eligible to run at Daytona, so his first start of the year came in the second race of the season at Nashville, which he did not qualify for along with a staggering twelve other races. The Peterson team was underfunded and had to start and park in a large number of Gonzalez's starts. In the race at Pocono which Gonzalez was going to run the full race in, he was running in the top 10 until he suffered a broken transmission and radiator and did not finish the race. For the final two races of the season, Gonzalez fielded his own team instead. Although he had his own car and equipment, he still used Peterson's car numbers (No. 06 at Salem and No. 16 at Talladega) and owner points. Gonzalez's team partnered with Lafferty Motorsports to field his Talladega entry.\n\nGonzalez would not make any NASCAR or ARCA starts in 2006, but did return in 2007 in ARCA, when he attempted three races. He first returned to the Peterson team, with a DNQ in the No. 0 at Nashville. The first race in which he did qualify for was at the Milwaukee Mile, where the team got to run the full race in Darrell Basham's No. 94 car thanks to support from Richardson-Netzloff-Harmon Racing (co-owned by driver Mike Harmon, who at the time was competing in ARCA full-time). Although Gonzalez finished eight laps down, he picked up a solid 18th-place finish. He returned to the same car the following race at Gateway, which was without RNH support. Gonzalez failed to qualify the No. 94, but was given a chance to return to the Peterson No. 0 again when team owner-driver Wayne Peterson stepped out of the start and park ride for Gonzalez, who would do the same. This would end up being Gonzalez's last ARCA start.\n\nPersonal life\nGonzalez is of Puerto Rican descent and was a member of NASCAR's Diversity Council when he was competing in the sport. After being born in Aguada, Puerto Rico, he moved to South Plainfield, New Jersey. In his Truck Series debut in 2004 at Martinsville, Gonzalez was sponsored by two local businesses, one of which was located in his hometown of South Plainfield and the other one was in Manville, New Jersey. When he ran full-time in ARCA in 2005, he moved from New Jersey to Mooresville, North Carolina (near where most NASCAR teams are based) with the hopes of getting a ride in the NASCAR Busch or Truck Series again, which did not end up happening.\n\nMotorsports career results\n\nNASCAR\n(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)\n\nCraftsman Truck Series\n\nARCA Re/Max Series\n(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nLiving people\n1966 births\nPeople from South Plainfield, New Jersey\nSportspeople from Middlesex County, New Jersey\nRacing drivers from New Jersey\nNASCAR drivers\nAmerican sportspeople of Puerto Rican descent\nARCA Menards Series drivers",
"Kenny Hendrick (born September 10, 1969) is an American stock car racing driver. He is a former competitor in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and Craftsman Truck Series. He is the twin brother of former USAC midget car driver Kara Hendrick, who lost her life in a racing accident in October 1991.\n\nBusch Series\nHendrick made his Busch Series debut in 2003, when he ran a hodgepodge of entries. He made his debut at Gateway, where he started 30th for the Stanton Barrett Racing operation. He ran a solid race and came home 21st. He did a start and park race for GIC-Mixon Motorsports at Nazareth, before doing another start and park at Dover for Rick Allen. Hendrick would return then to the Stanton Barrett Racing for two more 2003 races. He was 35th at Nashville and 27th at Kentucky.\n\nHendrick was tapped to drive the first Keller Racing vehicles in 2004, a team that ran a ten-race schedule. The new team struggled. Hendrick only qualified for six races and his best finish was an 18th at Kentucky. The Kentucky race was the only one that Hendrick finished. He was released, and he would only compete in one more series race. It, too, came in 2004, when he drove the Ware Racing Enterprises Dodge to a 42nd-place finish in the fall Dover race.\n\nHe returned in 2008 at Mexico driving a second Stanton Barrett Motorsports car in place of Stan Barrett who was originally meant to race for the team. He qualified and finished 38th after pulling in with handling issues. He then drove at Richmond replacing the injured Larry Gunselman at MSRP Motorsports qualifying 40th and finishing 43rd after parking the car on lap 6. He made a second start for Stanton Barrett at Darlington starting 34th and finishing 36th after parking on lap 30.\n\nIn 2009, Hendrick drove for Smith-Ganassi Racing, a team that had bought the assets of the shut-down No. 40 team.\n\nCraftsman Truck Series\nHendrick ran four Craftsman Truck Series races in 1996 to start his career off. He started his career with a top-10 start: a 9th in his debut at Phoenix. He finished 28th in that race. His best run of the year was a modest 23rd-place finish at Las Vegas.\n\nFour more races were in store for Hendrick. He had one top-20 finish. That was a 19th at Texas, racing for Rob Rizzo. He had started the year off with the team, but after finishes of 29th and 24th, they let him go.\n\nHendrick would not race in this series until 2003, when he did a start and park effort in a second Billy Ballew Motorsports No. 9 entry. Because of the nature of the effort, Hendrick did not complete any of the dozen starts he did and his best finish was a 31st at IRP, where he also recorded his second career top-10 start of 10th.\n\nHendrick returned to the Trucks when he ran at Kansas Speedway in the No. 16 Xpress Motorsports truck on April 28, 2007.\n\nMotorsports career results\n\nSCCA National Championship Runoffs\n\nNASCAR\n(key) (Bold - Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics - Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)\n\nNextel Cup Series\n\nBusch Series\n\nCraftsman Truck Series\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nLiving people\n1969 births\nPeople from Chino, California\nRacing drivers from California\nNASCAR drivers\nTrans-Am Series drivers\nSCCA National Championship Runoffs winners"
] |
[
"Iron Man",
"First series",
"When did the first series start?",
"After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner"
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What was the comic about?
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What was the one-shot comic about?
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Iron Man
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After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series' indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man. Artist George Tuska began a decade long association with the character with Iron Man #5 (Sept. 1968). Writer Mike Friedrich and artist Jim Starlin's brief collaboration on the Iron Man series introduced Mentor, Starfox, and Thanos in issue #55 (Feb. 1973). Friedrich scripted a metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists. He then wrote the multi-issue "War of the Super-Villains" storyline which ran through 1975. Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978). Micheline and Layton established Tony Stark's alcoholism with the story "Demon in a Bottle", and introduced several supporting characters, including Stark's bodyguard girlfriend Bethany Cabe; Stark's personal pilot and confidant James Rhodes, who later became the superhero War Machine; and rival industrialist Justin Hammer, who was revealed to be the employer of numerous high-tech armed enemies Iron Man fought over the years. The duo also introduced the concept of Stark's specialized armors as he acquired a dangerous vendetta with Doctor Doom. The team worked together through #154 (Jan. 1982), with Michelinie writing three issues without Layton. Following Michelinie and Layton's departures, Dennis O'Neil became the new writer of the series and had Stark relapse into alcoholism. Much of O'Neil's work on this plot thread was based on experiences with alcoholics he knew personally. Jim Rhodes replaced Stark as Iron Man in issue #169 (April 1983) and wore the armor for the next two years of stories. O'Neil returned Tony Stark to the Iron Man role in issue #200 (Nov. 1985). Michelinie and Layton became the creative team once again in issue #215 (Feb. 1987). They crafted the "Armor Wars" storyline beginning in #225 (Dec. 1987) through #231 (June 1988). John Byrne and John Romita Jr. produced a sequel titled "Armor Wars II" in issues #258 (July 1990) to #266 (March 1991). The series had a crossover with the other Avengers related titles as part of the "Operation: Galactic Storm" storyline. CANNOTANSWER
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metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists.
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Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The character made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963), and received his own title in Iron Man #1 (May 1968). Also in 1963, the character founded the Avengers alongside Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp and the Hulk.
A wealthy American business magnate, playboy, philanthropist, inventor and ingenious scientist, Anthony Edward Stark suffers a severe chest injury during a kidnapping. When his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction, he instead creates a mechanized suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. Later, Stark develops his suit, adding weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company, Stark Industries. He uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man. Although at first concealing his true identity, Stark eventually publicly reveals himself to be Iron Man.
Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology and industry in the fight against communism. Subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War motifs to contemporary matters of the time.
Throughout most of the character's publication history, Iron Man has been a founding member of the superhero team the Avengers and has been featured in several incarnations of his own various comic book series. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated TV shows and films. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., appearing in the films Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008) in a cameo, Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). The character also appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
Iron Man was ranked 12th on IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes" in 2011 and third in their list of "The Top 50 Avengers" in 2012.
Publication history
Premiere
Iron Man's Marvel Comics premiere in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963) was a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, story-artist Don Heck, and cover-artist and character-designer Jack Kirby. In 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the "quintessential capitalist", a character that would go against the spirit of the times and Marvel's readership. Lee said:
He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies' man, but one with a secret that would plague and torment him as well. Writer Gerry Conway said, "Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just can't be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken. But there's a metaphor going on there. And that's, I think, what made that character interesting." Lee based this playboy's looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, "Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies' man and finally a nutcase." "Without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes," Lee said.
While Lee intended to write the story himself, a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the premiere issue to Lieber, who fleshed out the story. The art was split between Kirby and Heck. "He designed the costume," Heck said of Kirby, "because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts." In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had "a specific model for Tony Stark and the other characters?", Heck replied "No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the same kind of characters that Alex Toth liked, which was an Errol Flynn type." Iron Man first appeared in 13- to 18-page stories in Tales of Suspense, which featured anthology science fiction and supernatural stories. The character's original costume was a bulky gray armored suit, replaced by a golden version in the second story (issue #40 April 1963). It was redesigned as sleeker, red-and-golden armor in issue #48 (December 1963) by that issue's interior artist, Steve Ditko, although Kirby drew it on the cover. As Heck recalled in 1985, "[T]he second costume, the red and yellow one, was designed by Steve Ditko. I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing. The earlier design, the robot-looking one, was more Kirbyish."
In his premiere, Iron Man was an anti-communist hero, defeating various Vietnamese agents. Lee later regretted this early focus. Throughout the character's comic book series, technological advancement and national defense were constant themes for Iron Man, but later issues developed Stark into a more complex and vulnerable character as they depicted his battle with alcoholism (as in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline) and other personal difficulties.
From issue #59 (November 1964) to its final issue #99 (March 1968), the anthological science-fiction backup stories in Tales of Suspense were replaced by a feature starring the superhero Captain America. Lee and Heck introduced several adversaries for the character including the Mandarin in issue #50 (February 1964), the Black Widow in #52 (April 1964) and Hawkeye five issues later.
Lee said that "of all the comic books we published at Marvel, we got more fan mail for Iron Man from women, from females, than any other title ... We didn't get much fan mail from girls, but whenever we did, the letter was usually addressed to Iron Man."
Lee and Kirby included Iron Man in The Avengers #1 (September 1963) as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has since appeared in every subsequent volume of the series.
Writers have updated the war and locale in which Stark is injured. In the original 1963 story, it was the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, it was updated to be the first Gulf War, and in the 2000s updated again to be the war in Afghanistan. Stark's time with the Asian Nobel Prize-winning scientist Ho Yinsen is consistent through nearly all incarnations of the Iron Man origin, depicting Stark and Yinsen building the original armor together. One exception is the direct-to-DVD animated feature film The Invincible Iron Man, in which the armor Stark uses to escape his captors is not the first Iron Man suit.
Themes
The original Iron Man title explored Cold War themes, as did other Stan Lee projects in the early years of Marvel Comics. Where The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk respectively focused on American domestic and government responses to the Communist threat, Iron Man explored industry's role in the struggle. Tony Stark's real-life model, Howard Hughes, was a significant defense contractor who developed new weapons technologies. Hughes was an icon both of American individualism and of the burdens of fame.
Historian Robert Genter, in The Journal of Popular Culture, writes that Tony Stark specifically presents an idealized portrait of the American inventor. Where earlier decades had seen important technological innovations come from famous individuals (e.g., Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers), the 1960s saw new technologies (including weapons) being developed mainly by the research teams of corporations. As a result, little room remained for the inventor who wanted credit for, and creative and economic control over, their own creations.
Issues of entrepreneurial autonomy, government supervision of research, and ultimate loyalty figured prominently in early Iron Man stories—the same issues affecting American scientists and engineers of that era. Tony Stark, writes Genter, is an inventor who finds motive in his emasculation as an autonomous creative individual. This blow is symbolized by his chest wound, inflicted at the moment he is forced to invent things for the purposes of others, instead of just himself. To Genter, Stark's transformation into Iron Man represents Stark's effort to reclaim his autonomy, and thus his manhood. The character's pursuit of women in bed or in battle, writes Genter, represents another aspect of this effort. The pattern finds parallels in other works of 1960s popular fiction by authors such as "Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond), Mickey Spillane (Mike Hammer), and Norman Mailer, who made unregulated sexuality a form of authenticity."
Solo series
After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series's indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man.
This initial series ended with issue #332 (September 1996). Jim Lee, Scott Lobdell, and Jeph Loeb authored a second volume of the series which was drawn primarily by Whilce Portacio and Ryan Benjamin. This volume took place in a parallel universe and ran 13 issues (November 1996 – November 1997). Volume 3, whose first 25 issues were written by Kurt Busiek and then by Busiek and Roger Stern, ran 89 issues (February 1998 – December 2004). Later writers included Joe Quesada, Frank Tieri, Mike Grell, and John Jackson Miller. Issue #41 (June 2001) was additionally numbered #386, reflecting the start of dual numbering starting from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968. The final issue was dual-numbered as #434. The next Iron Man series, Iron Man vol. 4, debuted in early 2005 with the Warren Ellis-written storyline "Extremis", with artist Adi Granov. It ran 35 issues (January 2005 – January 2009), with the cover logo simply Iron Man beginning with issue #13, and Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., beginning issue #15. On the final three issues, the cover logo was overwritten by "War Machine, Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D.", which led to the launch of a War Machine ongoing series.
The Invincible Iron Man by writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca, began with a premiere issue cover-dated July 2008. For a seven-month overlap, Marvel published both volume four and volume five simultaneously. This Invincible volume jumped its numbering of issues from #33 to #500, cover dated March 2011, to reflect the start from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968.
After the conclusion of The Invincible Iron Man a new Iron Man series was started as a part of Marvel Now!. Written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Greg Land, it began with issue #1 in November 2012.
Many Iron Man annuals, miniseries, and one-shot titles have been published through the years, such as Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man (February 1996), Iron Man: The Iron Age #1–2 (August – September 1998), Iron Man: Bad Blood #1–4 (September – December 2000), Iron Man House of M #1–3 (September – November 2005), Fantastic Four / Iron Man: Big in Japan #1–4 (December 2005 – March 2006), Iron Man: The Inevitable #1–6 (February – July 2006), Iron Man / Captain America: Casualties of War (February 2007), Iron Man: Hypervelocity #1–6 (March – August 2007), Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #1–6 (November 2007 – April 2008), and Iron Man: Legacy of Doom (June – September 2008). Publications have included such spin-offs as the one-shot Iron Man 2020 (June 1994), featuring a different Iron Man in the future, and the animated TV series adaptations Marvel Action Hour, Featuring Iron Man #1–8 (November 1994 – June 1995) and Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1–12 (July 2007 – June 2008).
Fictional character biography
Origins
Anthony Edward Stark is the son of wealthy industrialist and head of Stark Industries, Howard Stark, and Maria Stark. A boy genius, he enters MIT at the age of 15 to study engineering and later receives master's degrees in engineering and physics. After his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his father's company.
Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured by enemy forces led by Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu orders Stark to build weapons, but Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow prisoner, Ho Yinsen, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work Stark had greatly admired during college, constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart. In secret, Stark and Yinsen use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor, which Stark uses to escape. During the escape attempt, Yinsen sacrifices his life to save Stark's by distracting the enemy as Stark recharges. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers and rejoins the American forces, on his way meeting a wounded American Marine fighter pilot, James "Rhodey" Rhodes.
Back home, Stark discovers that the shrapnel fragment lodged in his chest cannot be removed without killing him, and he is forced to wear the armor's chestplate beneath his clothes to act as a regulator for his heart. He must recharge the chestplate every day or else risk the shrapnel killing him. The cover story that Stark tells the news media and general public is that Iron Man is his robotic personal bodyguard, and corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fights threats to his company (e.g., Communist opponents Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo, and the Titanium Man), as well as independent villains like the Mandarin (who becomes his greatest enemy). No one suspects Stark of being Iron Man, as he cultivates a strong public image of being a rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable members of the series's supporting cast, at this point, are his personal chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan, and secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts—to both of whom he eventually reveals his dual identity. Meanwhile, James Rhodes finds his own niche as Stark's personal pilot, ultimately revealing himself to be a man of extraordinary skill and daring in his own right.
The series took an anti-Communist stance in its early years, which was softened as public (and therefore, presumably, reader) opposition rose to the Vietnam War. This change evolved in a series of storylines featuring Stark reconsidering his political opinions, and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the U.S. military. Stark shows himself to be occasionally arrogant, and willing to act unethically in order to 'let the ends justify the means'. This leads to personal conflicts with the people around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities. Stark uses his vast personal fortune not only to outfit his own armor, but also to develop weapons for S.H.I.E.L.D.; other technologies (e.g., Quinjets used by the Avengers); and the image inducers used by the X-Men. Eventually, Stark's heart condition is publicly discovered when he was summoned for a Congressional hearing and Stark collapsed when his chestpiece's power failed, causing a heart attack. Stark was medically examined, which revealed his hidden equipment, and was hospitalized, forcing Pepper to have Happy don his employer's armor to pose as Iron Man to protect his boss's secret identity. Eventually, that specific medical issue was resolved with an artificial heart transplant, which still required the chestplate for some time to support the replacement organ.
1970s and early 1980s
Stark expands on his armor designs and begins to build his arsenal of specialized armors for particular situations such as for space travel and stealth. Stark also develops a serious dependency on alcohol in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline. The first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them. At the same time, it is revealed that several minor supervillains armed with advanced weapons who had bedeviled Stark throughout his superhero career are in fact in the employ of Stark's business rival, Justin Hammer, who begins to plague Stark more directly. At one point in Hammer's manipulations, the Iron Man armor is taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man is not immediately under suspicion, Stark is forced to hand the armor over to the authorities. Eventually Stark and Rhodes, who is now his personal pilot and confidant, track down and defeat those responsible, although Hammer would return to bedevil Stark again. With the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe, his friends and his employees, Stark pulls through these crises and overcomes his dependency on alcohol. Even as he recovers from this harrowing personal trial, Stark's life is further complicated when he has a confrontation with Doctor Doom that is interrupted by an opportunistic enemy sending them back in time to the time of King Arthur. Once there, Iron Man thwarts Doom's attempt to solicit the aid of Morgan Le Fay, and the Latverian ruler swears deadly vengeance—to be indulged sometime after the two return to their own time. This incident was collected and published as Doomquest.
Some time later, a ruthless rival, Obadiah Stane, manipulates Stark emotionally into a serious relapse. As a result, Stark loses control of Stark International to Stane, becomes a homeless alcoholic vagrant and gives up his armored identity to Rhodes, who becomes the new Iron Man. Eventually, Stark recovers and joins a new startup, Circuits Maximus. Stark concentrates on new technological designs, including building a new set of armor as part of his recuperative therapy. Rhodes continues to act as Iron Man but steadily grows more aggressive and paranoid, due to the armor not having been calibrated properly for his use. Eventually Rhodes goes on a rampage, and Stark has to don a replica of his original armor to stop him. Fully recovered, Stark confronts Stane who has himself designed armor based on designs seized along with Stark International, dubbing himself the 'Iron Monger'. Defeated in battle, Stane, rather than give Stark the satisfaction of taking him to trial, commits suicide. Shortly thereafter, Stark regains his personal fortune, but decides against repurchasing Stark International until much later; he instead creates Stark Enterprises, headquartered in Los Angeles.
Late 1980s and 1990s
In an attempt to stop other people from misusing his designs, Stark goes about disabling other armored heroes and villains who are using suits based on the Iron Man technology, the designs of which were stolen by his enemy Spymaster. His quest to destroy the stolen technology—originally called "Stark Wars" but is more commonly known as the "Armor Wars"—severely hurts his reputation as Iron Man. After attacking and disabling a series of minor villains such as Stilt-Man, he attacks and defeats the government operative known as Stingray. The situation worsens when Stark realizes that Stingray's armor does not incorporate any of his designs. He publicly "fires" Iron Man while covertly pursuing his agenda. He uses the cover story of wanting to help disable the rogue Iron Man to infiltrate and disable the armor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives known as the Mandroids, as well as the armor of the Guardsmen. In the process, Iron Man and Jim Rhodes allow some of the villains in the Vault to escape. This leads the United States government to declare Iron Man a danger and an outlaw, and severely sours Stark's relationship with Steve Rogers (Captain America, who was in his "Captain" persona at the time). Iron Man travels to Russia where he inadvertently causes the death of the Soviet Titanium Man during a fight. Returning to the U.S., he faces an enemy commissioned by the government named Firepower. Unable to defeat him head on, Stark fakes Iron Man's demise, intending to retire the suit permanently. When Firepower goes rogue, Stark creates a new suit, claiming a new person is in the armor.
Soon after, Stark is nearly killed by Kathy Dare, a mentally unbalanced former lover. She shoots him dead center in his torso which injures his spine, paralyzing him. Stark undergoes special surgery to have a nerve chip implanted into his spine to regain his mobility. Unbeknownst to the industrialist, the nerve chip is a clandestine means by which to gain control over his body. Rival businessmen the Marrs Twins and their cohort Kearson DeWitt are behind the machinations in what came to be known as "Armor Wars II." After several successful tests by DeWitt at manipulating Stark, Tony finds that using his Encephalo Armor can counteract DeWitt's controls. In response, DeWitt suddenly releases his control resulting in excruciating agony throughout Stark's body. The constant "battle" for control of Stark's nervous system and subsequent abdication on DeWitt's end lead to massive nerve damage throughout Tony's body. Stark's nervous system continues its slide towards failure, and he constructs a "skin" made up of artificial nerve circuitry to assist it. Stark begins to pilot a remote-controlled Iron Man armor, but when faced with the Masters of Silence, the telepresence suit proves inadequate. Stark designs a more heavily armed version of the suit to wear, the "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit", which becomes known as the War Machine armor. Ultimately, the damage to his nervous system becomes too extensive. Faking his death, Stark places himself in suspended animation to heal as Rhodes takes over both the running of Stark Enterprises and the mantle of Iron Man, although he uses the War Machine armor. Stark eventually makes a full recovery by using a chip to create an entirely new (artificial) nervous system, and resumes as Iron Man in a new Telepresence Armor. When Rhodes learns that Stark has manipulated his friends by faking his own death, he becomes enraged and the two friends part ways. Rhodes continues on as War Machine in a solo career.
The Avengers story arc "The Crossing" reveals Iron Man as a traitor among the team's ranks, due to years of manipulation by the time-traveling dictator Kang the Conqueror. Stark, as a sleeper agent in Kang's thrall, kills Marilla, the nanny of Crystal and Quicksilver's daughter Luna, as well as Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, then Amanda Chaney, an ally of the Avengers. The "Avengers Forever" limited series retcons these events as the work of a disguised Immortus, not Kang, and that the mental control had gone back only a few months.
Needing help to defeat both Stark and Kang, the team travels back in time to recruit a teenaged Anthony Stark from an alternate timeline to assist them. The young Stark steals an Iron Man suit in order to aid the Avengers against his older self. The sight of his younger self shocks the older Stark enough for him to regain momentary control of his actions, and he sacrifices his life to stop Kang. The young Stark later builds his own suit to become the new Iron Man and remains in the present day.
During the battle with the creature called Onslaught, the teenage Stark dies, along with many other superheroes. Franklin Richards preserves these "dead" heroes in the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe, in which Stark is once again an adult hero; Franklin recreates the heroes in the pocket universe in the forms he is most familiar with rather than what they are at the present. The reborn adult Stark, upon returning to the normal Marvel Universe, merges with the original Stark, who had died during "The Crossing", but was resurrected by Franklin Richards. This new Anthony Stark possesses the memories of both the original and teenage Anthony Stark, and thus considers himself to be essentially both of them. With the aid of the law firm Nelson & Murdock, he regains his fortune and, with Stark Enterprises having been sold to the Fujikawa Corporation following Stark's death, sets up a new company, Stark Solutions. He returns from the pocket universe with a restored and healthy heart. After the Avengers reform, Stark demands a hearing be convened to look into his actions just prior to the Onslaught incident. Cleared of wrongdoing, he rejoins the Avengers.
2000s
At one point, Stark's armor becomes sentient despite fail-safes to prevent its increasingly sophisticated computer systems from doing so. Initially, Stark welcomes this "living" armor for its improved tactical abilities. The armor begins to grow more aggressive, killing indiscriminately and eventually desiring to replace Stark altogether. In the final confrontation on a desert island, Stark suffers another heart attack. The armor sacrifices its own existence to save its creator's life, giving up essential components to give Stark a new, artificial heart. This new heart solves Stark's health problems, but it does not have an internal power supply, so Stark becomes once again dependent on periodic recharging. The sentient armor incident so disturbs Stark that he temporarily returns to using an unsophisticated early model version of his armor to avoid a repeat incident. He dabbles with using liquid metal circuitry known as S.K.I.N. that forms into a protective shell around his body, but eventually returns to more conventional hard metal armors.
During this time, Stark engages in a romance with Rumiko Fujikawa, a wealthy heiress and daughter of the man who had taken over his company during the "Heroes Reborn" period. Her relationship with Stark endures many highs and lows, including infidelity with Stark's rival, Tiberius Stone, in part because the fun-loving Rumiko believes that Stark is too serious and dull. Their relationship ends with Rumiko's death at the hands of an Iron Man impostor in Iron Man vol. 3 #87.
In Iron Man vol. 3 #55 (July 2002), Stark publicly reveals his dual identity as Iron Man, not realizing that by doing so, he has invalidated the agreements protecting his armor from government duplication, since those contracts state that the Iron Man armor would be used by an employee of Tony Stark, not by Stark himself. When he discovers that the United States military is again using his technology, and its defective nature nearly causes a disaster in Washington, D.C. which Iron Man barely manages to avert, Stark accepts a Presidential appointment as Secretary of Defense. In this way, he hopes to monitor and direct how his designs are used.
In the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline, Stark is forced to resign after launching into a tirade against the Latverian ambassador at the United Nations, being manipulated by the mentally imbalanced Scarlet Witch, who destroys Avengers Mansion and kills several members. Stark publicly stands down as Iron Man, but continues using the costume. He joins the Avengers in stopping the breakout in progress from the Raft and even saves Captain America from falling. Tony changes the Avengers base to Stark Tower. The Ghost, the Living Laser and Spymaster reappear and shift Iron Man from standard superhero stories to dealing with politics and industrialism.
New Avengers: Illuminati #1 (June 2006) reveals that years before, Stark had participated with a secret group that included the Black Panther, Professor X, Mister Fantastic, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Namor. The goal of the group (dubbed the Illuminati by Marvel) was to strategize overarching menaces, in which the Black Panther rejects a membership offer. Stark's goal is to create a governing body for all superheroes in the world, but the beliefs of its members instead force them all to share vital information.
"Civil War"
In the "Civil War" storyline, after the actions of inexperienced superheroes the New Warriors result in the destruction of several city blocks in Stamford, Connecticut, there is an outcry across America against superhumans. Learning of the Government's proposed plans, Tony Stark suggests a new plan to instigate a Superhuman Registration Act. The Act would force every superpowered individual in the U.S. to register their identity with the government and act as licensed agents. The Act would force inexperienced superhumans to receive training in how to use and control their abilities, something in which Tony strongly believes. Since his struggle with alcoholism, Stark has carried a tremendous burden of guilt after nearly killing an innocent bystander while piloting the armor drunk. While Reed Richards and Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym both agree with Stark's proposal, not everyone does. After Captain America is ordered to bring in anyone who refuses to register, he and other anti-registration superheroes go rogue, coming into conflict with the pro-registration heroes, led by Iron Man. The war ends when Captain America surrenders to prevent further collateral damage and civilian casualties, although he had defeated Stark by defusing his armor. Stark is appointed the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and organizes a new government-sanctioned group of Avengers. Shortly afterwards, Captain America is assassinated while in custody. This leaves Stark with a great amount of guilt and misgivings about the cost of his victory.
"Secret Invasion"
To tie into the 2008 Iron Man feature film, Marvel launched a new Iron Man ongoing series, The Invincible Iron Man, with writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca. The series inaugural six-part storyline was "The Five Nightmares", which saw Stark targeted by Ezekiel Stane, the son of Stark's former nemesis, Obadiah Stane.
In the "Secret Invasion" storyline, after Tony Stark survives an attempt by Ultron to take over his body, he is confronted in the hospital by Spider-Woman, holding the corpse of a Skrull posing as Elektra. Realizing this is the start of an invasion by the Skrulls, Tony reveals the corpse to the Illuminati and declares that they are at war. After Black Bolt reveals himself as a Skrull and is killed by Namor, a squadron of Skrulls attack, forcing Tony to evacuate the other Illuminati members and destroy the area, killing all the Skrulls. Realizing that they are incapable of trusting each other, the members all separate to form individual plans for the oncoming invasion.
Stark is discredited and publicly vilified after his inability to anticipate or prevent the secret infiltration and invasion of Earth by the Skrulls, and by the Skrull disabling of his StarkTech technology, which had a virtual monopoly on worldwide defense. After the invasion, the U.S. government removes him as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and disbands the Avengers, handing control of the Initiative over to Norman Osborn.
"Dark Reign"
With his Extremis powers failing, Stark uploads a virus to destroy all records of the Registration Act, thus preventing Osborn from learning the identities of his fellow heroes and anything that Osborn could use, including his repulsor generators. The only copy of the database is in Stark's brain, which he tries to delete while on the run from Osborn. Stark goes so far as to inflict brain damage on himself in order to ensure that the relevant information is wiped. When Osborn catches up to the debilitated Stark and beats him savagely, Pepper Potts broadcasts the beatings worldwide, costing Osborn credibility and giving Stark public sympathy. Stark goes into a vegetative state, having previously granted Donald Blake (alter ego of the superhero Thor) power of attorney. A holographic message stored in Pepper's armor reveals that Stark had developed a means of 'rebooting' his mind from his current state prior to his destruction of the database, with Blake and Bucky resolving to use it to restore him to normal. Meanwhile, Stark is trapped in his subconscious, where figments of his own mind prevent him from returning to the waking world. When the procedure fails to work, Bucky calls in Doctor Strange, who succeeds in restoring Stark back to consciousness. The backup Stark created was made prior to the Civil War, and as such he does not remember anything that took place during the event, although he still concludes after reviewing his past actions that he would not have done anything differently. His brain damage means he is now dependent on an arc reactor to sustain his body's autonomous functions.
2010s
"Siege"
In the "Siege" storyline, Tony Stark is seen under the care of Dr. Donald Blake and Maria Hill when Asgard is attacked. Thor is ambushed by Osborn and the Sentry, but rescued by Hill. Osborn declares martial law and unleashes Daken and the Sentry on Broxton to root out Thor and Hill. Hill returns to Stark's hiding place to move him to a safer location and are joined by Speed of the Young Avengers, who has a set of Iron Man's MK III armor that Edwin Jarvis had given Captain America. While Osborn is battling the New Avengers, Stark appears and disables Osborn's Iron Patriot armor. Osborn orders the Sentry to annihilate Asgard, rather than allow the Avengers to have it. After Asgard falls, Stark stands alongside his fellow heroes, as Osborn exclaims they are all doomed and he 'was saving them from him' pointing up towards a Void-possessed Sentry. As the Void tears apart the teams, Loki gives them the power to fight back through the Norn Stones. The Void kills Loki, enraging Thor. Tony tells Thor to get the Void away from Asgard, which allows Tony to drop a commandeered H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarrier on the Void. Thor is forced to killed Sentry when the Void resurfaces. Sometime later, the Super-Human Registration Act is repealed and Tony is given back his company and armor. As a symbol for their heroics and their new unity, Thor places an Asgardian tower on Stark Tower where the Watchtower once stood.
"Heroic Age"
In the 2010–2011 "Stark: Resilient" storyline, Tony builds the Bleeding Edge armor with the help of Mister Fantastic. This new armor fully uses the repulsor tech battery embedded in his chest to power Tony's entire body and mind, thus allowing him access to Extremis once more. Furthermore, the battery operates as his "heart" and is the only thing keeping him alive. Tony announces he will form a new company, Stark Resilient. He states that he will no longer develop weapons, but will use his repulsor technology to give free energy to the world. Justine and Sasha Hammer create their own armored hero, Detroit Steel, to take Stark's place as the Army's leading weapons-builder. Stark's plan consists of building two repulsor-powered cars. The Hammers try to foil his efforts. The first car is destroyed by sabotage, while Detroit Steel attacks Stark Resilient's facilities while Tony tests the second car. Through a legal maneuver, Tony is able to get the Hammers to stop their attacks and releases a successful commercial about his new car.
"Fear Itself"
In the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, Earth is attacked by the Serpent, the God of Fear and the long-forgotten brother of Odin. In Paris, Iron Man fights Grey Gargoyle, who has become Mokk, Breaker of Faith, one of the Serpent's Worthy. Mokk leaves Iron Man unconscious and transforms Detroit Steel and the citizens of Paris into stone. To defeat the Serpent's army, Tony drinks a bottle of wine (thus 'sacrificing' his sobriety) to gain an audience with Odin, who allows Tony to enter the realm of Svartalfheim. Tony and the dwarves of Svartalfheim build enchanted weapons. Tony upgrades his armor with uru-infused enchantments and delivers the finished weapons to the Avengers, who use them for the final battle against the Serpent's forces. Iron Man watches as Thor kills the Serpent, but dies in the process. After the battle is over, Tony melts down the weapons he created and repairs Captain America's shield, which had been broken by Serpent, and gives it back to Captain America. During a subsequent argument with Odin about the gods' lack of involvement in the recent crisis, Odin gives Tony a brief opportunity to see the vastness of the universe the way he sees it. As thanks for Tony's role in the recent crisis, Odin restores all the people that the Grey Gargoyle killed during his rampage.
Return of the Mandarin and Marvel NOW!
In the storylines "Demon" and "The Long Way Down", Stark is subpoenaed by the U.S. government after evidence surfaces of him using the Iron Man armor while under the influence. Mandarin and Zeke Stane upgrade some of Iron Man's old enemies and send them to commit acts of terrorism across the world, intending to discredit Iron Man. General Bruce Babbage forces Stark to wear a tech governor, a device that allows Babbage to deactivate Stark's armor whenever he wants. To fight back, Tony undergoes a surgical procedure that expels the Bleeding Edge technology out of his body and replaces his repulsor node with a new model, forcing Babbage to remove the tech governor off his chest. He announces his retirement as Iron Man, faking Rhodes's death and giving him a new armor so that he becomes the new Iron Man. This leads into the next storyline, "The Future", in which the Mandarin takes control of Stark's mind and uses him to create new armored bodies for the alien spirits inhabiting his rings, but Stark allies himself with some of his old enemies, who have also been imprisoned by Mandarin, and manages to defeat him. The final issue of this storyline concluded Matt Fraction's series.
In the ongoing series that premiered in 2012 as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, Tony Stark has hit a technological ceiling. After the death of Dr. Maya Hansen and the destruction of all of the Extremis Version 2 kits that were being sold to the black market, Tony decides that the Earth is not safe without him learning more from what's in the final frontier. He takes his new suit, enhanced with an artificial intelligence named P.E.P.P.E.R. and joins Peter Quill and The Guardians of the Galaxy after helping them thwart a Badoon attack on Earth.
Superior Iron Man
Tony Stark's personality is inverted during the events of AXIS, bringing out more dark aspects of himself like irresponsibility, egotism and alcoholism. Stark relocates to San Francisco and builds a new, all-white armor. He supplies the citizens of San Francisco with the Extremis 3.0 app, a version of the techno-virus that offers beauty, health or even immortality, free. When every person in the city viewed Iron Man as a messiah for making their dreams come true, he ended the free trial mode and started charging a daily fee of $99.99, causing many to resort to crime to pay for the upgrade. Daredevil confronts Stark at his new Alcatraz Island penthouse, but is easily brushed off. Iron Man uses Extremis 3.0 to temporarily restore Daredevil's sight, just to prove his point. Daredevil deduces that Stark had added Extremis to the water supply and the phones only transmit an activation signal, but Stark subjects Murdock to minor brain damage to prevent him from sharing this revelation with others.
After discovering that new villain Teen Abomination is the son of Happy Hogan, Stark decides to help him, but this minor act of redemption is too late for Pepper Potts, who attacks Stark with the aid of an AI based on Stark's mind. This culminates in a confrontation between the two Starks, as Stark calls on the unwitting aid of all 'infected' with the Extremis upgrade while the AI uses Stark's various old armors to attack him. Although Stark technically wins the battle as he destroys his other armors and deletes the AI backup, Pepper states that she plans to reveal the truth about his goals with Extremis, bluntly informing him that if he continues his Extremis upgrade project, he will have to do it alone, accepting his fate of being regarded as a monster by all who know him.
Time Runs Out
During the "Time Runs Out" storyline, an attempt at reclaiming Wakanda from the Cabal that Namor had created to destroy incursive Earths results in Tony being held captive in the Necropolis. After the Cabal are apparently killed, the Illuminati free Tony, who is forced to flee due to the Illuminati's unwillingness to let Stark be there with them when they meet Rogers and the Avengers. When the Shi'ar and their allies arrive to destroy Earth, the Avengers and the Illuminati unsuccessfully try to retaliate. Iron Man uses Sol's Hammer to destroy the fleet. The incursions continue, and Rogers confronts Stark about what he knows. A fight ensues between them and Stark admits that he had lied and had known about the incursions all along. During the final incursion, Earth-1610's S.H.I.E.L.D. launches a full-scale attack on Earth-616, during which Stark and Rogers are crushed by a Helicarrier.
All-New, All-Different Marvel
After the events of the Secret Wars crossover, Stark returns to his normal self with no signs of his inverted personality. Eight months following the return of the universe as seen in the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event, Tony works in his laboratory non-stop after his position as an innovator had been put in doubt. Because an M.I.T. student reverse-engineered some of his technology, Stark develops a new armor which can change shape according to the situation he would find himself. When Stark's new AI F.R.I.D.A.Y. informs him that Madame Masque has broken into the ruins of Castle Doom, he travels to Latveria to investigate and runs into some revolutionaries who are then defeated by a man in a suit. To his amazement, Iron Man's armor computer identifies him as Doctor Doom with his face restored. Doctor Doom claims that he wanted to help Iron Man.
After learning from Doctor Doom that Madame Masque has taken a decoy of the Wand of Watoomb, Tony Stark confronts Madame Masque. Upon learning that Madame Masque is not allied with Doctor Doom, Tony is attacked by her with a burst of energy that damages his armor. F.R.I.D.A.Y. manages to gain control of the suit and takes Tony to a safe location. Iron Man tracks Madame Masque to Marina del Rey. After finding a tape recorder with her messages, Tony is attacked by several black silhouettes with swords.
Iron Man escapes the ninjas that are attacking him and manages to defeat most of them, but they kill themselves before he can interrogate any of them. Iron Man and Doctor Doom arrive at Mary Jane Watson's newest Chicago night club Jackpot when Madame Masque attacks it. As Mary Jane distracts Madame Masque by knocking off her mask, Iron Man and Doctor Doom discover that Madame Masque is possessed by a demon. Doctor Doom is able to perform an exorcism on her.
Doctor Strange arrives and tells Iron Man he will take Madame Masque with him to fix her metaphysically and then hand her over at S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man also informs him of Doctor Doom's help who had left the scene some time ago. Three days later, Iron Man offers Mary Jane a job to make up for the damage to her nightclub. After speaking with War Machine, Tony Stark meets up at a diner with Amara Perera when they are unexpectedly joined by Doctor Doom who wanted to make sure that the demonic possession that affected Madame Masque has not affected Stark or Amara. Stark shows Mary Jane the demonstration on the people that he will be working with. They are interrupted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. who tells Tony that War Machine is missing. Before heading to Tokyo, Tony receives from Mary Jane the emergency number for Peter Parker. In Tokyo, Iron Man is contacted by Spider-Man at War Machine's last known location as he is being observed by ninjas.
During the Civil War II storyline, Iron Man protests the logic of using precognitive powers to stop future crimes after the recently emerged Inhuman Ulysses predicted Thanos's attack on Project Pegasus. Three weeks later, Iron Man is summoned to the Triskelion after War Machine is killed in battle against Thanos. When Iron Man learns that War Machine and the Ultimates used Ulysses's power to ambush Thanos, he vows to stop anyone from using that power again. Iron Man infiltrates New Attilan and makes off with Ulysses. At Stark Tower, Iron Man vows to find out how Ulysses's precognition works. The Inhumans attack Stark Tower but are stopped by the Avengers, the Ultimates, and S.H.I.E.L.D. During the confrontation, Ulysses has another vision which he projects to Iron Man and everyone present, showing a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of the defeated superheroes. The heroes confront Banner, who is killed by Hawkeye. Barton claims that Banner was about to transform and Banner had previously asked Hawkeye to kill him if he should turn back into the Hulk. Tony is disgusted at this use of Ulysses's power. When his analysis of Ulysses brain is completed, Tony reveals that Ulysses does not actually see the future, but simply assembles large quantities of data to project likely outcomes. While Danvers continues to use the visions as a resource, Tony objects to the concept of profiling people. This results in a stand-off when Tony's side abducts a woman from custody after Ulysses's visions identified her as a deep-cover HYDRA agent, despite the lack of supporting evidence.
Iron Man learns that his biological mother was actually Amanda Armstrong, who had given him up for adoption and that his biological father was a Hydra double agent named Jude. S.H.I.E.L.D. had Armstrong's baby adopted by Howard and Maria Stark.
Marvel NOW! 2016
In July 2016, it was announced that Tony Stark would hand off the mantle of Iron Man to a 15-year-old girl named Riri Williams. Riri is an MIT student who built her own Iron Man suit out of scrap pieces and, as such, attracted Stark's attention. Early depictions of Williams' suit depict it without the Arc Reactor, but leaves the power source for the suit unclear. Another Iron Man-based series titled Infamous Iron Man debuted featuring Doctor Doom sporting his version of the Iron Man armor. This is revealed to be the result of serious injuries sustained by Stark during his final confrontation with Captain Marvel. Danvers' beating leaves Stark in a coma, but he is left alive due to unspecified experiments Stark has carried out on himself over the years.
Existing as an AI
Following the revelation that Stark experimented on himself at the end of Civil War II, Beast concludes that the only option is to let the experiments do their job in healing Tony and recover on his own. In Invincible Iron Man #1, an employee of Stark sends Riri Williams an artificial intelligence housing a copy of Tony Stark's consciousness to help her control and mentor in her own version of the Iron Man armor. This AI is directly copied from Tony's brain, granting sentience, with Williams commenting on Stark existing as a "techno-ghost". As an AI, Stark can walk around as a hard-light object and gains the ability to remote control his vast armory of Iron Man suits. In The Mighty Captain Marvel #3, the Tony Stark AI goes to Antarctica and visits Captain Marvel with the intent on settling their differences from the Second Civil War, she apologizes to him for her regrets, reconciles with him eventually and they become allies once more. Then in Secret Empire, the Tony Stark AI suits up as Iron Man once again and learns of Captain America's betrayal to Hydra and how he ended up like this. As Hydra tightens its grip across America, the Tony Stark AI leads a team known as the Underground to find the Cosmic Cubes to restore Rogers to his normal self. When things start to escalate, Tony and his crew go rogue and in search for answers for the Cube. As Iron Man and the Underground search for them they are intercepted by Captain America and his Hydra team. With both teams encountering each other, they are captured by the Ultron/Hank Pym hybrid, who forces both teams to sit at a dinner table. During "dinner", Ultron reveals information about the Hydra Avengers – such as Odinson working with Hydra to reclaim Mjolnir, Scarlet Witch being possessed by Chthon, and Vision being affected by an AI virus. Ultron argues that he is doing this because the Avengers have become less of a family over the years as so many of them jump to obey Captain America or Iron Man, despite past experience confirming that this is not always a good idea, but Tony counters that the only reason the team failed as a family was because of Hank's abuse towards Wasp. Enraged, Ultron is about to kill everyone, but Ant-Man is able to calm him down by arguing that Hank remains his own inspiration. Ultron allows the Underground to leave with the fragment, arguing that neither side should have an advantage over the other. Back in America, Hydra Supreme has put Namor in a position where he will be forced to sign a peace treaty that gives Rogers access to the Cosmic Cube fragment in Atlantis, but Hydra Supreme muses that he is unconcerned about who will acquire the fragments, as he has an inside man in the Underground. After the Mount was attacked by Thor and the resurrected Hulk led by Hydra, the Underground evacuated the civilians thanks to Hawkeye and the rest of the heroes. Captain America and Iron Man fight as the Mount collapses around them. The Tony Stark AI initiates the Mount's "Clean Slate Protocol", and blows up the Mount, killing Madame Hydra, then apologizes to Steve Rogers about their past differences, but the A.I survives and, in the aftermath, helps the heroes pull the pieces back together to take down Hydra. When Iron Man confronts Hydra Supreme, he and the other heroes are easily overpowered by him and watch the original Captain America defeat his Hydra self and into celebrating their victory.
Marvel Legacy
Mary Jane Watson and other Stark employees find that Stark's body has completely vanished from its pod, despite tests taken mere hours ago showing no sign of improvement or brain activity. It was discovered that Tony Stark's comatose body was taken to the Stark Industries Complex in Dover. Upon awakening when his biological systems rebooted, Tony Stark went into hiding until he fully recovered. Wanting to make sure that James Rhodes was in a similar state that he was in, Tony Stark exhumed his body from Arlington Cemetery and kick-started the biological systems in him. Afterwards, Iron Man and War Machine fought Hood to keep Stark Industries from falling into Hood's hands where he switched to a version of his Extremis armor. Then he proceeded to defeat Jude when he turned up alive.
During "The Ultron Agenda" arc, Iron Man went up against the Ultron/Hank Pym who begun a plan to merge humans with robots while taking up the name "Ultron Pym." Iron Man was briefly fused with his armor. After using Stark Unlimited's atomic separator on himself, Iron Man figured out that Hank Pym was dead the moment he accidentally fused with Ultron. Not wanting to prove Tony right, Ultron Pym surrendered to Iron Man and the Avengers. As it turned out that Iron Man actually died during the Civil War II storyline, Arno Stark used this to his advantage to acquire Stark Unlimited through a merger with Baintronics. With the combined resources, he built the Iron Man Armor Model 66 as his attempt to recreate the Godbuster Armor. Now having a new destiny, Arno Stark became the latest person to take on the Iron Man mantle.
Because of his revelation that he is now a simulated AI at the start of the "Iron Man 2020" storyline, Tony Stark became Mark One and started to establish the A.I. Army which also consists of Albert, Awesome Android, Egghead II, H.E.R.B.I.E., M-11, Machine Man, Machinesmith, Quasimodo, Super-Adaptoid, Walking Stiletto, the Dreadnoughts, a Sentinel, several Constructo-Bots, several Nick Fury LMDs, and an unnamed bomb disposal robot. This group of robots and androids want to obtain equal rights with organic beings through whatever way possible. Mark One provided them with a hideout on Floor Thirteen, a solid light construct that can only be accessed by robots and androids. With the establishment of Floor Thirteen, Mark One keeps the A.I. Army safe from their enemies and oppressors.
Powers, abilities, and equipment
Armor
Iron Man possesses powered armor that gives him superhuman strength and durability, flight, and an array of weapons. The armor is invented and worn by Stark (with occasional short-term exceptions). Other people who have assumed the Iron Man identity include Stark's long-time partner and best friend James Rhodes; close associates Harold "Happy" Hogan; Eddie March; (briefly) Michael O'Brien and Riri Williams.
The weapons systems of the suit have changed over the years, but Iron Man's standard offensive weapons have always been the repulsor rays that are fired from the palms of his gauntlets. Other weapons built into various incarnations of the armor include: the uni-beam projector in its chest; pulse bolts (that pick up kinetic energy along the way; so the farther they travel, the harder they hit); an electromagnetic pulse generator; and a defensive energy shield that can be extended up to 360 degrees. Other capabilities include: generating ultra-freon (i.e., a freeze-beam); creating and manipulating magnetic fields; emitting sonic blasts; and projecting 3-dimensional holograms (to create decoys).
In addition to the general-purpose model he wears, Stark has developed several specialized suits for space travel, deep-sea diving, stealth, and other special purposes. Stark has modified suits, like the Hulkbuster heavy armor. The Hulkbuster armor is composed of add-ons to his so-called modular armor, designed to enhance its strength and durability enough to engage the Hulk in a fight. A later model, created with the help of Odin and the Asgardian metal Uru, is similar to the Destroyer. Stark develops an electronics pack during the Armor Wars that, when attached to armors that use Stark technologies, will burn out those components, rendering the suit useless. This pack is ineffective on later models. While it is typically associated with James Rhodes, the War Machine armor began as one of Stark's specialty armors.
The most recent models of Stark's armor, beginning with the Extremis armor, are now stored in the hollow portions of Stark's bones, and the personal area networking implement used to control it is implanted into his forearm, and connected directly to his central nervous system.
The Extremis has since been removed, and he now uses more conventional armors. Some armors still take a liquid form, but are not stored within his body. His Endo-Sym Armor incorporates a combination of the liquid smart-metal with the alien Venom symbiote, psionically controlled by Stark.
Post-Secret Wars, Stark uses a more streamlined suit of armor that uses nanotechnology to shape shift into other armors or weapons.
Powers
After being critically injured during a battle with the Extremis-enhanced Mallen, Stark injects his nervous system with modified techno-organic virus-like body restructuring machines (the Extremis process). By rewriting his own biology, Stark is able to save his life, gain an enhanced healing factor, and partially merge with the Iron Man armor, superseding the need for bulky, AI-controlled armors in favor of lighter designs, technopathically controlled by his own brain. His enhanced technopathy extends to every piece of technology, limitless and effortlessly due to his ability to interface with communication satellites and wireless connections to increase his "range". Some components of the armor-sheath are now stored in Tony's body, able to be recalled, and extruded from his own skin, at will.
During the "Secret Invasion" storyline the Extremis package is catastrophically shut down by a virus, forcing him again to rely on the previous iteration of his armor, and restoring his previous limitations. Furthermore, Osborn's takeover of most of the few remaining Starktech factories, with Ezekiel Stane systematically crippling the others, limits Tony to the use of lesser, older and weaker armors.
After being forced to "wipe out" his brain to prevent Norman Osborn from gaining his information, Tony Stark is forced to have a new arc reactor, of Rand design installed in his chest. The process greatly improves his strength, stamina and intellect. The procedure left him with virtually no autonomic functions: as his brain was stripped of every biological function, Tony is forced to rely on a digital backup of his memories (leaving him with severe gaps and lapses in his long-term memory) and on software routine in the arc reactor for basic stimuli reaction, such as blinking and breathing. The Bleeding Edge package of armor and physical enhancement is now equal in power, if not a more advanced, version of the old Extremis tech.
Skills
Tony Stark is an inventive genius whose expertise in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science rivals that of Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner, and his expertise in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering surpasses even theirs. He is regarded as one of the most intelligent characters in the Marvel Universe. He graduated with advanced degrees in physics and engineering at the age of 17 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and further developed his knowledge ranging from artificial intelligence to quantum mechanics as time progressed. His expertise extends to his ingenuity in dealing with difficult situations, such as difficult foes and deathtraps, in which he is capable of using available tools, including his suit, in unorthodox but effective ways. For instance, in Stark's final confrontation with Obadiah Stane, the villain managed to have Stark's companions in an unconscious state in a room with motion sensors; when Stark entered the room, Stane warned him that the slightest move would trigger a fatal electrical current to his hostages, thus forcing Stark to stay still and slowly die of dehydration lest he wants his friends to die. However, while Stane was confident that such a trap was inescapable, Stark is able to outwit and defeat its mechanism in seconds, thus freeing the hostages and allowing him to continue the battle against Stane.
He is well respected in the business world, able to command people's attention when he speaks on economic matters, having over the years built up several multimillion-dollar companies from virtually nothing. He is noted for the loyalty he commands from and returns to those who work for him, as well as for his business ethics. Thus he immediately fired an employee who made profitable, but illegal, sales to Doctor Doom. He strives to be environmentally responsible in his businesses.
At a time when Stark was unable to use his armor for a period, he received some combat training from Captain America and has become physically formidable on his own when the situation demands it. In addition, Stark possesses great business and political acumen. On multiple occasions he reacquired control of his companies after losing them amid corporate takeovers.
Due to his membership in the Illuminati, Iron Man was given the Space Infinity Gem to safeguard. It allows the user to exist in any location (or all locations), move any object anywhere throughout the universe and warp or rearrange space.
Supporting characters
Other versions
1602
1602: New World features a 17th-century Spanish Iron Man named Lord Iron. Taken captive in the Holy Land during the English / Spanish war, he is forced to make weapons for them after being tortured by David Banner, the later Hulk of that world. He needs his massive armor to survive. The armor is powered by "lightning bottles" and provides him with super-strength and invulnerability as well as several electricity-powered
With his Moorish associate, Rhodes, Lord Iron is assigned by King James to put an end to the traitors and witchbreed in the New World. Instead, he realizes he has let bitterness consume him, and makes his peace with Banner. He is last seen using his armor to power the colony's printing press.
1872
The Secret Wars War Zone tie-in 1872 reimagines Tony in the Wild West. Tony was once a respected inventor who lives in the town of Timely. When the Union army used his repeating rifle to slaughter a large group of Confederates rather let them surrender, Tony spirals into alcoholism. After Sheriff Steve Rogers is murdered by Mayor Wilson Fisk and his cohorts, Tony builds a large suit of armor resembling the original Iron Man suit to aid Red Wolf in bringing him down. After Fisk is defeated, Tony dedicates his time to aiding the people of Timely with his new invention.
2020
Iron Man 2020 features Arno Stark as a mercenary in the employ of Sunset Bain. In 2012, Arno had traveled to the past in an effort to save his family from a madman's bomb. All he needs are the retinal patterns of the bomb maker, but he runs into the original Blizzard who mistakes him for the "real" Iron Man/Tony Stark. Not having time to deal with this threat, Arno kills Blizzard. While attempting to scan the retinal patterns of the young terrorist, Spider-Man snatches the scanner with his webbing and asks IM 2020 what he is doing. The two battle one another (Arno is "against the clock") when suddenly Arno is pulled back to his time to discover the bomb had a design flaw and exploded prematurely. His wife, son, employees, and factory have all been destroyed.
2093
Tony Stark and Doctor Doom are brought to the year 2093 by Merlin to stop a plot by a primarily robotic Doom and the Iron Man of 2093, Andros Stark. Andros is a psychotic madman and uses his grandfather Arno's armor. Tony defeats Andros while wielding the legendary sword Excalibur.
Andros Stark/Iron Man 2099 voiced by Alessandro Juliani would later be adopted into the second season of Iron Man: Armored Adventures with him being from the year 2099 and traveling back when Tony was a teenager before inventing a AI named "Vortex". Vortex dooms the entire human race with Andros donning a futuristic suit (classed "Hyperspace Mark XL") and the Extremis to kill Tony/Iron Man but goes to S.H.I.E.L.D. for assistance. Andros destroys Iron Man with his ultra-beam, afterward, Hawkeye managed to implant the virus on Andros's armor, and realized that all this is because Tony was trying to save himself by using the virus to stop Andros using his nano-virus which is actually the original seed for the Vortex virus. He travels back in time for a short moment to warn Iron Man that his nano-virus chips were actually the Vortex virus. He quickly destroys the last nano-virus arrow, saving Andros. As a result of this change in the timeline, the future was saved and because of this, Andros is erased from existence after saying his last words to his grandfather.
2099
In the Marvel 2099 line, the new Iron Man of that era is a man named Sonny Frisco. Despite piloting a normal-sized suit of Iron Man armor, Frisco actually suffers from dwarfism. He is a member of the Alchemax corporation's team of Avengers, and secretly uses the help of Vision, a woman with precognitive abilities.
3030
The Iron Man of 3030 is Tony Stark's biracial granddaughter, Rhodey Stark (named after Stark's close friend James Rhodes). She travels to the present in order to help the Avengers save Earth from a rogue planet that had been fired from the future, and departs after warning her grandfather that his life is in danger.
Adam Warlock
In Adam Warlock #2 (1972), Peter Parker's counterpart on Counter-Earth mentions that "the heart of Tony Stark beats unscathed".
Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse, Tony Stark is an agent of the Human High Council. The injury that compromised his heart is caused by the attack of a mutant.
Age of X
Officially code named Iron Man, he prefers the name Steel Corpse. Iron Man was infected by a disease, thought to be of mutant origin, that bonded him permanently to his armor. Not only can he never remove the armor, the disease is causing the armor to slowly consume his flesh, meaning that one day Tony Stark will cease to exist and only the armor will be left. He works with this reality's version of the Avengers to exterminate all mutants, but eventually rebels against his purpose when a 'Trojan horse' in the armor nearly drives him to kill innocent mutant children, forcing his teammates to kill him.
Avataars
In the sword and sorcery world of the Avataars: Covenant of the Shield miniseries, Iron Man's counterpart is Ironheart, one of the Champions of the Realm. A powerful warrior, he wears a huge suit of grey armor.
Bullet Points
In Bullet Points, Iron Man is Steve Rogers, who, due to the assassination of Dr. Abraham Erskine occurring earlier than in the mainstream Marvel universe, never receives the Super-Soldier formula. Instead, he agrees to be bonded to the prototype 'Iron Man' armor despite the intense physical pain and discomfort this will cause. Rogers is later killed fighting an alternative version of the Hulk. Tony Stark, in this reality a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., expresses a desire to continue in Rogers' footsteps as Iron Man, but is rejected owing to a heart condition. He later disobeys this command and adopts the mantle upon the arrival of Galactus.
Contest of Champions
The 2015 Contest of Champions series has a version of Tony Stark that won Civil War with nearly everything working out in his favor. Five years later, Tony has donned the Iron Patriot armor and is the President of the United States. He and his Mighty Avengers team are kidnapped by Maestro and placed onto Battleworld, where Maestro alters their memories to believe the remaining heroes are unregistered and need to be taken in. Their fight is interrupted by that universe's Thunderbolts (led by Steve Rogers). In the next issue, the Mighty Avengers battle the Thunderbolts and Renegade Champions, during which Tony kills Steve and reveals that the reason the Civil War went completely in his favor was because he used the Reality Gem from the Infinity Gauntlet. When he tries to use it again on Battleworld, it doesn't work because he's in a different dimension, and he's killed by Maestro.
Earth X
In the alternative reality of Earth X, Tony Stark builds a headquarters that protects himself from a plague that grants all humans superpowers. Afterwards, he builds the Iron Avengers. His headquarters is revealed to be a giant armor, based on the old Godzilla fighting mecha, the Red Ronin, which he uses to delay the Celestial attack until the coming of Galactus, sacrificing his life in the process. In Paradise X, he becomes part of the angelic Avenging Host of Marvel's "Paradise", with an Iron Man motif.
Earth-691
In the continuity of Earth-691, Tony Stark is devastated by the horrors of the Martian invasion and jettisons his technology into space. It is found by a primitive alien race who use it to become an interstellar menace calling themselves the Stark, who subsequently clash with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 31st century. "Standard" continuity Iron Man (Earth-616) encountered his "creations" when a cadre of rational, scientific members of the Stark called the Programmers bring Tony Stark to the future to help them solve various planet-wide problems.
Earth-2122
In the continuity of Earth-2122, the home of Crusader X, where the British won the American Revolution and still control North America, Anthony Stark is a member of a group called the Sons of Liberty. In this reality, Stark is willing to kill innocent people.
Earth-3490
In the continuity of Earth-3490, Tony Stark was born a woman (Natasha Stark) rather than a man; Stark's superhero alter-ego in this universe is Iron Woman. The Civil War between superheroes in Earth-3490 was averted due to the fact that Stark and Steve Rogers (Captain America) are romantically involved, and have since married.
Exiles
In Exiles, a villainous alternative Iron Man of Earth-2020 is a member of Weapon X, the more ruthless team of reality fixers. After ending up at the 'Crystal Palace' (the Exiles' headquarters) and fighting them there, he is eventually exposed and sent back to his own timeline where he is arrested by the Army for starting a world war.
In one alternative reality Tony Stark has become the absolute ruler of the entire planet Earth, and kills many of that Earth's heroes and mutants. Weapon X arrives on this reality to help him conquer Attilan, though their true purpose is to cause his downfall. Tony is eventually killed by Susan Storm.
In one alternative reality he is partners with both Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Octopus before he created the Iron Man suit.
On an alternative world devastated by the Hulk's Annihilation Wave, Iron Man was one of those killed in the attack. When the Exiles arrange for the dead heroes to be replaced by alternatives, Iron Man's replacement is a version of Spitfire, on the grounds that they have never got along with any alternative Tony Starks.
The Sons of Iron are a group of armor-wearing warriors from an Earth shared by humans and reptilian humanoids. Because they are completely concealed by the Iron Man armor, no-one can tell which they are.
Fantastic Four: The End
In the miniseries Fantastic Four: The End, which is set in a future where Reed Richards' technology has launched humanity into a golden age, Tony Stark has died long ago - but his consciousness survives, 'hopping' from artificial body to artificial body. Most of the bodies shown in the miniseries resemble Iron Man armors, often being identical to existing armors. One notable exception was the bulky, stocky space-armor which played an important role in the battle of humanity's heroes versus several alien armadas.
House of M
Born to Howard and Maria Stark, the heads of the powerful business conglomerate Stark Industries, Tony Stark grew to be an imaginative and brilliant inventor. He worked with his father from an early age, and surpassed his father's technical brilliance by the age of 16. Stark became the key supplier of hi-tech weaponry used to fight mutants, and was on the verge of a technological breakthrough when the Mutant-Human war came to an end. The suits are powered down to become part of a game called Robo Death Match, a television sport with giant robots fighting each other. Stark Industries scored its biggest victory when it secured the Sentinel production contracts, pushing major competitor, Jason Wyngarde, out of business. Erik Magnus and Sebastian Shaw awarded Tony the contract under the condition that he would hire Beast and Forge as observers. McCoy became a key contributor along with Doctor Pym on The Vision project. Tony secretly worked on a special project beneath Stark Industries: a brand new suit of hi-tech armor he planned to use as his new Robo Death Match suit.
Iron Man: The End
In the one-shot Iron Man: The End, an aging Tony Stark works on his greatest creation, a space elevator called "Big Jump." Stark faces retirement due to age and the physical toll of an illness, no longer allowing him to run his business "Stark Universal" and continue to be Iron Man. This leads to the need to groom a replacement.
Iron Maniac
Iron Maniac is an evil alternative universe version of Iron Man from Earth-5012. He first appeared in Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 #2, wearing armor that resembles that of Doctor Doom's. He comes from an alternative reality where most of the Avengers were killed when they encountered the vicious alien Titannus in space. While the team is rescued by the reserve Avengers five years later, it takes another five years to fight back the Trellions, the alien race that has brainwashed Titannus. During that time, a power-hungry Reed Richards turns his back on the surviving heroes. Scarred for life due to an attack from the Human Torch, Iron Man sets his own operation base in Latveria to "take over the world to save it from Richards." Richards somehow manages to banish him into Earth-616 Other differences between his world and Earth-616 include that there is no Spider-Man, and that Hank Pym is another version of the Hulk.
After being transported to Earth-616, Iron Maniac fights the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange, all of whom mistake him for their Doctor Doom. After unmasking himself, they learn his true identity, shortly before he manages to temporarily negate the FF's powers and escape, concluding that he has no reason to trust that they will not turn on him like the FF of his world did. Capturing a recently discovered mutant, the alternative Iron Man attempts to return to his home dimension by using the mutant as a power source, but is attacked by Spider-Man and X-23 as they investigate the situation. After the appearance of Captain America and Black Widow, he realizes that he is in an alternative world, but continues to fight the heroes, calling them all 'Richards' lackeys', proclaiming that he can't trust that they won't turn into 'villains' just as his own former allies did. He is defeated thanks to Spider-Man and X-23's use of their own version of the fastball special to destroy his equipment, shortly after 'warning' the other heroes of the Titannus War (by saying that he would not kill them now because it would be a kindness).
While the alternative Tony Stark is kept locked up and drugged in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, he is briefly visited by his counterpart in this universe, although he is unaware of the visit. Shortly after the alternative Stark is transferred to a conventional cell, Titannus soon arrives and fights the heroes, this time confronting a new group of Defenders assembled by Doctor Strange. When Titannus' comatose lover is revived, she tells him that she never loved him and that he was insane, causing Titannus to kill himself. The alternative Iron Man later discovers from Spider-Man and Wolverine that the Avengers were never massacred in space in this reality because the group had been disassembled; as a result, other heroes only encountered Titannus after he had attacked Tokyo in a rage, leaving the heroes who did encounter him less inclined to believe his story and averting the so-called 'Titannus War'.
Stark subsequently broke free from captivity, having immunized himself to the gas that was used to keep him sedated on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. In the process, he gained the unwilling alliance of the LMD Diamondback. Having convinced her that he is the "real" Tony, the AU Tony Stark erased her memories, reshaping the former LMD into an advanced suit of armor. This armor, even more advanced than the pre-Extremis suit Iron Man wore at that time, was able to replicate any weapon from the wearer's memory. He subsequently battled Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Luke Cage, but was only defeated after the sacrifice of rookie hero Freedom Ring, who kept Iron Maniac occupied long enough for Captain America to knock him out with a shield thrown at the back of his neck.
The name Iron Maniac is what he calls himself, due to being the "sole survivor of a sane world living in a backwards, insane world".
Iron Maniac is known to be at least partially cyberized, with armor plating implanted in his chest (revealed during his escape from the Helicarrier, when he is shot). It is unknown whether the rest of his body is similarly armored or if he possesses other cybernetic enhancements.
He has been briefly mentioned as being held in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier recently in The Irredeemable Ant-Man.
Iron Man Noir
In Iron Man Noir, Tony Stark is an industrialist in the 1930s. He is also an adventurer, whose exploits are recorded in Marvels: A Magazine Of Men's Adventure. He is initially accompanied by his associate James Rhodes, his personal assistant Giulietta Nefaria and his biographer Vergil Munsey. When Nefaria is revealed as working with the Nazis (specifically Baron Zemo and Baron von Strucker) and Vergil is killed, their role in the story is taken by Stark's new biographer Pepper Potts. His heart having been damaged on an earlier adventure, Stark keeps it going with repulsor technology installed and recharged by Stark Industries engineer Edwin Jarvis.
While investigating a mysterious power source in the ruins of Atlantis, Pepper Potts gets kidnapped by the Nazis and taken to their stronghold in Norway. To rescue her, Stark and Rhodes don suits of bulky power armour built by Jarvis, but are shocked to discover that 'Baron Zemo' is actually Tony's missing father Howard Stark, brainwashed by a unique chemical compound to serve the Nazis. Despite his depleted power supply, Tony manages to destroy the various suits of armor that Zemo had built for the Nazis, concluding that his father had died long ago, before returning to the USA.
Inter-company crossovers
In Marvel and DC's Amalgam Comics, Stark is merged with the Green Lantern Hal Jordan into the Iron Lantern. "Hal Stark" wears a suit resembling a green Iron Man armor, powered by a Green Lantern battery.
In the miniseries JLA/Avengers, Iron Man aids the Avengers in the battle against Starro the Conqueror. Afterwards, he creates a dimensional alarm in order to tell when invaders from another dimension come into their universe. After a brief scuffle with the JLA in the Savage Land, the Avengers are confronted by Metron, who gives Tony a Mother Box. Using this, Tony is able to get the Avengers to Metropolis, where the Avengers confront the JLA again. The Avengers escape, but Tony and Hawkeye manage to take Green Lantern's Power Battery before they leave, with Tony able to stop the Flash in his tracks. The two later take down Captain Atom and Green Arrow in order to collect the Casket of Ancient Winters. Tony then leaves and arrives to save Photon and Quasar from Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, allowing them to take the Spear of Destiny. After the battle in the Savage Land, Tony is one of the Avengers and is clueless as to the dimensional shifts that are happening around him. After Cap and Superman attack each other, Tony ends up in Metropolis. When the two worlds are briefly corrected by the Grandmaster, Tony is shown his true future with his alcoholism and his defeat by Obadiah Stane. Accepting this, he aids the JLA and the Avengers in the final battle and helped build the ship that took them to Krona's base. During the battle, he teams up with Kyle Rayner to create a weapon to use against their enemies and the two are shown to be impressed by one another, Kyle expressing his awe at Tony's engineering prowess and Tony asking Kyle where he could get a Green Lantern ring.
Mangaverse
In the Marvel Mangaverse reality, Tony Stark creates the original armor together with Dr. Ho Yinsen and acts as Iron Man for a time, but eventually vanishes after a battle with Namor, the Submariner. He is succeeded by Antoinette (Toni) Stark, his twin sister, a former agent of SHIELD, who turns Iron Man into a massive operation - a veritable army of Iron Men in many forms, with herself as Iron Woman. After she dies in battle against the Hulk, Tony Stark reveals himself again; he has gone underground after spinal cancer reduced him to a disembodied head hooked up to a life support system. However, he has designed a new armor, and a body that he can integrate with.
He also had designed four massive vehicles for the Avengers of his world to use, which could combine (in a manner resembling old fashioned combining super robots like Combattler V and Voltes V) into a skyscraper-sized Iron Man-mecha (Dubbed Ultimate Iron Man in its first appearance, then the Iron Avenger in its battle with the Hulk and finally simply called "the Avenger's mecha" in Volume 2 of the series). Unfortunately it was quickly destroyed by that world's Hulk. Apparently, however, it was rebuilt again by the time of the second volume, this time as a single robotic unit without transformation (or, if it was capable of transformation, it was never demonstrated). This unit helped fight off the giant Galactus spores, but was later destroyed, along with most of the Avengers, single-handedly by the Mangaverse version of Dr. Doom.
Marvel Adventures
The Marvel Adventures Iron Man is very similar to the Earth-616 Iron Man, but with some changes. Instead of suffering damage to his heart due to a booby trap in Vietnam, Tony Stark's heart was damaged when an experimental plane he was flying was brought down by AIM. AIM wanted Stark to build weapons and devices for them. Dr. Gia-Bao Yinsen aided Tony in escaping AIM, but Yinsen died saving his country from AIM. Iron Man does not seem to have problems with alcoholism, since the Marvel Adventures is aimed at a younger demographic. Iron Man's armor resembles his Extremis armor although Iron Man has other armors that fit over his regular armor, as in the case of his underwater armor.
Marvel Apes
The version of Iron Man appearing in the Marvel Apes mini-series is a mandrill, appropriately being named the Iron Mandrill. He is a member of the Apevengers. At one point, he is attacked by the zombified Wasp of the Marvel Zombies universe and infected, though he is later apparently cured when these events are undone via time travel.
Marvel Zombies
The first series
In the Marvel Zombies universe, Tony Stark has been infected by the zombie virus. Alongside a horde of starving undead superhuman zombies, Iron Man attacks the Silver Surfer. The attack is successful, but one of the Surfer's energy bolts hits Iron Man's lower torso, cutting him in half. The zombie "survives" this wound and later gains cosmic powers (including flight) by eating part of the Surfer's corpse. When Galactus arrives, Iron Man and the five other surviving zombies devour him. They are able to absorb Galactus' power, and call themselves "The Galacti".
Marvel Zombies 2
He also appears in Marvel Zombies 2, one of the small group of super-powered zombies that have eaten their way across all known space. Here Stark has had his entire lost lower body replaced with cybernetics. He also appears to have forgotten he had some design in the machine which opened a link to the Ultimate Universe. He was shocked to see Forge, one of the surviving X-Men, wearing his Mark I armored suit. The zombified Hulk kills Iron Man when he stomps through the armor, forcing Tony Stark's flesh and blood through any openings left in the armor. However Iron Man had recently revived next issue, but only as a cameo, on Marvel Zombies 3.
Marvel Zombies Return
In the final issue of Marvel Zombies 2, the remaining zombies are transported to another universe. At the point where the zombies reach this new reality, the period is nearly identical to the one where Tony Stark was an alcoholic. Zombie Giant Man infects Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and a number of other people at Stark Industries. A drunken Tony Stark lacks the will power to become Iron Man despite Pepper Potts' requests, so James Rhodes dons the suit to save him. Crucial to fate of the multiverse are the nanites that Stark has accidentally created, which destroy damaged flesh and tissue as a cure for cancer, and prove to be a potent weapon against the zombies. This was grafted onto Flint Marko's body. He sacrifices himself to kill several zombies in Stark Tower, with Rhodes permanently succeeding him in the role of Iron Man. His nanites are then used by his successor, now a member of the New Avengers, years later to kill the remaining super-powered zombies and end the inter-dimensional zombie threat.
MC2
In the alternative future of MC2, Tony Stark retires after the loss of many heroes in battle, but eventually creates the armored computer program Mainframe, which joins the next generation of Avengers.
Mini Marvels
Iron Man is a recurring character in "Mini Marvels". He appears in story arcs like "The Armored Avengers" & "World War Hulk". He is portrayed as conceited and thinks himself the best of the team. He has a friendly rivalry with Hawkeye.
Newuniversal
In the alternative world of newuniversal, Tony Stark is one of three humans altered by the Fireworks on April 26, 1953, gaining abilities associated with the Cipher glyph. Prior to the Fireworks, Stark is unexceptional, but he then becomes a technological genius. His discoveries revitalise his father's company, Stark Industries, and are "five years ahead of everything everyone else is working on". There are suggestions that he is capable of more, but is not making all of his discoveries public.
Stark's transformation is noticed by the National Security Agency's Project Spitfire, which is discreetly monitoring the superhumans created by the Fireworks. In March 1959, Stark's plane crashes in North Vietnam and he is imprisoned. He escapes by constructing an Iron Man suit from "spare parts" and flying out of the country.
On April 4, 1959, when he returns to the US, the NSA takes Stark to a San Diego naval base, ostensibly to debrief him. Stark is then shot dead by Philip L. Voight, a Project Spitfire agent, to prevent him from making contact with the other superhumans.
The Iron Man suit is seized by Project Spitfire and reverse engineered by Doctor Joe Swann, eventually becoming the basis of the project's H.E.X suit, an exoskeleton designed for combat with superhumans.
Ruins
In the two issue Warren Ellis series Ruins, Tony Stark is a rich industrialist who supplied weapons for the US military in an attempt to win the Vietnam War. This version of Iron Man was injured while mediating between US forces and pro-secessionist Californians by a piece of shrapnel thrown by the National Guard. This embittered Stark who formed a revolutionary cell named the Avengers. This version of Iron Man was betrayed by Scarlet Witch who provided the United States military information to crush the Avengers. Tony Stark is presumably killed.
Spider-Verse
In the Amazing Spider-Man comic's event Spider-Verse, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Scarlet Spider (Kaine) and Spider-man (Ben Reily) meet and fight a clone of Tony Stark (Earth-802) as Iron Man serving one of the Inheritors, Jennix.
Spider-Island
In a Secret Wars Warzone version of Spider-Island, he is mutated into one of the Spider Queen's spider minions and battles Agent Venom and the now monstrous Avengers. Venom sprays Tony with Norman Osborn's Green Goblin formula, freeing Tony from the Queen, but slowly making him insane. He modifies Norman's armor and becomes the Iron Goblin to aid the resistance. When they are surrounded by a number of spider creatures (including Giant Man) with few means of escape, Tony sacrifices himself using the Black Knight's Ebony Blade so he can aid them and die before the Goblin formula completely takes him over.
Spider-Gwen
In Spider-Gwen Tony Stark of Earth-65 is an arms dealer, the owner of global private military company WAR MACHINE, and owner of the coffee chain StarkBucks.
Spider-Man: Life Story
In Spider-Man: Life Story, Tony Stark/Iron Man does not face a traumatizing experience that leads to stop weapons manufacturing as his Earth-616 counterpart did instead he continues to produce them and play a key role in the Vietnam War and a World War III-esque conflict known as "The Russian War" as well as participating in Secret Wars while on Battleworld. Iron Man also became Secretary of Defense in the United States government and was one of the two leaders alongside Captain America in the Superhuman Civil War.
Squadron Supreme
In the Squadron Supreme series, the equivalent of Iron Man is Tucker Ford. Tucker was a very intelligent boy since his early years, however since being raised by his strong-willed mother along with never going to school with anyone his own age made Tucker to have difficulty to make any kind of meaningful personal relationship and because of this, he became very introverted.
As he grew up, he had built an imaginative world where he was a superhero. When trying to explain his imaginations to his therapist, they turned around and mocked him before their colleagues, however being unaware that Tucker had them under electronic surveillance. This experience motivated him to follow his dream and become a real superhero.
As a young adult, he built a powerful, but unstable armour made from nanotechnology in order to achieve his dream, eventually meeting the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury and offered his intelligence and company to Nick Fury to help defend America.
He fails to gain the affection of Nick Fury and to get a kiss from the spider-powered superhuman, Nell Ruggles, also known as Arachnophilia.
He offers to build a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier as a base for the organization and to be a member of the team in order to live out of his imagination. The only person that Tucker had the closest relationship with is Nell, expressing romantic feelings towards her.
Ultimate Marvel
What If
Newer Fantastic Four
In the timeline of What if: Newer Fantastic Four, the Fantastic Four were killed by De'Lila (a rogue Skrull) and the Hulk, so Spider-Man, the Ghost Rider and Wolverine joined together to avenge them as the New Fantastic Four. Thanos of Titan, as in the mainline universe, came into possession of the six Infinity Gems and became ruler of all reality, before erasing half of all living beings from existence. Among those who vanished was Ghost Rider, and, being present at the battle during which he was erased, Iron Man takes his place. The Newer Fantastic Four soon realize they are outmatched. Stark, with help from the Hulk, manages to salvage the empty armor of Ziran, a Celestial, and realizes it can be controlled by thoughts. Stark takes control of the armor and connects it to the Negative Zone, allowing him to call on all the power of that reality. Despite this, he is defeated by Thanos. Stark's sacrifice allows Wolverine to trick Thanos into a position where the Gauntlet could be removed. Spider-Man subsequently uses the Gauntlet to undo the damage Thanos had caused.
Iron Man: Demon in an Armor
In What If: Iron Man: Demon in an Armor, Tony Stark is Doom's college roommate rather than Reed Richards, inspiring Doom to develop a machine that allows him to transfer his mind into Stark's body while leaving Stark trapped in Doom's body with no memory of his past. While Doom uses Stark's connections and company to establish himself, the amnesic Stark- believing himself to be Doom- works to rebuild his life, creating his own company and forming his own reputation from the ground up. This culminates in a confrontation between the two wearing early versions of their respective armours- Doom having developed a green-and-silver Iron Man armour while Stark has created Doom's costume with gold and a red cloak-, during which Doom reveals the truth about their switch, only for Stark to reject the offer to switch back because Doom has destroyed the name of Tony Stark while Doctor von Doom has developed an honorable reputation.
Realm of Kings
In this one-shot, Quasar, the newly resurrected Protector of the Universe travels into the Fault, the immense tear which has appeared in the fabric of spacetime itself after the catastrophic battle between Vulcan and Black Bolt. Reaching what he perceives to be the other end of the tunnel that is the Fault, he arrives in another universe... a dark, twisted universe, the `corpse of a universe´, possessed by Lovecraftian horrors which are worshipped by all the denizens of that universe, including Earth's mightiest heroes. Iron Man is never seen outside his armor, but he, like the others, serves the "Many-angled ones" with total devotion.
X-Men Forever
In this alternative universe of X-Men Forever, Tony Stark, while still publicly the super-hero Iron Man, is also the head of the shadowy organization known as The Consortium. The scientific wing of the organization is headed by the Trask family, who turn out to be his relatives. They create newer versions of the Sentinels and kidnap mutants to use in experimentation to find the cause of the so-called "Burnout" syndrome that causes mutants to die early. However, as part of his efforts to undermine the Consortium's anti-mutant agenda, he becomes Nick Fury's insider and eventually sacrifices his life along with Beast. He assists Storm- who has been split into an amnesic child version of herself and an energy form with full memory and no body- by providing her energy self with a suit based on the now-deceased Black Panther so that her energy can maintain corporeal form, although he is subsequently killed by a twisted clone of Storm before he can reveal her existence to anyone else.
Mutant X
In Mutant X, Tony Stark is Iron Giant Man and part of the anti-mutant group the Avengers. He was later killed by X-Man Captain America along with the other Avengers.
Infinity Warps
During the Infinity Wars storyline, where the universe was combined in half, Iron Man was fused with Thor creating Iron Hammer. Sigurd Stark was the fifth richest person on the world thanks to his genius about technology, however due to his lack of memories before five years, taunted him driving to drink. After going through the Norvegian, he was attacked by some Dark Elves, lead by Krimson Kurse (fusion Crimson Dynamo and Kurse). He got poisoned by an arrow, slowing killing him and taken by the Elves to aid their other prisoner Eitri (fusion of Eitri and Ho Yinsen) in order to build powerful weapons for the Elves. Then, Sigurd became friend with Eitri and together build an armor, that prevented the poison from killing Sigurd, along with a hammer in order to escape the Dark Elves. However, during their escape Eitri is killed and after Sigurd defeated the Elves and Krimson Kurse, he discovered that Krimson was his lost friend who had turned into a Thrall to be a servant to Dark Elves and after that he mercy killed his friend. Sigurd then decided to the All-Father on Asgard to seek help into defeating Malekith (fusion of Malekith and Mandarin) and with the help of his AI assistant H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L. (fusion of Heimdall and J.A.R.V.I.S.) opened the B.I.F.R.O.S.T. and went to Asgard. When travelling, he remembered his old memories: his true name was Stark Odinson, who due to his arrogance, his father Howard Odin (fusion of Howard Stark and Odin) banished his son to Earth where he would learn to how is like to be a mortal. Upon arriving, Malekith had trapped the Aesir and had allied with Madame Hel (fusion of Madame Masque and Hela and Stane Odinson (fusion of Loki and Obadiah Stane). Luckily, Iron Hammer was able to defeat Malekith and Odin allowed his son to become a god again, however Sigurd refused, feeling better as a human.
In other media
In 1966, Iron Man was featured in a series of cartoons. In 1981, Iron Man guest appeared in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, but only as Tony Stark. He went on to feature again in his own series in the 1990s as part of the Marvel Action Hour with the Fantastic Four; Robert Hays provided his voice in these animated cartoons. Iron Man makes an appearance in the episode "Shell Games" of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.
Apart from comic books, Iron Man appears in Capcom's "Vs." video games, including Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Iron Man is a playable character in Iron Man, the 1992 arcade game Captain America and the Avengers, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and its sequel, and Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, as well as being featured as an unlockable character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and Tony Hawk's Underground. In the 2009 animated series, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, most of the characters, including Tony Stark, are teenagers. An anime adaptation aired in Japan in late 2010 as part of a collaboration between Marvel Animation and Madhouse, in which Stark, voiced by Keiji Fujiwara, travels to Japan where he ends up facing off against the Zodiac.
In 2008, a film adaptation titled Iron Man was released, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and directed by Jon Favreau. Iron Man received very positive reviews from film critics, grossing $318 million domestically and $585 million worldwide, and became the first in a series of over 20 films known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character of Tony Stark, again played by Robert Downey Jr., appeared at the end of the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk. Downey reprised his role in Iron Man 2 (2010), Marvel's The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
In 2009, Playtech released an online casino slot machine game called Iron Man. After that they created two more games, Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3.
In October 2016, Eoin Colfer released a young adult novel called Iron Man: The Gauntlet.
Cultural influence and legacy
The rapper Ghostface Killah, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, titled his 1996 debut solo album Ironman, and has since continued to use lyrics related to the Iron Man comics and samples from the animated TV shows on his records. He has adopted the nickname Tony Starks as one of his numerous alter-egos, and was featured in a scene deleted from the Iron Man film.
Paul McCartney's song "Magneto and Titanium Man" was inspired by the X-Men's nemesis and the original version of the Iron Man villain. Another Iron Man villain, the Crimson Dynamo, is mentioned in the lyrics to this song.
The British band Razorlight mentions Tony Stark in a verse of their song, "Hang By, Hang By".
The character of Nathan Stark on the television show Eureka is inspired by Tony Stark.
In 2011, IGN ranked Iron Man 12th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.
Two Iron Man-themed trucks compete in the Monster Jam monster truck racing series. Debuted in Atlanta on 9 January 2010, they are driven by Lee O' Donnell and Morgan Kane.
In 2015, University of Central Florida engineering student Albert Manero, who builds and donates affordable 3D-printed bionic limbs to those in need, constructed a bionic arm based on Iron Man's suit for 7-year-old Alex Pring, a superhero fan who was born with a partially formed right arm. He then delivered the Iron Man arm to Pring with the help of Robert Downey Jr. in character as Tony Stark.
For Major League Baseball Players Weekend in August 2018, New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres designed his custom cleats after Iron Man's suit.
A TV show demonstrated a hovering bullet-mitigating suit with some of the official Marvel design features in 2019.
See also
List of Iron Man enemies
Jetpack man
References
Further reading
Will Cooley and Mark C. Rogers, "Ike's Nightmare: Iron Man and the Military-Industrial Complex," in Ages of Iron Man, Joseph Dorowski, ed., 2015.
Tom DeFalco, Avengers: The Ultimate Guide, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Mark D. White (ed.), Iron Man and Philosophy: Facing the Stark Reality, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
External links
"Stark Reality: A Different Hero for Different Times" by Ian Chant - PopMatters.com
Advanced Iron (fanzine)
Iron Man Library
Tony Stark at Spider-Man Wiki
Avengers (comics) characters
Characters created by Don Heck
Characters created by Jack Kirby
Characters created by Larry Lieber
Characters created by Stan Lee
Cold War in popular culture
Comics characters introduced in 1963
Fictional adoptees
Fictional alcohol abusers
Fictional aerospace engineers
Fictional business executives
Fictional characters from New York City
Fictional cyborgs
Fictional electronic engineers
Fictional inventors
Fictional nuclear engineers
Fictional roboticists
Fictional socialites
Fictional technopaths
Iron Man characters
Marvel Comics adapted into films
Marvel Comics adapted into video games
Marvel Comics American superheroes
Marvel Comics film characters
Marvel Comics male superheroes
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents
Superheroes who are adopted
Telepresence in fiction
Fictional hackers
Fictional mechanics
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"What the Duck is a comic strip by Aaron Johnson that was produced from 2006 to 2016. It started as a webcomic, with the first strip posted in July 2006. The strip Is popular with photographers due to its accurate but humorously twisted take on the world of photography, and has been published in numerous photography magazines including Amateur Photographer. It was picked up for syndication in 2008 by Universal Press Syndicate under the name W. T. Duck.\n\nBackground\nThe main character of the comic strip is a professional photographer who is a duck. The strip was launched in July 2006, and was originally intended as content filler for the website of Johnson's band, Sweet Jelly, rather than as a serious endeavor. Johnson originally published a series of only five strips; shortly thereafter, word of the new strip spread across the internet via photography-related message boards. What the Duck continued to grow in popularity, eventually spawning its own website as well as a line of WTD-themed merchandise.\n\nOverview\nThe comic strip's witty humor and smart observations about photography have made it a favorite among many amateur and professional photographers. However, Johnson said that What the Duck is not just about photographers, but about creative professionals in general: the strip provides a sometimes-unique perspective about their lives and experiences, and represents a \"voice that isn’t always heard\".\n\nThe name of each strip is chosen by the author from those suggested by the readers in the comment section of the comic. The author approves of and even encourages people spreading the strips on the web.\n\nWhat the Duck has been described as having a \"minimalist\" style, utilizing \"clean lines, crisp colors, and witty, wry dialogue\". Because the characters are presented \"as is\", with little back story or character development, the humor in each strip is relatively easy to understand.\n\nSyndication\nJohnson submitted What The Duck to six major comic strip syndicates in December 2006.\nInitially, he was turned down by Universal Press Syndicate (UPS). However, Johnson attracted their attention with \"Syndicate Bingo\", in which he placed the responses of the comic syndicates on a bingo board posted on his website.\n\nUPS ultimately picked up What The Duck for syndication in 2008, but with the modified name, W.T. Duck. John Glynn, Vice President of Rights and Acquisitions for UPS, referred to Johnson as \"the first real 21st century cartoonist\".\n\nThe comic strip has been published in newspapers and magazines in the US, UK, Canada, South Africa, and Malaysia.\n\nBooks\nThe comic strips have also been published in two books: What the Duck, Rule of Nerds, published by Lulu.com in 2007; and What the Duck: A W.T. Duck Collection, published by Andrews McMeel Publishing in 2009.\n\nWhat the Duck merchandise is available through the official website.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \nWhat the Duck official Russian translations\nWhat the Duck comic strips explained for English learners\n\n2000s webcomics\n2010s webcomics\n2006 webcomic debuts\nAmerican comedy webcomics",
"What's New with Phil & Dixie is a gaming parody comic by Phil Foglio. What's New was Foglio's first comic, and was published in the magazines Dragon and The Duelist, as well as in print collections and online.\n\nPremise \nThe comic stars Phil Foglio, along with Dixie Null, as they explore the world of gaming, particularly tabletop RPGs, with a mixture of reportage and advice to the reader. Strips created for The Duelist magazine focused on Magic: The Gathering.\n\nA long-running joke revolved around the often promised and often delayed \"Sex in D&D\" segment. This segment never appeared in magazine printings, but was finally written and included as additional material in one of the strip's book printings.\n\nOriginal magazine publications \nIn an interview, Foglio said that What's New was his start in comics, and was first published in Dragon magazine in 1980. In another interview, he said that he had done some covers for Dragon, and noted he could earn much more for similar effort if he added jokes.\n\nAccording to Wizards of the Coast, the current owners of Dragon, the comic first appeared in Dragon shortly before issue #50 and ran until issue #84 (i.e., in 1984), when Foglio stopped the comic to work on other projects. According to Wizards, characters from What's New appeared in another Foglio work, Another Fine Myth.\n\nWizards also states that What's New was revived for a run in The Duelist magazine, also published by Wizards of the Coast. It ran in The Duelist from 1993 to 1999, ending when publication of The Duelist ceased.\n\nAfter the end of The Duelist, the comic returned to Dragon and ran there from 1999 to 2003 (issues 265–311), plus a final \"farewell\" installment Dragon #359, the last issue of Dragon in print.\n\nBook printings and online publication \nThe entire run in Dragon, plus additional material, was published in two print collections by Palliard Press.\n\nIn 2001 a third volume was published by Studio Foglio collecting all the Duelist magazine strips, along with some bonus content.\n\nFrom 2007 to 2010, What's New was republished on Foglio's website as a weekly webcomic.\n\nReception \nThe author and blogger Cory Doctorow has said he loved What's New when he was a kid.\n\nReferences\n\nCitations\n\nComic references\nSource dates in these references refer to the original printing date. These comics were reprinted on Foglio's website between 2007 and 2010.\n\nExternal links\n Archive of all What's New with Phil and Dixie at Internet Archive\n \n\nAmerican comedy webcomics\nStudio Foglio titles\nWebcomics about fandom\nWebcomics from print"
] |
[
"Iron Man",
"First series",
"When did the first series start?",
"After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner",
"What was the comic about?",
"metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists."
] |
C_3f9a97ff3ea5470889d01b9c166015cc_0
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Was the comic well received?
| 3 |
Was the one-shot comic well received?
|
Iron Man
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After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series' indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man. Artist George Tuska began a decade long association with the character with Iron Man #5 (Sept. 1968). Writer Mike Friedrich and artist Jim Starlin's brief collaboration on the Iron Man series introduced Mentor, Starfox, and Thanos in issue #55 (Feb. 1973). Friedrich scripted a metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists. He then wrote the multi-issue "War of the Super-Villains" storyline which ran through 1975. Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978). Micheline and Layton established Tony Stark's alcoholism with the story "Demon in a Bottle", and introduced several supporting characters, including Stark's bodyguard girlfriend Bethany Cabe; Stark's personal pilot and confidant James Rhodes, who later became the superhero War Machine; and rival industrialist Justin Hammer, who was revealed to be the employer of numerous high-tech armed enemies Iron Man fought over the years. The duo also introduced the concept of Stark's specialized armors as he acquired a dangerous vendetta with Doctor Doom. The team worked together through #154 (Jan. 1982), with Michelinie writing three issues without Layton. Following Michelinie and Layton's departures, Dennis O'Neil became the new writer of the series and had Stark relapse into alcoholism. Much of O'Neil's work on this plot thread was based on experiences with alcoholics he knew personally. Jim Rhodes replaced Stark as Iron Man in issue #169 (April 1983) and wore the armor for the next two years of stories. O'Neil returned Tony Stark to the Iron Man role in issue #200 (Nov. 1985). Michelinie and Layton became the creative team once again in issue #215 (Feb. 1987). They crafted the "Armor Wars" storyline beginning in #225 (Dec. 1987) through #231 (June 1988). John Byrne and John Romita Jr. produced a sequel titled "Armor Wars II" in issues #258 (July 1990) to #266 (March 1991). The series had a crossover with the other Avengers related titles as part of the "Operation: Galactic Storm" storyline. CANNOTANSWER
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Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The character made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963), and received his own title in Iron Man #1 (May 1968). Also in 1963, the character founded the Avengers alongside Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp and the Hulk.
A wealthy American business magnate, playboy, philanthropist, inventor and ingenious scientist, Anthony Edward Stark suffers a severe chest injury during a kidnapping. When his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction, he instead creates a mechanized suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. Later, Stark develops his suit, adding weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company, Stark Industries. He uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man. Although at first concealing his true identity, Stark eventually publicly reveals himself to be Iron Man.
Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology and industry in the fight against communism. Subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War motifs to contemporary matters of the time.
Throughout most of the character's publication history, Iron Man has been a founding member of the superhero team the Avengers and has been featured in several incarnations of his own various comic book series. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated TV shows and films. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., appearing in the films Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008) in a cameo, Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). The character also appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
Iron Man was ranked 12th on IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes" in 2011 and third in their list of "The Top 50 Avengers" in 2012.
Publication history
Premiere
Iron Man's Marvel Comics premiere in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963) was a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, story-artist Don Heck, and cover-artist and character-designer Jack Kirby. In 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the "quintessential capitalist", a character that would go against the spirit of the times and Marvel's readership. Lee said:
He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies' man, but one with a secret that would plague and torment him as well. Writer Gerry Conway said, "Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just can't be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken. But there's a metaphor going on there. And that's, I think, what made that character interesting." Lee based this playboy's looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, "Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies' man and finally a nutcase." "Without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes," Lee said.
While Lee intended to write the story himself, a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the premiere issue to Lieber, who fleshed out the story. The art was split between Kirby and Heck. "He designed the costume," Heck said of Kirby, "because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts." In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had "a specific model for Tony Stark and the other characters?", Heck replied "No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the same kind of characters that Alex Toth liked, which was an Errol Flynn type." Iron Man first appeared in 13- to 18-page stories in Tales of Suspense, which featured anthology science fiction and supernatural stories. The character's original costume was a bulky gray armored suit, replaced by a golden version in the second story (issue #40 April 1963). It was redesigned as sleeker, red-and-golden armor in issue #48 (December 1963) by that issue's interior artist, Steve Ditko, although Kirby drew it on the cover. As Heck recalled in 1985, "[T]he second costume, the red and yellow one, was designed by Steve Ditko. I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing. The earlier design, the robot-looking one, was more Kirbyish."
In his premiere, Iron Man was an anti-communist hero, defeating various Vietnamese agents. Lee later regretted this early focus. Throughout the character's comic book series, technological advancement and national defense were constant themes for Iron Man, but later issues developed Stark into a more complex and vulnerable character as they depicted his battle with alcoholism (as in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline) and other personal difficulties.
From issue #59 (November 1964) to its final issue #99 (March 1968), the anthological science-fiction backup stories in Tales of Suspense were replaced by a feature starring the superhero Captain America. Lee and Heck introduced several adversaries for the character including the Mandarin in issue #50 (February 1964), the Black Widow in #52 (April 1964) and Hawkeye five issues later.
Lee said that "of all the comic books we published at Marvel, we got more fan mail for Iron Man from women, from females, than any other title ... We didn't get much fan mail from girls, but whenever we did, the letter was usually addressed to Iron Man."
Lee and Kirby included Iron Man in The Avengers #1 (September 1963) as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has since appeared in every subsequent volume of the series.
Writers have updated the war and locale in which Stark is injured. In the original 1963 story, it was the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, it was updated to be the first Gulf War, and in the 2000s updated again to be the war in Afghanistan. Stark's time with the Asian Nobel Prize-winning scientist Ho Yinsen is consistent through nearly all incarnations of the Iron Man origin, depicting Stark and Yinsen building the original armor together. One exception is the direct-to-DVD animated feature film The Invincible Iron Man, in which the armor Stark uses to escape his captors is not the first Iron Man suit.
Themes
The original Iron Man title explored Cold War themes, as did other Stan Lee projects in the early years of Marvel Comics. Where The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk respectively focused on American domestic and government responses to the Communist threat, Iron Man explored industry's role in the struggle. Tony Stark's real-life model, Howard Hughes, was a significant defense contractor who developed new weapons technologies. Hughes was an icon both of American individualism and of the burdens of fame.
Historian Robert Genter, in The Journal of Popular Culture, writes that Tony Stark specifically presents an idealized portrait of the American inventor. Where earlier decades had seen important technological innovations come from famous individuals (e.g., Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers), the 1960s saw new technologies (including weapons) being developed mainly by the research teams of corporations. As a result, little room remained for the inventor who wanted credit for, and creative and economic control over, their own creations.
Issues of entrepreneurial autonomy, government supervision of research, and ultimate loyalty figured prominently in early Iron Man stories—the same issues affecting American scientists and engineers of that era. Tony Stark, writes Genter, is an inventor who finds motive in his emasculation as an autonomous creative individual. This blow is symbolized by his chest wound, inflicted at the moment he is forced to invent things for the purposes of others, instead of just himself. To Genter, Stark's transformation into Iron Man represents Stark's effort to reclaim his autonomy, and thus his manhood. The character's pursuit of women in bed or in battle, writes Genter, represents another aspect of this effort. The pattern finds parallels in other works of 1960s popular fiction by authors such as "Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond), Mickey Spillane (Mike Hammer), and Norman Mailer, who made unregulated sexuality a form of authenticity."
Solo series
After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series's indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man.
This initial series ended with issue #332 (September 1996). Jim Lee, Scott Lobdell, and Jeph Loeb authored a second volume of the series which was drawn primarily by Whilce Portacio and Ryan Benjamin. This volume took place in a parallel universe and ran 13 issues (November 1996 – November 1997). Volume 3, whose first 25 issues were written by Kurt Busiek and then by Busiek and Roger Stern, ran 89 issues (February 1998 – December 2004). Later writers included Joe Quesada, Frank Tieri, Mike Grell, and John Jackson Miller. Issue #41 (June 2001) was additionally numbered #386, reflecting the start of dual numbering starting from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968. The final issue was dual-numbered as #434. The next Iron Man series, Iron Man vol. 4, debuted in early 2005 with the Warren Ellis-written storyline "Extremis", with artist Adi Granov. It ran 35 issues (January 2005 – January 2009), with the cover logo simply Iron Man beginning with issue #13, and Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., beginning issue #15. On the final three issues, the cover logo was overwritten by "War Machine, Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D.", which led to the launch of a War Machine ongoing series.
The Invincible Iron Man by writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca, began with a premiere issue cover-dated July 2008. For a seven-month overlap, Marvel published both volume four and volume five simultaneously. This Invincible volume jumped its numbering of issues from #33 to #500, cover dated March 2011, to reflect the start from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968.
After the conclusion of The Invincible Iron Man a new Iron Man series was started as a part of Marvel Now!. Written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Greg Land, it began with issue #1 in November 2012.
Many Iron Man annuals, miniseries, and one-shot titles have been published through the years, such as Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man (February 1996), Iron Man: The Iron Age #1–2 (August – September 1998), Iron Man: Bad Blood #1–4 (September – December 2000), Iron Man House of M #1–3 (September – November 2005), Fantastic Four / Iron Man: Big in Japan #1–4 (December 2005 – March 2006), Iron Man: The Inevitable #1–6 (February – July 2006), Iron Man / Captain America: Casualties of War (February 2007), Iron Man: Hypervelocity #1–6 (March – August 2007), Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #1–6 (November 2007 – April 2008), and Iron Man: Legacy of Doom (June – September 2008). Publications have included such spin-offs as the one-shot Iron Man 2020 (June 1994), featuring a different Iron Man in the future, and the animated TV series adaptations Marvel Action Hour, Featuring Iron Man #1–8 (November 1994 – June 1995) and Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1–12 (July 2007 – June 2008).
Fictional character biography
Origins
Anthony Edward Stark is the son of wealthy industrialist and head of Stark Industries, Howard Stark, and Maria Stark. A boy genius, he enters MIT at the age of 15 to study engineering and later receives master's degrees in engineering and physics. After his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his father's company.
Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured by enemy forces led by Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu orders Stark to build weapons, but Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow prisoner, Ho Yinsen, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work Stark had greatly admired during college, constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart. In secret, Stark and Yinsen use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor, which Stark uses to escape. During the escape attempt, Yinsen sacrifices his life to save Stark's by distracting the enemy as Stark recharges. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers and rejoins the American forces, on his way meeting a wounded American Marine fighter pilot, James "Rhodey" Rhodes.
Back home, Stark discovers that the shrapnel fragment lodged in his chest cannot be removed without killing him, and he is forced to wear the armor's chestplate beneath his clothes to act as a regulator for his heart. He must recharge the chestplate every day or else risk the shrapnel killing him. The cover story that Stark tells the news media and general public is that Iron Man is his robotic personal bodyguard, and corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fights threats to his company (e.g., Communist opponents Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo, and the Titanium Man), as well as independent villains like the Mandarin (who becomes his greatest enemy). No one suspects Stark of being Iron Man, as he cultivates a strong public image of being a rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable members of the series's supporting cast, at this point, are his personal chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan, and secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts—to both of whom he eventually reveals his dual identity. Meanwhile, James Rhodes finds his own niche as Stark's personal pilot, ultimately revealing himself to be a man of extraordinary skill and daring in his own right.
The series took an anti-Communist stance in its early years, which was softened as public (and therefore, presumably, reader) opposition rose to the Vietnam War. This change evolved in a series of storylines featuring Stark reconsidering his political opinions, and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the U.S. military. Stark shows himself to be occasionally arrogant, and willing to act unethically in order to 'let the ends justify the means'. This leads to personal conflicts with the people around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities. Stark uses his vast personal fortune not only to outfit his own armor, but also to develop weapons for S.H.I.E.L.D.; other technologies (e.g., Quinjets used by the Avengers); and the image inducers used by the X-Men. Eventually, Stark's heart condition is publicly discovered when he was summoned for a Congressional hearing and Stark collapsed when his chestpiece's power failed, causing a heart attack. Stark was medically examined, which revealed his hidden equipment, and was hospitalized, forcing Pepper to have Happy don his employer's armor to pose as Iron Man to protect his boss's secret identity. Eventually, that specific medical issue was resolved with an artificial heart transplant, which still required the chestplate for some time to support the replacement organ.
1970s and early 1980s
Stark expands on his armor designs and begins to build his arsenal of specialized armors for particular situations such as for space travel and stealth. Stark also develops a serious dependency on alcohol in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline. The first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them. At the same time, it is revealed that several minor supervillains armed with advanced weapons who had bedeviled Stark throughout his superhero career are in fact in the employ of Stark's business rival, Justin Hammer, who begins to plague Stark more directly. At one point in Hammer's manipulations, the Iron Man armor is taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man is not immediately under suspicion, Stark is forced to hand the armor over to the authorities. Eventually Stark and Rhodes, who is now his personal pilot and confidant, track down and defeat those responsible, although Hammer would return to bedevil Stark again. With the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe, his friends and his employees, Stark pulls through these crises and overcomes his dependency on alcohol. Even as he recovers from this harrowing personal trial, Stark's life is further complicated when he has a confrontation with Doctor Doom that is interrupted by an opportunistic enemy sending them back in time to the time of King Arthur. Once there, Iron Man thwarts Doom's attempt to solicit the aid of Morgan Le Fay, and the Latverian ruler swears deadly vengeance—to be indulged sometime after the two return to their own time. This incident was collected and published as Doomquest.
Some time later, a ruthless rival, Obadiah Stane, manipulates Stark emotionally into a serious relapse. As a result, Stark loses control of Stark International to Stane, becomes a homeless alcoholic vagrant and gives up his armored identity to Rhodes, who becomes the new Iron Man. Eventually, Stark recovers and joins a new startup, Circuits Maximus. Stark concentrates on new technological designs, including building a new set of armor as part of his recuperative therapy. Rhodes continues to act as Iron Man but steadily grows more aggressive and paranoid, due to the armor not having been calibrated properly for his use. Eventually Rhodes goes on a rampage, and Stark has to don a replica of his original armor to stop him. Fully recovered, Stark confronts Stane who has himself designed armor based on designs seized along with Stark International, dubbing himself the 'Iron Monger'. Defeated in battle, Stane, rather than give Stark the satisfaction of taking him to trial, commits suicide. Shortly thereafter, Stark regains his personal fortune, but decides against repurchasing Stark International until much later; he instead creates Stark Enterprises, headquartered in Los Angeles.
Late 1980s and 1990s
In an attempt to stop other people from misusing his designs, Stark goes about disabling other armored heroes and villains who are using suits based on the Iron Man technology, the designs of which were stolen by his enemy Spymaster. His quest to destroy the stolen technology—originally called "Stark Wars" but is more commonly known as the "Armor Wars"—severely hurts his reputation as Iron Man. After attacking and disabling a series of minor villains such as Stilt-Man, he attacks and defeats the government operative known as Stingray. The situation worsens when Stark realizes that Stingray's armor does not incorporate any of his designs. He publicly "fires" Iron Man while covertly pursuing his agenda. He uses the cover story of wanting to help disable the rogue Iron Man to infiltrate and disable the armor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives known as the Mandroids, as well as the armor of the Guardsmen. In the process, Iron Man and Jim Rhodes allow some of the villains in the Vault to escape. This leads the United States government to declare Iron Man a danger and an outlaw, and severely sours Stark's relationship with Steve Rogers (Captain America, who was in his "Captain" persona at the time). Iron Man travels to Russia where he inadvertently causes the death of the Soviet Titanium Man during a fight. Returning to the U.S., he faces an enemy commissioned by the government named Firepower. Unable to defeat him head on, Stark fakes Iron Man's demise, intending to retire the suit permanently. When Firepower goes rogue, Stark creates a new suit, claiming a new person is in the armor.
Soon after, Stark is nearly killed by Kathy Dare, a mentally unbalanced former lover. She shoots him dead center in his torso which injures his spine, paralyzing him. Stark undergoes special surgery to have a nerve chip implanted into his spine to regain his mobility. Unbeknownst to the industrialist, the nerve chip is a clandestine means by which to gain control over his body. Rival businessmen the Marrs Twins and their cohort Kearson DeWitt are behind the machinations in what came to be known as "Armor Wars II." After several successful tests by DeWitt at manipulating Stark, Tony finds that using his Encephalo Armor can counteract DeWitt's controls. In response, DeWitt suddenly releases his control resulting in excruciating agony throughout Stark's body. The constant "battle" for control of Stark's nervous system and subsequent abdication on DeWitt's end lead to massive nerve damage throughout Tony's body. Stark's nervous system continues its slide towards failure, and he constructs a "skin" made up of artificial nerve circuitry to assist it. Stark begins to pilot a remote-controlled Iron Man armor, but when faced with the Masters of Silence, the telepresence suit proves inadequate. Stark designs a more heavily armed version of the suit to wear, the "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit", which becomes known as the War Machine armor. Ultimately, the damage to his nervous system becomes too extensive. Faking his death, Stark places himself in suspended animation to heal as Rhodes takes over both the running of Stark Enterprises and the mantle of Iron Man, although he uses the War Machine armor. Stark eventually makes a full recovery by using a chip to create an entirely new (artificial) nervous system, and resumes as Iron Man in a new Telepresence Armor. When Rhodes learns that Stark has manipulated his friends by faking his own death, he becomes enraged and the two friends part ways. Rhodes continues on as War Machine in a solo career.
The Avengers story arc "The Crossing" reveals Iron Man as a traitor among the team's ranks, due to years of manipulation by the time-traveling dictator Kang the Conqueror. Stark, as a sleeper agent in Kang's thrall, kills Marilla, the nanny of Crystal and Quicksilver's daughter Luna, as well as Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, then Amanda Chaney, an ally of the Avengers. The "Avengers Forever" limited series retcons these events as the work of a disguised Immortus, not Kang, and that the mental control had gone back only a few months.
Needing help to defeat both Stark and Kang, the team travels back in time to recruit a teenaged Anthony Stark from an alternate timeline to assist them. The young Stark steals an Iron Man suit in order to aid the Avengers against his older self. The sight of his younger self shocks the older Stark enough for him to regain momentary control of his actions, and he sacrifices his life to stop Kang. The young Stark later builds his own suit to become the new Iron Man and remains in the present day.
During the battle with the creature called Onslaught, the teenage Stark dies, along with many other superheroes. Franklin Richards preserves these "dead" heroes in the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe, in which Stark is once again an adult hero; Franklin recreates the heroes in the pocket universe in the forms he is most familiar with rather than what they are at the present. The reborn adult Stark, upon returning to the normal Marvel Universe, merges with the original Stark, who had died during "The Crossing", but was resurrected by Franklin Richards. This new Anthony Stark possesses the memories of both the original and teenage Anthony Stark, and thus considers himself to be essentially both of them. With the aid of the law firm Nelson & Murdock, he regains his fortune and, with Stark Enterprises having been sold to the Fujikawa Corporation following Stark's death, sets up a new company, Stark Solutions. He returns from the pocket universe with a restored and healthy heart. After the Avengers reform, Stark demands a hearing be convened to look into his actions just prior to the Onslaught incident. Cleared of wrongdoing, he rejoins the Avengers.
2000s
At one point, Stark's armor becomes sentient despite fail-safes to prevent its increasingly sophisticated computer systems from doing so. Initially, Stark welcomes this "living" armor for its improved tactical abilities. The armor begins to grow more aggressive, killing indiscriminately and eventually desiring to replace Stark altogether. In the final confrontation on a desert island, Stark suffers another heart attack. The armor sacrifices its own existence to save its creator's life, giving up essential components to give Stark a new, artificial heart. This new heart solves Stark's health problems, but it does not have an internal power supply, so Stark becomes once again dependent on periodic recharging. The sentient armor incident so disturbs Stark that he temporarily returns to using an unsophisticated early model version of his armor to avoid a repeat incident. He dabbles with using liquid metal circuitry known as S.K.I.N. that forms into a protective shell around his body, but eventually returns to more conventional hard metal armors.
During this time, Stark engages in a romance with Rumiko Fujikawa, a wealthy heiress and daughter of the man who had taken over his company during the "Heroes Reborn" period. Her relationship with Stark endures many highs and lows, including infidelity with Stark's rival, Tiberius Stone, in part because the fun-loving Rumiko believes that Stark is too serious and dull. Their relationship ends with Rumiko's death at the hands of an Iron Man impostor in Iron Man vol. 3 #87.
In Iron Man vol. 3 #55 (July 2002), Stark publicly reveals his dual identity as Iron Man, not realizing that by doing so, he has invalidated the agreements protecting his armor from government duplication, since those contracts state that the Iron Man armor would be used by an employee of Tony Stark, not by Stark himself. When he discovers that the United States military is again using his technology, and its defective nature nearly causes a disaster in Washington, D.C. which Iron Man barely manages to avert, Stark accepts a Presidential appointment as Secretary of Defense. In this way, he hopes to monitor and direct how his designs are used.
In the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline, Stark is forced to resign after launching into a tirade against the Latverian ambassador at the United Nations, being manipulated by the mentally imbalanced Scarlet Witch, who destroys Avengers Mansion and kills several members. Stark publicly stands down as Iron Man, but continues using the costume. He joins the Avengers in stopping the breakout in progress from the Raft and even saves Captain America from falling. Tony changes the Avengers base to Stark Tower. The Ghost, the Living Laser and Spymaster reappear and shift Iron Man from standard superhero stories to dealing with politics and industrialism.
New Avengers: Illuminati #1 (June 2006) reveals that years before, Stark had participated with a secret group that included the Black Panther, Professor X, Mister Fantastic, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Namor. The goal of the group (dubbed the Illuminati by Marvel) was to strategize overarching menaces, in which the Black Panther rejects a membership offer. Stark's goal is to create a governing body for all superheroes in the world, but the beliefs of its members instead force them all to share vital information.
"Civil War"
In the "Civil War" storyline, after the actions of inexperienced superheroes the New Warriors result in the destruction of several city blocks in Stamford, Connecticut, there is an outcry across America against superhumans. Learning of the Government's proposed plans, Tony Stark suggests a new plan to instigate a Superhuman Registration Act. The Act would force every superpowered individual in the U.S. to register their identity with the government and act as licensed agents. The Act would force inexperienced superhumans to receive training in how to use and control their abilities, something in which Tony strongly believes. Since his struggle with alcoholism, Stark has carried a tremendous burden of guilt after nearly killing an innocent bystander while piloting the armor drunk. While Reed Richards and Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym both agree with Stark's proposal, not everyone does. After Captain America is ordered to bring in anyone who refuses to register, he and other anti-registration superheroes go rogue, coming into conflict with the pro-registration heroes, led by Iron Man. The war ends when Captain America surrenders to prevent further collateral damage and civilian casualties, although he had defeated Stark by defusing his armor. Stark is appointed the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and organizes a new government-sanctioned group of Avengers. Shortly afterwards, Captain America is assassinated while in custody. This leaves Stark with a great amount of guilt and misgivings about the cost of his victory.
"Secret Invasion"
To tie into the 2008 Iron Man feature film, Marvel launched a new Iron Man ongoing series, The Invincible Iron Man, with writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca. The series inaugural six-part storyline was "The Five Nightmares", which saw Stark targeted by Ezekiel Stane, the son of Stark's former nemesis, Obadiah Stane.
In the "Secret Invasion" storyline, after Tony Stark survives an attempt by Ultron to take over his body, he is confronted in the hospital by Spider-Woman, holding the corpse of a Skrull posing as Elektra. Realizing this is the start of an invasion by the Skrulls, Tony reveals the corpse to the Illuminati and declares that they are at war. After Black Bolt reveals himself as a Skrull and is killed by Namor, a squadron of Skrulls attack, forcing Tony to evacuate the other Illuminati members and destroy the area, killing all the Skrulls. Realizing that they are incapable of trusting each other, the members all separate to form individual plans for the oncoming invasion.
Stark is discredited and publicly vilified after his inability to anticipate or prevent the secret infiltration and invasion of Earth by the Skrulls, and by the Skrull disabling of his StarkTech technology, which had a virtual monopoly on worldwide defense. After the invasion, the U.S. government removes him as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and disbands the Avengers, handing control of the Initiative over to Norman Osborn.
"Dark Reign"
With his Extremis powers failing, Stark uploads a virus to destroy all records of the Registration Act, thus preventing Osborn from learning the identities of his fellow heroes and anything that Osborn could use, including his repulsor generators. The only copy of the database is in Stark's brain, which he tries to delete while on the run from Osborn. Stark goes so far as to inflict brain damage on himself in order to ensure that the relevant information is wiped. When Osborn catches up to the debilitated Stark and beats him savagely, Pepper Potts broadcasts the beatings worldwide, costing Osborn credibility and giving Stark public sympathy. Stark goes into a vegetative state, having previously granted Donald Blake (alter ego of the superhero Thor) power of attorney. A holographic message stored in Pepper's armor reveals that Stark had developed a means of 'rebooting' his mind from his current state prior to his destruction of the database, with Blake and Bucky resolving to use it to restore him to normal. Meanwhile, Stark is trapped in his subconscious, where figments of his own mind prevent him from returning to the waking world. When the procedure fails to work, Bucky calls in Doctor Strange, who succeeds in restoring Stark back to consciousness. The backup Stark created was made prior to the Civil War, and as such he does not remember anything that took place during the event, although he still concludes after reviewing his past actions that he would not have done anything differently. His brain damage means he is now dependent on an arc reactor to sustain his body's autonomous functions.
2010s
"Siege"
In the "Siege" storyline, Tony Stark is seen under the care of Dr. Donald Blake and Maria Hill when Asgard is attacked. Thor is ambushed by Osborn and the Sentry, but rescued by Hill. Osborn declares martial law and unleashes Daken and the Sentry on Broxton to root out Thor and Hill. Hill returns to Stark's hiding place to move him to a safer location and are joined by Speed of the Young Avengers, who has a set of Iron Man's MK III armor that Edwin Jarvis had given Captain America. While Osborn is battling the New Avengers, Stark appears and disables Osborn's Iron Patriot armor. Osborn orders the Sentry to annihilate Asgard, rather than allow the Avengers to have it. After Asgard falls, Stark stands alongside his fellow heroes, as Osborn exclaims they are all doomed and he 'was saving them from him' pointing up towards a Void-possessed Sentry. As the Void tears apart the teams, Loki gives them the power to fight back through the Norn Stones. The Void kills Loki, enraging Thor. Tony tells Thor to get the Void away from Asgard, which allows Tony to drop a commandeered H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarrier on the Void. Thor is forced to killed Sentry when the Void resurfaces. Sometime later, the Super-Human Registration Act is repealed and Tony is given back his company and armor. As a symbol for their heroics and their new unity, Thor places an Asgardian tower on Stark Tower where the Watchtower once stood.
"Heroic Age"
In the 2010–2011 "Stark: Resilient" storyline, Tony builds the Bleeding Edge armor with the help of Mister Fantastic. This new armor fully uses the repulsor tech battery embedded in his chest to power Tony's entire body and mind, thus allowing him access to Extremis once more. Furthermore, the battery operates as his "heart" and is the only thing keeping him alive. Tony announces he will form a new company, Stark Resilient. He states that he will no longer develop weapons, but will use his repulsor technology to give free energy to the world. Justine and Sasha Hammer create their own armored hero, Detroit Steel, to take Stark's place as the Army's leading weapons-builder. Stark's plan consists of building two repulsor-powered cars. The Hammers try to foil his efforts. The first car is destroyed by sabotage, while Detroit Steel attacks Stark Resilient's facilities while Tony tests the second car. Through a legal maneuver, Tony is able to get the Hammers to stop their attacks and releases a successful commercial about his new car.
"Fear Itself"
In the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, Earth is attacked by the Serpent, the God of Fear and the long-forgotten brother of Odin. In Paris, Iron Man fights Grey Gargoyle, who has become Mokk, Breaker of Faith, one of the Serpent's Worthy. Mokk leaves Iron Man unconscious and transforms Detroit Steel and the citizens of Paris into stone. To defeat the Serpent's army, Tony drinks a bottle of wine (thus 'sacrificing' his sobriety) to gain an audience with Odin, who allows Tony to enter the realm of Svartalfheim. Tony and the dwarves of Svartalfheim build enchanted weapons. Tony upgrades his armor with uru-infused enchantments and delivers the finished weapons to the Avengers, who use them for the final battle against the Serpent's forces. Iron Man watches as Thor kills the Serpent, but dies in the process. After the battle is over, Tony melts down the weapons he created and repairs Captain America's shield, which had been broken by Serpent, and gives it back to Captain America. During a subsequent argument with Odin about the gods' lack of involvement in the recent crisis, Odin gives Tony a brief opportunity to see the vastness of the universe the way he sees it. As thanks for Tony's role in the recent crisis, Odin restores all the people that the Grey Gargoyle killed during his rampage.
Return of the Mandarin and Marvel NOW!
In the storylines "Demon" and "The Long Way Down", Stark is subpoenaed by the U.S. government after evidence surfaces of him using the Iron Man armor while under the influence. Mandarin and Zeke Stane upgrade some of Iron Man's old enemies and send them to commit acts of terrorism across the world, intending to discredit Iron Man. General Bruce Babbage forces Stark to wear a tech governor, a device that allows Babbage to deactivate Stark's armor whenever he wants. To fight back, Tony undergoes a surgical procedure that expels the Bleeding Edge technology out of his body and replaces his repulsor node with a new model, forcing Babbage to remove the tech governor off his chest. He announces his retirement as Iron Man, faking Rhodes's death and giving him a new armor so that he becomes the new Iron Man. This leads into the next storyline, "The Future", in which the Mandarin takes control of Stark's mind and uses him to create new armored bodies for the alien spirits inhabiting his rings, but Stark allies himself with some of his old enemies, who have also been imprisoned by Mandarin, and manages to defeat him. The final issue of this storyline concluded Matt Fraction's series.
In the ongoing series that premiered in 2012 as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, Tony Stark has hit a technological ceiling. After the death of Dr. Maya Hansen and the destruction of all of the Extremis Version 2 kits that were being sold to the black market, Tony decides that the Earth is not safe without him learning more from what's in the final frontier. He takes his new suit, enhanced with an artificial intelligence named P.E.P.P.E.R. and joins Peter Quill and The Guardians of the Galaxy after helping them thwart a Badoon attack on Earth.
Superior Iron Man
Tony Stark's personality is inverted during the events of AXIS, bringing out more dark aspects of himself like irresponsibility, egotism and alcoholism. Stark relocates to San Francisco and builds a new, all-white armor. He supplies the citizens of San Francisco with the Extremis 3.0 app, a version of the techno-virus that offers beauty, health or even immortality, free. When every person in the city viewed Iron Man as a messiah for making their dreams come true, he ended the free trial mode and started charging a daily fee of $99.99, causing many to resort to crime to pay for the upgrade. Daredevil confronts Stark at his new Alcatraz Island penthouse, but is easily brushed off. Iron Man uses Extremis 3.0 to temporarily restore Daredevil's sight, just to prove his point. Daredevil deduces that Stark had added Extremis to the water supply and the phones only transmit an activation signal, but Stark subjects Murdock to minor brain damage to prevent him from sharing this revelation with others.
After discovering that new villain Teen Abomination is the son of Happy Hogan, Stark decides to help him, but this minor act of redemption is too late for Pepper Potts, who attacks Stark with the aid of an AI based on Stark's mind. This culminates in a confrontation between the two Starks, as Stark calls on the unwitting aid of all 'infected' with the Extremis upgrade while the AI uses Stark's various old armors to attack him. Although Stark technically wins the battle as he destroys his other armors and deletes the AI backup, Pepper states that she plans to reveal the truth about his goals with Extremis, bluntly informing him that if he continues his Extremis upgrade project, he will have to do it alone, accepting his fate of being regarded as a monster by all who know him.
Time Runs Out
During the "Time Runs Out" storyline, an attempt at reclaiming Wakanda from the Cabal that Namor had created to destroy incursive Earths results in Tony being held captive in the Necropolis. After the Cabal are apparently killed, the Illuminati free Tony, who is forced to flee due to the Illuminati's unwillingness to let Stark be there with them when they meet Rogers and the Avengers. When the Shi'ar and their allies arrive to destroy Earth, the Avengers and the Illuminati unsuccessfully try to retaliate. Iron Man uses Sol's Hammer to destroy the fleet. The incursions continue, and Rogers confronts Stark about what he knows. A fight ensues between them and Stark admits that he had lied and had known about the incursions all along. During the final incursion, Earth-1610's S.H.I.E.L.D. launches a full-scale attack on Earth-616, during which Stark and Rogers are crushed by a Helicarrier.
All-New, All-Different Marvel
After the events of the Secret Wars crossover, Stark returns to his normal self with no signs of his inverted personality. Eight months following the return of the universe as seen in the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event, Tony works in his laboratory non-stop after his position as an innovator had been put in doubt. Because an M.I.T. student reverse-engineered some of his technology, Stark develops a new armor which can change shape according to the situation he would find himself. When Stark's new AI F.R.I.D.A.Y. informs him that Madame Masque has broken into the ruins of Castle Doom, he travels to Latveria to investigate and runs into some revolutionaries who are then defeated by a man in a suit. To his amazement, Iron Man's armor computer identifies him as Doctor Doom with his face restored. Doctor Doom claims that he wanted to help Iron Man.
After learning from Doctor Doom that Madame Masque has taken a decoy of the Wand of Watoomb, Tony Stark confronts Madame Masque. Upon learning that Madame Masque is not allied with Doctor Doom, Tony is attacked by her with a burst of energy that damages his armor. F.R.I.D.A.Y. manages to gain control of the suit and takes Tony to a safe location. Iron Man tracks Madame Masque to Marina del Rey. After finding a tape recorder with her messages, Tony is attacked by several black silhouettes with swords.
Iron Man escapes the ninjas that are attacking him and manages to defeat most of them, but they kill themselves before he can interrogate any of them. Iron Man and Doctor Doom arrive at Mary Jane Watson's newest Chicago night club Jackpot when Madame Masque attacks it. As Mary Jane distracts Madame Masque by knocking off her mask, Iron Man and Doctor Doom discover that Madame Masque is possessed by a demon. Doctor Doom is able to perform an exorcism on her.
Doctor Strange arrives and tells Iron Man he will take Madame Masque with him to fix her metaphysically and then hand her over at S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man also informs him of Doctor Doom's help who had left the scene some time ago. Three days later, Iron Man offers Mary Jane a job to make up for the damage to her nightclub. After speaking with War Machine, Tony Stark meets up at a diner with Amara Perera when they are unexpectedly joined by Doctor Doom who wanted to make sure that the demonic possession that affected Madame Masque has not affected Stark or Amara. Stark shows Mary Jane the demonstration on the people that he will be working with. They are interrupted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. who tells Tony that War Machine is missing. Before heading to Tokyo, Tony receives from Mary Jane the emergency number for Peter Parker. In Tokyo, Iron Man is contacted by Spider-Man at War Machine's last known location as he is being observed by ninjas.
During the Civil War II storyline, Iron Man protests the logic of using precognitive powers to stop future crimes after the recently emerged Inhuman Ulysses predicted Thanos's attack on Project Pegasus. Three weeks later, Iron Man is summoned to the Triskelion after War Machine is killed in battle against Thanos. When Iron Man learns that War Machine and the Ultimates used Ulysses's power to ambush Thanos, he vows to stop anyone from using that power again. Iron Man infiltrates New Attilan and makes off with Ulysses. At Stark Tower, Iron Man vows to find out how Ulysses's precognition works. The Inhumans attack Stark Tower but are stopped by the Avengers, the Ultimates, and S.H.I.E.L.D. During the confrontation, Ulysses has another vision which he projects to Iron Man and everyone present, showing a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of the defeated superheroes. The heroes confront Banner, who is killed by Hawkeye. Barton claims that Banner was about to transform and Banner had previously asked Hawkeye to kill him if he should turn back into the Hulk. Tony is disgusted at this use of Ulysses's power. When his analysis of Ulysses brain is completed, Tony reveals that Ulysses does not actually see the future, but simply assembles large quantities of data to project likely outcomes. While Danvers continues to use the visions as a resource, Tony objects to the concept of profiling people. This results in a stand-off when Tony's side abducts a woman from custody after Ulysses's visions identified her as a deep-cover HYDRA agent, despite the lack of supporting evidence.
Iron Man learns that his biological mother was actually Amanda Armstrong, who had given him up for adoption and that his biological father was a Hydra double agent named Jude. S.H.I.E.L.D. had Armstrong's baby adopted by Howard and Maria Stark.
Marvel NOW! 2016
In July 2016, it was announced that Tony Stark would hand off the mantle of Iron Man to a 15-year-old girl named Riri Williams. Riri is an MIT student who built her own Iron Man suit out of scrap pieces and, as such, attracted Stark's attention. Early depictions of Williams' suit depict it without the Arc Reactor, but leaves the power source for the suit unclear. Another Iron Man-based series titled Infamous Iron Man debuted featuring Doctor Doom sporting his version of the Iron Man armor. This is revealed to be the result of serious injuries sustained by Stark during his final confrontation with Captain Marvel. Danvers' beating leaves Stark in a coma, but he is left alive due to unspecified experiments Stark has carried out on himself over the years.
Existing as an AI
Following the revelation that Stark experimented on himself at the end of Civil War II, Beast concludes that the only option is to let the experiments do their job in healing Tony and recover on his own. In Invincible Iron Man #1, an employee of Stark sends Riri Williams an artificial intelligence housing a copy of Tony Stark's consciousness to help her control and mentor in her own version of the Iron Man armor. This AI is directly copied from Tony's brain, granting sentience, with Williams commenting on Stark existing as a "techno-ghost". As an AI, Stark can walk around as a hard-light object and gains the ability to remote control his vast armory of Iron Man suits. In The Mighty Captain Marvel #3, the Tony Stark AI goes to Antarctica and visits Captain Marvel with the intent on settling their differences from the Second Civil War, she apologizes to him for her regrets, reconciles with him eventually and they become allies once more. Then in Secret Empire, the Tony Stark AI suits up as Iron Man once again and learns of Captain America's betrayal to Hydra and how he ended up like this. As Hydra tightens its grip across America, the Tony Stark AI leads a team known as the Underground to find the Cosmic Cubes to restore Rogers to his normal self. When things start to escalate, Tony and his crew go rogue and in search for answers for the Cube. As Iron Man and the Underground search for them they are intercepted by Captain America and his Hydra team. With both teams encountering each other, they are captured by the Ultron/Hank Pym hybrid, who forces both teams to sit at a dinner table. During "dinner", Ultron reveals information about the Hydra Avengers – such as Odinson working with Hydra to reclaim Mjolnir, Scarlet Witch being possessed by Chthon, and Vision being affected by an AI virus. Ultron argues that he is doing this because the Avengers have become less of a family over the years as so many of them jump to obey Captain America or Iron Man, despite past experience confirming that this is not always a good idea, but Tony counters that the only reason the team failed as a family was because of Hank's abuse towards Wasp. Enraged, Ultron is about to kill everyone, but Ant-Man is able to calm him down by arguing that Hank remains his own inspiration. Ultron allows the Underground to leave with the fragment, arguing that neither side should have an advantage over the other. Back in America, Hydra Supreme has put Namor in a position where he will be forced to sign a peace treaty that gives Rogers access to the Cosmic Cube fragment in Atlantis, but Hydra Supreme muses that he is unconcerned about who will acquire the fragments, as he has an inside man in the Underground. After the Mount was attacked by Thor and the resurrected Hulk led by Hydra, the Underground evacuated the civilians thanks to Hawkeye and the rest of the heroes. Captain America and Iron Man fight as the Mount collapses around them. The Tony Stark AI initiates the Mount's "Clean Slate Protocol", and blows up the Mount, killing Madame Hydra, then apologizes to Steve Rogers about their past differences, but the A.I survives and, in the aftermath, helps the heroes pull the pieces back together to take down Hydra. When Iron Man confronts Hydra Supreme, he and the other heroes are easily overpowered by him and watch the original Captain America defeat his Hydra self and into celebrating their victory.
Marvel Legacy
Mary Jane Watson and other Stark employees find that Stark's body has completely vanished from its pod, despite tests taken mere hours ago showing no sign of improvement or brain activity. It was discovered that Tony Stark's comatose body was taken to the Stark Industries Complex in Dover. Upon awakening when his biological systems rebooted, Tony Stark went into hiding until he fully recovered. Wanting to make sure that James Rhodes was in a similar state that he was in, Tony Stark exhumed his body from Arlington Cemetery and kick-started the biological systems in him. Afterwards, Iron Man and War Machine fought Hood to keep Stark Industries from falling into Hood's hands where he switched to a version of his Extremis armor. Then he proceeded to defeat Jude when he turned up alive.
During "The Ultron Agenda" arc, Iron Man went up against the Ultron/Hank Pym who begun a plan to merge humans with robots while taking up the name "Ultron Pym." Iron Man was briefly fused with his armor. After using Stark Unlimited's atomic separator on himself, Iron Man figured out that Hank Pym was dead the moment he accidentally fused with Ultron. Not wanting to prove Tony right, Ultron Pym surrendered to Iron Man and the Avengers. As it turned out that Iron Man actually died during the Civil War II storyline, Arno Stark used this to his advantage to acquire Stark Unlimited through a merger with Baintronics. With the combined resources, he built the Iron Man Armor Model 66 as his attempt to recreate the Godbuster Armor. Now having a new destiny, Arno Stark became the latest person to take on the Iron Man mantle.
Because of his revelation that he is now a simulated AI at the start of the "Iron Man 2020" storyline, Tony Stark became Mark One and started to establish the A.I. Army which also consists of Albert, Awesome Android, Egghead II, H.E.R.B.I.E., M-11, Machine Man, Machinesmith, Quasimodo, Super-Adaptoid, Walking Stiletto, the Dreadnoughts, a Sentinel, several Constructo-Bots, several Nick Fury LMDs, and an unnamed bomb disposal robot. This group of robots and androids want to obtain equal rights with organic beings through whatever way possible. Mark One provided them with a hideout on Floor Thirteen, a solid light construct that can only be accessed by robots and androids. With the establishment of Floor Thirteen, Mark One keeps the A.I. Army safe from their enemies and oppressors.
Powers, abilities, and equipment
Armor
Iron Man possesses powered armor that gives him superhuman strength and durability, flight, and an array of weapons. The armor is invented and worn by Stark (with occasional short-term exceptions). Other people who have assumed the Iron Man identity include Stark's long-time partner and best friend James Rhodes; close associates Harold "Happy" Hogan; Eddie March; (briefly) Michael O'Brien and Riri Williams.
The weapons systems of the suit have changed over the years, but Iron Man's standard offensive weapons have always been the repulsor rays that are fired from the palms of his gauntlets. Other weapons built into various incarnations of the armor include: the uni-beam projector in its chest; pulse bolts (that pick up kinetic energy along the way; so the farther they travel, the harder they hit); an electromagnetic pulse generator; and a defensive energy shield that can be extended up to 360 degrees. Other capabilities include: generating ultra-freon (i.e., a freeze-beam); creating and manipulating magnetic fields; emitting sonic blasts; and projecting 3-dimensional holograms (to create decoys).
In addition to the general-purpose model he wears, Stark has developed several specialized suits for space travel, deep-sea diving, stealth, and other special purposes. Stark has modified suits, like the Hulkbuster heavy armor. The Hulkbuster armor is composed of add-ons to his so-called modular armor, designed to enhance its strength and durability enough to engage the Hulk in a fight. A later model, created with the help of Odin and the Asgardian metal Uru, is similar to the Destroyer. Stark develops an electronics pack during the Armor Wars that, when attached to armors that use Stark technologies, will burn out those components, rendering the suit useless. This pack is ineffective on later models. While it is typically associated with James Rhodes, the War Machine armor began as one of Stark's specialty armors.
The most recent models of Stark's armor, beginning with the Extremis armor, are now stored in the hollow portions of Stark's bones, and the personal area networking implement used to control it is implanted into his forearm, and connected directly to his central nervous system.
The Extremis has since been removed, and he now uses more conventional armors. Some armors still take a liquid form, but are not stored within his body. His Endo-Sym Armor incorporates a combination of the liquid smart-metal with the alien Venom symbiote, psionically controlled by Stark.
Post-Secret Wars, Stark uses a more streamlined suit of armor that uses nanotechnology to shape shift into other armors or weapons.
Powers
After being critically injured during a battle with the Extremis-enhanced Mallen, Stark injects his nervous system with modified techno-organic virus-like body restructuring machines (the Extremis process). By rewriting his own biology, Stark is able to save his life, gain an enhanced healing factor, and partially merge with the Iron Man armor, superseding the need for bulky, AI-controlled armors in favor of lighter designs, technopathically controlled by his own brain. His enhanced technopathy extends to every piece of technology, limitless and effortlessly due to his ability to interface with communication satellites and wireless connections to increase his "range". Some components of the armor-sheath are now stored in Tony's body, able to be recalled, and extruded from his own skin, at will.
During the "Secret Invasion" storyline the Extremis package is catastrophically shut down by a virus, forcing him again to rely on the previous iteration of his armor, and restoring his previous limitations. Furthermore, Osborn's takeover of most of the few remaining Starktech factories, with Ezekiel Stane systematically crippling the others, limits Tony to the use of lesser, older and weaker armors.
After being forced to "wipe out" his brain to prevent Norman Osborn from gaining his information, Tony Stark is forced to have a new arc reactor, of Rand design installed in his chest. The process greatly improves his strength, stamina and intellect. The procedure left him with virtually no autonomic functions: as his brain was stripped of every biological function, Tony is forced to rely on a digital backup of his memories (leaving him with severe gaps and lapses in his long-term memory) and on software routine in the arc reactor for basic stimuli reaction, such as blinking and breathing. The Bleeding Edge package of armor and physical enhancement is now equal in power, if not a more advanced, version of the old Extremis tech.
Skills
Tony Stark is an inventive genius whose expertise in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science rivals that of Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner, and his expertise in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering surpasses even theirs. He is regarded as one of the most intelligent characters in the Marvel Universe. He graduated with advanced degrees in physics and engineering at the age of 17 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and further developed his knowledge ranging from artificial intelligence to quantum mechanics as time progressed. His expertise extends to his ingenuity in dealing with difficult situations, such as difficult foes and deathtraps, in which he is capable of using available tools, including his suit, in unorthodox but effective ways. For instance, in Stark's final confrontation with Obadiah Stane, the villain managed to have Stark's companions in an unconscious state in a room with motion sensors; when Stark entered the room, Stane warned him that the slightest move would trigger a fatal electrical current to his hostages, thus forcing Stark to stay still and slowly die of dehydration lest he wants his friends to die. However, while Stane was confident that such a trap was inescapable, Stark is able to outwit and defeat its mechanism in seconds, thus freeing the hostages and allowing him to continue the battle against Stane.
He is well respected in the business world, able to command people's attention when he speaks on economic matters, having over the years built up several multimillion-dollar companies from virtually nothing. He is noted for the loyalty he commands from and returns to those who work for him, as well as for his business ethics. Thus he immediately fired an employee who made profitable, but illegal, sales to Doctor Doom. He strives to be environmentally responsible in his businesses.
At a time when Stark was unable to use his armor for a period, he received some combat training from Captain America and has become physically formidable on his own when the situation demands it. In addition, Stark possesses great business and political acumen. On multiple occasions he reacquired control of his companies after losing them amid corporate takeovers.
Due to his membership in the Illuminati, Iron Man was given the Space Infinity Gem to safeguard. It allows the user to exist in any location (or all locations), move any object anywhere throughout the universe and warp or rearrange space.
Supporting characters
Other versions
1602
1602: New World features a 17th-century Spanish Iron Man named Lord Iron. Taken captive in the Holy Land during the English / Spanish war, he is forced to make weapons for them after being tortured by David Banner, the later Hulk of that world. He needs his massive armor to survive. The armor is powered by "lightning bottles" and provides him with super-strength and invulnerability as well as several electricity-powered
With his Moorish associate, Rhodes, Lord Iron is assigned by King James to put an end to the traitors and witchbreed in the New World. Instead, he realizes he has let bitterness consume him, and makes his peace with Banner. He is last seen using his armor to power the colony's printing press.
1872
The Secret Wars War Zone tie-in 1872 reimagines Tony in the Wild West. Tony was once a respected inventor who lives in the town of Timely. When the Union army used his repeating rifle to slaughter a large group of Confederates rather let them surrender, Tony spirals into alcoholism. After Sheriff Steve Rogers is murdered by Mayor Wilson Fisk and his cohorts, Tony builds a large suit of armor resembling the original Iron Man suit to aid Red Wolf in bringing him down. After Fisk is defeated, Tony dedicates his time to aiding the people of Timely with his new invention.
2020
Iron Man 2020 features Arno Stark as a mercenary in the employ of Sunset Bain. In 2012, Arno had traveled to the past in an effort to save his family from a madman's bomb. All he needs are the retinal patterns of the bomb maker, but he runs into the original Blizzard who mistakes him for the "real" Iron Man/Tony Stark. Not having time to deal with this threat, Arno kills Blizzard. While attempting to scan the retinal patterns of the young terrorist, Spider-Man snatches the scanner with his webbing and asks IM 2020 what he is doing. The two battle one another (Arno is "against the clock") when suddenly Arno is pulled back to his time to discover the bomb had a design flaw and exploded prematurely. His wife, son, employees, and factory have all been destroyed.
2093
Tony Stark and Doctor Doom are brought to the year 2093 by Merlin to stop a plot by a primarily robotic Doom and the Iron Man of 2093, Andros Stark. Andros is a psychotic madman and uses his grandfather Arno's armor. Tony defeats Andros while wielding the legendary sword Excalibur.
Andros Stark/Iron Man 2099 voiced by Alessandro Juliani would later be adopted into the second season of Iron Man: Armored Adventures with him being from the year 2099 and traveling back when Tony was a teenager before inventing a AI named "Vortex". Vortex dooms the entire human race with Andros donning a futuristic suit (classed "Hyperspace Mark XL") and the Extremis to kill Tony/Iron Man but goes to S.H.I.E.L.D. for assistance. Andros destroys Iron Man with his ultra-beam, afterward, Hawkeye managed to implant the virus on Andros's armor, and realized that all this is because Tony was trying to save himself by using the virus to stop Andros using his nano-virus which is actually the original seed for the Vortex virus. He travels back in time for a short moment to warn Iron Man that his nano-virus chips were actually the Vortex virus. He quickly destroys the last nano-virus arrow, saving Andros. As a result of this change in the timeline, the future was saved and because of this, Andros is erased from existence after saying his last words to his grandfather.
2099
In the Marvel 2099 line, the new Iron Man of that era is a man named Sonny Frisco. Despite piloting a normal-sized suit of Iron Man armor, Frisco actually suffers from dwarfism. He is a member of the Alchemax corporation's team of Avengers, and secretly uses the help of Vision, a woman with precognitive abilities.
3030
The Iron Man of 3030 is Tony Stark's biracial granddaughter, Rhodey Stark (named after Stark's close friend James Rhodes). She travels to the present in order to help the Avengers save Earth from a rogue planet that had been fired from the future, and departs after warning her grandfather that his life is in danger.
Adam Warlock
In Adam Warlock #2 (1972), Peter Parker's counterpart on Counter-Earth mentions that "the heart of Tony Stark beats unscathed".
Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse, Tony Stark is an agent of the Human High Council. The injury that compromised his heart is caused by the attack of a mutant.
Age of X
Officially code named Iron Man, he prefers the name Steel Corpse. Iron Man was infected by a disease, thought to be of mutant origin, that bonded him permanently to his armor. Not only can he never remove the armor, the disease is causing the armor to slowly consume his flesh, meaning that one day Tony Stark will cease to exist and only the armor will be left. He works with this reality's version of the Avengers to exterminate all mutants, but eventually rebels against his purpose when a 'Trojan horse' in the armor nearly drives him to kill innocent mutant children, forcing his teammates to kill him.
Avataars
In the sword and sorcery world of the Avataars: Covenant of the Shield miniseries, Iron Man's counterpart is Ironheart, one of the Champions of the Realm. A powerful warrior, he wears a huge suit of grey armor.
Bullet Points
In Bullet Points, Iron Man is Steve Rogers, who, due to the assassination of Dr. Abraham Erskine occurring earlier than in the mainstream Marvel universe, never receives the Super-Soldier formula. Instead, he agrees to be bonded to the prototype 'Iron Man' armor despite the intense physical pain and discomfort this will cause. Rogers is later killed fighting an alternative version of the Hulk. Tony Stark, in this reality a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., expresses a desire to continue in Rogers' footsteps as Iron Man, but is rejected owing to a heart condition. He later disobeys this command and adopts the mantle upon the arrival of Galactus.
Contest of Champions
The 2015 Contest of Champions series has a version of Tony Stark that won Civil War with nearly everything working out in his favor. Five years later, Tony has donned the Iron Patriot armor and is the President of the United States. He and his Mighty Avengers team are kidnapped by Maestro and placed onto Battleworld, where Maestro alters their memories to believe the remaining heroes are unregistered and need to be taken in. Their fight is interrupted by that universe's Thunderbolts (led by Steve Rogers). In the next issue, the Mighty Avengers battle the Thunderbolts and Renegade Champions, during which Tony kills Steve and reveals that the reason the Civil War went completely in his favor was because he used the Reality Gem from the Infinity Gauntlet. When he tries to use it again on Battleworld, it doesn't work because he's in a different dimension, and he's killed by Maestro.
Earth X
In the alternative reality of Earth X, Tony Stark builds a headquarters that protects himself from a plague that grants all humans superpowers. Afterwards, he builds the Iron Avengers. His headquarters is revealed to be a giant armor, based on the old Godzilla fighting mecha, the Red Ronin, which he uses to delay the Celestial attack until the coming of Galactus, sacrificing his life in the process. In Paradise X, he becomes part of the angelic Avenging Host of Marvel's "Paradise", with an Iron Man motif.
Earth-691
In the continuity of Earth-691, Tony Stark is devastated by the horrors of the Martian invasion and jettisons his technology into space. It is found by a primitive alien race who use it to become an interstellar menace calling themselves the Stark, who subsequently clash with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 31st century. "Standard" continuity Iron Man (Earth-616) encountered his "creations" when a cadre of rational, scientific members of the Stark called the Programmers bring Tony Stark to the future to help them solve various planet-wide problems.
Earth-2122
In the continuity of Earth-2122, the home of Crusader X, where the British won the American Revolution and still control North America, Anthony Stark is a member of a group called the Sons of Liberty. In this reality, Stark is willing to kill innocent people.
Earth-3490
In the continuity of Earth-3490, Tony Stark was born a woman (Natasha Stark) rather than a man; Stark's superhero alter-ego in this universe is Iron Woman. The Civil War between superheroes in Earth-3490 was averted due to the fact that Stark and Steve Rogers (Captain America) are romantically involved, and have since married.
Exiles
In Exiles, a villainous alternative Iron Man of Earth-2020 is a member of Weapon X, the more ruthless team of reality fixers. After ending up at the 'Crystal Palace' (the Exiles' headquarters) and fighting them there, he is eventually exposed and sent back to his own timeline where he is arrested by the Army for starting a world war.
In one alternative reality Tony Stark has become the absolute ruler of the entire planet Earth, and kills many of that Earth's heroes and mutants. Weapon X arrives on this reality to help him conquer Attilan, though their true purpose is to cause his downfall. Tony is eventually killed by Susan Storm.
In one alternative reality he is partners with both Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Octopus before he created the Iron Man suit.
On an alternative world devastated by the Hulk's Annihilation Wave, Iron Man was one of those killed in the attack. When the Exiles arrange for the dead heroes to be replaced by alternatives, Iron Man's replacement is a version of Spitfire, on the grounds that they have never got along with any alternative Tony Starks.
The Sons of Iron are a group of armor-wearing warriors from an Earth shared by humans and reptilian humanoids. Because they are completely concealed by the Iron Man armor, no-one can tell which they are.
Fantastic Four: The End
In the miniseries Fantastic Four: The End, which is set in a future where Reed Richards' technology has launched humanity into a golden age, Tony Stark has died long ago - but his consciousness survives, 'hopping' from artificial body to artificial body. Most of the bodies shown in the miniseries resemble Iron Man armors, often being identical to existing armors. One notable exception was the bulky, stocky space-armor which played an important role in the battle of humanity's heroes versus several alien armadas.
House of M
Born to Howard and Maria Stark, the heads of the powerful business conglomerate Stark Industries, Tony Stark grew to be an imaginative and brilliant inventor. He worked with his father from an early age, and surpassed his father's technical brilliance by the age of 16. Stark became the key supplier of hi-tech weaponry used to fight mutants, and was on the verge of a technological breakthrough when the Mutant-Human war came to an end. The suits are powered down to become part of a game called Robo Death Match, a television sport with giant robots fighting each other. Stark Industries scored its biggest victory when it secured the Sentinel production contracts, pushing major competitor, Jason Wyngarde, out of business. Erik Magnus and Sebastian Shaw awarded Tony the contract under the condition that he would hire Beast and Forge as observers. McCoy became a key contributor along with Doctor Pym on The Vision project. Tony secretly worked on a special project beneath Stark Industries: a brand new suit of hi-tech armor he planned to use as his new Robo Death Match suit.
Iron Man: The End
In the one-shot Iron Man: The End, an aging Tony Stark works on his greatest creation, a space elevator called "Big Jump." Stark faces retirement due to age and the physical toll of an illness, no longer allowing him to run his business "Stark Universal" and continue to be Iron Man. This leads to the need to groom a replacement.
Iron Maniac
Iron Maniac is an evil alternative universe version of Iron Man from Earth-5012. He first appeared in Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 #2, wearing armor that resembles that of Doctor Doom's. He comes from an alternative reality where most of the Avengers were killed when they encountered the vicious alien Titannus in space. While the team is rescued by the reserve Avengers five years later, it takes another five years to fight back the Trellions, the alien race that has brainwashed Titannus. During that time, a power-hungry Reed Richards turns his back on the surviving heroes. Scarred for life due to an attack from the Human Torch, Iron Man sets his own operation base in Latveria to "take over the world to save it from Richards." Richards somehow manages to banish him into Earth-616 Other differences between his world and Earth-616 include that there is no Spider-Man, and that Hank Pym is another version of the Hulk.
After being transported to Earth-616, Iron Maniac fights the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange, all of whom mistake him for their Doctor Doom. After unmasking himself, they learn his true identity, shortly before he manages to temporarily negate the FF's powers and escape, concluding that he has no reason to trust that they will not turn on him like the FF of his world did. Capturing a recently discovered mutant, the alternative Iron Man attempts to return to his home dimension by using the mutant as a power source, but is attacked by Spider-Man and X-23 as they investigate the situation. After the appearance of Captain America and Black Widow, he realizes that he is in an alternative world, but continues to fight the heroes, calling them all 'Richards' lackeys', proclaiming that he can't trust that they won't turn into 'villains' just as his own former allies did. He is defeated thanks to Spider-Man and X-23's use of their own version of the fastball special to destroy his equipment, shortly after 'warning' the other heroes of the Titannus War (by saying that he would not kill them now because it would be a kindness).
While the alternative Tony Stark is kept locked up and drugged in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, he is briefly visited by his counterpart in this universe, although he is unaware of the visit. Shortly after the alternative Stark is transferred to a conventional cell, Titannus soon arrives and fights the heroes, this time confronting a new group of Defenders assembled by Doctor Strange. When Titannus' comatose lover is revived, she tells him that she never loved him and that he was insane, causing Titannus to kill himself. The alternative Iron Man later discovers from Spider-Man and Wolverine that the Avengers were never massacred in space in this reality because the group had been disassembled; as a result, other heroes only encountered Titannus after he had attacked Tokyo in a rage, leaving the heroes who did encounter him less inclined to believe his story and averting the so-called 'Titannus War'.
Stark subsequently broke free from captivity, having immunized himself to the gas that was used to keep him sedated on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. In the process, he gained the unwilling alliance of the LMD Diamondback. Having convinced her that he is the "real" Tony, the AU Tony Stark erased her memories, reshaping the former LMD into an advanced suit of armor. This armor, even more advanced than the pre-Extremis suit Iron Man wore at that time, was able to replicate any weapon from the wearer's memory. He subsequently battled Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Luke Cage, but was only defeated after the sacrifice of rookie hero Freedom Ring, who kept Iron Maniac occupied long enough for Captain America to knock him out with a shield thrown at the back of his neck.
The name Iron Maniac is what he calls himself, due to being the "sole survivor of a sane world living in a backwards, insane world".
Iron Maniac is known to be at least partially cyberized, with armor plating implanted in his chest (revealed during his escape from the Helicarrier, when he is shot). It is unknown whether the rest of his body is similarly armored or if he possesses other cybernetic enhancements.
He has been briefly mentioned as being held in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier recently in The Irredeemable Ant-Man.
Iron Man Noir
In Iron Man Noir, Tony Stark is an industrialist in the 1930s. He is also an adventurer, whose exploits are recorded in Marvels: A Magazine Of Men's Adventure. He is initially accompanied by his associate James Rhodes, his personal assistant Giulietta Nefaria and his biographer Vergil Munsey. When Nefaria is revealed as working with the Nazis (specifically Baron Zemo and Baron von Strucker) and Vergil is killed, their role in the story is taken by Stark's new biographer Pepper Potts. His heart having been damaged on an earlier adventure, Stark keeps it going with repulsor technology installed and recharged by Stark Industries engineer Edwin Jarvis.
While investigating a mysterious power source in the ruins of Atlantis, Pepper Potts gets kidnapped by the Nazis and taken to their stronghold in Norway. To rescue her, Stark and Rhodes don suits of bulky power armour built by Jarvis, but are shocked to discover that 'Baron Zemo' is actually Tony's missing father Howard Stark, brainwashed by a unique chemical compound to serve the Nazis. Despite his depleted power supply, Tony manages to destroy the various suits of armor that Zemo had built for the Nazis, concluding that his father had died long ago, before returning to the USA.
Inter-company crossovers
In Marvel and DC's Amalgam Comics, Stark is merged with the Green Lantern Hal Jordan into the Iron Lantern. "Hal Stark" wears a suit resembling a green Iron Man armor, powered by a Green Lantern battery.
In the miniseries JLA/Avengers, Iron Man aids the Avengers in the battle against Starro the Conqueror. Afterwards, he creates a dimensional alarm in order to tell when invaders from another dimension come into their universe. After a brief scuffle with the JLA in the Savage Land, the Avengers are confronted by Metron, who gives Tony a Mother Box. Using this, Tony is able to get the Avengers to Metropolis, where the Avengers confront the JLA again. The Avengers escape, but Tony and Hawkeye manage to take Green Lantern's Power Battery before they leave, with Tony able to stop the Flash in his tracks. The two later take down Captain Atom and Green Arrow in order to collect the Casket of Ancient Winters. Tony then leaves and arrives to save Photon and Quasar from Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, allowing them to take the Spear of Destiny. After the battle in the Savage Land, Tony is one of the Avengers and is clueless as to the dimensional shifts that are happening around him. After Cap and Superman attack each other, Tony ends up in Metropolis. When the two worlds are briefly corrected by the Grandmaster, Tony is shown his true future with his alcoholism and his defeat by Obadiah Stane. Accepting this, he aids the JLA and the Avengers in the final battle and helped build the ship that took them to Krona's base. During the battle, he teams up with Kyle Rayner to create a weapon to use against their enemies and the two are shown to be impressed by one another, Kyle expressing his awe at Tony's engineering prowess and Tony asking Kyle where he could get a Green Lantern ring.
Mangaverse
In the Marvel Mangaverse reality, Tony Stark creates the original armor together with Dr. Ho Yinsen and acts as Iron Man for a time, but eventually vanishes after a battle with Namor, the Submariner. He is succeeded by Antoinette (Toni) Stark, his twin sister, a former agent of SHIELD, who turns Iron Man into a massive operation - a veritable army of Iron Men in many forms, with herself as Iron Woman. After she dies in battle against the Hulk, Tony Stark reveals himself again; he has gone underground after spinal cancer reduced him to a disembodied head hooked up to a life support system. However, he has designed a new armor, and a body that he can integrate with.
He also had designed four massive vehicles for the Avengers of his world to use, which could combine (in a manner resembling old fashioned combining super robots like Combattler V and Voltes V) into a skyscraper-sized Iron Man-mecha (Dubbed Ultimate Iron Man in its first appearance, then the Iron Avenger in its battle with the Hulk and finally simply called "the Avenger's mecha" in Volume 2 of the series). Unfortunately it was quickly destroyed by that world's Hulk. Apparently, however, it was rebuilt again by the time of the second volume, this time as a single robotic unit without transformation (or, if it was capable of transformation, it was never demonstrated). This unit helped fight off the giant Galactus spores, but was later destroyed, along with most of the Avengers, single-handedly by the Mangaverse version of Dr. Doom.
Marvel Adventures
The Marvel Adventures Iron Man is very similar to the Earth-616 Iron Man, but with some changes. Instead of suffering damage to his heart due to a booby trap in Vietnam, Tony Stark's heart was damaged when an experimental plane he was flying was brought down by AIM. AIM wanted Stark to build weapons and devices for them. Dr. Gia-Bao Yinsen aided Tony in escaping AIM, but Yinsen died saving his country from AIM. Iron Man does not seem to have problems with alcoholism, since the Marvel Adventures is aimed at a younger demographic. Iron Man's armor resembles his Extremis armor although Iron Man has other armors that fit over his regular armor, as in the case of his underwater armor.
Marvel Apes
The version of Iron Man appearing in the Marvel Apes mini-series is a mandrill, appropriately being named the Iron Mandrill. He is a member of the Apevengers. At one point, he is attacked by the zombified Wasp of the Marvel Zombies universe and infected, though he is later apparently cured when these events are undone via time travel.
Marvel Zombies
The first series
In the Marvel Zombies universe, Tony Stark has been infected by the zombie virus. Alongside a horde of starving undead superhuman zombies, Iron Man attacks the Silver Surfer. The attack is successful, but one of the Surfer's energy bolts hits Iron Man's lower torso, cutting him in half. The zombie "survives" this wound and later gains cosmic powers (including flight) by eating part of the Surfer's corpse. When Galactus arrives, Iron Man and the five other surviving zombies devour him. They are able to absorb Galactus' power, and call themselves "The Galacti".
Marvel Zombies 2
He also appears in Marvel Zombies 2, one of the small group of super-powered zombies that have eaten their way across all known space. Here Stark has had his entire lost lower body replaced with cybernetics. He also appears to have forgotten he had some design in the machine which opened a link to the Ultimate Universe. He was shocked to see Forge, one of the surviving X-Men, wearing his Mark I armored suit. The zombified Hulk kills Iron Man when he stomps through the armor, forcing Tony Stark's flesh and blood through any openings left in the armor. However Iron Man had recently revived next issue, but only as a cameo, on Marvel Zombies 3.
Marvel Zombies Return
In the final issue of Marvel Zombies 2, the remaining zombies are transported to another universe. At the point where the zombies reach this new reality, the period is nearly identical to the one where Tony Stark was an alcoholic. Zombie Giant Man infects Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and a number of other people at Stark Industries. A drunken Tony Stark lacks the will power to become Iron Man despite Pepper Potts' requests, so James Rhodes dons the suit to save him. Crucial to fate of the multiverse are the nanites that Stark has accidentally created, which destroy damaged flesh and tissue as a cure for cancer, and prove to be a potent weapon against the zombies. This was grafted onto Flint Marko's body. He sacrifices himself to kill several zombies in Stark Tower, with Rhodes permanently succeeding him in the role of Iron Man. His nanites are then used by his successor, now a member of the New Avengers, years later to kill the remaining super-powered zombies and end the inter-dimensional zombie threat.
MC2
In the alternative future of MC2, Tony Stark retires after the loss of many heroes in battle, but eventually creates the armored computer program Mainframe, which joins the next generation of Avengers.
Mini Marvels
Iron Man is a recurring character in "Mini Marvels". He appears in story arcs like "The Armored Avengers" & "World War Hulk". He is portrayed as conceited and thinks himself the best of the team. He has a friendly rivalry with Hawkeye.
Newuniversal
In the alternative world of newuniversal, Tony Stark is one of three humans altered by the Fireworks on April 26, 1953, gaining abilities associated with the Cipher glyph. Prior to the Fireworks, Stark is unexceptional, but he then becomes a technological genius. His discoveries revitalise his father's company, Stark Industries, and are "five years ahead of everything everyone else is working on". There are suggestions that he is capable of more, but is not making all of his discoveries public.
Stark's transformation is noticed by the National Security Agency's Project Spitfire, which is discreetly monitoring the superhumans created by the Fireworks. In March 1959, Stark's plane crashes in North Vietnam and he is imprisoned. He escapes by constructing an Iron Man suit from "spare parts" and flying out of the country.
On April 4, 1959, when he returns to the US, the NSA takes Stark to a San Diego naval base, ostensibly to debrief him. Stark is then shot dead by Philip L. Voight, a Project Spitfire agent, to prevent him from making contact with the other superhumans.
The Iron Man suit is seized by Project Spitfire and reverse engineered by Doctor Joe Swann, eventually becoming the basis of the project's H.E.X suit, an exoskeleton designed for combat with superhumans.
Ruins
In the two issue Warren Ellis series Ruins, Tony Stark is a rich industrialist who supplied weapons for the US military in an attempt to win the Vietnam War. This version of Iron Man was injured while mediating between US forces and pro-secessionist Californians by a piece of shrapnel thrown by the National Guard. This embittered Stark who formed a revolutionary cell named the Avengers. This version of Iron Man was betrayed by Scarlet Witch who provided the United States military information to crush the Avengers. Tony Stark is presumably killed.
Spider-Verse
In the Amazing Spider-Man comic's event Spider-Verse, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Scarlet Spider (Kaine) and Spider-man (Ben Reily) meet and fight a clone of Tony Stark (Earth-802) as Iron Man serving one of the Inheritors, Jennix.
Spider-Island
In a Secret Wars Warzone version of Spider-Island, he is mutated into one of the Spider Queen's spider minions and battles Agent Venom and the now monstrous Avengers. Venom sprays Tony with Norman Osborn's Green Goblin formula, freeing Tony from the Queen, but slowly making him insane. He modifies Norman's armor and becomes the Iron Goblin to aid the resistance. When they are surrounded by a number of spider creatures (including Giant Man) with few means of escape, Tony sacrifices himself using the Black Knight's Ebony Blade so he can aid them and die before the Goblin formula completely takes him over.
Spider-Gwen
In Spider-Gwen Tony Stark of Earth-65 is an arms dealer, the owner of global private military company WAR MACHINE, and owner of the coffee chain StarkBucks.
Spider-Man: Life Story
In Spider-Man: Life Story, Tony Stark/Iron Man does not face a traumatizing experience that leads to stop weapons manufacturing as his Earth-616 counterpart did instead he continues to produce them and play a key role in the Vietnam War and a World War III-esque conflict known as "The Russian War" as well as participating in Secret Wars while on Battleworld. Iron Man also became Secretary of Defense in the United States government and was one of the two leaders alongside Captain America in the Superhuman Civil War.
Squadron Supreme
In the Squadron Supreme series, the equivalent of Iron Man is Tucker Ford. Tucker was a very intelligent boy since his early years, however since being raised by his strong-willed mother along with never going to school with anyone his own age made Tucker to have difficulty to make any kind of meaningful personal relationship and because of this, he became very introverted.
As he grew up, he had built an imaginative world where he was a superhero. When trying to explain his imaginations to his therapist, they turned around and mocked him before their colleagues, however being unaware that Tucker had them under electronic surveillance. This experience motivated him to follow his dream and become a real superhero.
As a young adult, he built a powerful, but unstable armour made from nanotechnology in order to achieve his dream, eventually meeting the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury and offered his intelligence and company to Nick Fury to help defend America.
He fails to gain the affection of Nick Fury and to get a kiss from the spider-powered superhuman, Nell Ruggles, also known as Arachnophilia.
He offers to build a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier as a base for the organization and to be a member of the team in order to live out of his imagination. The only person that Tucker had the closest relationship with is Nell, expressing romantic feelings towards her.
Ultimate Marvel
What If
Newer Fantastic Four
In the timeline of What if: Newer Fantastic Four, the Fantastic Four were killed by De'Lila (a rogue Skrull) and the Hulk, so Spider-Man, the Ghost Rider and Wolverine joined together to avenge them as the New Fantastic Four. Thanos of Titan, as in the mainline universe, came into possession of the six Infinity Gems and became ruler of all reality, before erasing half of all living beings from existence. Among those who vanished was Ghost Rider, and, being present at the battle during which he was erased, Iron Man takes his place. The Newer Fantastic Four soon realize they are outmatched. Stark, with help from the Hulk, manages to salvage the empty armor of Ziran, a Celestial, and realizes it can be controlled by thoughts. Stark takes control of the armor and connects it to the Negative Zone, allowing him to call on all the power of that reality. Despite this, he is defeated by Thanos. Stark's sacrifice allows Wolverine to trick Thanos into a position where the Gauntlet could be removed. Spider-Man subsequently uses the Gauntlet to undo the damage Thanos had caused.
Iron Man: Demon in an Armor
In What If: Iron Man: Demon in an Armor, Tony Stark is Doom's college roommate rather than Reed Richards, inspiring Doom to develop a machine that allows him to transfer his mind into Stark's body while leaving Stark trapped in Doom's body with no memory of his past. While Doom uses Stark's connections and company to establish himself, the amnesic Stark- believing himself to be Doom- works to rebuild his life, creating his own company and forming his own reputation from the ground up. This culminates in a confrontation between the two wearing early versions of their respective armours- Doom having developed a green-and-silver Iron Man armour while Stark has created Doom's costume with gold and a red cloak-, during which Doom reveals the truth about their switch, only for Stark to reject the offer to switch back because Doom has destroyed the name of Tony Stark while Doctor von Doom has developed an honorable reputation.
Realm of Kings
In this one-shot, Quasar, the newly resurrected Protector of the Universe travels into the Fault, the immense tear which has appeared in the fabric of spacetime itself after the catastrophic battle between Vulcan and Black Bolt. Reaching what he perceives to be the other end of the tunnel that is the Fault, he arrives in another universe... a dark, twisted universe, the `corpse of a universe´, possessed by Lovecraftian horrors which are worshipped by all the denizens of that universe, including Earth's mightiest heroes. Iron Man is never seen outside his armor, but he, like the others, serves the "Many-angled ones" with total devotion.
X-Men Forever
In this alternative universe of X-Men Forever, Tony Stark, while still publicly the super-hero Iron Man, is also the head of the shadowy organization known as The Consortium. The scientific wing of the organization is headed by the Trask family, who turn out to be his relatives. They create newer versions of the Sentinels and kidnap mutants to use in experimentation to find the cause of the so-called "Burnout" syndrome that causes mutants to die early. However, as part of his efforts to undermine the Consortium's anti-mutant agenda, he becomes Nick Fury's insider and eventually sacrifices his life along with Beast. He assists Storm- who has been split into an amnesic child version of herself and an energy form with full memory and no body- by providing her energy self with a suit based on the now-deceased Black Panther so that her energy can maintain corporeal form, although he is subsequently killed by a twisted clone of Storm before he can reveal her existence to anyone else.
Mutant X
In Mutant X, Tony Stark is Iron Giant Man and part of the anti-mutant group the Avengers. He was later killed by X-Man Captain America along with the other Avengers.
Infinity Warps
During the Infinity Wars storyline, where the universe was combined in half, Iron Man was fused with Thor creating Iron Hammer. Sigurd Stark was the fifth richest person on the world thanks to his genius about technology, however due to his lack of memories before five years, taunted him driving to drink. After going through the Norvegian, he was attacked by some Dark Elves, lead by Krimson Kurse (fusion Crimson Dynamo and Kurse). He got poisoned by an arrow, slowing killing him and taken by the Elves to aid their other prisoner Eitri (fusion of Eitri and Ho Yinsen) in order to build powerful weapons for the Elves. Then, Sigurd became friend with Eitri and together build an armor, that prevented the poison from killing Sigurd, along with a hammer in order to escape the Dark Elves. However, during their escape Eitri is killed and after Sigurd defeated the Elves and Krimson Kurse, he discovered that Krimson was his lost friend who had turned into a Thrall to be a servant to Dark Elves and after that he mercy killed his friend. Sigurd then decided to the All-Father on Asgard to seek help into defeating Malekith (fusion of Malekith and Mandarin) and with the help of his AI assistant H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L. (fusion of Heimdall and J.A.R.V.I.S.) opened the B.I.F.R.O.S.T. and went to Asgard. When travelling, he remembered his old memories: his true name was Stark Odinson, who due to his arrogance, his father Howard Odin (fusion of Howard Stark and Odin) banished his son to Earth where he would learn to how is like to be a mortal. Upon arriving, Malekith had trapped the Aesir and had allied with Madame Hel (fusion of Madame Masque and Hela and Stane Odinson (fusion of Loki and Obadiah Stane). Luckily, Iron Hammer was able to defeat Malekith and Odin allowed his son to become a god again, however Sigurd refused, feeling better as a human.
In other media
In 1966, Iron Man was featured in a series of cartoons. In 1981, Iron Man guest appeared in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, but only as Tony Stark. He went on to feature again in his own series in the 1990s as part of the Marvel Action Hour with the Fantastic Four; Robert Hays provided his voice in these animated cartoons. Iron Man makes an appearance in the episode "Shell Games" of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.
Apart from comic books, Iron Man appears in Capcom's "Vs." video games, including Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Iron Man is a playable character in Iron Man, the 1992 arcade game Captain America and the Avengers, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and its sequel, and Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, as well as being featured as an unlockable character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and Tony Hawk's Underground. In the 2009 animated series, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, most of the characters, including Tony Stark, are teenagers. An anime adaptation aired in Japan in late 2010 as part of a collaboration between Marvel Animation and Madhouse, in which Stark, voiced by Keiji Fujiwara, travels to Japan where he ends up facing off against the Zodiac.
In 2008, a film adaptation titled Iron Man was released, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and directed by Jon Favreau. Iron Man received very positive reviews from film critics, grossing $318 million domestically and $585 million worldwide, and became the first in a series of over 20 films known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character of Tony Stark, again played by Robert Downey Jr., appeared at the end of the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk. Downey reprised his role in Iron Man 2 (2010), Marvel's The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
In 2009, Playtech released an online casino slot machine game called Iron Man. After that they created two more games, Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3.
In October 2016, Eoin Colfer released a young adult novel called Iron Man: The Gauntlet.
Cultural influence and legacy
The rapper Ghostface Killah, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, titled his 1996 debut solo album Ironman, and has since continued to use lyrics related to the Iron Man comics and samples from the animated TV shows on his records. He has adopted the nickname Tony Starks as one of his numerous alter-egos, and was featured in a scene deleted from the Iron Man film.
Paul McCartney's song "Magneto and Titanium Man" was inspired by the X-Men's nemesis and the original version of the Iron Man villain. Another Iron Man villain, the Crimson Dynamo, is mentioned in the lyrics to this song.
The British band Razorlight mentions Tony Stark in a verse of their song, "Hang By, Hang By".
The character of Nathan Stark on the television show Eureka is inspired by Tony Stark.
In 2011, IGN ranked Iron Man 12th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.
Two Iron Man-themed trucks compete in the Monster Jam monster truck racing series. Debuted in Atlanta on 9 January 2010, they are driven by Lee O' Donnell and Morgan Kane.
In 2015, University of Central Florida engineering student Albert Manero, who builds and donates affordable 3D-printed bionic limbs to those in need, constructed a bionic arm based on Iron Man's suit for 7-year-old Alex Pring, a superhero fan who was born with a partially formed right arm. He then delivered the Iron Man arm to Pring with the help of Robert Downey Jr. in character as Tony Stark.
For Major League Baseball Players Weekend in August 2018, New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres designed his custom cleats after Iron Man's suit.
A TV show demonstrated a hovering bullet-mitigating suit with some of the official Marvel design features in 2019.
See also
List of Iron Man enemies
Jetpack man
References
Further reading
Will Cooley and Mark C. Rogers, "Ike's Nightmare: Iron Man and the Military-Industrial Complex," in Ages of Iron Man, Joseph Dorowski, ed., 2015.
Tom DeFalco, Avengers: The Ultimate Guide, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Mark D. White (ed.), Iron Man and Philosophy: Facing the Stark Reality, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
External links
"Stark Reality: A Different Hero for Different Times" by Ian Chant - PopMatters.com
Advanced Iron (fanzine)
Iron Man Library
Tony Stark at Spider-Man Wiki
Avengers (comics) characters
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Characters created by Larry Lieber
Characters created by Stan Lee
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Fictional business executives
Fictional characters from New York City
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Fictional electronic engineers
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Iron Man characters
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| false |
[
"James Bond: Felix Leiter is a 2017 American comic book miniseries published by Dynamite Entertainment. The series features the eponymous character, who primarily appears in Ian Fleming's James Bond novels and their movie adaptations. Written by James Robinson and illustrated by Aaron Campbell, the comic book is a spin-off from the James Bond series also published by Dynamite. The series ran from January to June 2017, and marks the first time that Leiter received a solo adventure in any format.\n\nPublication history\nThe miniseries was first announced in October 2016. During an interview with entertainment media news site Bleeding Cool, Robinson indicated that he had an idea for a trilogy involving Leiter if the first series performs commercially well, as well as eventually being able to grow into a solo series if the project sold well . A full collected edition of all the issues of the first series was published in hardcover format in November 2017.\n\nReception \nThe comic's debut issue received mixed reviews. Per comics review aggregator Comic Book Roundup, the first issue had an average score of 6.5 out of 10 from 9 reviewers. Later issues were received more favorably, and the series' average ranking as a whole became a 7.9 out of 10. Critics praised Campbell's artwork, while criticizing the story's exposition. Critic Stephen Schleicher noted that the comic was \"flawed but intriguing,\" but also indicated his belief that the comic would improve. Fandom Post's Chris Beveridge, who reviewed all six issues, gave the series a \"B+\" grade.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nFelix Leiter at Dynamite Entertainment\n\nDynamite Entertainment titles\nComic book limited series",
"Rolf Ernst Gohs (26 October 1933 – 23 August 2020) was a Swedish comic creator. He was born in Estonia but moved to Sweden in 1946.\n\nAcclaimed mostly for his artwork, Gohs usually writes his own stories as well. Early works such as Mannen från Claa (The Man from Claa) and Dödens Fågel (The Bird of Death) were well received. \nIn 1957, he began to produce covers for the Swedish \"Fantomen\" comic book and also produced some interior art. Today, he is probably best known for his cover paintings. As Sweden's most prominent comic book cover artist, Gohs has produced covers featuring some of the most well-known comic characters from all over the world. Many of his works have been published outside Sweden.\n\nIn 1969, Gohs created his most famous comic, Mystiska 2:an (The Mysterious Two) about two young teenagers in Stockholm. Sometimes the stories were pure adventure style, at other times more of social realism. Mystiska 2:an was published irregularly in comic books and album form for almost twenty years. However, a 1980s story where one of the young boys fell in love with a grown-up man, caused some controversy on the Swedish comic book arena, and apparently meant the end of the feature (as well as the recently created magazine Comet, in which it was published).\n\nSince then, Gohs produced a comic book story about the legendary Children's Crusade directly for the Swedish Phantom comic book.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nRolf Gohs info from the Lambiek Comiclopedia of Artists\n\n1933 births\n2020 deaths\n20th-century Swedish artists\n21st-century Swedish artists\n20th-century Swedish writers\n21st-century Swedish writers\nSwedish illustrators\nSwedish cartoonists\nSwedish comics artists\nSwedish comics writers\nEstonian emigrants to Sweden"
] |
[
"Iron Man",
"First series",
"When did the first series start?",
"After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner",
"What was the comic about?",
"metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists.",
"Was the comic well received?",
"I don't know."
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C_3f9a97ff3ea5470889d01b9c166015cc_0
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How did they proceed after releasing the comic?
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How did Iron Man proceed after releasing the comic?
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Iron Man
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After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series' indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man. Artist George Tuska began a decade long association with the character with Iron Man #5 (Sept. 1968). Writer Mike Friedrich and artist Jim Starlin's brief collaboration on the Iron Man series introduced Mentor, Starfox, and Thanos in issue #55 (Feb. 1973). Friedrich scripted a metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists. He then wrote the multi-issue "War of the Super-Villains" storyline which ran through 1975. Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978). Micheline and Layton established Tony Stark's alcoholism with the story "Demon in a Bottle", and introduced several supporting characters, including Stark's bodyguard girlfriend Bethany Cabe; Stark's personal pilot and confidant James Rhodes, who later became the superhero War Machine; and rival industrialist Justin Hammer, who was revealed to be the employer of numerous high-tech armed enemies Iron Man fought over the years. The duo also introduced the concept of Stark's specialized armors as he acquired a dangerous vendetta with Doctor Doom. The team worked together through #154 (Jan. 1982), with Michelinie writing three issues without Layton. Following Michelinie and Layton's departures, Dennis O'Neil became the new writer of the series and had Stark relapse into alcoholism. Much of O'Neil's work on this plot thread was based on experiences with alcoholics he knew personally. Jim Rhodes replaced Stark as Iron Man in issue #169 (April 1983) and wore the armor for the next two years of stories. O'Neil returned Tony Stark to the Iron Man role in issue #200 (Nov. 1985). Michelinie and Layton became the creative team once again in issue #215 (Feb. 1987). They crafted the "Armor Wars" storyline beginning in #225 (Dec. 1987) through #231 (June 1988). John Byrne and John Romita Jr. produced a sequel titled "Armor Wars II" in issues #258 (July 1990) to #266 (March 1991). The series had a crossover with the other Avengers related titles as part of the "Operation: Galactic Storm" storyline. CANNOTANSWER
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Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978).
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Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The character made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963), and received his own title in Iron Man #1 (May 1968). Also in 1963, the character founded the Avengers alongside Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp and the Hulk.
A wealthy American business magnate, playboy, philanthropist, inventor and ingenious scientist, Anthony Edward Stark suffers a severe chest injury during a kidnapping. When his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction, he instead creates a mechanized suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. Later, Stark develops his suit, adding weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company, Stark Industries. He uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man. Although at first concealing his true identity, Stark eventually publicly reveals himself to be Iron Man.
Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology and industry in the fight against communism. Subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War motifs to contemporary matters of the time.
Throughout most of the character's publication history, Iron Man has been a founding member of the superhero team the Avengers and has been featured in several incarnations of his own various comic book series. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated TV shows and films. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., appearing in the films Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008) in a cameo, Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). The character also appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
Iron Man was ranked 12th on IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes" in 2011 and third in their list of "The Top 50 Avengers" in 2012.
Publication history
Premiere
Iron Man's Marvel Comics premiere in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963) was a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, story-artist Don Heck, and cover-artist and character-designer Jack Kirby. In 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the "quintessential capitalist", a character that would go against the spirit of the times and Marvel's readership. Lee said:
He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies' man, but one with a secret that would plague and torment him as well. Writer Gerry Conway said, "Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just can't be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken. But there's a metaphor going on there. And that's, I think, what made that character interesting." Lee based this playboy's looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, "Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies' man and finally a nutcase." "Without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes," Lee said.
While Lee intended to write the story himself, a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the premiere issue to Lieber, who fleshed out the story. The art was split between Kirby and Heck. "He designed the costume," Heck said of Kirby, "because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts." In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had "a specific model for Tony Stark and the other characters?", Heck replied "No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the same kind of characters that Alex Toth liked, which was an Errol Flynn type." Iron Man first appeared in 13- to 18-page stories in Tales of Suspense, which featured anthology science fiction and supernatural stories. The character's original costume was a bulky gray armored suit, replaced by a golden version in the second story (issue #40 April 1963). It was redesigned as sleeker, red-and-golden armor in issue #48 (December 1963) by that issue's interior artist, Steve Ditko, although Kirby drew it on the cover. As Heck recalled in 1985, "[T]he second costume, the red and yellow one, was designed by Steve Ditko. I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing. The earlier design, the robot-looking one, was more Kirbyish."
In his premiere, Iron Man was an anti-communist hero, defeating various Vietnamese agents. Lee later regretted this early focus. Throughout the character's comic book series, technological advancement and national defense were constant themes for Iron Man, but later issues developed Stark into a more complex and vulnerable character as they depicted his battle with alcoholism (as in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline) and other personal difficulties.
From issue #59 (November 1964) to its final issue #99 (March 1968), the anthological science-fiction backup stories in Tales of Suspense were replaced by a feature starring the superhero Captain America. Lee and Heck introduced several adversaries for the character including the Mandarin in issue #50 (February 1964), the Black Widow in #52 (April 1964) and Hawkeye five issues later.
Lee said that "of all the comic books we published at Marvel, we got more fan mail for Iron Man from women, from females, than any other title ... We didn't get much fan mail from girls, but whenever we did, the letter was usually addressed to Iron Man."
Lee and Kirby included Iron Man in The Avengers #1 (September 1963) as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has since appeared in every subsequent volume of the series.
Writers have updated the war and locale in which Stark is injured. In the original 1963 story, it was the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, it was updated to be the first Gulf War, and in the 2000s updated again to be the war in Afghanistan. Stark's time with the Asian Nobel Prize-winning scientist Ho Yinsen is consistent through nearly all incarnations of the Iron Man origin, depicting Stark and Yinsen building the original armor together. One exception is the direct-to-DVD animated feature film The Invincible Iron Man, in which the armor Stark uses to escape his captors is not the first Iron Man suit.
Themes
The original Iron Man title explored Cold War themes, as did other Stan Lee projects in the early years of Marvel Comics. Where The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk respectively focused on American domestic and government responses to the Communist threat, Iron Man explored industry's role in the struggle. Tony Stark's real-life model, Howard Hughes, was a significant defense contractor who developed new weapons technologies. Hughes was an icon both of American individualism and of the burdens of fame.
Historian Robert Genter, in The Journal of Popular Culture, writes that Tony Stark specifically presents an idealized portrait of the American inventor. Where earlier decades had seen important technological innovations come from famous individuals (e.g., Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers), the 1960s saw new technologies (including weapons) being developed mainly by the research teams of corporations. As a result, little room remained for the inventor who wanted credit for, and creative and economic control over, their own creations.
Issues of entrepreneurial autonomy, government supervision of research, and ultimate loyalty figured prominently in early Iron Man stories—the same issues affecting American scientists and engineers of that era. Tony Stark, writes Genter, is an inventor who finds motive in his emasculation as an autonomous creative individual. This blow is symbolized by his chest wound, inflicted at the moment he is forced to invent things for the purposes of others, instead of just himself. To Genter, Stark's transformation into Iron Man represents Stark's effort to reclaim his autonomy, and thus his manhood. The character's pursuit of women in bed or in battle, writes Genter, represents another aspect of this effort. The pattern finds parallels in other works of 1960s popular fiction by authors such as "Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond), Mickey Spillane (Mike Hammer), and Norman Mailer, who made unregulated sexuality a form of authenticity."
Solo series
After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series's indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man.
This initial series ended with issue #332 (September 1996). Jim Lee, Scott Lobdell, and Jeph Loeb authored a second volume of the series which was drawn primarily by Whilce Portacio and Ryan Benjamin. This volume took place in a parallel universe and ran 13 issues (November 1996 – November 1997). Volume 3, whose first 25 issues were written by Kurt Busiek and then by Busiek and Roger Stern, ran 89 issues (February 1998 – December 2004). Later writers included Joe Quesada, Frank Tieri, Mike Grell, and John Jackson Miller. Issue #41 (June 2001) was additionally numbered #386, reflecting the start of dual numbering starting from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968. The final issue was dual-numbered as #434. The next Iron Man series, Iron Man vol. 4, debuted in early 2005 with the Warren Ellis-written storyline "Extremis", with artist Adi Granov. It ran 35 issues (January 2005 – January 2009), with the cover logo simply Iron Man beginning with issue #13, and Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., beginning issue #15. On the final three issues, the cover logo was overwritten by "War Machine, Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D.", which led to the launch of a War Machine ongoing series.
The Invincible Iron Man by writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca, began with a premiere issue cover-dated July 2008. For a seven-month overlap, Marvel published both volume four and volume five simultaneously. This Invincible volume jumped its numbering of issues from #33 to #500, cover dated March 2011, to reflect the start from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968.
After the conclusion of The Invincible Iron Man a new Iron Man series was started as a part of Marvel Now!. Written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Greg Land, it began with issue #1 in November 2012.
Many Iron Man annuals, miniseries, and one-shot titles have been published through the years, such as Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man (February 1996), Iron Man: The Iron Age #1–2 (August – September 1998), Iron Man: Bad Blood #1–4 (September – December 2000), Iron Man House of M #1–3 (September – November 2005), Fantastic Four / Iron Man: Big in Japan #1–4 (December 2005 – March 2006), Iron Man: The Inevitable #1–6 (February – July 2006), Iron Man / Captain America: Casualties of War (February 2007), Iron Man: Hypervelocity #1–6 (March – August 2007), Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #1–6 (November 2007 – April 2008), and Iron Man: Legacy of Doom (June – September 2008). Publications have included such spin-offs as the one-shot Iron Man 2020 (June 1994), featuring a different Iron Man in the future, and the animated TV series adaptations Marvel Action Hour, Featuring Iron Man #1–8 (November 1994 – June 1995) and Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1–12 (July 2007 – June 2008).
Fictional character biography
Origins
Anthony Edward Stark is the son of wealthy industrialist and head of Stark Industries, Howard Stark, and Maria Stark. A boy genius, he enters MIT at the age of 15 to study engineering and later receives master's degrees in engineering and physics. After his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his father's company.
Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured by enemy forces led by Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu orders Stark to build weapons, but Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow prisoner, Ho Yinsen, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work Stark had greatly admired during college, constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart. In secret, Stark and Yinsen use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor, which Stark uses to escape. During the escape attempt, Yinsen sacrifices his life to save Stark's by distracting the enemy as Stark recharges. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers and rejoins the American forces, on his way meeting a wounded American Marine fighter pilot, James "Rhodey" Rhodes.
Back home, Stark discovers that the shrapnel fragment lodged in his chest cannot be removed without killing him, and he is forced to wear the armor's chestplate beneath his clothes to act as a regulator for his heart. He must recharge the chestplate every day or else risk the shrapnel killing him. The cover story that Stark tells the news media and general public is that Iron Man is his robotic personal bodyguard, and corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fights threats to his company (e.g., Communist opponents Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo, and the Titanium Man), as well as independent villains like the Mandarin (who becomes his greatest enemy). No one suspects Stark of being Iron Man, as he cultivates a strong public image of being a rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable members of the series's supporting cast, at this point, are his personal chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan, and secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts—to both of whom he eventually reveals his dual identity. Meanwhile, James Rhodes finds his own niche as Stark's personal pilot, ultimately revealing himself to be a man of extraordinary skill and daring in his own right.
The series took an anti-Communist stance in its early years, which was softened as public (and therefore, presumably, reader) opposition rose to the Vietnam War. This change evolved in a series of storylines featuring Stark reconsidering his political opinions, and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the U.S. military. Stark shows himself to be occasionally arrogant, and willing to act unethically in order to 'let the ends justify the means'. This leads to personal conflicts with the people around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities. Stark uses his vast personal fortune not only to outfit his own armor, but also to develop weapons for S.H.I.E.L.D.; other technologies (e.g., Quinjets used by the Avengers); and the image inducers used by the X-Men. Eventually, Stark's heart condition is publicly discovered when he was summoned for a Congressional hearing and Stark collapsed when his chestpiece's power failed, causing a heart attack. Stark was medically examined, which revealed his hidden equipment, and was hospitalized, forcing Pepper to have Happy don his employer's armor to pose as Iron Man to protect his boss's secret identity. Eventually, that specific medical issue was resolved with an artificial heart transplant, which still required the chestplate for some time to support the replacement organ.
1970s and early 1980s
Stark expands on his armor designs and begins to build his arsenal of specialized armors for particular situations such as for space travel and stealth. Stark also develops a serious dependency on alcohol in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline. The first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them. At the same time, it is revealed that several minor supervillains armed with advanced weapons who had bedeviled Stark throughout his superhero career are in fact in the employ of Stark's business rival, Justin Hammer, who begins to plague Stark more directly. At one point in Hammer's manipulations, the Iron Man armor is taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man is not immediately under suspicion, Stark is forced to hand the armor over to the authorities. Eventually Stark and Rhodes, who is now his personal pilot and confidant, track down and defeat those responsible, although Hammer would return to bedevil Stark again. With the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe, his friends and his employees, Stark pulls through these crises and overcomes his dependency on alcohol. Even as he recovers from this harrowing personal trial, Stark's life is further complicated when he has a confrontation with Doctor Doom that is interrupted by an opportunistic enemy sending them back in time to the time of King Arthur. Once there, Iron Man thwarts Doom's attempt to solicit the aid of Morgan Le Fay, and the Latverian ruler swears deadly vengeance—to be indulged sometime after the two return to their own time. This incident was collected and published as Doomquest.
Some time later, a ruthless rival, Obadiah Stane, manipulates Stark emotionally into a serious relapse. As a result, Stark loses control of Stark International to Stane, becomes a homeless alcoholic vagrant and gives up his armored identity to Rhodes, who becomes the new Iron Man. Eventually, Stark recovers and joins a new startup, Circuits Maximus. Stark concentrates on new technological designs, including building a new set of armor as part of his recuperative therapy. Rhodes continues to act as Iron Man but steadily grows more aggressive and paranoid, due to the armor not having been calibrated properly for his use. Eventually Rhodes goes on a rampage, and Stark has to don a replica of his original armor to stop him. Fully recovered, Stark confronts Stane who has himself designed armor based on designs seized along with Stark International, dubbing himself the 'Iron Monger'. Defeated in battle, Stane, rather than give Stark the satisfaction of taking him to trial, commits suicide. Shortly thereafter, Stark regains his personal fortune, but decides against repurchasing Stark International until much later; he instead creates Stark Enterprises, headquartered in Los Angeles.
Late 1980s and 1990s
In an attempt to stop other people from misusing his designs, Stark goes about disabling other armored heroes and villains who are using suits based on the Iron Man technology, the designs of which were stolen by his enemy Spymaster. His quest to destroy the stolen technology—originally called "Stark Wars" but is more commonly known as the "Armor Wars"—severely hurts his reputation as Iron Man. After attacking and disabling a series of minor villains such as Stilt-Man, he attacks and defeats the government operative known as Stingray. The situation worsens when Stark realizes that Stingray's armor does not incorporate any of his designs. He publicly "fires" Iron Man while covertly pursuing his agenda. He uses the cover story of wanting to help disable the rogue Iron Man to infiltrate and disable the armor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives known as the Mandroids, as well as the armor of the Guardsmen. In the process, Iron Man and Jim Rhodes allow some of the villains in the Vault to escape. This leads the United States government to declare Iron Man a danger and an outlaw, and severely sours Stark's relationship with Steve Rogers (Captain America, who was in his "Captain" persona at the time). Iron Man travels to Russia where he inadvertently causes the death of the Soviet Titanium Man during a fight. Returning to the U.S., he faces an enemy commissioned by the government named Firepower. Unable to defeat him head on, Stark fakes Iron Man's demise, intending to retire the suit permanently. When Firepower goes rogue, Stark creates a new suit, claiming a new person is in the armor.
Soon after, Stark is nearly killed by Kathy Dare, a mentally unbalanced former lover. She shoots him dead center in his torso which injures his spine, paralyzing him. Stark undergoes special surgery to have a nerve chip implanted into his spine to regain his mobility. Unbeknownst to the industrialist, the nerve chip is a clandestine means by which to gain control over his body. Rival businessmen the Marrs Twins and their cohort Kearson DeWitt are behind the machinations in what came to be known as "Armor Wars II." After several successful tests by DeWitt at manipulating Stark, Tony finds that using his Encephalo Armor can counteract DeWitt's controls. In response, DeWitt suddenly releases his control resulting in excruciating agony throughout Stark's body. The constant "battle" for control of Stark's nervous system and subsequent abdication on DeWitt's end lead to massive nerve damage throughout Tony's body. Stark's nervous system continues its slide towards failure, and he constructs a "skin" made up of artificial nerve circuitry to assist it. Stark begins to pilot a remote-controlled Iron Man armor, but when faced with the Masters of Silence, the telepresence suit proves inadequate. Stark designs a more heavily armed version of the suit to wear, the "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit", which becomes known as the War Machine armor. Ultimately, the damage to his nervous system becomes too extensive. Faking his death, Stark places himself in suspended animation to heal as Rhodes takes over both the running of Stark Enterprises and the mantle of Iron Man, although he uses the War Machine armor. Stark eventually makes a full recovery by using a chip to create an entirely new (artificial) nervous system, and resumes as Iron Man in a new Telepresence Armor. When Rhodes learns that Stark has manipulated his friends by faking his own death, he becomes enraged and the two friends part ways. Rhodes continues on as War Machine in a solo career.
The Avengers story arc "The Crossing" reveals Iron Man as a traitor among the team's ranks, due to years of manipulation by the time-traveling dictator Kang the Conqueror. Stark, as a sleeper agent in Kang's thrall, kills Marilla, the nanny of Crystal and Quicksilver's daughter Luna, as well as Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, then Amanda Chaney, an ally of the Avengers. The "Avengers Forever" limited series retcons these events as the work of a disguised Immortus, not Kang, and that the mental control had gone back only a few months.
Needing help to defeat both Stark and Kang, the team travels back in time to recruit a teenaged Anthony Stark from an alternate timeline to assist them. The young Stark steals an Iron Man suit in order to aid the Avengers against his older self. The sight of his younger self shocks the older Stark enough for him to regain momentary control of his actions, and he sacrifices his life to stop Kang. The young Stark later builds his own suit to become the new Iron Man and remains in the present day.
During the battle with the creature called Onslaught, the teenage Stark dies, along with many other superheroes. Franklin Richards preserves these "dead" heroes in the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe, in which Stark is once again an adult hero; Franklin recreates the heroes in the pocket universe in the forms he is most familiar with rather than what they are at the present. The reborn adult Stark, upon returning to the normal Marvel Universe, merges with the original Stark, who had died during "The Crossing", but was resurrected by Franklin Richards. This new Anthony Stark possesses the memories of both the original and teenage Anthony Stark, and thus considers himself to be essentially both of them. With the aid of the law firm Nelson & Murdock, he regains his fortune and, with Stark Enterprises having been sold to the Fujikawa Corporation following Stark's death, sets up a new company, Stark Solutions. He returns from the pocket universe with a restored and healthy heart. After the Avengers reform, Stark demands a hearing be convened to look into his actions just prior to the Onslaught incident. Cleared of wrongdoing, he rejoins the Avengers.
2000s
At one point, Stark's armor becomes sentient despite fail-safes to prevent its increasingly sophisticated computer systems from doing so. Initially, Stark welcomes this "living" armor for its improved tactical abilities. The armor begins to grow more aggressive, killing indiscriminately and eventually desiring to replace Stark altogether. In the final confrontation on a desert island, Stark suffers another heart attack. The armor sacrifices its own existence to save its creator's life, giving up essential components to give Stark a new, artificial heart. This new heart solves Stark's health problems, but it does not have an internal power supply, so Stark becomes once again dependent on periodic recharging. The sentient armor incident so disturbs Stark that he temporarily returns to using an unsophisticated early model version of his armor to avoid a repeat incident. He dabbles with using liquid metal circuitry known as S.K.I.N. that forms into a protective shell around his body, but eventually returns to more conventional hard metal armors.
During this time, Stark engages in a romance with Rumiko Fujikawa, a wealthy heiress and daughter of the man who had taken over his company during the "Heroes Reborn" period. Her relationship with Stark endures many highs and lows, including infidelity with Stark's rival, Tiberius Stone, in part because the fun-loving Rumiko believes that Stark is too serious and dull. Their relationship ends with Rumiko's death at the hands of an Iron Man impostor in Iron Man vol. 3 #87.
In Iron Man vol. 3 #55 (July 2002), Stark publicly reveals his dual identity as Iron Man, not realizing that by doing so, he has invalidated the agreements protecting his armor from government duplication, since those contracts state that the Iron Man armor would be used by an employee of Tony Stark, not by Stark himself. When he discovers that the United States military is again using his technology, and its defective nature nearly causes a disaster in Washington, D.C. which Iron Man barely manages to avert, Stark accepts a Presidential appointment as Secretary of Defense. In this way, he hopes to monitor and direct how his designs are used.
In the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline, Stark is forced to resign after launching into a tirade against the Latverian ambassador at the United Nations, being manipulated by the mentally imbalanced Scarlet Witch, who destroys Avengers Mansion and kills several members. Stark publicly stands down as Iron Man, but continues using the costume. He joins the Avengers in stopping the breakout in progress from the Raft and even saves Captain America from falling. Tony changes the Avengers base to Stark Tower. The Ghost, the Living Laser and Spymaster reappear and shift Iron Man from standard superhero stories to dealing with politics and industrialism.
New Avengers: Illuminati #1 (June 2006) reveals that years before, Stark had participated with a secret group that included the Black Panther, Professor X, Mister Fantastic, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Namor. The goal of the group (dubbed the Illuminati by Marvel) was to strategize overarching menaces, in which the Black Panther rejects a membership offer. Stark's goal is to create a governing body for all superheroes in the world, but the beliefs of its members instead force them all to share vital information.
"Civil War"
In the "Civil War" storyline, after the actions of inexperienced superheroes the New Warriors result in the destruction of several city blocks in Stamford, Connecticut, there is an outcry across America against superhumans. Learning of the Government's proposed plans, Tony Stark suggests a new plan to instigate a Superhuman Registration Act. The Act would force every superpowered individual in the U.S. to register their identity with the government and act as licensed agents. The Act would force inexperienced superhumans to receive training in how to use and control their abilities, something in which Tony strongly believes. Since his struggle with alcoholism, Stark has carried a tremendous burden of guilt after nearly killing an innocent bystander while piloting the armor drunk. While Reed Richards and Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym both agree with Stark's proposal, not everyone does. After Captain America is ordered to bring in anyone who refuses to register, he and other anti-registration superheroes go rogue, coming into conflict with the pro-registration heroes, led by Iron Man. The war ends when Captain America surrenders to prevent further collateral damage and civilian casualties, although he had defeated Stark by defusing his armor. Stark is appointed the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and organizes a new government-sanctioned group of Avengers. Shortly afterwards, Captain America is assassinated while in custody. This leaves Stark with a great amount of guilt and misgivings about the cost of his victory.
"Secret Invasion"
To tie into the 2008 Iron Man feature film, Marvel launched a new Iron Man ongoing series, The Invincible Iron Man, with writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca. The series inaugural six-part storyline was "The Five Nightmares", which saw Stark targeted by Ezekiel Stane, the son of Stark's former nemesis, Obadiah Stane.
In the "Secret Invasion" storyline, after Tony Stark survives an attempt by Ultron to take over his body, he is confronted in the hospital by Spider-Woman, holding the corpse of a Skrull posing as Elektra. Realizing this is the start of an invasion by the Skrulls, Tony reveals the corpse to the Illuminati and declares that they are at war. After Black Bolt reveals himself as a Skrull and is killed by Namor, a squadron of Skrulls attack, forcing Tony to evacuate the other Illuminati members and destroy the area, killing all the Skrulls. Realizing that they are incapable of trusting each other, the members all separate to form individual plans for the oncoming invasion.
Stark is discredited and publicly vilified after his inability to anticipate or prevent the secret infiltration and invasion of Earth by the Skrulls, and by the Skrull disabling of his StarkTech technology, which had a virtual monopoly on worldwide defense. After the invasion, the U.S. government removes him as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and disbands the Avengers, handing control of the Initiative over to Norman Osborn.
"Dark Reign"
With his Extremis powers failing, Stark uploads a virus to destroy all records of the Registration Act, thus preventing Osborn from learning the identities of his fellow heroes and anything that Osborn could use, including his repulsor generators. The only copy of the database is in Stark's brain, which he tries to delete while on the run from Osborn. Stark goes so far as to inflict brain damage on himself in order to ensure that the relevant information is wiped. When Osborn catches up to the debilitated Stark and beats him savagely, Pepper Potts broadcasts the beatings worldwide, costing Osborn credibility and giving Stark public sympathy. Stark goes into a vegetative state, having previously granted Donald Blake (alter ego of the superhero Thor) power of attorney. A holographic message stored in Pepper's armor reveals that Stark had developed a means of 'rebooting' his mind from his current state prior to his destruction of the database, with Blake and Bucky resolving to use it to restore him to normal. Meanwhile, Stark is trapped in his subconscious, where figments of his own mind prevent him from returning to the waking world. When the procedure fails to work, Bucky calls in Doctor Strange, who succeeds in restoring Stark back to consciousness. The backup Stark created was made prior to the Civil War, and as such he does not remember anything that took place during the event, although he still concludes after reviewing his past actions that he would not have done anything differently. His brain damage means he is now dependent on an arc reactor to sustain his body's autonomous functions.
2010s
"Siege"
In the "Siege" storyline, Tony Stark is seen under the care of Dr. Donald Blake and Maria Hill when Asgard is attacked. Thor is ambushed by Osborn and the Sentry, but rescued by Hill. Osborn declares martial law and unleashes Daken and the Sentry on Broxton to root out Thor and Hill. Hill returns to Stark's hiding place to move him to a safer location and are joined by Speed of the Young Avengers, who has a set of Iron Man's MK III armor that Edwin Jarvis had given Captain America. While Osborn is battling the New Avengers, Stark appears and disables Osborn's Iron Patriot armor. Osborn orders the Sentry to annihilate Asgard, rather than allow the Avengers to have it. After Asgard falls, Stark stands alongside his fellow heroes, as Osborn exclaims they are all doomed and he 'was saving them from him' pointing up towards a Void-possessed Sentry. As the Void tears apart the teams, Loki gives them the power to fight back through the Norn Stones. The Void kills Loki, enraging Thor. Tony tells Thor to get the Void away from Asgard, which allows Tony to drop a commandeered H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarrier on the Void. Thor is forced to killed Sentry when the Void resurfaces. Sometime later, the Super-Human Registration Act is repealed and Tony is given back his company and armor. As a symbol for their heroics and their new unity, Thor places an Asgardian tower on Stark Tower where the Watchtower once stood.
"Heroic Age"
In the 2010–2011 "Stark: Resilient" storyline, Tony builds the Bleeding Edge armor with the help of Mister Fantastic. This new armor fully uses the repulsor tech battery embedded in his chest to power Tony's entire body and mind, thus allowing him access to Extremis once more. Furthermore, the battery operates as his "heart" and is the only thing keeping him alive. Tony announces he will form a new company, Stark Resilient. He states that he will no longer develop weapons, but will use his repulsor technology to give free energy to the world. Justine and Sasha Hammer create their own armored hero, Detroit Steel, to take Stark's place as the Army's leading weapons-builder. Stark's plan consists of building two repulsor-powered cars. The Hammers try to foil his efforts. The first car is destroyed by sabotage, while Detroit Steel attacks Stark Resilient's facilities while Tony tests the second car. Through a legal maneuver, Tony is able to get the Hammers to stop their attacks and releases a successful commercial about his new car.
"Fear Itself"
In the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, Earth is attacked by the Serpent, the God of Fear and the long-forgotten brother of Odin. In Paris, Iron Man fights Grey Gargoyle, who has become Mokk, Breaker of Faith, one of the Serpent's Worthy. Mokk leaves Iron Man unconscious and transforms Detroit Steel and the citizens of Paris into stone. To defeat the Serpent's army, Tony drinks a bottle of wine (thus 'sacrificing' his sobriety) to gain an audience with Odin, who allows Tony to enter the realm of Svartalfheim. Tony and the dwarves of Svartalfheim build enchanted weapons. Tony upgrades his armor with uru-infused enchantments and delivers the finished weapons to the Avengers, who use them for the final battle against the Serpent's forces. Iron Man watches as Thor kills the Serpent, but dies in the process. After the battle is over, Tony melts down the weapons he created and repairs Captain America's shield, which had been broken by Serpent, and gives it back to Captain America. During a subsequent argument with Odin about the gods' lack of involvement in the recent crisis, Odin gives Tony a brief opportunity to see the vastness of the universe the way he sees it. As thanks for Tony's role in the recent crisis, Odin restores all the people that the Grey Gargoyle killed during his rampage.
Return of the Mandarin and Marvel NOW!
In the storylines "Demon" and "The Long Way Down", Stark is subpoenaed by the U.S. government after evidence surfaces of him using the Iron Man armor while under the influence. Mandarin and Zeke Stane upgrade some of Iron Man's old enemies and send them to commit acts of terrorism across the world, intending to discredit Iron Man. General Bruce Babbage forces Stark to wear a tech governor, a device that allows Babbage to deactivate Stark's armor whenever he wants. To fight back, Tony undergoes a surgical procedure that expels the Bleeding Edge technology out of his body and replaces his repulsor node with a new model, forcing Babbage to remove the tech governor off his chest. He announces his retirement as Iron Man, faking Rhodes's death and giving him a new armor so that he becomes the new Iron Man. This leads into the next storyline, "The Future", in which the Mandarin takes control of Stark's mind and uses him to create new armored bodies for the alien spirits inhabiting his rings, but Stark allies himself with some of his old enemies, who have also been imprisoned by Mandarin, and manages to defeat him. The final issue of this storyline concluded Matt Fraction's series.
In the ongoing series that premiered in 2012 as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, Tony Stark has hit a technological ceiling. After the death of Dr. Maya Hansen and the destruction of all of the Extremis Version 2 kits that were being sold to the black market, Tony decides that the Earth is not safe without him learning more from what's in the final frontier. He takes his new suit, enhanced with an artificial intelligence named P.E.P.P.E.R. and joins Peter Quill and The Guardians of the Galaxy after helping them thwart a Badoon attack on Earth.
Superior Iron Man
Tony Stark's personality is inverted during the events of AXIS, bringing out more dark aspects of himself like irresponsibility, egotism and alcoholism. Stark relocates to San Francisco and builds a new, all-white armor. He supplies the citizens of San Francisco with the Extremis 3.0 app, a version of the techno-virus that offers beauty, health or even immortality, free. When every person in the city viewed Iron Man as a messiah for making their dreams come true, he ended the free trial mode and started charging a daily fee of $99.99, causing many to resort to crime to pay for the upgrade. Daredevil confronts Stark at his new Alcatraz Island penthouse, but is easily brushed off. Iron Man uses Extremis 3.0 to temporarily restore Daredevil's sight, just to prove his point. Daredevil deduces that Stark had added Extremis to the water supply and the phones only transmit an activation signal, but Stark subjects Murdock to minor brain damage to prevent him from sharing this revelation with others.
After discovering that new villain Teen Abomination is the son of Happy Hogan, Stark decides to help him, but this minor act of redemption is too late for Pepper Potts, who attacks Stark with the aid of an AI based on Stark's mind. This culminates in a confrontation between the two Starks, as Stark calls on the unwitting aid of all 'infected' with the Extremis upgrade while the AI uses Stark's various old armors to attack him. Although Stark technically wins the battle as he destroys his other armors and deletes the AI backup, Pepper states that she plans to reveal the truth about his goals with Extremis, bluntly informing him that if he continues his Extremis upgrade project, he will have to do it alone, accepting his fate of being regarded as a monster by all who know him.
Time Runs Out
During the "Time Runs Out" storyline, an attempt at reclaiming Wakanda from the Cabal that Namor had created to destroy incursive Earths results in Tony being held captive in the Necropolis. After the Cabal are apparently killed, the Illuminati free Tony, who is forced to flee due to the Illuminati's unwillingness to let Stark be there with them when they meet Rogers and the Avengers. When the Shi'ar and their allies arrive to destroy Earth, the Avengers and the Illuminati unsuccessfully try to retaliate. Iron Man uses Sol's Hammer to destroy the fleet. The incursions continue, and Rogers confronts Stark about what he knows. A fight ensues between them and Stark admits that he had lied and had known about the incursions all along. During the final incursion, Earth-1610's S.H.I.E.L.D. launches a full-scale attack on Earth-616, during which Stark and Rogers are crushed by a Helicarrier.
All-New, All-Different Marvel
After the events of the Secret Wars crossover, Stark returns to his normal self with no signs of his inverted personality. Eight months following the return of the universe as seen in the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event, Tony works in his laboratory non-stop after his position as an innovator had been put in doubt. Because an M.I.T. student reverse-engineered some of his technology, Stark develops a new armor which can change shape according to the situation he would find himself. When Stark's new AI F.R.I.D.A.Y. informs him that Madame Masque has broken into the ruins of Castle Doom, he travels to Latveria to investigate and runs into some revolutionaries who are then defeated by a man in a suit. To his amazement, Iron Man's armor computer identifies him as Doctor Doom with his face restored. Doctor Doom claims that he wanted to help Iron Man.
After learning from Doctor Doom that Madame Masque has taken a decoy of the Wand of Watoomb, Tony Stark confronts Madame Masque. Upon learning that Madame Masque is not allied with Doctor Doom, Tony is attacked by her with a burst of energy that damages his armor. F.R.I.D.A.Y. manages to gain control of the suit and takes Tony to a safe location. Iron Man tracks Madame Masque to Marina del Rey. After finding a tape recorder with her messages, Tony is attacked by several black silhouettes with swords.
Iron Man escapes the ninjas that are attacking him and manages to defeat most of them, but they kill themselves before he can interrogate any of them. Iron Man and Doctor Doom arrive at Mary Jane Watson's newest Chicago night club Jackpot when Madame Masque attacks it. As Mary Jane distracts Madame Masque by knocking off her mask, Iron Man and Doctor Doom discover that Madame Masque is possessed by a demon. Doctor Doom is able to perform an exorcism on her.
Doctor Strange arrives and tells Iron Man he will take Madame Masque with him to fix her metaphysically and then hand her over at S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man also informs him of Doctor Doom's help who had left the scene some time ago. Three days later, Iron Man offers Mary Jane a job to make up for the damage to her nightclub. After speaking with War Machine, Tony Stark meets up at a diner with Amara Perera when they are unexpectedly joined by Doctor Doom who wanted to make sure that the demonic possession that affected Madame Masque has not affected Stark or Amara. Stark shows Mary Jane the demonstration on the people that he will be working with. They are interrupted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. who tells Tony that War Machine is missing. Before heading to Tokyo, Tony receives from Mary Jane the emergency number for Peter Parker. In Tokyo, Iron Man is contacted by Spider-Man at War Machine's last known location as he is being observed by ninjas.
During the Civil War II storyline, Iron Man protests the logic of using precognitive powers to stop future crimes after the recently emerged Inhuman Ulysses predicted Thanos's attack on Project Pegasus. Three weeks later, Iron Man is summoned to the Triskelion after War Machine is killed in battle against Thanos. When Iron Man learns that War Machine and the Ultimates used Ulysses's power to ambush Thanos, he vows to stop anyone from using that power again. Iron Man infiltrates New Attilan and makes off with Ulysses. At Stark Tower, Iron Man vows to find out how Ulysses's precognition works. The Inhumans attack Stark Tower but are stopped by the Avengers, the Ultimates, and S.H.I.E.L.D. During the confrontation, Ulysses has another vision which he projects to Iron Man and everyone present, showing a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of the defeated superheroes. The heroes confront Banner, who is killed by Hawkeye. Barton claims that Banner was about to transform and Banner had previously asked Hawkeye to kill him if he should turn back into the Hulk. Tony is disgusted at this use of Ulysses's power. When his analysis of Ulysses brain is completed, Tony reveals that Ulysses does not actually see the future, but simply assembles large quantities of data to project likely outcomes. While Danvers continues to use the visions as a resource, Tony objects to the concept of profiling people. This results in a stand-off when Tony's side abducts a woman from custody after Ulysses's visions identified her as a deep-cover HYDRA agent, despite the lack of supporting evidence.
Iron Man learns that his biological mother was actually Amanda Armstrong, who had given him up for adoption and that his biological father was a Hydra double agent named Jude. S.H.I.E.L.D. had Armstrong's baby adopted by Howard and Maria Stark.
Marvel NOW! 2016
In July 2016, it was announced that Tony Stark would hand off the mantle of Iron Man to a 15-year-old girl named Riri Williams. Riri is an MIT student who built her own Iron Man suit out of scrap pieces and, as such, attracted Stark's attention. Early depictions of Williams' suit depict it without the Arc Reactor, but leaves the power source for the suit unclear. Another Iron Man-based series titled Infamous Iron Man debuted featuring Doctor Doom sporting his version of the Iron Man armor. This is revealed to be the result of serious injuries sustained by Stark during his final confrontation with Captain Marvel. Danvers' beating leaves Stark in a coma, but he is left alive due to unspecified experiments Stark has carried out on himself over the years.
Existing as an AI
Following the revelation that Stark experimented on himself at the end of Civil War II, Beast concludes that the only option is to let the experiments do their job in healing Tony and recover on his own. In Invincible Iron Man #1, an employee of Stark sends Riri Williams an artificial intelligence housing a copy of Tony Stark's consciousness to help her control and mentor in her own version of the Iron Man armor. This AI is directly copied from Tony's brain, granting sentience, with Williams commenting on Stark existing as a "techno-ghost". As an AI, Stark can walk around as a hard-light object and gains the ability to remote control his vast armory of Iron Man suits. In The Mighty Captain Marvel #3, the Tony Stark AI goes to Antarctica and visits Captain Marvel with the intent on settling their differences from the Second Civil War, she apologizes to him for her regrets, reconciles with him eventually and they become allies once more. Then in Secret Empire, the Tony Stark AI suits up as Iron Man once again and learns of Captain America's betrayal to Hydra and how he ended up like this. As Hydra tightens its grip across America, the Tony Stark AI leads a team known as the Underground to find the Cosmic Cubes to restore Rogers to his normal self. When things start to escalate, Tony and his crew go rogue and in search for answers for the Cube. As Iron Man and the Underground search for them they are intercepted by Captain America and his Hydra team. With both teams encountering each other, they are captured by the Ultron/Hank Pym hybrid, who forces both teams to sit at a dinner table. During "dinner", Ultron reveals information about the Hydra Avengers – such as Odinson working with Hydra to reclaim Mjolnir, Scarlet Witch being possessed by Chthon, and Vision being affected by an AI virus. Ultron argues that he is doing this because the Avengers have become less of a family over the years as so many of them jump to obey Captain America or Iron Man, despite past experience confirming that this is not always a good idea, but Tony counters that the only reason the team failed as a family was because of Hank's abuse towards Wasp. Enraged, Ultron is about to kill everyone, but Ant-Man is able to calm him down by arguing that Hank remains his own inspiration. Ultron allows the Underground to leave with the fragment, arguing that neither side should have an advantage over the other. Back in America, Hydra Supreme has put Namor in a position where he will be forced to sign a peace treaty that gives Rogers access to the Cosmic Cube fragment in Atlantis, but Hydra Supreme muses that he is unconcerned about who will acquire the fragments, as he has an inside man in the Underground. After the Mount was attacked by Thor and the resurrected Hulk led by Hydra, the Underground evacuated the civilians thanks to Hawkeye and the rest of the heroes. Captain America and Iron Man fight as the Mount collapses around them. The Tony Stark AI initiates the Mount's "Clean Slate Protocol", and blows up the Mount, killing Madame Hydra, then apologizes to Steve Rogers about their past differences, but the A.I survives and, in the aftermath, helps the heroes pull the pieces back together to take down Hydra. When Iron Man confronts Hydra Supreme, he and the other heroes are easily overpowered by him and watch the original Captain America defeat his Hydra self and into celebrating their victory.
Marvel Legacy
Mary Jane Watson and other Stark employees find that Stark's body has completely vanished from its pod, despite tests taken mere hours ago showing no sign of improvement or brain activity. It was discovered that Tony Stark's comatose body was taken to the Stark Industries Complex in Dover. Upon awakening when his biological systems rebooted, Tony Stark went into hiding until he fully recovered. Wanting to make sure that James Rhodes was in a similar state that he was in, Tony Stark exhumed his body from Arlington Cemetery and kick-started the biological systems in him. Afterwards, Iron Man and War Machine fought Hood to keep Stark Industries from falling into Hood's hands where he switched to a version of his Extremis armor. Then he proceeded to defeat Jude when he turned up alive.
During "The Ultron Agenda" arc, Iron Man went up against the Ultron/Hank Pym who begun a plan to merge humans with robots while taking up the name "Ultron Pym." Iron Man was briefly fused with his armor. After using Stark Unlimited's atomic separator on himself, Iron Man figured out that Hank Pym was dead the moment he accidentally fused with Ultron. Not wanting to prove Tony right, Ultron Pym surrendered to Iron Man and the Avengers. As it turned out that Iron Man actually died during the Civil War II storyline, Arno Stark used this to his advantage to acquire Stark Unlimited through a merger with Baintronics. With the combined resources, he built the Iron Man Armor Model 66 as his attempt to recreate the Godbuster Armor. Now having a new destiny, Arno Stark became the latest person to take on the Iron Man mantle.
Because of his revelation that he is now a simulated AI at the start of the "Iron Man 2020" storyline, Tony Stark became Mark One and started to establish the A.I. Army which also consists of Albert, Awesome Android, Egghead II, H.E.R.B.I.E., M-11, Machine Man, Machinesmith, Quasimodo, Super-Adaptoid, Walking Stiletto, the Dreadnoughts, a Sentinel, several Constructo-Bots, several Nick Fury LMDs, and an unnamed bomb disposal robot. This group of robots and androids want to obtain equal rights with organic beings through whatever way possible. Mark One provided them with a hideout on Floor Thirteen, a solid light construct that can only be accessed by robots and androids. With the establishment of Floor Thirteen, Mark One keeps the A.I. Army safe from their enemies and oppressors.
Powers, abilities, and equipment
Armor
Iron Man possesses powered armor that gives him superhuman strength and durability, flight, and an array of weapons. The armor is invented and worn by Stark (with occasional short-term exceptions). Other people who have assumed the Iron Man identity include Stark's long-time partner and best friend James Rhodes; close associates Harold "Happy" Hogan; Eddie March; (briefly) Michael O'Brien and Riri Williams.
The weapons systems of the suit have changed over the years, but Iron Man's standard offensive weapons have always been the repulsor rays that are fired from the palms of his gauntlets. Other weapons built into various incarnations of the armor include: the uni-beam projector in its chest; pulse bolts (that pick up kinetic energy along the way; so the farther they travel, the harder they hit); an electromagnetic pulse generator; and a defensive energy shield that can be extended up to 360 degrees. Other capabilities include: generating ultra-freon (i.e., a freeze-beam); creating and manipulating magnetic fields; emitting sonic blasts; and projecting 3-dimensional holograms (to create decoys).
In addition to the general-purpose model he wears, Stark has developed several specialized suits for space travel, deep-sea diving, stealth, and other special purposes. Stark has modified suits, like the Hulkbuster heavy armor. The Hulkbuster armor is composed of add-ons to his so-called modular armor, designed to enhance its strength and durability enough to engage the Hulk in a fight. A later model, created with the help of Odin and the Asgardian metal Uru, is similar to the Destroyer. Stark develops an electronics pack during the Armor Wars that, when attached to armors that use Stark technologies, will burn out those components, rendering the suit useless. This pack is ineffective on later models. While it is typically associated with James Rhodes, the War Machine armor began as one of Stark's specialty armors.
The most recent models of Stark's armor, beginning with the Extremis armor, are now stored in the hollow portions of Stark's bones, and the personal area networking implement used to control it is implanted into his forearm, and connected directly to his central nervous system.
The Extremis has since been removed, and he now uses more conventional armors. Some armors still take a liquid form, but are not stored within his body. His Endo-Sym Armor incorporates a combination of the liquid smart-metal with the alien Venom symbiote, psionically controlled by Stark.
Post-Secret Wars, Stark uses a more streamlined suit of armor that uses nanotechnology to shape shift into other armors or weapons.
Powers
After being critically injured during a battle with the Extremis-enhanced Mallen, Stark injects his nervous system with modified techno-organic virus-like body restructuring machines (the Extremis process). By rewriting his own biology, Stark is able to save his life, gain an enhanced healing factor, and partially merge with the Iron Man armor, superseding the need for bulky, AI-controlled armors in favor of lighter designs, technopathically controlled by his own brain. His enhanced technopathy extends to every piece of technology, limitless and effortlessly due to his ability to interface with communication satellites and wireless connections to increase his "range". Some components of the armor-sheath are now stored in Tony's body, able to be recalled, and extruded from his own skin, at will.
During the "Secret Invasion" storyline the Extremis package is catastrophically shut down by a virus, forcing him again to rely on the previous iteration of his armor, and restoring his previous limitations. Furthermore, Osborn's takeover of most of the few remaining Starktech factories, with Ezekiel Stane systematically crippling the others, limits Tony to the use of lesser, older and weaker armors.
After being forced to "wipe out" his brain to prevent Norman Osborn from gaining his information, Tony Stark is forced to have a new arc reactor, of Rand design installed in his chest. The process greatly improves his strength, stamina and intellect. The procedure left him with virtually no autonomic functions: as his brain was stripped of every biological function, Tony is forced to rely on a digital backup of his memories (leaving him with severe gaps and lapses in his long-term memory) and on software routine in the arc reactor for basic stimuli reaction, such as blinking and breathing. The Bleeding Edge package of armor and physical enhancement is now equal in power, if not a more advanced, version of the old Extremis tech.
Skills
Tony Stark is an inventive genius whose expertise in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science rivals that of Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner, and his expertise in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering surpasses even theirs. He is regarded as one of the most intelligent characters in the Marvel Universe. He graduated with advanced degrees in physics and engineering at the age of 17 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and further developed his knowledge ranging from artificial intelligence to quantum mechanics as time progressed. His expertise extends to his ingenuity in dealing with difficult situations, such as difficult foes and deathtraps, in which he is capable of using available tools, including his suit, in unorthodox but effective ways. For instance, in Stark's final confrontation with Obadiah Stane, the villain managed to have Stark's companions in an unconscious state in a room with motion sensors; when Stark entered the room, Stane warned him that the slightest move would trigger a fatal electrical current to his hostages, thus forcing Stark to stay still and slowly die of dehydration lest he wants his friends to die. However, while Stane was confident that such a trap was inescapable, Stark is able to outwit and defeat its mechanism in seconds, thus freeing the hostages and allowing him to continue the battle against Stane.
He is well respected in the business world, able to command people's attention when he speaks on economic matters, having over the years built up several multimillion-dollar companies from virtually nothing. He is noted for the loyalty he commands from and returns to those who work for him, as well as for his business ethics. Thus he immediately fired an employee who made profitable, but illegal, sales to Doctor Doom. He strives to be environmentally responsible in his businesses.
At a time when Stark was unable to use his armor for a period, he received some combat training from Captain America and has become physically formidable on his own when the situation demands it. In addition, Stark possesses great business and political acumen. On multiple occasions he reacquired control of his companies after losing them amid corporate takeovers.
Due to his membership in the Illuminati, Iron Man was given the Space Infinity Gem to safeguard. It allows the user to exist in any location (or all locations), move any object anywhere throughout the universe and warp or rearrange space.
Supporting characters
Other versions
1602
1602: New World features a 17th-century Spanish Iron Man named Lord Iron. Taken captive in the Holy Land during the English / Spanish war, he is forced to make weapons for them after being tortured by David Banner, the later Hulk of that world. He needs his massive armor to survive. The armor is powered by "lightning bottles" and provides him with super-strength and invulnerability as well as several electricity-powered
With his Moorish associate, Rhodes, Lord Iron is assigned by King James to put an end to the traitors and witchbreed in the New World. Instead, he realizes he has let bitterness consume him, and makes his peace with Banner. He is last seen using his armor to power the colony's printing press.
1872
The Secret Wars War Zone tie-in 1872 reimagines Tony in the Wild West. Tony was once a respected inventor who lives in the town of Timely. When the Union army used his repeating rifle to slaughter a large group of Confederates rather let them surrender, Tony spirals into alcoholism. After Sheriff Steve Rogers is murdered by Mayor Wilson Fisk and his cohorts, Tony builds a large suit of armor resembling the original Iron Man suit to aid Red Wolf in bringing him down. After Fisk is defeated, Tony dedicates his time to aiding the people of Timely with his new invention.
2020
Iron Man 2020 features Arno Stark as a mercenary in the employ of Sunset Bain. In 2012, Arno had traveled to the past in an effort to save his family from a madman's bomb. All he needs are the retinal patterns of the bomb maker, but he runs into the original Blizzard who mistakes him for the "real" Iron Man/Tony Stark. Not having time to deal with this threat, Arno kills Blizzard. While attempting to scan the retinal patterns of the young terrorist, Spider-Man snatches the scanner with his webbing and asks IM 2020 what he is doing. The two battle one another (Arno is "against the clock") when suddenly Arno is pulled back to his time to discover the bomb had a design flaw and exploded prematurely. His wife, son, employees, and factory have all been destroyed.
2093
Tony Stark and Doctor Doom are brought to the year 2093 by Merlin to stop a plot by a primarily robotic Doom and the Iron Man of 2093, Andros Stark. Andros is a psychotic madman and uses his grandfather Arno's armor. Tony defeats Andros while wielding the legendary sword Excalibur.
Andros Stark/Iron Man 2099 voiced by Alessandro Juliani would later be adopted into the second season of Iron Man: Armored Adventures with him being from the year 2099 and traveling back when Tony was a teenager before inventing a AI named "Vortex". Vortex dooms the entire human race with Andros donning a futuristic suit (classed "Hyperspace Mark XL") and the Extremis to kill Tony/Iron Man but goes to S.H.I.E.L.D. for assistance. Andros destroys Iron Man with his ultra-beam, afterward, Hawkeye managed to implant the virus on Andros's armor, and realized that all this is because Tony was trying to save himself by using the virus to stop Andros using his nano-virus which is actually the original seed for the Vortex virus. He travels back in time for a short moment to warn Iron Man that his nano-virus chips were actually the Vortex virus. He quickly destroys the last nano-virus arrow, saving Andros. As a result of this change in the timeline, the future was saved and because of this, Andros is erased from existence after saying his last words to his grandfather.
2099
In the Marvel 2099 line, the new Iron Man of that era is a man named Sonny Frisco. Despite piloting a normal-sized suit of Iron Man armor, Frisco actually suffers from dwarfism. He is a member of the Alchemax corporation's team of Avengers, and secretly uses the help of Vision, a woman with precognitive abilities.
3030
The Iron Man of 3030 is Tony Stark's biracial granddaughter, Rhodey Stark (named after Stark's close friend James Rhodes). She travels to the present in order to help the Avengers save Earth from a rogue planet that had been fired from the future, and departs after warning her grandfather that his life is in danger.
Adam Warlock
In Adam Warlock #2 (1972), Peter Parker's counterpart on Counter-Earth mentions that "the heart of Tony Stark beats unscathed".
Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse, Tony Stark is an agent of the Human High Council. The injury that compromised his heart is caused by the attack of a mutant.
Age of X
Officially code named Iron Man, he prefers the name Steel Corpse. Iron Man was infected by a disease, thought to be of mutant origin, that bonded him permanently to his armor. Not only can he never remove the armor, the disease is causing the armor to slowly consume his flesh, meaning that one day Tony Stark will cease to exist and only the armor will be left. He works with this reality's version of the Avengers to exterminate all mutants, but eventually rebels against his purpose when a 'Trojan horse' in the armor nearly drives him to kill innocent mutant children, forcing his teammates to kill him.
Avataars
In the sword and sorcery world of the Avataars: Covenant of the Shield miniseries, Iron Man's counterpart is Ironheart, one of the Champions of the Realm. A powerful warrior, he wears a huge suit of grey armor.
Bullet Points
In Bullet Points, Iron Man is Steve Rogers, who, due to the assassination of Dr. Abraham Erskine occurring earlier than in the mainstream Marvel universe, never receives the Super-Soldier formula. Instead, he agrees to be bonded to the prototype 'Iron Man' armor despite the intense physical pain and discomfort this will cause. Rogers is later killed fighting an alternative version of the Hulk. Tony Stark, in this reality a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., expresses a desire to continue in Rogers' footsteps as Iron Man, but is rejected owing to a heart condition. He later disobeys this command and adopts the mantle upon the arrival of Galactus.
Contest of Champions
The 2015 Contest of Champions series has a version of Tony Stark that won Civil War with nearly everything working out in his favor. Five years later, Tony has donned the Iron Patriot armor and is the President of the United States. He and his Mighty Avengers team are kidnapped by Maestro and placed onto Battleworld, where Maestro alters their memories to believe the remaining heroes are unregistered and need to be taken in. Their fight is interrupted by that universe's Thunderbolts (led by Steve Rogers). In the next issue, the Mighty Avengers battle the Thunderbolts and Renegade Champions, during which Tony kills Steve and reveals that the reason the Civil War went completely in his favor was because he used the Reality Gem from the Infinity Gauntlet. When he tries to use it again on Battleworld, it doesn't work because he's in a different dimension, and he's killed by Maestro.
Earth X
In the alternative reality of Earth X, Tony Stark builds a headquarters that protects himself from a plague that grants all humans superpowers. Afterwards, he builds the Iron Avengers. His headquarters is revealed to be a giant armor, based on the old Godzilla fighting mecha, the Red Ronin, which he uses to delay the Celestial attack until the coming of Galactus, sacrificing his life in the process. In Paradise X, he becomes part of the angelic Avenging Host of Marvel's "Paradise", with an Iron Man motif.
Earth-691
In the continuity of Earth-691, Tony Stark is devastated by the horrors of the Martian invasion and jettisons his technology into space. It is found by a primitive alien race who use it to become an interstellar menace calling themselves the Stark, who subsequently clash with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 31st century. "Standard" continuity Iron Man (Earth-616) encountered his "creations" when a cadre of rational, scientific members of the Stark called the Programmers bring Tony Stark to the future to help them solve various planet-wide problems.
Earth-2122
In the continuity of Earth-2122, the home of Crusader X, where the British won the American Revolution and still control North America, Anthony Stark is a member of a group called the Sons of Liberty. In this reality, Stark is willing to kill innocent people.
Earth-3490
In the continuity of Earth-3490, Tony Stark was born a woman (Natasha Stark) rather than a man; Stark's superhero alter-ego in this universe is Iron Woman. The Civil War between superheroes in Earth-3490 was averted due to the fact that Stark and Steve Rogers (Captain America) are romantically involved, and have since married.
Exiles
In Exiles, a villainous alternative Iron Man of Earth-2020 is a member of Weapon X, the more ruthless team of reality fixers. After ending up at the 'Crystal Palace' (the Exiles' headquarters) and fighting them there, he is eventually exposed and sent back to his own timeline where he is arrested by the Army for starting a world war.
In one alternative reality Tony Stark has become the absolute ruler of the entire planet Earth, and kills many of that Earth's heroes and mutants. Weapon X arrives on this reality to help him conquer Attilan, though their true purpose is to cause his downfall. Tony is eventually killed by Susan Storm.
In one alternative reality he is partners with both Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Octopus before he created the Iron Man suit.
On an alternative world devastated by the Hulk's Annihilation Wave, Iron Man was one of those killed in the attack. When the Exiles arrange for the dead heroes to be replaced by alternatives, Iron Man's replacement is a version of Spitfire, on the grounds that they have never got along with any alternative Tony Starks.
The Sons of Iron are a group of armor-wearing warriors from an Earth shared by humans and reptilian humanoids. Because they are completely concealed by the Iron Man armor, no-one can tell which they are.
Fantastic Four: The End
In the miniseries Fantastic Four: The End, which is set in a future where Reed Richards' technology has launched humanity into a golden age, Tony Stark has died long ago - but his consciousness survives, 'hopping' from artificial body to artificial body. Most of the bodies shown in the miniseries resemble Iron Man armors, often being identical to existing armors. One notable exception was the bulky, stocky space-armor which played an important role in the battle of humanity's heroes versus several alien armadas.
House of M
Born to Howard and Maria Stark, the heads of the powerful business conglomerate Stark Industries, Tony Stark grew to be an imaginative and brilliant inventor. He worked with his father from an early age, and surpassed his father's technical brilliance by the age of 16. Stark became the key supplier of hi-tech weaponry used to fight mutants, and was on the verge of a technological breakthrough when the Mutant-Human war came to an end. The suits are powered down to become part of a game called Robo Death Match, a television sport with giant robots fighting each other. Stark Industries scored its biggest victory when it secured the Sentinel production contracts, pushing major competitor, Jason Wyngarde, out of business. Erik Magnus and Sebastian Shaw awarded Tony the contract under the condition that he would hire Beast and Forge as observers. McCoy became a key contributor along with Doctor Pym on The Vision project. Tony secretly worked on a special project beneath Stark Industries: a brand new suit of hi-tech armor he planned to use as his new Robo Death Match suit.
Iron Man: The End
In the one-shot Iron Man: The End, an aging Tony Stark works on his greatest creation, a space elevator called "Big Jump." Stark faces retirement due to age and the physical toll of an illness, no longer allowing him to run his business "Stark Universal" and continue to be Iron Man. This leads to the need to groom a replacement.
Iron Maniac
Iron Maniac is an evil alternative universe version of Iron Man from Earth-5012. He first appeared in Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 #2, wearing armor that resembles that of Doctor Doom's. He comes from an alternative reality where most of the Avengers were killed when they encountered the vicious alien Titannus in space. While the team is rescued by the reserve Avengers five years later, it takes another five years to fight back the Trellions, the alien race that has brainwashed Titannus. During that time, a power-hungry Reed Richards turns his back on the surviving heroes. Scarred for life due to an attack from the Human Torch, Iron Man sets his own operation base in Latveria to "take over the world to save it from Richards." Richards somehow manages to banish him into Earth-616 Other differences between his world and Earth-616 include that there is no Spider-Man, and that Hank Pym is another version of the Hulk.
After being transported to Earth-616, Iron Maniac fights the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange, all of whom mistake him for their Doctor Doom. After unmasking himself, they learn his true identity, shortly before he manages to temporarily negate the FF's powers and escape, concluding that he has no reason to trust that they will not turn on him like the FF of his world did. Capturing a recently discovered mutant, the alternative Iron Man attempts to return to his home dimension by using the mutant as a power source, but is attacked by Spider-Man and X-23 as they investigate the situation. After the appearance of Captain America and Black Widow, he realizes that he is in an alternative world, but continues to fight the heroes, calling them all 'Richards' lackeys', proclaiming that he can't trust that they won't turn into 'villains' just as his own former allies did. He is defeated thanks to Spider-Man and X-23's use of their own version of the fastball special to destroy his equipment, shortly after 'warning' the other heroes of the Titannus War (by saying that he would not kill them now because it would be a kindness).
While the alternative Tony Stark is kept locked up and drugged in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, he is briefly visited by his counterpart in this universe, although he is unaware of the visit. Shortly after the alternative Stark is transferred to a conventional cell, Titannus soon arrives and fights the heroes, this time confronting a new group of Defenders assembled by Doctor Strange. When Titannus' comatose lover is revived, she tells him that she never loved him and that he was insane, causing Titannus to kill himself. The alternative Iron Man later discovers from Spider-Man and Wolverine that the Avengers were never massacred in space in this reality because the group had been disassembled; as a result, other heroes only encountered Titannus after he had attacked Tokyo in a rage, leaving the heroes who did encounter him less inclined to believe his story and averting the so-called 'Titannus War'.
Stark subsequently broke free from captivity, having immunized himself to the gas that was used to keep him sedated on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. In the process, he gained the unwilling alliance of the LMD Diamondback. Having convinced her that he is the "real" Tony, the AU Tony Stark erased her memories, reshaping the former LMD into an advanced suit of armor. This armor, even more advanced than the pre-Extremis suit Iron Man wore at that time, was able to replicate any weapon from the wearer's memory. He subsequently battled Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Luke Cage, but was only defeated after the sacrifice of rookie hero Freedom Ring, who kept Iron Maniac occupied long enough for Captain America to knock him out with a shield thrown at the back of his neck.
The name Iron Maniac is what he calls himself, due to being the "sole survivor of a sane world living in a backwards, insane world".
Iron Maniac is known to be at least partially cyberized, with armor plating implanted in his chest (revealed during his escape from the Helicarrier, when he is shot). It is unknown whether the rest of his body is similarly armored or if he possesses other cybernetic enhancements.
He has been briefly mentioned as being held in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier recently in The Irredeemable Ant-Man.
Iron Man Noir
In Iron Man Noir, Tony Stark is an industrialist in the 1930s. He is also an adventurer, whose exploits are recorded in Marvels: A Magazine Of Men's Adventure. He is initially accompanied by his associate James Rhodes, his personal assistant Giulietta Nefaria and his biographer Vergil Munsey. When Nefaria is revealed as working with the Nazis (specifically Baron Zemo and Baron von Strucker) and Vergil is killed, their role in the story is taken by Stark's new biographer Pepper Potts. His heart having been damaged on an earlier adventure, Stark keeps it going with repulsor technology installed and recharged by Stark Industries engineer Edwin Jarvis.
While investigating a mysterious power source in the ruins of Atlantis, Pepper Potts gets kidnapped by the Nazis and taken to their stronghold in Norway. To rescue her, Stark and Rhodes don suits of bulky power armour built by Jarvis, but are shocked to discover that 'Baron Zemo' is actually Tony's missing father Howard Stark, brainwashed by a unique chemical compound to serve the Nazis. Despite his depleted power supply, Tony manages to destroy the various suits of armor that Zemo had built for the Nazis, concluding that his father had died long ago, before returning to the USA.
Inter-company crossovers
In Marvel and DC's Amalgam Comics, Stark is merged with the Green Lantern Hal Jordan into the Iron Lantern. "Hal Stark" wears a suit resembling a green Iron Man armor, powered by a Green Lantern battery.
In the miniseries JLA/Avengers, Iron Man aids the Avengers in the battle against Starro the Conqueror. Afterwards, he creates a dimensional alarm in order to tell when invaders from another dimension come into their universe. After a brief scuffle with the JLA in the Savage Land, the Avengers are confronted by Metron, who gives Tony a Mother Box. Using this, Tony is able to get the Avengers to Metropolis, where the Avengers confront the JLA again. The Avengers escape, but Tony and Hawkeye manage to take Green Lantern's Power Battery before they leave, with Tony able to stop the Flash in his tracks. The two later take down Captain Atom and Green Arrow in order to collect the Casket of Ancient Winters. Tony then leaves and arrives to save Photon and Quasar from Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, allowing them to take the Spear of Destiny. After the battle in the Savage Land, Tony is one of the Avengers and is clueless as to the dimensional shifts that are happening around him. After Cap and Superman attack each other, Tony ends up in Metropolis. When the two worlds are briefly corrected by the Grandmaster, Tony is shown his true future with his alcoholism and his defeat by Obadiah Stane. Accepting this, he aids the JLA and the Avengers in the final battle and helped build the ship that took them to Krona's base. During the battle, he teams up with Kyle Rayner to create a weapon to use against their enemies and the two are shown to be impressed by one another, Kyle expressing his awe at Tony's engineering prowess and Tony asking Kyle where he could get a Green Lantern ring.
Mangaverse
In the Marvel Mangaverse reality, Tony Stark creates the original armor together with Dr. Ho Yinsen and acts as Iron Man for a time, but eventually vanishes after a battle with Namor, the Submariner. He is succeeded by Antoinette (Toni) Stark, his twin sister, a former agent of SHIELD, who turns Iron Man into a massive operation - a veritable army of Iron Men in many forms, with herself as Iron Woman. After she dies in battle against the Hulk, Tony Stark reveals himself again; he has gone underground after spinal cancer reduced him to a disembodied head hooked up to a life support system. However, he has designed a new armor, and a body that he can integrate with.
He also had designed four massive vehicles for the Avengers of his world to use, which could combine (in a manner resembling old fashioned combining super robots like Combattler V and Voltes V) into a skyscraper-sized Iron Man-mecha (Dubbed Ultimate Iron Man in its first appearance, then the Iron Avenger in its battle with the Hulk and finally simply called "the Avenger's mecha" in Volume 2 of the series). Unfortunately it was quickly destroyed by that world's Hulk. Apparently, however, it was rebuilt again by the time of the second volume, this time as a single robotic unit without transformation (or, if it was capable of transformation, it was never demonstrated). This unit helped fight off the giant Galactus spores, but was later destroyed, along with most of the Avengers, single-handedly by the Mangaverse version of Dr. Doom.
Marvel Adventures
The Marvel Adventures Iron Man is very similar to the Earth-616 Iron Man, but with some changes. Instead of suffering damage to his heart due to a booby trap in Vietnam, Tony Stark's heart was damaged when an experimental plane he was flying was brought down by AIM. AIM wanted Stark to build weapons and devices for them. Dr. Gia-Bao Yinsen aided Tony in escaping AIM, but Yinsen died saving his country from AIM. Iron Man does not seem to have problems with alcoholism, since the Marvel Adventures is aimed at a younger demographic. Iron Man's armor resembles his Extremis armor although Iron Man has other armors that fit over his regular armor, as in the case of his underwater armor.
Marvel Apes
The version of Iron Man appearing in the Marvel Apes mini-series is a mandrill, appropriately being named the Iron Mandrill. He is a member of the Apevengers. At one point, he is attacked by the zombified Wasp of the Marvel Zombies universe and infected, though he is later apparently cured when these events are undone via time travel.
Marvel Zombies
The first series
In the Marvel Zombies universe, Tony Stark has been infected by the zombie virus. Alongside a horde of starving undead superhuman zombies, Iron Man attacks the Silver Surfer. The attack is successful, but one of the Surfer's energy bolts hits Iron Man's lower torso, cutting him in half. The zombie "survives" this wound and later gains cosmic powers (including flight) by eating part of the Surfer's corpse. When Galactus arrives, Iron Man and the five other surviving zombies devour him. They are able to absorb Galactus' power, and call themselves "The Galacti".
Marvel Zombies 2
He also appears in Marvel Zombies 2, one of the small group of super-powered zombies that have eaten their way across all known space. Here Stark has had his entire lost lower body replaced with cybernetics. He also appears to have forgotten he had some design in the machine which opened a link to the Ultimate Universe. He was shocked to see Forge, one of the surviving X-Men, wearing his Mark I armored suit. The zombified Hulk kills Iron Man when he stomps through the armor, forcing Tony Stark's flesh and blood through any openings left in the armor. However Iron Man had recently revived next issue, but only as a cameo, on Marvel Zombies 3.
Marvel Zombies Return
In the final issue of Marvel Zombies 2, the remaining zombies are transported to another universe. At the point where the zombies reach this new reality, the period is nearly identical to the one where Tony Stark was an alcoholic. Zombie Giant Man infects Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and a number of other people at Stark Industries. A drunken Tony Stark lacks the will power to become Iron Man despite Pepper Potts' requests, so James Rhodes dons the suit to save him. Crucial to fate of the multiverse are the nanites that Stark has accidentally created, which destroy damaged flesh and tissue as a cure for cancer, and prove to be a potent weapon against the zombies. This was grafted onto Flint Marko's body. He sacrifices himself to kill several zombies in Stark Tower, with Rhodes permanently succeeding him in the role of Iron Man. His nanites are then used by his successor, now a member of the New Avengers, years later to kill the remaining super-powered zombies and end the inter-dimensional zombie threat.
MC2
In the alternative future of MC2, Tony Stark retires after the loss of many heroes in battle, but eventually creates the armored computer program Mainframe, which joins the next generation of Avengers.
Mini Marvels
Iron Man is a recurring character in "Mini Marvels". He appears in story arcs like "The Armored Avengers" & "World War Hulk". He is portrayed as conceited and thinks himself the best of the team. He has a friendly rivalry with Hawkeye.
Newuniversal
In the alternative world of newuniversal, Tony Stark is one of three humans altered by the Fireworks on April 26, 1953, gaining abilities associated with the Cipher glyph. Prior to the Fireworks, Stark is unexceptional, but he then becomes a technological genius. His discoveries revitalise his father's company, Stark Industries, and are "five years ahead of everything everyone else is working on". There are suggestions that he is capable of more, but is not making all of his discoveries public.
Stark's transformation is noticed by the National Security Agency's Project Spitfire, which is discreetly monitoring the superhumans created by the Fireworks. In March 1959, Stark's plane crashes in North Vietnam and he is imprisoned. He escapes by constructing an Iron Man suit from "spare parts" and flying out of the country.
On April 4, 1959, when he returns to the US, the NSA takes Stark to a San Diego naval base, ostensibly to debrief him. Stark is then shot dead by Philip L. Voight, a Project Spitfire agent, to prevent him from making contact with the other superhumans.
The Iron Man suit is seized by Project Spitfire and reverse engineered by Doctor Joe Swann, eventually becoming the basis of the project's H.E.X suit, an exoskeleton designed for combat with superhumans.
Ruins
In the two issue Warren Ellis series Ruins, Tony Stark is a rich industrialist who supplied weapons for the US military in an attempt to win the Vietnam War. This version of Iron Man was injured while mediating between US forces and pro-secessionist Californians by a piece of shrapnel thrown by the National Guard. This embittered Stark who formed a revolutionary cell named the Avengers. This version of Iron Man was betrayed by Scarlet Witch who provided the United States military information to crush the Avengers. Tony Stark is presumably killed.
Spider-Verse
In the Amazing Spider-Man comic's event Spider-Verse, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Scarlet Spider (Kaine) and Spider-man (Ben Reily) meet and fight a clone of Tony Stark (Earth-802) as Iron Man serving one of the Inheritors, Jennix.
Spider-Island
In a Secret Wars Warzone version of Spider-Island, he is mutated into one of the Spider Queen's spider minions and battles Agent Venom and the now monstrous Avengers. Venom sprays Tony with Norman Osborn's Green Goblin formula, freeing Tony from the Queen, but slowly making him insane. He modifies Norman's armor and becomes the Iron Goblin to aid the resistance. When they are surrounded by a number of spider creatures (including Giant Man) with few means of escape, Tony sacrifices himself using the Black Knight's Ebony Blade so he can aid them and die before the Goblin formula completely takes him over.
Spider-Gwen
In Spider-Gwen Tony Stark of Earth-65 is an arms dealer, the owner of global private military company WAR MACHINE, and owner of the coffee chain StarkBucks.
Spider-Man: Life Story
In Spider-Man: Life Story, Tony Stark/Iron Man does not face a traumatizing experience that leads to stop weapons manufacturing as his Earth-616 counterpart did instead he continues to produce them and play a key role in the Vietnam War and a World War III-esque conflict known as "The Russian War" as well as participating in Secret Wars while on Battleworld. Iron Man also became Secretary of Defense in the United States government and was one of the two leaders alongside Captain America in the Superhuman Civil War.
Squadron Supreme
In the Squadron Supreme series, the equivalent of Iron Man is Tucker Ford. Tucker was a very intelligent boy since his early years, however since being raised by his strong-willed mother along with never going to school with anyone his own age made Tucker to have difficulty to make any kind of meaningful personal relationship and because of this, he became very introverted.
As he grew up, he had built an imaginative world where he was a superhero. When trying to explain his imaginations to his therapist, they turned around and mocked him before their colleagues, however being unaware that Tucker had them under electronic surveillance. This experience motivated him to follow his dream and become a real superhero.
As a young adult, he built a powerful, but unstable armour made from nanotechnology in order to achieve his dream, eventually meeting the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury and offered his intelligence and company to Nick Fury to help defend America.
He fails to gain the affection of Nick Fury and to get a kiss from the spider-powered superhuman, Nell Ruggles, also known as Arachnophilia.
He offers to build a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier as a base for the organization and to be a member of the team in order to live out of his imagination. The only person that Tucker had the closest relationship with is Nell, expressing romantic feelings towards her.
Ultimate Marvel
What If
Newer Fantastic Four
In the timeline of What if: Newer Fantastic Four, the Fantastic Four were killed by De'Lila (a rogue Skrull) and the Hulk, so Spider-Man, the Ghost Rider and Wolverine joined together to avenge them as the New Fantastic Four. Thanos of Titan, as in the mainline universe, came into possession of the six Infinity Gems and became ruler of all reality, before erasing half of all living beings from existence. Among those who vanished was Ghost Rider, and, being present at the battle during which he was erased, Iron Man takes his place. The Newer Fantastic Four soon realize they are outmatched. Stark, with help from the Hulk, manages to salvage the empty armor of Ziran, a Celestial, and realizes it can be controlled by thoughts. Stark takes control of the armor and connects it to the Negative Zone, allowing him to call on all the power of that reality. Despite this, he is defeated by Thanos. Stark's sacrifice allows Wolverine to trick Thanos into a position where the Gauntlet could be removed. Spider-Man subsequently uses the Gauntlet to undo the damage Thanos had caused.
Iron Man: Demon in an Armor
In What If: Iron Man: Demon in an Armor, Tony Stark is Doom's college roommate rather than Reed Richards, inspiring Doom to develop a machine that allows him to transfer his mind into Stark's body while leaving Stark trapped in Doom's body with no memory of his past. While Doom uses Stark's connections and company to establish himself, the amnesic Stark- believing himself to be Doom- works to rebuild his life, creating his own company and forming his own reputation from the ground up. This culminates in a confrontation between the two wearing early versions of their respective armours- Doom having developed a green-and-silver Iron Man armour while Stark has created Doom's costume with gold and a red cloak-, during which Doom reveals the truth about their switch, only for Stark to reject the offer to switch back because Doom has destroyed the name of Tony Stark while Doctor von Doom has developed an honorable reputation.
Realm of Kings
In this one-shot, Quasar, the newly resurrected Protector of the Universe travels into the Fault, the immense tear which has appeared in the fabric of spacetime itself after the catastrophic battle between Vulcan and Black Bolt. Reaching what he perceives to be the other end of the tunnel that is the Fault, he arrives in another universe... a dark, twisted universe, the `corpse of a universe´, possessed by Lovecraftian horrors which are worshipped by all the denizens of that universe, including Earth's mightiest heroes. Iron Man is never seen outside his armor, but he, like the others, serves the "Many-angled ones" with total devotion.
X-Men Forever
In this alternative universe of X-Men Forever, Tony Stark, while still publicly the super-hero Iron Man, is also the head of the shadowy organization known as The Consortium. The scientific wing of the organization is headed by the Trask family, who turn out to be his relatives. They create newer versions of the Sentinels and kidnap mutants to use in experimentation to find the cause of the so-called "Burnout" syndrome that causes mutants to die early. However, as part of his efforts to undermine the Consortium's anti-mutant agenda, he becomes Nick Fury's insider and eventually sacrifices his life along with Beast. He assists Storm- who has been split into an amnesic child version of herself and an energy form with full memory and no body- by providing her energy self with a suit based on the now-deceased Black Panther so that her energy can maintain corporeal form, although he is subsequently killed by a twisted clone of Storm before he can reveal her existence to anyone else.
Mutant X
In Mutant X, Tony Stark is Iron Giant Man and part of the anti-mutant group the Avengers. He was later killed by X-Man Captain America along with the other Avengers.
Infinity Warps
During the Infinity Wars storyline, where the universe was combined in half, Iron Man was fused with Thor creating Iron Hammer. Sigurd Stark was the fifth richest person on the world thanks to his genius about technology, however due to his lack of memories before five years, taunted him driving to drink. After going through the Norvegian, he was attacked by some Dark Elves, lead by Krimson Kurse (fusion Crimson Dynamo and Kurse). He got poisoned by an arrow, slowing killing him and taken by the Elves to aid their other prisoner Eitri (fusion of Eitri and Ho Yinsen) in order to build powerful weapons for the Elves. Then, Sigurd became friend with Eitri and together build an armor, that prevented the poison from killing Sigurd, along with a hammer in order to escape the Dark Elves. However, during their escape Eitri is killed and after Sigurd defeated the Elves and Krimson Kurse, he discovered that Krimson was his lost friend who had turned into a Thrall to be a servant to Dark Elves and after that he mercy killed his friend. Sigurd then decided to the All-Father on Asgard to seek help into defeating Malekith (fusion of Malekith and Mandarin) and with the help of his AI assistant H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L. (fusion of Heimdall and J.A.R.V.I.S.) opened the B.I.F.R.O.S.T. and went to Asgard. When travelling, he remembered his old memories: his true name was Stark Odinson, who due to his arrogance, his father Howard Odin (fusion of Howard Stark and Odin) banished his son to Earth where he would learn to how is like to be a mortal. Upon arriving, Malekith had trapped the Aesir and had allied with Madame Hel (fusion of Madame Masque and Hela and Stane Odinson (fusion of Loki and Obadiah Stane). Luckily, Iron Hammer was able to defeat Malekith and Odin allowed his son to become a god again, however Sigurd refused, feeling better as a human.
In other media
In 1966, Iron Man was featured in a series of cartoons. In 1981, Iron Man guest appeared in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, but only as Tony Stark. He went on to feature again in his own series in the 1990s as part of the Marvel Action Hour with the Fantastic Four; Robert Hays provided his voice in these animated cartoons. Iron Man makes an appearance in the episode "Shell Games" of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.
Apart from comic books, Iron Man appears in Capcom's "Vs." video games, including Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Iron Man is a playable character in Iron Man, the 1992 arcade game Captain America and the Avengers, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and its sequel, and Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, as well as being featured as an unlockable character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and Tony Hawk's Underground. In the 2009 animated series, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, most of the characters, including Tony Stark, are teenagers. An anime adaptation aired in Japan in late 2010 as part of a collaboration between Marvel Animation and Madhouse, in which Stark, voiced by Keiji Fujiwara, travels to Japan where he ends up facing off against the Zodiac.
In 2008, a film adaptation titled Iron Man was released, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and directed by Jon Favreau. Iron Man received very positive reviews from film critics, grossing $318 million domestically and $585 million worldwide, and became the first in a series of over 20 films known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character of Tony Stark, again played by Robert Downey Jr., appeared at the end of the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk. Downey reprised his role in Iron Man 2 (2010), Marvel's The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
In 2009, Playtech released an online casino slot machine game called Iron Man. After that they created two more games, Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3.
In October 2016, Eoin Colfer released a young adult novel called Iron Man: The Gauntlet.
Cultural influence and legacy
The rapper Ghostface Killah, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, titled his 1996 debut solo album Ironman, and has since continued to use lyrics related to the Iron Man comics and samples from the animated TV shows on his records. He has adopted the nickname Tony Starks as one of his numerous alter-egos, and was featured in a scene deleted from the Iron Man film.
Paul McCartney's song "Magneto and Titanium Man" was inspired by the X-Men's nemesis and the original version of the Iron Man villain. Another Iron Man villain, the Crimson Dynamo, is mentioned in the lyrics to this song.
The British band Razorlight mentions Tony Stark in a verse of their song, "Hang By, Hang By".
The character of Nathan Stark on the television show Eureka is inspired by Tony Stark.
In 2011, IGN ranked Iron Man 12th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.
Two Iron Man-themed trucks compete in the Monster Jam monster truck racing series. Debuted in Atlanta on 9 January 2010, they are driven by Lee O' Donnell and Morgan Kane.
In 2015, University of Central Florida engineering student Albert Manero, who builds and donates affordable 3D-printed bionic limbs to those in need, constructed a bionic arm based on Iron Man's suit for 7-year-old Alex Pring, a superhero fan who was born with a partially formed right arm. He then delivered the Iron Man arm to Pring with the help of Robert Downey Jr. in character as Tony Stark.
For Major League Baseball Players Weekend in August 2018, New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres designed his custom cleats after Iron Man's suit.
A TV show demonstrated a hovering bullet-mitigating suit with some of the official Marvel design features in 2019.
See also
List of Iron Man enemies
Jetpack man
References
Further reading
Will Cooley and Mark C. Rogers, "Ike's Nightmare: Iron Man and the Military-Industrial Complex," in Ages of Iron Man, Joseph Dorowski, ed., 2015.
Tom DeFalco, Avengers: The Ultimate Guide, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Mark D. White (ed.), Iron Man and Philosophy: Facing the Stark Reality, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
External links
"Stark Reality: A Different Hero for Different Times" by Ian Chant - PopMatters.com
Advanced Iron (fanzine)
Iron Man Library
Tony Stark at Spider-Man Wiki
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[
"Invader Zim is an ongoing American comic book series created by Jhonen Vasquez. It is a continuation of the animated television series of the same name that originally aired on Nickelodeon.\n\nIn February 2015, Oni Press announced that a comic book series based on the show, in collaboration with Jhonen Vasquez and Nickelodeon, was being released as the continuation of the series. Vasquez said about the show: \"I'm always confused when people say how much they miss Invader Zim because the show never stopped running in my head, and then I remember everyone else isn't in my head\". A pre-issue #0 was released on May 23, 2015 as a zine and foreshadow to the comic book series. The first issue was released on July 8, 2015, launching a monthly run that continued until issue #50.\n\nOn February 11, 2020, it was announced that the monthly Invader Zim comic would end with issue #50, released in March 2020, and a new comic series titled Invader Zim Quarterly would begin April 2020, releasing on a quarterly schedule. However, due to comic publishers halting the release of new issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, this was postponed until June 2020. In April 2021, it was announced that the comic series would end with a special one-shot releasing in August 2021.\n\nAdditionally, in July 2020, Oni Press launched a new \"Best of...\" trade paperback collections, which collect a selection of stories from Oni Press's monthly Invader Zim comic series.\n\nIssues\n\nMonthly\n\nQuarterly\n\nCollected editions\n\nTrade paperbacks\n\nDeluxe hardcovers\n\nReception\nMatt Little from Comic Book Resources said, \"Invader Zim #1 is a welcome return and an accessible jumping on point for anyone who has heard of it or is interested to learn more. It's an all-ages affair that is entertaining for any reader, as it doesn't speak down to its audience.\" Marcy Cook from The Mary Sue said, \"If you liked the over-the-top nonsense of the show, you're going to enjoy the comic too. The art has that loose stylised look that's very Zim, with the distinctly limited muted colour palette.\"\n\nAccording to statistics from Diamond Comic Distributors, the first issue of the Invader Zim comic was the 17th best-selling comic book of July 2015, with approximately 60,000 units sold at North American comic shops in that month alone.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Oni Press\n\n2015 comics debuts\nInvader Zim\nComics based on television series\nComics about extraterrestrial life\nBlack comedy comics\nScience fiction comics\nAmerican comics\nOni Press titles\nAlien invasions in comics\nComics by Jhonen Vasquez",
"Insufferable is an American comic book series written by Mark Waid and digitally published by Waid's Thrillbent label. The series, described by Waid as a \"dramedy\", follows Joshua Cross, of Van Meter Iowa, the dedicated hero Nocturnus, and his arrogant, egotistical former sidekick Galahad, who are forced to reunite to tackle a new case. Insufferable reunited Waid with his Irredeemable creative team, artist Peter Krause and colorist Nolan Woodward. The series began publication on May 1, 2012, as Thrillbent's launch title.\n\nPublication history\nInsufferable was first announced on April 14, 2012, at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo as the first series to be released on Waid's new online digital comic publishing platform Thrillbent.\n\nThe first issue of Insufferable was released on May 1, 2012 on Thrillbent. The comic reunites Waid with his creative team from the finished comic series Irredeemable; artist Peter Krause, colorist Nolan Woodward, and letterer Troy Petrie. Waid designed the comic specifically for digital release as opposed to comics which are designed for print and also released digitally. Remarking on the flexibility of digital comics allowing long, short, and one-off series, Waid stated \"I can see [Insufferable] ending at some point, but I also see how we can do sequels\".\n\nUnlike traditional print comics, Insufferable is intended to be released in a 4 x 3 landscape format to allow pages to fit comfortably on standard horizontal monitors and similar viewing devices. Speaking about the format decision, Waid said \"I hate, with a white hot passion, digital comics where I only get to see a little bit of the screen as I go and I have to scroll around to get the sense of what the whole page [is]\". Waid claimed that releasing the comic digitally was the only option available, as he was not able to afford the cost of releasing it in print, and was selling off his collection of print comics to raise funds for the venture. Additionally he financially partnered with comic writer and television producer John Rogers, and provides his collaborators, like Krause, with co-ownership, trading initially lower rates of payment for potential larger future gains if the series is a success. Waid claimed that if the series was successful and profitable, future releases in print would be possible. In October 2013, issues 1-8 were collected in print.\n\nVolume 2 finished on November 30, 2013, and the first issue of volume 3 was released on November 12, 2014 after a one-year absence. Releases have not followed the weekly schedule as was planned, with the 16th issue being released on April 22, 2015.\n\nDevelopment\nIn April, Waid described the setting as what happens when a hero has a kid sidekick who grows up to be a \"completely ungrateful, self-aggrandizing,\" \"douchebag\" who \"will not shut up about how much of a genius he is and how the world is a better place now that [the hero team] are broken up because now he can do it all the way he wanted to do it.\" The series follows the events that force the hero and the former sidekick to reunite in spite of their mutual hatred for one another.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n \n Official Twitter account\n\nComics by Mark Waid"
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[
"Iron Man",
"First series",
"When did the first series start?",
"After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner",
"What was the comic about?",
"metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists.",
"Was the comic well received?",
"I don't know.",
"How did they proceed after releasing the comic?",
"Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978)."
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How many comics did they create?
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How many comics did Iron Man create?
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Iron Man
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After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series' indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man. Artist George Tuska began a decade long association with the character with Iron Man #5 (Sept. 1968). Writer Mike Friedrich and artist Jim Starlin's brief collaboration on the Iron Man series introduced Mentor, Starfox, and Thanos in issue #55 (Feb. 1973). Friedrich scripted a metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists. He then wrote the multi-issue "War of the Super-Villains" storyline which ran through 1975. Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978). Micheline and Layton established Tony Stark's alcoholism with the story "Demon in a Bottle", and introduced several supporting characters, including Stark's bodyguard girlfriend Bethany Cabe; Stark's personal pilot and confidant James Rhodes, who later became the superhero War Machine; and rival industrialist Justin Hammer, who was revealed to be the employer of numerous high-tech armed enemies Iron Man fought over the years. The duo also introduced the concept of Stark's specialized armors as he acquired a dangerous vendetta with Doctor Doom. The team worked together through #154 (Jan. 1982), with Michelinie writing three issues without Layton. Following Michelinie and Layton's departures, Dennis O'Neil became the new writer of the series and had Stark relapse into alcoholism. Much of O'Neil's work on this plot thread was based on experiences with alcoholics he knew personally. Jim Rhodes replaced Stark as Iron Man in issue #169 (April 1983) and wore the armor for the next two years of stories. O'Neil returned Tony Stark to the Iron Man role in issue #200 (Nov. 1985). Michelinie and Layton became the creative team once again in issue #215 (Feb. 1987). They crafted the "Armor Wars" storyline beginning in #225 (Dec. 1987) through #231 (June 1988). John Byrne and John Romita Jr. produced a sequel titled "Armor Wars II" in issues #258 (July 1990) to #266 (March 1991). The series had a crossover with the other Avengers related titles as part of the "Operation: Galactic Storm" storyline. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The character made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963), and received his own title in Iron Man #1 (May 1968). Also in 1963, the character founded the Avengers alongside Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp and the Hulk.
A wealthy American business magnate, playboy, philanthropist, inventor and ingenious scientist, Anthony Edward Stark suffers a severe chest injury during a kidnapping. When his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction, he instead creates a mechanized suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. Later, Stark develops his suit, adding weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company, Stark Industries. He uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man. Although at first concealing his true identity, Stark eventually publicly reveals himself to be Iron Man.
Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology and industry in the fight against communism. Subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War motifs to contemporary matters of the time.
Throughout most of the character's publication history, Iron Man has been a founding member of the superhero team the Avengers and has been featured in several incarnations of his own various comic book series. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated TV shows and films. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., appearing in the films Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008) in a cameo, Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). The character also appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
Iron Man was ranked 12th on IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes" in 2011 and third in their list of "The Top 50 Avengers" in 2012.
Publication history
Premiere
Iron Man's Marvel Comics premiere in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963) was a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, story-artist Don Heck, and cover-artist and character-designer Jack Kirby. In 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the "quintessential capitalist", a character that would go against the spirit of the times and Marvel's readership. Lee said:
He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies' man, but one with a secret that would plague and torment him as well. Writer Gerry Conway said, "Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just can't be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken. But there's a metaphor going on there. And that's, I think, what made that character interesting." Lee based this playboy's looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, "Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies' man and finally a nutcase." "Without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes," Lee said.
While Lee intended to write the story himself, a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the premiere issue to Lieber, who fleshed out the story. The art was split between Kirby and Heck. "He designed the costume," Heck said of Kirby, "because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts." In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had "a specific model for Tony Stark and the other characters?", Heck replied "No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the same kind of characters that Alex Toth liked, which was an Errol Flynn type." Iron Man first appeared in 13- to 18-page stories in Tales of Suspense, which featured anthology science fiction and supernatural stories. The character's original costume was a bulky gray armored suit, replaced by a golden version in the second story (issue #40 April 1963). It was redesigned as sleeker, red-and-golden armor in issue #48 (December 1963) by that issue's interior artist, Steve Ditko, although Kirby drew it on the cover. As Heck recalled in 1985, "[T]he second costume, the red and yellow one, was designed by Steve Ditko. I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing. The earlier design, the robot-looking one, was more Kirbyish."
In his premiere, Iron Man was an anti-communist hero, defeating various Vietnamese agents. Lee later regretted this early focus. Throughout the character's comic book series, technological advancement and national defense were constant themes for Iron Man, but later issues developed Stark into a more complex and vulnerable character as they depicted his battle with alcoholism (as in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline) and other personal difficulties.
From issue #59 (November 1964) to its final issue #99 (March 1968), the anthological science-fiction backup stories in Tales of Suspense were replaced by a feature starring the superhero Captain America. Lee and Heck introduced several adversaries for the character including the Mandarin in issue #50 (February 1964), the Black Widow in #52 (April 1964) and Hawkeye five issues later.
Lee said that "of all the comic books we published at Marvel, we got more fan mail for Iron Man from women, from females, than any other title ... We didn't get much fan mail from girls, but whenever we did, the letter was usually addressed to Iron Man."
Lee and Kirby included Iron Man in The Avengers #1 (September 1963) as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has since appeared in every subsequent volume of the series.
Writers have updated the war and locale in which Stark is injured. In the original 1963 story, it was the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, it was updated to be the first Gulf War, and in the 2000s updated again to be the war in Afghanistan. Stark's time with the Asian Nobel Prize-winning scientist Ho Yinsen is consistent through nearly all incarnations of the Iron Man origin, depicting Stark and Yinsen building the original armor together. One exception is the direct-to-DVD animated feature film The Invincible Iron Man, in which the armor Stark uses to escape his captors is not the first Iron Man suit.
Themes
The original Iron Man title explored Cold War themes, as did other Stan Lee projects in the early years of Marvel Comics. Where The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk respectively focused on American domestic and government responses to the Communist threat, Iron Man explored industry's role in the struggle. Tony Stark's real-life model, Howard Hughes, was a significant defense contractor who developed new weapons technologies. Hughes was an icon both of American individualism and of the burdens of fame.
Historian Robert Genter, in The Journal of Popular Culture, writes that Tony Stark specifically presents an idealized portrait of the American inventor. Where earlier decades had seen important technological innovations come from famous individuals (e.g., Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers), the 1960s saw new technologies (including weapons) being developed mainly by the research teams of corporations. As a result, little room remained for the inventor who wanted credit for, and creative and economic control over, their own creations.
Issues of entrepreneurial autonomy, government supervision of research, and ultimate loyalty figured prominently in early Iron Man stories—the same issues affecting American scientists and engineers of that era. Tony Stark, writes Genter, is an inventor who finds motive in his emasculation as an autonomous creative individual. This blow is symbolized by his chest wound, inflicted at the moment he is forced to invent things for the purposes of others, instead of just himself. To Genter, Stark's transformation into Iron Man represents Stark's effort to reclaim his autonomy, and thus his manhood. The character's pursuit of women in bed or in battle, writes Genter, represents another aspect of this effort. The pattern finds parallels in other works of 1960s popular fiction by authors such as "Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond), Mickey Spillane (Mike Hammer), and Norman Mailer, who made unregulated sexuality a form of authenticity."
Solo series
After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series's indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man.
This initial series ended with issue #332 (September 1996). Jim Lee, Scott Lobdell, and Jeph Loeb authored a second volume of the series which was drawn primarily by Whilce Portacio and Ryan Benjamin. This volume took place in a parallel universe and ran 13 issues (November 1996 – November 1997). Volume 3, whose first 25 issues were written by Kurt Busiek and then by Busiek and Roger Stern, ran 89 issues (February 1998 – December 2004). Later writers included Joe Quesada, Frank Tieri, Mike Grell, and John Jackson Miller. Issue #41 (June 2001) was additionally numbered #386, reflecting the start of dual numbering starting from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968. The final issue was dual-numbered as #434. The next Iron Man series, Iron Man vol. 4, debuted in early 2005 with the Warren Ellis-written storyline "Extremis", with artist Adi Granov. It ran 35 issues (January 2005 – January 2009), with the cover logo simply Iron Man beginning with issue #13, and Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., beginning issue #15. On the final three issues, the cover logo was overwritten by "War Machine, Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D.", which led to the launch of a War Machine ongoing series.
The Invincible Iron Man by writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca, began with a premiere issue cover-dated July 2008. For a seven-month overlap, Marvel published both volume four and volume five simultaneously. This Invincible volume jumped its numbering of issues from #33 to #500, cover dated March 2011, to reflect the start from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968.
After the conclusion of The Invincible Iron Man a new Iron Man series was started as a part of Marvel Now!. Written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Greg Land, it began with issue #1 in November 2012.
Many Iron Man annuals, miniseries, and one-shot titles have been published through the years, such as Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man (February 1996), Iron Man: The Iron Age #1–2 (August – September 1998), Iron Man: Bad Blood #1–4 (September – December 2000), Iron Man House of M #1–3 (September – November 2005), Fantastic Four / Iron Man: Big in Japan #1–4 (December 2005 – March 2006), Iron Man: The Inevitable #1–6 (February – July 2006), Iron Man / Captain America: Casualties of War (February 2007), Iron Man: Hypervelocity #1–6 (March – August 2007), Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #1–6 (November 2007 – April 2008), and Iron Man: Legacy of Doom (June – September 2008). Publications have included such spin-offs as the one-shot Iron Man 2020 (June 1994), featuring a different Iron Man in the future, and the animated TV series adaptations Marvel Action Hour, Featuring Iron Man #1–8 (November 1994 – June 1995) and Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1–12 (July 2007 – June 2008).
Fictional character biography
Origins
Anthony Edward Stark is the son of wealthy industrialist and head of Stark Industries, Howard Stark, and Maria Stark. A boy genius, he enters MIT at the age of 15 to study engineering and later receives master's degrees in engineering and physics. After his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his father's company.
Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured by enemy forces led by Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu orders Stark to build weapons, but Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow prisoner, Ho Yinsen, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work Stark had greatly admired during college, constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart. In secret, Stark and Yinsen use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor, which Stark uses to escape. During the escape attempt, Yinsen sacrifices his life to save Stark's by distracting the enemy as Stark recharges. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers and rejoins the American forces, on his way meeting a wounded American Marine fighter pilot, James "Rhodey" Rhodes.
Back home, Stark discovers that the shrapnel fragment lodged in his chest cannot be removed without killing him, and he is forced to wear the armor's chestplate beneath his clothes to act as a regulator for his heart. He must recharge the chestplate every day or else risk the shrapnel killing him. The cover story that Stark tells the news media and general public is that Iron Man is his robotic personal bodyguard, and corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fights threats to his company (e.g., Communist opponents Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo, and the Titanium Man), as well as independent villains like the Mandarin (who becomes his greatest enemy). No one suspects Stark of being Iron Man, as he cultivates a strong public image of being a rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable members of the series's supporting cast, at this point, are his personal chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan, and secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts—to both of whom he eventually reveals his dual identity. Meanwhile, James Rhodes finds his own niche as Stark's personal pilot, ultimately revealing himself to be a man of extraordinary skill and daring in his own right.
The series took an anti-Communist stance in its early years, which was softened as public (and therefore, presumably, reader) opposition rose to the Vietnam War. This change evolved in a series of storylines featuring Stark reconsidering his political opinions, and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the U.S. military. Stark shows himself to be occasionally arrogant, and willing to act unethically in order to 'let the ends justify the means'. This leads to personal conflicts with the people around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities. Stark uses his vast personal fortune not only to outfit his own armor, but also to develop weapons for S.H.I.E.L.D.; other technologies (e.g., Quinjets used by the Avengers); and the image inducers used by the X-Men. Eventually, Stark's heart condition is publicly discovered when he was summoned for a Congressional hearing and Stark collapsed when his chestpiece's power failed, causing a heart attack. Stark was medically examined, which revealed his hidden equipment, and was hospitalized, forcing Pepper to have Happy don his employer's armor to pose as Iron Man to protect his boss's secret identity. Eventually, that specific medical issue was resolved with an artificial heart transplant, which still required the chestplate for some time to support the replacement organ.
1970s and early 1980s
Stark expands on his armor designs and begins to build his arsenal of specialized armors for particular situations such as for space travel and stealth. Stark also develops a serious dependency on alcohol in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline. The first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them. At the same time, it is revealed that several minor supervillains armed with advanced weapons who had bedeviled Stark throughout his superhero career are in fact in the employ of Stark's business rival, Justin Hammer, who begins to plague Stark more directly. At one point in Hammer's manipulations, the Iron Man armor is taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man is not immediately under suspicion, Stark is forced to hand the armor over to the authorities. Eventually Stark and Rhodes, who is now his personal pilot and confidant, track down and defeat those responsible, although Hammer would return to bedevil Stark again. With the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe, his friends and his employees, Stark pulls through these crises and overcomes his dependency on alcohol. Even as he recovers from this harrowing personal trial, Stark's life is further complicated when he has a confrontation with Doctor Doom that is interrupted by an opportunistic enemy sending them back in time to the time of King Arthur. Once there, Iron Man thwarts Doom's attempt to solicit the aid of Morgan Le Fay, and the Latverian ruler swears deadly vengeance—to be indulged sometime after the two return to their own time. This incident was collected and published as Doomquest.
Some time later, a ruthless rival, Obadiah Stane, manipulates Stark emotionally into a serious relapse. As a result, Stark loses control of Stark International to Stane, becomes a homeless alcoholic vagrant and gives up his armored identity to Rhodes, who becomes the new Iron Man. Eventually, Stark recovers and joins a new startup, Circuits Maximus. Stark concentrates on new technological designs, including building a new set of armor as part of his recuperative therapy. Rhodes continues to act as Iron Man but steadily grows more aggressive and paranoid, due to the armor not having been calibrated properly for his use. Eventually Rhodes goes on a rampage, and Stark has to don a replica of his original armor to stop him. Fully recovered, Stark confronts Stane who has himself designed armor based on designs seized along with Stark International, dubbing himself the 'Iron Monger'. Defeated in battle, Stane, rather than give Stark the satisfaction of taking him to trial, commits suicide. Shortly thereafter, Stark regains his personal fortune, but decides against repurchasing Stark International until much later; he instead creates Stark Enterprises, headquartered in Los Angeles.
Late 1980s and 1990s
In an attempt to stop other people from misusing his designs, Stark goes about disabling other armored heroes and villains who are using suits based on the Iron Man technology, the designs of which were stolen by his enemy Spymaster. His quest to destroy the stolen technology—originally called "Stark Wars" but is more commonly known as the "Armor Wars"—severely hurts his reputation as Iron Man. After attacking and disabling a series of minor villains such as Stilt-Man, he attacks and defeats the government operative known as Stingray. The situation worsens when Stark realizes that Stingray's armor does not incorporate any of his designs. He publicly "fires" Iron Man while covertly pursuing his agenda. He uses the cover story of wanting to help disable the rogue Iron Man to infiltrate and disable the armor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives known as the Mandroids, as well as the armor of the Guardsmen. In the process, Iron Man and Jim Rhodes allow some of the villains in the Vault to escape. This leads the United States government to declare Iron Man a danger and an outlaw, and severely sours Stark's relationship with Steve Rogers (Captain America, who was in his "Captain" persona at the time). Iron Man travels to Russia where he inadvertently causes the death of the Soviet Titanium Man during a fight. Returning to the U.S., he faces an enemy commissioned by the government named Firepower. Unable to defeat him head on, Stark fakes Iron Man's demise, intending to retire the suit permanently. When Firepower goes rogue, Stark creates a new suit, claiming a new person is in the armor.
Soon after, Stark is nearly killed by Kathy Dare, a mentally unbalanced former lover. She shoots him dead center in his torso which injures his spine, paralyzing him. Stark undergoes special surgery to have a nerve chip implanted into his spine to regain his mobility. Unbeknownst to the industrialist, the nerve chip is a clandestine means by which to gain control over his body. Rival businessmen the Marrs Twins and their cohort Kearson DeWitt are behind the machinations in what came to be known as "Armor Wars II." After several successful tests by DeWitt at manipulating Stark, Tony finds that using his Encephalo Armor can counteract DeWitt's controls. In response, DeWitt suddenly releases his control resulting in excruciating agony throughout Stark's body. The constant "battle" for control of Stark's nervous system and subsequent abdication on DeWitt's end lead to massive nerve damage throughout Tony's body. Stark's nervous system continues its slide towards failure, and he constructs a "skin" made up of artificial nerve circuitry to assist it. Stark begins to pilot a remote-controlled Iron Man armor, but when faced with the Masters of Silence, the telepresence suit proves inadequate. Stark designs a more heavily armed version of the suit to wear, the "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit", which becomes known as the War Machine armor. Ultimately, the damage to his nervous system becomes too extensive. Faking his death, Stark places himself in suspended animation to heal as Rhodes takes over both the running of Stark Enterprises and the mantle of Iron Man, although he uses the War Machine armor. Stark eventually makes a full recovery by using a chip to create an entirely new (artificial) nervous system, and resumes as Iron Man in a new Telepresence Armor. When Rhodes learns that Stark has manipulated his friends by faking his own death, he becomes enraged and the two friends part ways. Rhodes continues on as War Machine in a solo career.
The Avengers story arc "The Crossing" reveals Iron Man as a traitor among the team's ranks, due to years of manipulation by the time-traveling dictator Kang the Conqueror. Stark, as a sleeper agent in Kang's thrall, kills Marilla, the nanny of Crystal and Quicksilver's daughter Luna, as well as Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, then Amanda Chaney, an ally of the Avengers. The "Avengers Forever" limited series retcons these events as the work of a disguised Immortus, not Kang, and that the mental control had gone back only a few months.
Needing help to defeat both Stark and Kang, the team travels back in time to recruit a teenaged Anthony Stark from an alternate timeline to assist them. The young Stark steals an Iron Man suit in order to aid the Avengers against his older self. The sight of his younger self shocks the older Stark enough for him to regain momentary control of his actions, and he sacrifices his life to stop Kang. The young Stark later builds his own suit to become the new Iron Man and remains in the present day.
During the battle with the creature called Onslaught, the teenage Stark dies, along with many other superheroes. Franklin Richards preserves these "dead" heroes in the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe, in which Stark is once again an adult hero; Franklin recreates the heroes in the pocket universe in the forms he is most familiar with rather than what they are at the present. The reborn adult Stark, upon returning to the normal Marvel Universe, merges with the original Stark, who had died during "The Crossing", but was resurrected by Franklin Richards. This new Anthony Stark possesses the memories of both the original and teenage Anthony Stark, and thus considers himself to be essentially both of them. With the aid of the law firm Nelson & Murdock, he regains his fortune and, with Stark Enterprises having been sold to the Fujikawa Corporation following Stark's death, sets up a new company, Stark Solutions. He returns from the pocket universe with a restored and healthy heart. After the Avengers reform, Stark demands a hearing be convened to look into his actions just prior to the Onslaught incident. Cleared of wrongdoing, he rejoins the Avengers.
2000s
At one point, Stark's armor becomes sentient despite fail-safes to prevent its increasingly sophisticated computer systems from doing so. Initially, Stark welcomes this "living" armor for its improved tactical abilities. The armor begins to grow more aggressive, killing indiscriminately and eventually desiring to replace Stark altogether. In the final confrontation on a desert island, Stark suffers another heart attack. The armor sacrifices its own existence to save its creator's life, giving up essential components to give Stark a new, artificial heart. This new heart solves Stark's health problems, but it does not have an internal power supply, so Stark becomes once again dependent on periodic recharging. The sentient armor incident so disturbs Stark that he temporarily returns to using an unsophisticated early model version of his armor to avoid a repeat incident. He dabbles with using liquid metal circuitry known as S.K.I.N. that forms into a protective shell around his body, but eventually returns to more conventional hard metal armors.
During this time, Stark engages in a romance with Rumiko Fujikawa, a wealthy heiress and daughter of the man who had taken over his company during the "Heroes Reborn" period. Her relationship with Stark endures many highs and lows, including infidelity with Stark's rival, Tiberius Stone, in part because the fun-loving Rumiko believes that Stark is too serious and dull. Their relationship ends with Rumiko's death at the hands of an Iron Man impostor in Iron Man vol. 3 #87.
In Iron Man vol. 3 #55 (July 2002), Stark publicly reveals his dual identity as Iron Man, not realizing that by doing so, he has invalidated the agreements protecting his armor from government duplication, since those contracts state that the Iron Man armor would be used by an employee of Tony Stark, not by Stark himself. When he discovers that the United States military is again using his technology, and its defective nature nearly causes a disaster in Washington, D.C. which Iron Man barely manages to avert, Stark accepts a Presidential appointment as Secretary of Defense. In this way, he hopes to monitor and direct how his designs are used.
In the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline, Stark is forced to resign after launching into a tirade against the Latverian ambassador at the United Nations, being manipulated by the mentally imbalanced Scarlet Witch, who destroys Avengers Mansion and kills several members. Stark publicly stands down as Iron Man, but continues using the costume. He joins the Avengers in stopping the breakout in progress from the Raft and even saves Captain America from falling. Tony changes the Avengers base to Stark Tower. The Ghost, the Living Laser and Spymaster reappear and shift Iron Man from standard superhero stories to dealing with politics and industrialism.
New Avengers: Illuminati #1 (June 2006) reveals that years before, Stark had participated with a secret group that included the Black Panther, Professor X, Mister Fantastic, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Namor. The goal of the group (dubbed the Illuminati by Marvel) was to strategize overarching menaces, in which the Black Panther rejects a membership offer. Stark's goal is to create a governing body for all superheroes in the world, but the beliefs of its members instead force them all to share vital information.
"Civil War"
In the "Civil War" storyline, after the actions of inexperienced superheroes the New Warriors result in the destruction of several city blocks in Stamford, Connecticut, there is an outcry across America against superhumans. Learning of the Government's proposed plans, Tony Stark suggests a new plan to instigate a Superhuman Registration Act. The Act would force every superpowered individual in the U.S. to register their identity with the government and act as licensed agents. The Act would force inexperienced superhumans to receive training in how to use and control their abilities, something in which Tony strongly believes. Since his struggle with alcoholism, Stark has carried a tremendous burden of guilt after nearly killing an innocent bystander while piloting the armor drunk. While Reed Richards and Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym both agree with Stark's proposal, not everyone does. After Captain America is ordered to bring in anyone who refuses to register, he and other anti-registration superheroes go rogue, coming into conflict with the pro-registration heroes, led by Iron Man. The war ends when Captain America surrenders to prevent further collateral damage and civilian casualties, although he had defeated Stark by defusing his armor. Stark is appointed the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and organizes a new government-sanctioned group of Avengers. Shortly afterwards, Captain America is assassinated while in custody. This leaves Stark with a great amount of guilt and misgivings about the cost of his victory.
"Secret Invasion"
To tie into the 2008 Iron Man feature film, Marvel launched a new Iron Man ongoing series, The Invincible Iron Man, with writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca. The series inaugural six-part storyline was "The Five Nightmares", which saw Stark targeted by Ezekiel Stane, the son of Stark's former nemesis, Obadiah Stane.
In the "Secret Invasion" storyline, after Tony Stark survives an attempt by Ultron to take over his body, he is confronted in the hospital by Spider-Woman, holding the corpse of a Skrull posing as Elektra. Realizing this is the start of an invasion by the Skrulls, Tony reveals the corpse to the Illuminati and declares that they are at war. After Black Bolt reveals himself as a Skrull and is killed by Namor, a squadron of Skrulls attack, forcing Tony to evacuate the other Illuminati members and destroy the area, killing all the Skrulls. Realizing that they are incapable of trusting each other, the members all separate to form individual plans for the oncoming invasion.
Stark is discredited and publicly vilified after his inability to anticipate or prevent the secret infiltration and invasion of Earth by the Skrulls, and by the Skrull disabling of his StarkTech technology, which had a virtual monopoly on worldwide defense. After the invasion, the U.S. government removes him as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and disbands the Avengers, handing control of the Initiative over to Norman Osborn.
"Dark Reign"
With his Extremis powers failing, Stark uploads a virus to destroy all records of the Registration Act, thus preventing Osborn from learning the identities of his fellow heroes and anything that Osborn could use, including his repulsor generators. The only copy of the database is in Stark's brain, which he tries to delete while on the run from Osborn. Stark goes so far as to inflict brain damage on himself in order to ensure that the relevant information is wiped. When Osborn catches up to the debilitated Stark and beats him savagely, Pepper Potts broadcasts the beatings worldwide, costing Osborn credibility and giving Stark public sympathy. Stark goes into a vegetative state, having previously granted Donald Blake (alter ego of the superhero Thor) power of attorney. A holographic message stored in Pepper's armor reveals that Stark had developed a means of 'rebooting' his mind from his current state prior to his destruction of the database, with Blake and Bucky resolving to use it to restore him to normal. Meanwhile, Stark is trapped in his subconscious, where figments of his own mind prevent him from returning to the waking world. When the procedure fails to work, Bucky calls in Doctor Strange, who succeeds in restoring Stark back to consciousness. The backup Stark created was made prior to the Civil War, and as such he does not remember anything that took place during the event, although he still concludes after reviewing his past actions that he would not have done anything differently. His brain damage means he is now dependent on an arc reactor to sustain his body's autonomous functions.
2010s
"Siege"
In the "Siege" storyline, Tony Stark is seen under the care of Dr. Donald Blake and Maria Hill when Asgard is attacked. Thor is ambushed by Osborn and the Sentry, but rescued by Hill. Osborn declares martial law and unleashes Daken and the Sentry on Broxton to root out Thor and Hill. Hill returns to Stark's hiding place to move him to a safer location and are joined by Speed of the Young Avengers, who has a set of Iron Man's MK III armor that Edwin Jarvis had given Captain America. While Osborn is battling the New Avengers, Stark appears and disables Osborn's Iron Patriot armor. Osborn orders the Sentry to annihilate Asgard, rather than allow the Avengers to have it. After Asgard falls, Stark stands alongside his fellow heroes, as Osborn exclaims they are all doomed and he 'was saving them from him' pointing up towards a Void-possessed Sentry. As the Void tears apart the teams, Loki gives them the power to fight back through the Norn Stones. The Void kills Loki, enraging Thor. Tony tells Thor to get the Void away from Asgard, which allows Tony to drop a commandeered H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarrier on the Void. Thor is forced to killed Sentry when the Void resurfaces. Sometime later, the Super-Human Registration Act is repealed and Tony is given back his company and armor. As a symbol for their heroics and their new unity, Thor places an Asgardian tower on Stark Tower where the Watchtower once stood.
"Heroic Age"
In the 2010–2011 "Stark: Resilient" storyline, Tony builds the Bleeding Edge armor with the help of Mister Fantastic. This new armor fully uses the repulsor tech battery embedded in his chest to power Tony's entire body and mind, thus allowing him access to Extremis once more. Furthermore, the battery operates as his "heart" and is the only thing keeping him alive. Tony announces he will form a new company, Stark Resilient. He states that he will no longer develop weapons, but will use his repulsor technology to give free energy to the world. Justine and Sasha Hammer create their own armored hero, Detroit Steel, to take Stark's place as the Army's leading weapons-builder. Stark's plan consists of building two repulsor-powered cars. The Hammers try to foil his efforts. The first car is destroyed by sabotage, while Detroit Steel attacks Stark Resilient's facilities while Tony tests the second car. Through a legal maneuver, Tony is able to get the Hammers to stop their attacks and releases a successful commercial about his new car.
"Fear Itself"
In the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, Earth is attacked by the Serpent, the God of Fear and the long-forgotten brother of Odin. In Paris, Iron Man fights Grey Gargoyle, who has become Mokk, Breaker of Faith, one of the Serpent's Worthy. Mokk leaves Iron Man unconscious and transforms Detroit Steel and the citizens of Paris into stone. To defeat the Serpent's army, Tony drinks a bottle of wine (thus 'sacrificing' his sobriety) to gain an audience with Odin, who allows Tony to enter the realm of Svartalfheim. Tony and the dwarves of Svartalfheim build enchanted weapons. Tony upgrades his armor with uru-infused enchantments and delivers the finished weapons to the Avengers, who use them for the final battle against the Serpent's forces. Iron Man watches as Thor kills the Serpent, but dies in the process. After the battle is over, Tony melts down the weapons he created and repairs Captain America's shield, which had been broken by Serpent, and gives it back to Captain America. During a subsequent argument with Odin about the gods' lack of involvement in the recent crisis, Odin gives Tony a brief opportunity to see the vastness of the universe the way he sees it. As thanks for Tony's role in the recent crisis, Odin restores all the people that the Grey Gargoyle killed during his rampage.
Return of the Mandarin and Marvel NOW!
In the storylines "Demon" and "The Long Way Down", Stark is subpoenaed by the U.S. government after evidence surfaces of him using the Iron Man armor while under the influence. Mandarin and Zeke Stane upgrade some of Iron Man's old enemies and send them to commit acts of terrorism across the world, intending to discredit Iron Man. General Bruce Babbage forces Stark to wear a tech governor, a device that allows Babbage to deactivate Stark's armor whenever he wants. To fight back, Tony undergoes a surgical procedure that expels the Bleeding Edge technology out of his body and replaces his repulsor node with a new model, forcing Babbage to remove the tech governor off his chest. He announces his retirement as Iron Man, faking Rhodes's death and giving him a new armor so that he becomes the new Iron Man. This leads into the next storyline, "The Future", in which the Mandarin takes control of Stark's mind and uses him to create new armored bodies for the alien spirits inhabiting his rings, but Stark allies himself with some of his old enemies, who have also been imprisoned by Mandarin, and manages to defeat him. The final issue of this storyline concluded Matt Fraction's series.
In the ongoing series that premiered in 2012 as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, Tony Stark has hit a technological ceiling. After the death of Dr. Maya Hansen and the destruction of all of the Extremis Version 2 kits that were being sold to the black market, Tony decides that the Earth is not safe without him learning more from what's in the final frontier. He takes his new suit, enhanced with an artificial intelligence named P.E.P.P.E.R. and joins Peter Quill and The Guardians of the Galaxy after helping them thwart a Badoon attack on Earth.
Superior Iron Man
Tony Stark's personality is inverted during the events of AXIS, bringing out more dark aspects of himself like irresponsibility, egotism and alcoholism. Stark relocates to San Francisco and builds a new, all-white armor. He supplies the citizens of San Francisco with the Extremis 3.0 app, a version of the techno-virus that offers beauty, health or even immortality, free. When every person in the city viewed Iron Man as a messiah for making their dreams come true, he ended the free trial mode and started charging a daily fee of $99.99, causing many to resort to crime to pay for the upgrade. Daredevil confronts Stark at his new Alcatraz Island penthouse, but is easily brushed off. Iron Man uses Extremis 3.0 to temporarily restore Daredevil's sight, just to prove his point. Daredevil deduces that Stark had added Extremis to the water supply and the phones only transmit an activation signal, but Stark subjects Murdock to minor brain damage to prevent him from sharing this revelation with others.
After discovering that new villain Teen Abomination is the son of Happy Hogan, Stark decides to help him, but this minor act of redemption is too late for Pepper Potts, who attacks Stark with the aid of an AI based on Stark's mind. This culminates in a confrontation between the two Starks, as Stark calls on the unwitting aid of all 'infected' with the Extremis upgrade while the AI uses Stark's various old armors to attack him. Although Stark technically wins the battle as he destroys his other armors and deletes the AI backup, Pepper states that she plans to reveal the truth about his goals with Extremis, bluntly informing him that if he continues his Extremis upgrade project, he will have to do it alone, accepting his fate of being regarded as a monster by all who know him.
Time Runs Out
During the "Time Runs Out" storyline, an attempt at reclaiming Wakanda from the Cabal that Namor had created to destroy incursive Earths results in Tony being held captive in the Necropolis. After the Cabal are apparently killed, the Illuminati free Tony, who is forced to flee due to the Illuminati's unwillingness to let Stark be there with them when they meet Rogers and the Avengers. When the Shi'ar and their allies arrive to destroy Earth, the Avengers and the Illuminati unsuccessfully try to retaliate. Iron Man uses Sol's Hammer to destroy the fleet. The incursions continue, and Rogers confronts Stark about what he knows. A fight ensues between them and Stark admits that he had lied and had known about the incursions all along. During the final incursion, Earth-1610's S.H.I.E.L.D. launches a full-scale attack on Earth-616, during which Stark and Rogers are crushed by a Helicarrier.
All-New, All-Different Marvel
After the events of the Secret Wars crossover, Stark returns to his normal self with no signs of his inverted personality. Eight months following the return of the universe as seen in the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event, Tony works in his laboratory non-stop after his position as an innovator had been put in doubt. Because an M.I.T. student reverse-engineered some of his technology, Stark develops a new armor which can change shape according to the situation he would find himself. When Stark's new AI F.R.I.D.A.Y. informs him that Madame Masque has broken into the ruins of Castle Doom, he travels to Latveria to investigate and runs into some revolutionaries who are then defeated by a man in a suit. To his amazement, Iron Man's armor computer identifies him as Doctor Doom with his face restored. Doctor Doom claims that he wanted to help Iron Man.
After learning from Doctor Doom that Madame Masque has taken a decoy of the Wand of Watoomb, Tony Stark confronts Madame Masque. Upon learning that Madame Masque is not allied with Doctor Doom, Tony is attacked by her with a burst of energy that damages his armor. F.R.I.D.A.Y. manages to gain control of the suit and takes Tony to a safe location. Iron Man tracks Madame Masque to Marina del Rey. After finding a tape recorder with her messages, Tony is attacked by several black silhouettes with swords.
Iron Man escapes the ninjas that are attacking him and manages to defeat most of them, but they kill themselves before he can interrogate any of them. Iron Man and Doctor Doom arrive at Mary Jane Watson's newest Chicago night club Jackpot when Madame Masque attacks it. As Mary Jane distracts Madame Masque by knocking off her mask, Iron Man and Doctor Doom discover that Madame Masque is possessed by a demon. Doctor Doom is able to perform an exorcism on her.
Doctor Strange arrives and tells Iron Man he will take Madame Masque with him to fix her metaphysically and then hand her over at S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man also informs him of Doctor Doom's help who had left the scene some time ago. Three days later, Iron Man offers Mary Jane a job to make up for the damage to her nightclub. After speaking with War Machine, Tony Stark meets up at a diner with Amara Perera when they are unexpectedly joined by Doctor Doom who wanted to make sure that the demonic possession that affected Madame Masque has not affected Stark or Amara. Stark shows Mary Jane the demonstration on the people that he will be working with. They are interrupted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. who tells Tony that War Machine is missing. Before heading to Tokyo, Tony receives from Mary Jane the emergency number for Peter Parker. In Tokyo, Iron Man is contacted by Spider-Man at War Machine's last known location as he is being observed by ninjas.
During the Civil War II storyline, Iron Man protests the logic of using precognitive powers to stop future crimes after the recently emerged Inhuman Ulysses predicted Thanos's attack on Project Pegasus. Three weeks later, Iron Man is summoned to the Triskelion after War Machine is killed in battle against Thanos. When Iron Man learns that War Machine and the Ultimates used Ulysses's power to ambush Thanos, he vows to stop anyone from using that power again. Iron Man infiltrates New Attilan and makes off with Ulysses. At Stark Tower, Iron Man vows to find out how Ulysses's precognition works. The Inhumans attack Stark Tower but are stopped by the Avengers, the Ultimates, and S.H.I.E.L.D. During the confrontation, Ulysses has another vision which he projects to Iron Man and everyone present, showing a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of the defeated superheroes. The heroes confront Banner, who is killed by Hawkeye. Barton claims that Banner was about to transform and Banner had previously asked Hawkeye to kill him if he should turn back into the Hulk. Tony is disgusted at this use of Ulysses's power. When his analysis of Ulysses brain is completed, Tony reveals that Ulysses does not actually see the future, but simply assembles large quantities of data to project likely outcomes. While Danvers continues to use the visions as a resource, Tony objects to the concept of profiling people. This results in a stand-off when Tony's side abducts a woman from custody after Ulysses's visions identified her as a deep-cover HYDRA agent, despite the lack of supporting evidence.
Iron Man learns that his biological mother was actually Amanda Armstrong, who had given him up for adoption and that his biological father was a Hydra double agent named Jude. S.H.I.E.L.D. had Armstrong's baby adopted by Howard and Maria Stark.
Marvel NOW! 2016
In July 2016, it was announced that Tony Stark would hand off the mantle of Iron Man to a 15-year-old girl named Riri Williams. Riri is an MIT student who built her own Iron Man suit out of scrap pieces and, as such, attracted Stark's attention. Early depictions of Williams' suit depict it without the Arc Reactor, but leaves the power source for the suit unclear. Another Iron Man-based series titled Infamous Iron Man debuted featuring Doctor Doom sporting his version of the Iron Man armor. This is revealed to be the result of serious injuries sustained by Stark during his final confrontation with Captain Marvel. Danvers' beating leaves Stark in a coma, but he is left alive due to unspecified experiments Stark has carried out on himself over the years.
Existing as an AI
Following the revelation that Stark experimented on himself at the end of Civil War II, Beast concludes that the only option is to let the experiments do their job in healing Tony and recover on his own. In Invincible Iron Man #1, an employee of Stark sends Riri Williams an artificial intelligence housing a copy of Tony Stark's consciousness to help her control and mentor in her own version of the Iron Man armor. This AI is directly copied from Tony's brain, granting sentience, with Williams commenting on Stark existing as a "techno-ghost". As an AI, Stark can walk around as a hard-light object and gains the ability to remote control his vast armory of Iron Man suits. In The Mighty Captain Marvel #3, the Tony Stark AI goes to Antarctica and visits Captain Marvel with the intent on settling their differences from the Second Civil War, she apologizes to him for her regrets, reconciles with him eventually and they become allies once more. Then in Secret Empire, the Tony Stark AI suits up as Iron Man once again and learns of Captain America's betrayal to Hydra and how he ended up like this. As Hydra tightens its grip across America, the Tony Stark AI leads a team known as the Underground to find the Cosmic Cubes to restore Rogers to his normal self. When things start to escalate, Tony and his crew go rogue and in search for answers for the Cube. As Iron Man and the Underground search for them they are intercepted by Captain America and his Hydra team. With both teams encountering each other, they are captured by the Ultron/Hank Pym hybrid, who forces both teams to sit at a dinner table. During "dinner", Ultron reveals information about the Hydra Avengers – such as Odinson working with Hydra to reclaim Mjolnir, Scarlet Witch being possessed by Chthon, and Vision being affected by an AI virus. Ultron argues that he is doing this because the Avengers have become less of a family over the years as so many of them jump to obey Captain America or Iron Man, despite past experience confirming that this is not always a good idea, but Tony counters that the only reason the team failed as a family was because of Hank's abuse towards Wasp. Enraged, Ultron is about to kill everyone, but Ant-Man is able to calm him down by arguing that Hank remains his own inspiration. Ultron allows the Underground to leave with the fragment, arguing that neither side should have an advantage over the other. Back in America, Hydra Supreme has put Namor in a position where he will be forced to sign a peace treaty that gives Rogers access to the Cosmic Cube fragment in Atlantis, but Hydra Supreme muses that he is unconcerned about who will acquire the fragments, as he has an inside man in the Underground. After the Mount was attacked by Thor and the resurrected Hulk led by Hydra, the Underground evacuated the civilians thanks to Hawkeye and the rest of the heroes. Captain America and Iron Man fight as the Mount collapses around them. The Tony Stark AI initiates the Mount's "Clean Slate Protocol", and blows up the Mount, killing Madame Hydra, then apologizes to Steve Rogers about their past differences, but the A.I survives and, in the aftermath, helps the heroes pull the pieces back together to take down Hydra. When Iron Man confronts Hydra Supreme, he and the other heroes are easily overpowered by him and watch the original Captain America defeat his Hydra self and into celebrating their victory.
Marvel Legacy
Mary Jane Watson and other Stark employees find that Stark's body has completely vanished from its pod, despite tests taken mere hours ago showing no sign of improvement or brain activity. It was discovered that Tony Stark's comatose body was taken to the Stark Industries Complex in Dover. Upon awakening when his biological systems rebooted, Tony Stark went into hiding until he fully recovered. Wanting to make sure that James Rhodes was in a similar state that he was in, Tony Stark exhumed his body from Arlington Cemetery and kick-started the biological systems in him. Afterwards, Iron Man and War Machine fought Hood to keep Stark Industries from falling into Hood's hands where he switched to a version of his Extremis armor. Then he proceeded to defeat Jude when he turned up alive.
During "The Ultron Agenda" arc, Iron Man went up against the Ultron/Hank Pym who begun a plan to merge humans with robots while taking up the name "Ultron Pym." Iron Man was briefly fused with his armor. After using Stark Unlimited's atomic separator on himself, Iron Man figured out that Hank Pym was dead the moment he accidentally fused with Ultron. Not wanting to prove Tony right, Ultron Pym surrendered to Iron Man and the Avengers. As it turned out that Iron Man actually died during the Civil War II storyline, Arno Stark used this to his advantage to acquire Stark Unlimited through a merger with Baintronics. With the combined resources, he built the Iron Man Armor Model 66 as his attempt to recreate the Godbuster Armor. Now having a new destiny, Arno Stark became the latest person to take on the Iron Man mantle.
Because of his revelation that he is now a simulated AI at the start of the "Iron Man 2020" storyline, Tony Stark became Mark One and started to establish the A.I. Army which also consists of Albert, Awesome Android, Egghead II, H.E.R.B.I.E., M-11, Machine Man, Machinesmith, Quasimodo, Super-Adaptoid, Walking Stiletto, the Dreadnoughts, a Sentinel, several Constructo-Bots, several Nick Fury LMDs, and an unnamed bomb disposal robot. This group of robots and androids want to obtain equal rights with organic beings through whatever way possible. Mark One provided them with a hideout on Floor Thirteen, a solid light construct that can only be accessed by robots and androids. With the establishment of Floor Thirteen, Mark One keeps the A.I. Army safe from their enemies and oppressors.
Powers, abilities, and equipment
Armor
Iron Man possesses powered armor that gives him superhuman strength and durability, flight, and an array of weapons. The armor is invented and worn by Stark (with occasional short-term exceptions). Other people who have assumed the Iron Man identity include Stark's long-time partner and best friend James Rhodes; close associates Harold "Happy" Hogan; Eddie March; (briefly) Michael O'Brien and Riri Williams.
The weapons systems of the suit have changed over the years, but Iron Man's standard offensive weapons have always been the repulsor rays that are fired from the palms of his gauntlets. Other weapons built into various incarnations of the armor include: the uni-beam projector in its chest; pulse bolts (that pick up kinetic energy along the way; so the farther they travel, the harder they hit); an electromagnetic pulse generator; and a defensive energy shield that can be extended up to 360 degrees. Other capabilities include: generating ultra-freon (i.e., a freeze-beam); creating and manipulating magnetic fields; emitting sonic blasts; and projecting 3-dimensional holograms (to create decoys).
In addition to the general-purpose model he wears, Stark has developed several specialized suits for space travel, deep-sea diving, stealth, and other special purposes. Stark has modified suits, like the Hulkbuster heavy armor. The Hulkbuster armor is composed of add-ons to his so-called modular armor, designed to enhance its strength and durability enough to engage the Hulk in a fight. A later model, created with the help of Odin and the Asgardian metal Uru, is similar to the Destroyer. Stark develops an electronics pack during the Armor Wars that, when attached to armors that use Stark technologies, will burn out those components, rendering the suit useless. This pack is ineffective on later models. While it is typically associated with James Rhodes, the War Machine armor began as one of Stark's specialty armors.
The most recent models of Stark's armor, beginning with the Extremis armor, are now stored in the hollow portions of Stark's bones, and the personal area networking implement used to control it is implanted into his forearm, and connected directly to his central nervous system.
The Extremis has since been removed, and he now uses more conventional armors. Some armors still take a liquid form, but are not stored within his body. His Endo-Sym Armor incorporates a combination of the liquid smart-metal with the alien Venom symbiote, psionically controlled by Stark.
Post-Secret Wars, Stark uses a more streamlined suit of armor that uses nanotechnology to shape shift into other armors or weapons.
Powers
After being critically injured during a battle with the Extremis-enhanced Mallen, Stark injects his nervous system with modified techno-organic virus-like body restructuring machines (the Extremis process). By rewriting his own biology, Stark is able to save his life, gain an enhanced healing factor, and partially merge with the Iron Man armor, superseding the need for bulky, AI-controlled armors in favor of lighter designs, technopathically controlled by his own brain. His enhanced technopathy extends to every piece of technology, limitless and effortlessly due to his ability to interface with communication satellites and wireless connections to increase his "range". Some components of the armor-sheath are now stored in Tony's body, able to be recalled, and extruded from his own skin, at will.
During the "Secret Invasion" storyline the Extremis package is catastrophically shut down by a virus, forcing him again to rely on the previous iteration of his armor, and restoring his previous limitations. Furthermore, Osborn's takeover of most of the few remaining Starktech factories, with Ezekiel Stane systematically crippling the others, limits Tony to the use of lesser, older and weaker armors.
After being forced to "wipe out" his brain to prevent Norman Osborn from gaining his information, Tony Stark is forced to have a new arc reactor, of Rand design installed in his chest. The process greatly improves his strength, stamina and intellect. The procedure left him with virtually no autonomic functions: as his brain was stripped of every biological function, Tony is forced to rely on a digital backup of his memories (leaving him with severe gaps and lapses in his long-term memory) and on software routine in the arc reactor for basic stimuli reaction, such as blinking and breathing. The Bleeding Edge package of armor and physical enhancement is now equal in power, if not a more advanced, version of the old Extremis tech.
Skills
Tony Stark is an inventive genius whose expertise in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science rivals that of Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner, and his expertise in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering surpasses even theirs. He is regarded as one of the most intelligent characters in the Marvel Universe. He graduated with advanced degrees in physics and engineering at the age of 17 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and further developed his knowledge ranging from artificial intelligence to quantum mechanics as time progressed. His expertise extends to his ingenuity in dealing with difficult situations, such as difficult foes and deathtraps, in which he is capable of using available tools, including his suit, in unorthodox but effective ways. For instance, in Stark's final confrontation with Obadiah Stane, the villain managed to have Stark's companions in an unconscious state in a room with motion sensors; when Stark entered the room, Stane warned him that the slightest move would trigger a fatal electrical current to his hostages, thus forcing Stark to stay still and slowly die of dehydration lest he wants his friends to die. However, while Stane was confident that such a trap was inescapable, Stark is able to outwit and defeat its mechanism in seconds, thus freeing the hostages and allowing him to continue the battle against Stane.
He is well respected in the business world, able to command people's attention when he speaks on economic matters, having over the years built up several multimillion-dollar companies from virtually nothing. He is noted for the loyalty he commands from and returns to those who work for him, as well as for his business ethics. Thus he immediately fired an employee who made profitable, but illegal, sales to Doctor Doom. He strives to be environmentally responsible in his businesses.
At a time when Stark was unable to use his armor for a period, he received some combat training from Captain America and has become physically formidable on his own when the situation demands it. In addition, Stark possesses great business and political acumen. On multiple occasions he reacquired control of his companies after losing them amid corporate takeovers.
Due to his membership in the Illuminati, Iron Man was given the Space Infinity Gem to safeguard. It allows the user to exist in any location (or all locations), move any object anywhere throughout the universe and warp or rearrange space.
Supporting characters
Other versions
1602
1602: New World features a 17th-century Spanish Iron Man named Lord Iron. Taken captive in the Holy Land during the English / Spanish war, he is forced to make weapons for them after being tortured by David Banner, the later Hulk of that world. He needs his massive armor to survive. The armor is powered by "lightning bottles" and provides him with super-strength and invulnerability as well as several electricity-powered
With his Moorish associate, Rhodes, Lord Iron is assigned by King James to put an end to the traitors and witchbreed in the New World. Instead, he realizes he has let bitterness consume him, and makes his peace with Banner. He is last seen using his armor to power the colony's printing press.
1872
The Secret Wars War Zone tie-in 1872 reimagines Tony in the Wild West. Tony was once a respected inventor who lives in the town of Timely. When the Union army used his repeating rifle to slaughter a large group of Confederates rather let them surrender, Tony spirals into alcoholism. After Sheriff Steve Rogers is murdered by Mayor Wilson Fisk and his cohorts, Tony builds a large suit of armor resembling the original Iron Man suit to aid Red Wolf in bringing him down. After Fisk is defeated, Tony dedicates his time to aiding the people of Timely with his new invention.
2020
Iron Man 2020 features Arno Stark as a mercenary in the employ of Sunset Bain. In 2012, Arno had traveled to the past in an effort to save his family from a madman's bomb. All he needs are the retinal patterns of the bomb maker, but he runs into the original Blizzard who mistakes him for the "real" Iron Man/Tony Stark. Not having time to deal with this threat, Arno kills Blizzard. While attempting to scan the retinal patterns of the young terrorist, Spider-Man snatches the scanner with his webbing and asks IM 2020 what he is doing. The two battle one another (Arno is "against the clock") when suddenly Arno is pulled back to his time to discover the bomb had a design flaw and exploded prematurely. His wife, son, employees, and factory have all been destroyed.
2093
Tony Stark and Doctor Doom are brought to the year 2093 by Merlin to stop a plot by a primarily robotic Doom and the Iron Man of 2093, Andros Stark. Andros is a psychotic madman and uses his grandfather Arno's armor. Tony defeats Andros while wielding the legendary sword Excalibur.
Andros Stark/Iron Man 2099 voiced by Alessandro Juliani would later be adopted into the second season of Iron Man: Armored Adventures with him being from the year 2099 and traveling back when Tony was a teenager before inventing a AI named "Vortex". Vortex dooms the entire human race with Andros donning a futuristic suit (classed "Hyperspace Mark XL") and the Extremis to kill Tony/Iron Man but goes to S.H.I.E.L.D. for assistance. Andros destroys Iron Man with his ultra-beam, afterward, Hawkeye managed to implant the virus on Andros's armor, and realized that all this is because Tony was trying to save himself by using the virus to stop Andros using his nano-virus which is actually the original seed for the Vortex virus. He travels back in time for a short moment to warn Iron Man that his nano-virus chips were actually the Vortex virus. He quickly destroys the last nano-virus arrow, saving Andros. As a result of this change in the timeline, the future was saved and because of this, Andros is erased from existence after saying his last words to his grandfather.
2099
In the Marvel 2099 line, the new Iron Man of that era is a man named Sonny Frisco. Despite piloting a normal-sized suit of Iron Man armor, Frisco actually suffers from dwarfism. He is a member of the Alchemax corporation's team of Avengers, and secretly uses the help of Vision, a woman with precognitive abilities.
3030
The Iron Man of 3030 is Tony Stark's biracial granddaughter, Rhodey Stark (named after Stark's close friend James Rhodes). She travels to the present in order to help the Avengers save Earth from a rogue planet that had been fired from the future, and departs after warning her grandfather that his life is in danger.
Adam Warlock
In Adam Warlock #2 (1972), Peter Parker's counterpart on Counter-Earth mentions that "the heart of Tony Stark beats unscathed".
Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse, Tony Stark is an agent of the Human High Council. The injury that compromised his heart is caused by the attack of a mutant.
Age of X
Officially code named Iron Man, he prefers the name Steel Corpse. Iron Man was infected by a disease, thought to be of mutant origin, that bonded him permanently to his armor. Not only can he never remove the armor, the disease is causing the armor to slowly consume his flesh, meaning that one day Tony Stark will cease to exist and only the armor will be left. He works with this reality's version of the Avengers to exterminate all mutants, but eventually rebels against his purpose when a 'Trojan horse' in the armor nearly drives him to kill innocent mutant children, forcing his teammates to kill him.
Avataars
In the sword and sorcery world of the Avataars: Covenant of the Shield miniseries, Iron Man's counterpart is Ironheart, one of the Champions of the Realm. A powerful warrior, he wears a huge suit of grey armor.
Bullet Points
In Bullet Points, Iron Man is Steve Rogers, who, due to the assassination of Dr. Abraham Erskine occurring earlier than in the mainstream Marvel universe, never receives the Super-Soldier formula. Instead, he agrees to be bonded to the prototype 'Iron Man' armor despite the intense physical pain and discomfort this will cause. Rogers is later killed fighting an alternative version of the Hulk. Tony Stark, in this reality a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., expresses a desire to continue in Rogers' footsteps as Iron Man, but is rejected owing to a heart condition. He later disobeys this command and adopts the mantle upon the arrival of Galactus.
Contest of Champions
The 2015 Contest of Champions series has a version of Tony Stark that won Civil War with nearly everything working out in his favor. Five years later, Tony has donned the Iron Patriot armor and is the President of the United States. He and his Mighty Avengers team are kidnapped by Maestro and placed onto Battleworld, where Maestro alters their memories to believe the remaining heroes are unregistered and need to be taken in. Their fight is interrupted by that universe's Thunderbolts (led by Steve Rogers). In the next issue, the Mighty Avengers battle the Thunderbolts and Renegade Champions, during which Tony kills Steve and reveals that the reason the Civil War went completely in his favor was because he used the Reality Gem from the Infinity Gauntlet. When he tries to use it again on Battleworld, it doesn't work because he's in a different dimension, and he's killed by Maestro.
Earth X
In the alternative reality of Earth X, Tony Stark builds a headquarters that protects himself from a plague that grants all humans superpowers. Afterwards, he builds the Iron Avengers. His headquarters is revealed to be a giant armor, based on the old Godzilla fighting mecha, the Red Ronin, which he uses to delay the Celestial attack until the coming of Galactus, sacrificing his life in the process. In Paradise X, he becomes part of the angelic Avenging Host of Marvel's "Paradise", with an Iron Man motif.
Earth-691
In the continuity of Earth-691, Tony Stark is devastated by the horrors of the Martian invasion and jettisons his technology into space. It is found by a primitive alien race who use it to become an interstellar menace calling themselves the Stark, who subsequently clash with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 31st century. "Standard" continuity Iron Man (Earth-616) encountered his "creations" when a cadre of rational, scientific members of the Stark called the Programmers bring Tony Stark to the future to help them solve various planet-wide problems.
Earth-2122
In the continuity of Earth-2122, the home of Crusader X, where the British won the American Revolution and still control North America, Anthony Stark is a member of a group called the Sons of Liberty. In this reality, Stark is willing to kill innocent people.
Earth-3490
In the continuity of Earth-3490, Tony Stark was born a woman (Natasha Stark) rather than a man; Stark's superhero alter-ego in this universe is Iron Woman. The Civil War between superheroes in Earth-3490 was averted due to the fact that Stark and Steve Rogers (Captain America) are romantically involved, and have since married.
Exiles
In Exiles, a villainous alternative Iron Man of Earth-2020 is a member of Weapon X, the more ruthless team of reality fixers. After ending up at the 'Crystal Palace' (the Exiles' headquarters) and fighting them there, he is eventually exposed and sent back to his own timeline where he is arrested by the Army for starting a world war.
In one alternative reality Tony Stark has become the absolute ruler of the entire planet Earth, and kills many of that Earth's heroes and mutants. Weapon X arrives on this reality to help him conquer Attilan, though their true purpose is to cause his downfall. Tony is eventually killed by Susan Storm.
In one alternative reality he is partners with both Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Octopus before he created the Iron Man suit.
On an alternative world devastated by the Hulk's Annihilation Wave, Iron Man was one of those killed in the attack. When the Exiles arrange for the dead heroes to be replaced by alternatives, Iron Man's replacement is a version of Spitfire, on the grounds that they have never got along with any alternative Tony Starks.
The Sons of Iron are a group of armor-wearing warriors from an Earth shared by humans and reptilian humanoids. Because they are completely concealed by the Iron Man armor, no-one can tell which they are.
Fantastic Four: The End
In the miniseries Fantastic Four: The End, which is set in a future where Reed Richards' technology has launched humanity into a golden age, Tony Stark has died long ago - but his consciousness survives, 'hopping' from artificial body to artificial body. Most of the bodies shown in the miniseries resemble Iron Man armors, often being identical to existing armors. One notable exception was the bulky, stocky space-armor which played an important role in the battle of humanity's heroes versus several alien armadas.
House of M
Born to Howard and Maria Stark, the heads of the powerful business conglomerate Stark Industries, Tony Stark grew to be an imaginative and brilliant inventor. He worked with his father from an early age, and surpassed his father's technical brilliance by the age of 16. Stark became the key supplier of hi-tech weaponry used to fight mutants, and was on the verge of a technological breakthrough when the Mutant-Human war came to an end. The suits are powered down to become part of a game called Robo Death Match, a television sport with giant robots fighting each other. Stark Industries scored its biggest victory when it secured the Sentinel production contracts, pushing major competitor, Jason Wyngarde, out of business. Erik Magnus and Sebastian Shaw awarded Tony the contract under the condition that he would hire Beast and Forge as observers. McCoy became a key contributor along with Doctor Pym on The Vision project. Tony secretly worked on a special project beneath Stark Industries: a brand new suit of hi-tech armor he planned to use as his new Robo Death Match suit.
Iron Man: The End
In the one-shot Iron Man: The End, an aging Tony Stark works on his greatest creation, a space elevator called "Big Jump." Stark faces retirement due to age and the physical toll of an illness, no longer allowing him to run his business "Stark Universal" and continue to be Iron Man. This leads to the need to groom a replacement.
Iron Maniac
Iron Maniac is an evil alternative universe version of Iron Man from Earth-5012. He first appeared in Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 #2, wearing armor that resembles that of Doctor Doom's. He comes from an alternative reality where most of the Avengers were killed when they encountered the vicious alien Titannus in space. While the team is rescued by the reserve Avengers five years later, it takes another five years to fight back the Trellions, the alien race that has brainwashed Titannus. During that time, a power-hungry Reed Richards turns his back on the surviving heroes. Scarred for life due to an attack from the Human Torch, Iron Man sets his own operation base in Latveria to "take over the world to save it from Richards." Richards somehow manages to banish him into Earth-616 Other differences between his world and Earth-616 include that there is no Spider-Man, and that Hank Pym is another version of the Hulk.
After being transported to Earth-616, Iron Maniac fights the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange, all of whom mistake him for their Doctor Doom. After unmasking himself, they learn his true identity, shortly before he manages to temporarily negate the FF's powers and escape, concluding that he has no reason to trust that they will not turn on him like the FF of his world did. Capturing a recently discovered mutant, the alternative Iron Man attempts to return to his home dimension by using the mutant as a power source, but is attacked by Spider-Man and X-23 as they investigate the situation. After the appearance of Captain America and Black Widow, he realizes that he is in an alternative world, but continues to fight the heroes, calling them all 'Richards' lackeys', proclaiming that he can't trust that they won't turn into 'villains' just as his own former allies did. He is defeated thanks to Spider-Man and X-23's use of their own version of the fastball special to destroy his equipment, shortly after 'warning' the other heroes of the Titannus War (by saying that he would not kill them now because it would be a kindness).
While the alternative Tony Stark is kept locked up and drugged in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, he is briefly visited by his counterpart in this universe, although he is unaware of the visit. Shortly after the alternative Stark is transferred to a conventional cell, Titannus soon arrives and fights the heroes, this time confronting a new group of Defenders assembled by Doctor Strange. When Titannus' comatose lover is revived, she tells him that she never loved him and that he was insane, causing Titannus to kill himself. The alternative Iron Man later discovers from Spider-Man and Wolverine that the Avengers were never massacred in space in this reality because the group had been disassembled; as a result, other heroes only encountered Titannus after he had attacked Tokyo in a rage, leaving the heroes who did encounter him less inclined to believe his story and averting the so-called 'Titannus War'.
Stark subsequently broke free from captivity, having immunized himself to the gas that was used to keep him sedated on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. In the process, he gained the unwilling alliance of the LMD Diamondback. Having convinced her that he is the "real" Tony, the AU Tony Stark erased her memories, reshaping the former LMD into an advanced suit of armor. This armor, even more advanced than the pre-Extremis suit Iron Man wore at that time, was able to replicate any weapon from the wearer's memory. He subsequently battled Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Luke Cage, but was only defeated after the sacrifice of rookie hero Freedom Ring, who kept Iron Maniac occupied long enough for Captain America to knock him out with a shield thrown at the back of his neck.
The name Iron Maniac is what he calls himself, due to being the "sole survivor of a sane world living in a backwards, insane world".
Iron Maniac is known to be at least partially cyberized, with armor plating implanted in his chest (revealed during his escape from the Helicarrier, when he is shot). It is unknown whether the rest of his body is similarly armored or if he possesses other cybernetic enhancements.
He has been briefly mentioned as being held in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier recently in The Irredeemable Ant-Man.
Iron Man Noir
In Iron Man Noir, Tony Stark is an industrialist in the 1930s. He is also an adventurer, whose exploits are recorded in Marvels: A Magazine Of Men's Adventure. He is initially accompanied by his associate James Rhodes, his personal assistant Giulietta Nefaria and his biographer Vergil Munsey. When Nefaria is revealed as working with the Nazis (specifically Baron Zemo and Baron von Strucker) and Vergil is killed, their role in the story is taken by Stark's new biographer Pepper Potts. His heart having been damaged on an earlier adventure, Stark keeps it going with repulsor technology installed and recharged by Stark Industries engineer Edwin Jarvis.
While investigating a mysterious power source in the ruins of Atlantis, Pepper Potts gets kidnapped by the Nazis and taken to their stronghold in Norway. To rescue her, Stark and Rhodes don suits of bulky power armour built by Jarvis, but are shocked to discover that 'Baron Zemo' is actually Tony's missing father Howard Stark, brainwashed by a unique chemical compound to serve the Nazis. Despite his depleted power supply, Tony manages to destroy the various suits of armor that Zemo had built for the Nazis, concluding that his father had died long ago, before returning to the USA.
Inter-company crossovers
In Marvel and DC's Amalgam Comics, Stark is merged with the Green Lantern Hal Jordan into the Iron Lantern. "Hal Stark" wears a suit resembling a green Iron Man armor, powered by a Green Lantern battery.
In the miniseries JLA/Avengers, Iron Man aids the Avengers in the battle against Starro the Conqueror. Afterwards, he creates a dimensional alarm in order to tell when invaders from another dimension come into their universe. After a brief scuffle with the JLA in the Savage Land, the Avengers are confronted by Metron, who gives Tony a Mother Box. Using this, Tony is able to get the Avengers to Metropolis, where the Avengers confront the JLA again. The Avengers escape, but Tony and Hawkeye manage to take Green Lantern's Power Battery before they leave, with Tony able to stop the Flash in his tracks. The two later take down Captain Atom and Green Arrow in order to collect the Casket of Ancient Winters. Tony then leaves and arrives to save Photon and Quasar from Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, allowing them to take the Spear of Destiny. After the battle in the Savage Land, Tony is one of the Avengers and is clueless as to the dimensional shifts that are happening around him. After Cap and Superman attack each other, Tony ends up in Metropolis. When the two worlds are briefly corrected by the Grandmaster, Tony is shown his true future with his alcoholism and his defeat by Obadiah Stane. Accepting this, he aids the JLA and the Avengers in the final battle and helped build the ship that took them to Krona's base. During the battle, he teams up with Kyle Rayner to create a weapon to use against their enemies and the two are shown to be impressed by one another, Kyle expressing his awe at Tony's engineering prowess and Tony asking Kyle where he could get a Green Lantern ring.
Mangaverse
In the Marvel Mangaverse reality, Tony Stark creates the original armor together with Dr. Ho Yinsen and acts as Iron Man for a time, but eventually vanishes after a battle with Namor, the Submariner. He is succeeded by Antoinette (Toni) Stark, his twin sister, a former agent of SHIELD, who turns Iron Man into a massive operation - a veritable army of Iron Men in many forms, with herself as Iron Woman. After she dies in battle against the Hulk, Tony Stark reveals himself again; he has gone underground after spinal cancer reduced him to a disembodied head hooked up to a life support system. However, he has designed a new armor, and a body that he can integrate with.
He also had designed four massive vehicles for the Avengers of his world to use, which could combine (in a manner resembling old fashioned combining super robots like Combattler V and Voltes V) into a skyscraper-sized Iron Man-mecha (Dubbed Ultimate Iron Man in its first appearance, then the Iron Avenger in its battle with the Hulk and finally simply called "the Avenger's mecha" in Volume 2 of the series). Unfortunately it was quickly destroyed by that world's Hulk. Apparently, however, it was rebuilt again by the time of the second volume, this time as a single robotic unit without transformation (or, if it was capable of transformation, it was never demonstrated). This unit helped fight off the giant Galactus spores, but was later destroyed, along with most of the Avengers, single-handedly by the Mangaverse version of Dr. Doom.
Marvel Adventures
The Marvel Adventures Iron Man is very similar to the Earth-616 Iron Man, but with some changes. Instead of suffering damage to his heart due to a booby trap in Vietnam, Tony Stark's heart was damaged when an experimental plane he was flying was brought down by AIM. AIM wanted Stark to build weapons and devices for them. Dr. Gia-Bao Yinsen aided Tony in escaping AIM, but Yinsen died saving his country from AIM. Iron Man does not seem to have problems with alcoholism, since the Marvel Adventures is aimed at a younger demographic. Iron Man's armor resembles his Extremis armor although Iron Man has other armors that fit over his regular armor, as in the case of his underwater armor.
Marvel Apes
The version of Iron Man appearing in the Marvel Apes mini-series is a mandrill, appropriately being named the Iron Mandrill. He is a member of the Apevengers. At one point, he is attacked by the zombified Wasp of the Marvel Zombies universe and infected, though he is later apparently cured when these events are undone via time travel.
Marvel Zombies
The first series
In the Marvel Zombies universe, Tony Stark has been infected by the zombie virus. Alongside a horde of starving undead superhuman zombies, Iron Man attacks the Silver Surfer. The attack is successful, but one of the Surfer's energy bolts hits Iron Man's lower torso, cutting him in half. The zombie "survives" this wound and later gains cosmic powers (including flight) by eating part of the Surfer's corpse. When Galactus arrives, Iron Man and the five other surviving zombies devour him. They are able to absorb Galactus' power, and call themselves "The Galacti".
Marvel Zombies 2
He also appears in Marvel Zombies 2, one of the small group of super-powered zombies that have eaten their way across all known space. Here Stark has had his entire lost lower body replaced with cybernetics. He also appears to have forgotten he had some design in the machine which opened a link to the Ultimate Universe. He was shocked to see Forge, one of the surviving X-Men, wearing his Mark I armored suit. The zombified Hulk kills Iron Man when he stomps through the armor, forcing Tony Stark's flesh and blood through any openings left in the armor. However Iron Man had recently revived next issue, but only as a cameo, on Marvel Zombies 3.
Marvel Zombies Return
In the final issue of Marvel Zombies 2, the remaining zombies are transported to another universe. At the point where the zombies reach this new reality, the period is nearly identical to the one where Tony Stark was an alcoholic. Zombie Giant Man infects Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and a number of other people at Stark Industries. A drunken Tony Stark lacks the will power to become Iron Man despite Pepper Potts' requests, so James Rhodes dons the suit to save him. Crucial to fate of the multiverse are the nanites that Stark has accidentally created, which destroy damaged flesh and tissue as a cure for cancer, and prove to be a potent weapon against the zombies. This was grafted onto Flint Marko's body. He sacrifices himself to kill several zombies in Stark Tower, with Rhodes permanently succeeding him in the role of Iron Man. His nanites are then used by his successor, now a member of the New Avengers, years later to kill the remaining super-powered zombies and end the inter-dimensional zombie threat.
MC2
In the alternative future of MC2, Tony Stark retires after the loss of many heroes in battle, but eventually creates the armored computer program Mainframe, which joins the next generation of Avengers.
Mini Marvels
Iron Man is a recurring character in "Mini Marvels". He appears in story arcs like "The Armored Avengers" & "World War Hulk". He is portrayed as conceited and thinks himself the best of the team. He has a friendly rivalry with Hawkeye.
Newuniversal
In the alternative world of newuniversal, Tony Stark is one of three humans altered by the Fireworks on April 26, 1953, gaining abilities associated with the Cipher glyph. Prior to the Fireworks, Stark is unexceptional, but he then becomes a technological genius. His discoveries revitalise his father's company, Stark Industries, and are "five years ahead of everything everyone else is working on". There are suggestions that he is capable of more, but is not making all of his discoveries public.
Stark's transformation is noticed by the National Security Agency's Project Spitfire, which is discreetly monitoring the superhumans created by the Fireworks. In March 1959, Stark's plane crashes in North Vietnam and he is imprisoned. He escapes by constructing an Iron Man suit from "spare parts" and flying out of the country.
On April 4, 1959, when he returns to the US, the NSA takes Stark to a San Diego naval base, ostensibly to debrief him. Stark is then shot dead by Philip L. Voight, a Project Spitfire agent, to prevent him from making contact with the other superhumans.
The Iron Man suit is seized by Project Spitfire and reverse engineered by Doctor Joe Swann, eventually becoming the basis of the project's H.E.X suit, an exoskeleton designed for combat with superhumans.
Ruins
In the two issue Warren Ellis series Ruins, Tony Stark is a rich industrialist who supplied weapons for the US military in an attempt to win the Vietnam War. This version of Iron Man was injured while mediating between US forces and pro-secessionist Californians by a piece of shrapnel thrown by the National Guard. This embittered Stark who formed a revolutionary cell named the Avengers. This version of Iron Man was betrayed by Scarlet Witch who provided the United States military information to crush the Avengers. Tony Stark is presumably killed.
Spider-Verse
In the Amazing Spider-Man comic's event Spider-Verse, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Scarlet Spider (Kaine) and Spider-man (Ben Reily) meet and fight a clone of Tony Stark (Earth-802) as Iron Man serving one of the Inheritors, Jennix.
Spider-Island
In a Secret Wars Warzone version of Spider-Island, he is mutated into one of the Spider Queen's spider minions and battles Agent Venom and the now monstrous Avengers. Venom sprays Tony with Norman Osborn's Green Goblin formula, freeing Tony from the Queen, but slowly making him insane. He modifies Norman's armor and becomes the Iron Goblin to aid the resistance. When they are surrounded by a number of spider creatures (including Giant Man) with few means of escape, Tony sacrifices himself using the Black Knight's Ebony Blade so he can aid them and die before the Goblin formula completely takes him over.
Spider-Gwen
In Spider-Gwen Tony Stark of Earth-65 is an arms dealer, the owner of global private military company WAR MACHINE, and owner of the coffee chain StarkBucks.
Spider-Man: Life Story
In Spider-Man: Life Story, Tony Stark/Iron Man does not face a traumatizing experience that leads to stop weapons manufacturing as his Earth-616 counterpart did instead he continues to produce them and play a key role in the Vietnam War and a World War III-esque conflict known as "The Russian War" as well as participating in Secret Wars while on Battleworld. Iron Man also became Secretary of Defense in the United States government and was one of the two leaders alongside Captain America in the Superhuman Civil War.
Squadron Supreme
In the Squadron Supreme series, the equivalent of Iron Man is Tucker Ford. Tucker was a very intelligent boy since his early years, however since being raised by his strong-willed mother along with never going to school with anyone his own age made Tucker to have difficulty to make any kind of meaningful personal relationship and because of this, he became very introverted.
As he grew up, he had built an imaginative world where he was a superhero. When trying to explain his imaginations to his therapist, they turned around and mocked him before their colleagues, however being unaware that Tucker had them under electronic surveillance. This experience motivated him to follow his dream and become a real superhero.
As a young adult, he built a powerful, but unstable armour made from nanotechnology in order to achieve his dream, eventually meeting the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury and offered his intelligence and company to Nick Fury to help defend America.
He fails to gain the affection of Nick Fury and to get a kiss from the spider-powered superhuman, Nell Ruggles, also known as Arachnophilia.
He offers to build a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier as a base for the organization and to be a member of the team in order to live out of his imagination. The only person that Tucker had the closest relationship with is Nell, expressing romantic feelings towards her.
Ultimate Marvel
What If
Newer Fantastic Four
In the timeline of What if: Newer Fantastic Four, the Fantastic Four were killed by De'Lila (a rogue Skrull) and the Hulk, so Spider-Man, the Ghost Rider and Wolverine joined together to avenge them as the New Fantastic Four. Thanos of Titan, as in the mainline universe, came into possession of the six Infinity Gems and became ruler of all reality, before erasing half of all living beings from existence. Among those who vanished was Ghost Rider, and, being present at the battle during which he was erased, Iron Man takes his place. The Newer Fantastic Four soon realize they are outmatched. Stark, with help from the Hulk, manages to salvage the empty armor of Ziran, a Celestial, and realizes it can be controlled by thoughts. Stark takes control of the armor and connects it to the Negative Zone, allowing him to call on all the power of that reality. Despite this, he is defeated by Thanos. Stark's sacrifice allows Wolverine to trick Thanos into a position where the Gauntlet could be removed. Spider-Man subsequently uses the Gauntlet to undo the damage Thanos had caused.
Iron Man: Demon in an Armor
In What If: Iron Man: Demon in an Armor, Tony Stark is Doom's college roommate rather than Reed Richards, inspiring Doom to develop a machine that allows him to transfer his mind into Stark's body while leaving Stark trapped in Doom's body with no memory of his past. While Doom uses Stark's connections and company to establish himself, the amnesic Stark- believing himself to be Doom- works to rebuild his life, creating his own company and forming his own reputation from the ground up. This culminates in a confrontation between the two wearing early versions of their respective armours- Doom having developed a green-and-silver Iron Man armour while Stark has created Doom's costume with gold and a red cloak-, during which Doom reveals the truth about their switch, only for Stark to reject the offer to switch back because Doom has destroyed the name of Tony Stark while Doctor von Doom has developed an honorable reputation.
Realm of Kings
In this one-shot, Quasar, the newly resurrected Protector of the Universe travels into the Fault, the immense tear which has appeared in the fabric of spacetime itself after the catastrophic battle between Vulcan and Black Bolt. Reaching what he perceives to be the other end of the tunnel that is the Fault, he arrives in another universe... a dark, twisted universe, the `corpse of a universe´, possessed by Lovecraftian horrors which are worshipped by all the denizens of that universe, including Earth's mightiest heroes. Iron Man is never seen outside his armor, but he, like the others, serves the "Many-angled ones" with total devotion.
X-Men Forever
In this alternative universe of X-Men Forever, Tony Stark, while still publicly the super-hero Iron Man, is also the head of the shadowy organization known as The Consortium. The scientific wing of the organization is headed by the Trask family, who turn out to be his relatives. They create newer versions of the Sentinels and kidnap mutants to use in experimentation to find the cause of the so-called "Burnout" syndrome that causes mutants to die early. However, as part of his efforts to undermine the Consortium's anti-mutant agenda, he becomes Nick Fury's insider and eventually sacrifices his life along with Beast. He assists Storm- who has been split into an amnesic child version of herself and an energy form with full memory and no body- by providing her energy self with a suit based on the now-deceased Black Panther so that her energy can maintain corporeal form, although he is subsequently killed by a twisted clone of Storm before he can reveal her existence to anyone else.
Mutant X
In Mutant X, Tony Stark is Iron Giant Man and part of the anti-mutant group the Avengers. He was later killed by X-Man Captain America along with the other Avengers.
Infinity Warps
During the Infinity Wars storyline, where the universe was combined in half, Iron Man was fused with Thor creating Iron Hammer. Sigurd Stark was the fifth richest person on the world thanks to his genius about technology, however due to his lack of memories before five years, taunted him driving to drink. After going through the Norvegian, he was attacked by some Dark Elves, lead by Krimson Kurse (fusion Crimson Dynamo and Kurse). He got poisoned by an arrow, slowing killing him and taken by the Elves to aid their other prisoner Eitri (fusion of Eitri and Ho Yinsen) in order to build powerful weapons for the Elves. Then, Sigurd became friend with Eitri and together build an armor, that prevented the poison from killing Sigurd, along with a hammer in order to escape the Dark Elves. However, during their escape Eitri is killed and after Sigurd defeated the Elves and Krimson Kurse, he discovered that Krimson was his lost friend who had turned into a Thrall to be a servant to Dark Elves and after that he mercy killed his friend. Sigurd then decided to the All-Father on Asgard to seek help into defeating Malekith (fusion of Malekith and Mandarin) and with the help of his AI assistant H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L. (fusion of Heimdall and J.A.R.V.I.S.) opened the B.I.F.R.O.S.T. and went to Asgard. When travelling, he remembered his old memories: his true name was Stark Odinson, who due to his arrogance, his father Howard Odin (fusion of Howard Stark and Odin) banished his son to Earth where he would learn to how is like to be a mortal. Upon arriving, Malekith had trapped the Aesir and had allied with Madame Hel (fusion of Madame Masque and Hela and Stane Odinson (fusion of Loki and Obadiah Stane). Luckily, Iron Hammer was able to defeat Malekith and Odin allowed his son to become a god again, however Sigurd refused, feeling better as a human.
In other media
In 1966, Iron Man was featured in a series of cartoons. In 1981, Iron Man guest appeared in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, but only as Tony Stark. He went on to feature again in his own series in the 1990s as part of the Marvel Action Hour with the Fantastic Four; Robert Hays provided his voice in these animated cartoons. Iron Man makes an appearance in the episode "Shell Games" of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.
Apart from comic books, Iron Man appears in Capcom's "Vs." video games, including Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Iron Man is a playable character in Iron Man, the 1992 arcade game Captain America and the Avengers, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and its sequel, and Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, as well as being featured as an unlockable character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and Tony Hawk's Underground. In the 2009 animated series, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, most of the characters, including Tony Stark, are teenagers. An anime adaptation aired in Japan in late 2010 as part of a collaboration between Marvel Animation and Madhouse, in which Stark, voiced by Keiji Fujiwara, travels to Japan where he ends up facing off against the Zodiac.
In 2008, a film adaptation titled Iron Man was released, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and directed by Jon Favreau. Iron Man received very positive reviews from film critics, grossing $318 million domestically and $585 million worldwide, and became the first in a series of over 20 films known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character of Tony Stark, again played by Robert Downey Jr., appeared at the end of the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk. Downey reprised his role in Iron Man 2 (2010), Marvel's The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
In 2009, Playtech released an online casino slot machine game called Iron Man. After that they created two more games, Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3.
In October 2016, Eoin Colfer released a young adult novel called Iron Man: The Gauntlet.
Cultural influence and legacy
The rapper Ghostface Killah, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, titled his 1996 debut solo album Ironman, and has since continued to use lyrics related to the Iron Man comics and samples from the animated TV shows on his records. He has adopted the nickname Tony Starks as one of his numerous alter-egos, and was featured in a scene deleted from the Iron Man film.
Paul McCartney's song "Magneto and Titanium Man" was inspired by the X-Men's nemesis and the original version of the Iron Man villain. Another Iron Man villain, the Crimson Dynamo, is mentioned in the lyrics to this song.
The British band Razorlight mentions Tony Stark in a verse of their song, "Hang By, Hang By".
The character of Nathan Stark on the television show Eureka is inspired by Tony Stark.
In 2011, IGN ranked Iron Man 12th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.
Two Iron Man-themed trucks compete in the Monster Jam monster truck racing series. Debuted in Atlanta on 9 January 2010, they are driven by Lee O' Donnell and Morgan Kane.
In 2015, University of Central Florida engineering student Albert Manero, who builds and donates affordable 3D-printed bionic limbs to those in need, constructed a bionic arm based on Iron Man's suit for 7-year-old Alex Pring, a superhero fan who was born with a partially formed right arm. He then delivered the Iron Man arm to Pring with the help of Robert Downey Jr. in character as Tony Stark.
For Major League Baseball Players Weekend in August 2018, New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres designed his custom cleats after Iron Man's suit.
A TV show demonstrated a hovering bullet-mitigating suit with some of the official Marvel design features in 2019.
See also
List of Iron Man enemies
Jetpack man
References
Further reading
Will Cooley and Mark C. Rogers, "Ike's Nightmare: Iron Man and the Military-Industrial Complex," in Ages of Iron Man, Joseph Dorowski, ed., 2015.
Tom DeFalco, Avengers: The Ultimate Guide, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Mark D. White (ed.), Iron Man and Philosophy: Facing the Stark Reality, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
External links
"Stark Reality: A Different Hero for Different Times" by Ian Chant - PopMatters.com
Advanced Iron (fanzine)
Iron Man Library
Tony Stark at Spider-Man Wiki
Avengers (comics) characters
Characters created by Don Heck
Characters created by Jack Kirby
Characters created by Larry Lieber
Characters created by Stan Lee
Cold War in popular culture
Comics characters introduced in 1963
Fictional adoptees
Fictional alcohol abusers
Fictional aerospace engineers
Fictional business executives
Fictional characters from New York City
Fictional cyborgs
Fictional electronic engineers
Fictional inventors
Fictional nuclear engineers
Fictional roboticists
Fictional socialites
Fictional technopaths
Iron Man characters
Marvel Comics adapted into films
Marvel Comics adapted into video games
Marvel Comics American superheroes
Marvel Comics film characters
Marvel Comics male superheroes
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents
Superheroes who are adopted
Telepresence in fiction
Fictional hackers
Fictional mechanics
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[
"Dotty Dripple was an American gag-a-day comic strip, originally started by Jeff Keate & Jim McMenamy on June 26, 1944, but was taken over by Buford Tune on October 16, and continued for the next thirty years. The strip was distributed by Publishers Syndicate and also appeared in comic book form. \n\nDotty Dripple was a domestic comedy strip, heavily modeled on Blondie, and ended on June 9, 1974.These Top Cartoonists Tell How They Create America’s Favorite Comics (1964) (excerpt at comics.gearlive.com)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nDotty Dripple at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 10, 2016.\n\n1944 comics debuts\n1974 comics endings\nAmerican comics characters\nAmerican comic strips\nComics about married people\nDripple, Dotty\nComics characters introduced in 1944\nDripple, Dotty\nGag-a-day comics",
"Alan Moore's Writing for Comics is a 48-page paperback book published in 2003 by Avatar Press. The volume reprints a 1985 essay by Alan Moore on how to successfully write comics that originally appeared in the British magazine Fantasy Advertiser in four chapters, running from issue #92, August 1985, to issue #95, February 1986).\n\nThe book consists of the four chapters from the original essay along with a new essay written by Moore in 2003 reflecting on his earlier advice. The illustrations are by Jacen Burrows and the cover is by Juan Jose Ryp.\n\nChapters\n\nThe first four chapters are a beginner's guide about writing, storytelling and plotting a comic book script. The final chapter, however, was written in 2003; it aims to provide a writing for comics course and advises the writer \"never to get stuck in one writing style, always be open to try new things\". These chapters are:\n\nChapter 1 – The Basic Idea: Thinking About Comics: this focuses on the idea behind the whole work of art, and what the writer intends to express in his or her work.\nChapter 2 – Reaching The Reader: Structure, Pacing, Story Telling: this examines what is going on in the reader's mind and gives tips on how to keep the reader focused on the comic book.\nChapter 3 – World Building: Place and Personality: the text suggests to possible comic book writers that they examine real-life characters, people they know throughout their life, in order to create realistic fictional characters. This chapter also gives hints about how to create a detailed universe, even if it means that the writer starts by creating economic structures.\nChapter 4 – The Details: Plot and Script: this chapter aims to demolish the misunderstanding of the importance of plot. Moore delineates plot not as a list of things happening but more like a concept of time, contributing to the other elements of the art.\nFinal Part – Afterwords: this subsequent addition to the original essay sums up and is a confession of all the wrong things Alan Moore told the readers eighteen years earlier in the first four chapters about how they could become a good writer. Moore suggests that writers who have already started their career should \"simply try new and hard things they didn't think they could manage\" in order to become a better writer.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nReview at Comics Bulletin\nReview at Philippine Online Chronicles\n\n2003 non-fiction books\nAvatar Press titles\nBooks about comics\nWriting for Comics\nBooks about writing"
] |
[
"Iron Man",
"First series",
"When did the first series start?",
"After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner",
"What was the comic about?",
"metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists.",
"Was the comic well received?",
"I don't know.",
"How did they proceed after releasing the comic?",
"Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978).",
"How many comics did they create?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_3f9a97ff3ea5470889d01b9c166015cc_0
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Besides releasing one-shot comic, are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Iron Man
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After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series' indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man. Artist George Tuska began a decade long association with the character with Iron Man #5 (Sept. 1968). Writer Mike Friedrich and artist Jim Starlin's brief collaboration on the Iron Man series introduced Mentor, Starfox, and Thanos in issue #55 (Feb. 1973). Friedrich scripted a metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists. He then wrote the multi-issue "War of the Super-Villains" storyline which ran through 1975. Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978). Micheline and Layton established Tony Stark's alcoholism with the story "Demon in a Bottle", and introduced several supporting characters, including Stark's bodyguard girlfriend Bethany Cabe; Stark's personal pilot and confidant James Rhodes, who later became the superhero War Machine; and rival industrialist Justin Hammer, who was revealed to be the employer of numerous high-tech armed enemies Iron Man fought over the years. The duo also introduced the concept of Stark's specialized armors as he acquired a dangerous vendetta with Doctor Doom. The team worked together through #154 (Jan. 1982), with Michelinie writing three issues without Layton. Following Michelinie and Layton's departures, Dennis O'Neil became the new writer of the series and had Stark relapse into alcoholism. Much of O'Neil's work on this plot thread was based on experiences with alcoholics he knew personally. Jim Rhodes replaced Stark as Iron Man in issue #169 (April 1983) and wore the armor for the next two years of stories. O'Neil returned Tony Stark to the Iron Man role in issue #200 (Nov. 1985). Michelinie and Layton became the creative team once again in issue #215 (Feb. 1987). They crafted the "Armor Wars" storyline beginning in #225 (Dec. 1987) through #231 (June 1988). John Byrne and John Romita Jr. produced a sequel titled "Armor Wars II" in issues #258 (July 1990) to #266 (March 1991). The series had a crossover with the other Avengers related titles as part of the "Operation: Galactic Storm" storyline. CANNOTANSWER
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The series had a crossover with the other Avengers related titles as part of the "Operation: Galactic Storm" storyline.
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Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The character made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963), and received his own title in Iron Man #1 (May 1968). Also in 1963, the character founded the Avengers alongside Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp and the Hulk.
A wealthy American business magnate, playboy, philanthropist, inventor and ingenious scientist, Anthony Edward Stark suffers a severe chest injury during a kidnapping. When his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction, he instead creates a mechanized suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. Later, Stark develops his suit, adding weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company, Stark Industries. He uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man. Although at first concealing his true identity, Stark eventually publicly reveals himself to be Iron Man.
Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology and industry in the fight against communism. Subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War motifs to contemporary matters of the time.
Throughout most of the character's publication history, Iron Man has been a founding member of the superhero team the Avengers and has been featured in several incarnations of his own various comic book series. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated TV shows and films. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., appearing in the films Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008) in a cameo, Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). The character also appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
Iron Man was ranked 12th on IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes" in 2011 and third in their list of "The Top 50 Avengers" in 2012.
Publication history
Premiere
Iron Man's Marvel Comics premiere in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963) was a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, story-artist Don Heck, and cover-artist and character-designer Jack Kirby. In 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the "quintessential capitalist", a character that would go against the spirit of the times and Marvel's readership. Lee said:
He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies' man, but one with a secret that would plague and torment him as well. Writer Gerry Conway said, "Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just can't be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken. But there's a metaphor going on there. And that's, I think, what made that character interesting." Lee based this playboy's looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, "Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies' man and finally a nutcase." "Without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes," Lee said.
While Lee intended to write the story himself, a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the premiere issue to Lieber, who fleshed out the story. The art was split between Kirby and Heck. "He designed the costume," Heck said of Kirby, "because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts." In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had "a specific model for Tony Stark and the other characters?", Heck replied "No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the same kind of characters that Alex Toth liked, which was an Errol Flynn type." Iron Man first appeared in 13- to 18-page stories in Tales of Suspense, which featured anthology science fiction and supernatural stories. The character's original costume was a bulky gray armored suit, replaced by a golden version in the second story (issue #40 April 1963). It was redesigned as sleeker, red-and-golden armor in issue #48 (December 1963) by that issue's interior artist, Steve Ditko, although Kirby drew it on the cover. As Heck recalled in 1985, "[T]he second costume, the red and yellow one, was designed by Steve Ditko. I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing. The earlier design, the robot-looking one, was more Kirbyish."
In his premiere, Iron Man was an anti-communist hero, defeating various Vietnamese agents. Lee later regretted this early focus. Throughout the character's comic book series, technological advancement and national defense were constant themes for Iron Man, but later issues developed Stark into a more complex and vulnerable character as they depicted his battle with alcoholism (as in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline) and other personal difficulties.
From issue #59 (November 1964) to its final issue #99 (March 1968), the anthological science-fiction backup stories in Tales of Suspense were replaced by a feature starring the superhero Captain America. Lee and Heck introduced several adversaries for the character including the Mandarin in issue #50 (February 1964), the Black Widow in #52 (April 1964) and Hawkeye five issues later.
Lee said that "of all the comic books we published at Marvel, we got more fan mail for Iron Man from women, from females, than any other title ... We didn't get much fan mail from girls, but whenever we did, the letter was usually addressed to Iron Man."
Lee and Kirby included Iron Man in The Avengers #1 (September 1963) as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has since appeared in every subsequent volume of the series.
Writers have updated the war and locale in which Stark is injured. In the original 1963 story, it was the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, it was updated to be the first Gulf War, and in the 2000s updated again to be the war in Afghanistan. Stark's time with the Asian Nobel Prize-winning scientist Ho Yinsen is consistent through nearly all incarnations of the Iron Man origin, depicting Stark and Yinsen building the original armor together. One exception is the direct-to-DVD animated feature film The Invincible Iron Man, in which the armor Stark uses to escape his captors is not the first Iron Man suit.
Themes
The original Iron Man title explored Cold War themes, as did other Stan Lee projects in the early years of Marvel Comics. Where The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk respectively focused on American domestic and government responses to the Communist threat, Iron Man explored industry's role in the struggle. Tony Stark's real-life model, Howard Hughes, was a significant defense contractor who developed new weapons technologies. Hughes was an icon both of American individualism and of the burdens of fame.
Historian Robert Genter, in The Journal of Popular Culture, writes that Tony Stark specifically presents an idealized portrait of the American inventor. Where earlier decades had seen important technological innovations come from famous individuals (e.g., Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers), the 1960s saw new technologies (including weapons) being developed mainly by the research teams of corporations. As a result, little room remained for the inventor who wanted credit for, and creative and economic control over, their own creations.
Issues of entrepreneurial autonomy, government supervision of research, and ultimate loyalty figured prominently in early Iron Man stories—the same issues affecting American scientists and engineers of that era. Tony Stark, writes Genter, is an inventor who finds motive in his emasculation as an autonomous creative individual. This blow is symbolized by his chest wound, inflicted at the moment he is forced to invent things for the purposes of others, instead of just himself. To Genter, Stark's transformation into Iron Man represents Stark's effort to reclaim his autonomy, and thus his manhood. The character's pursuit of women in bed or in battle, writes Genter, represents another aspect of this effort. The pattern finds parallels in other works of 1960s popular fiction by authors such as "Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond), Mickey Spillane (Mike Hammer), and Norman Mailer, who made unregulated sexuality a form of authenticity."
Solo series
After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series's indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man.
This initial series ended with issue #332 (September 1996). Jim Lee, Scott Lobdell, and Jeph Loeb authored a second volume of the series which was drawn primarily by Whilce Portacio and Ryan Benjamin. This volume took place in a parallel universe and ran 13 issues (November 1996 – November 1997). Volume 3, whose first 25 issues were written by Kurt Busiek and then by Busiek and Roger Stern, ran 89 issues (February 1998 – December 2004). Later writers included Joe Quesada, Frank Tieri, Mike Grell, and John Jackson Miller. Issue #41 (June 2001) was additionally numbered #386, reflecting the start of dual numbering starting from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968. The final issue was dual-numbered as #434. The next Iron Man series, Iron Man vol. 4, debuted in early 2005 with the Warren Ellis-written storyline "Extremis", with artist Adi Granov. It ran 35 issues (January 2005 – January 2009), with the cover logo simply Iron Man beginning with issue #13, and Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., beginning issue #15. On the final three issues, the cover logo was overwritten by "War Machine, Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D.", which led to the launch of a War Machine ongoing series.
The Invincible Iron Man by writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca, began with a premiere issue cover-dated July 2008. For a seven-month overlap, Marvel published both volume four and volume five simultaneously. This Invincible volume jumped its numbering of issues from #33 to #500, cover dated March 2011, to reflect the start from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968.
After the conclusion of The Invincible Iron Man a new Iron Man series was started as a part of Marvel Now!. Written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Greg Land, it began with issue #1 in November 2012.
Many Iron Man annuals, miniseries, and one-shot titles have been published through the years, such as Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man (February 1996), Iron Man: The Iron Age #1–2 (August – September 1998), Iron Man: Bad Blood #1–4 (September – December 2000), Iron Man House of M #1–3 (September – November 2005), Fantastic Four / Iron Man: Big in Japan #1–4 (December 2005 – March 2006), Iron Man: The Inevitable #1–6 (February – July 2006), Iron Man / Captain America: Casualties of War (February 2007), Iron Man: Hypervelocity #1–6 (March – August 2007), Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #1–6 (November 2007 – April 2008), and Iron Man: Legacy of Doom (June – September 2008). Publications have included such spin-offs as the one-shot Iron Man 2020 (June 1994), featuring a different Iron Man in the future, and the animated TV series adaptations Marvel Action Hour, Featuring Iron Man #1–8 (November 1994 – June 1995) and Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1–12 (July 2007 – June 2008).
Fictional character biography
Origins
Anthony Edward Stark is the son of wealthy industrialist and head of Stark Industries, Howard Stark, and Maria Stark. A boy genius, he enters MIT at the age of 15 to study engineering and later receives master's degrees in engineering and physics. After his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his father's company.
Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured by enemy forces led by Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu orders Stark to build weapons, but Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow prisoner, Ho Yinsen, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work Stark had greatly admired during college, constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart. In secret, Stark and Yinsen use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor, which Stark uses to escape. During the escape attempt, Yinsen sacrifices his life to save Stark's by distracting the enemy as Stark recharges. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers and rejoins the American forces, on his way meeting a wounded American Marine fighter pilot, James "Rhodey" Rhodes.
Back home, Stark discovers that the shrapnel fragment lodged in his chest cannot be removed without killing him, and he is forced to wear the armor's chestplate beneath his clothes to act as a regulator for his heart. He must recharge the chestplate every day or else risk the shrapnel killing him. The cover story that Stark tells the news media and general public is that Iron Man is his robotic personal bodyguard, and corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fights threats to his company (e.g., Communist opponents Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo, and the Titanium Man), as well as independent villains like the Mandarin (who becomes his greatest enemy). No one suspects Stark of being Iron Man, as he cultivates a strong public image of being a rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable members of the series's supporting cast, at this point, are his personal chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan, and secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts—to both of whom he eventually reveals his dual identity. Meanwhile, James Rhodes finds his own niche as Stark's personal pilot, ultimately revealing himself to be a man of extraordinary skill and daring in his own right.
The series took an anti-Communist stance in its early years, which was softened as public (and therefore, presumably, reader) opposition rose to the Vietnam War. This change evolved in a series of storylines featuring Stark reconsidering his political opinions, and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the U.S. military. Stark shows himself to be occasionally arrogant, and willing to act unethically in order to 'let the ends justify the means'. This leads to personal conflicts with the people around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities. Stark uses his vast personal fortune not only to outfit his own armor, but also to develop weapons for S.H.I.E.L.D.; other technologies (e.g., Quinjets used by the Avengers); and the image inducers used by the X-Men. Eventually, Stark's heart condition is publicly discovered when he was summoned for a Congressional hearing and Stark collapsed when his chestpiece's power failed, causing a heart attack. Stark was medically examined, which revealed his hidden equipment, and was hospitalized, forcing Pepper to have Happy don his employer's armor to pose as Iron Man to protect his boss's secret identity. Eventually, that specific medical issue was resolved with an artificial heart transplant, which still required the chestplate for some time to support the replacement organ.
1970s and early 1980s
Stark expands on his armor designs and begins to build his arsenal of specialized armors for particular situations such as for space travel and stealth. Stark also develops a serious dependency on alcohol in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline. The first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them. At the same time, it is revealed that several minor supervillains armed with advanced weapons who had bedeviled Stark throughout his superhero career are in fact in the employ of Stark's business rival, Justin Hammer, who begins to plague Stark more directly. At one point in Hammer's manipulations, the Iron Man armor is taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man is not immediately under suspicion, Stark is forced to hand the armor over to the authorities. Eventually Stark and Rhodes, who is now his personal pilot and confidant, track down and defeat those responsible, although Hammer would return to bedevil Stark again. With the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe, his friends and his employees, Stark pulls through these crises and overcomes his dependency on alcohol. Even as he recovers from this harrowing personal trial, Stark's life is further complicated when he has a confrontation with Doctor Doom that is interrupted by an opportunistic enemy sending them back in time to the time of King Arthur. Once there, Iron Man thwarts Doom's attempt to solicit the aid of Morgan Le Fay, and the Latverian ruler swears deadly vengeance—to be indulged sometime after the two return to their own time. This incident was collected and published as Doomquest.
Some time later, a ruthless rival, Obadiah Stane, manipulates Stark emotionally into a serious relapse. As a result, Stark loses control of Stark International to Stane, becomes a homeless alcoholic vagrant and gives up his armored identity to Rhodes, who becomes the new Iron Man. Eventually, Stark recovers and joins a new startup, Circuits Maximus. Stark concentrates on new technological designs, including building a new set of armor as part of his recuperative therapy. Rhodes continues to act as Iron Man but steadily grows more aggressive and paranoid, due to the armor not having been calibrated properly for his use. Eventually Rhodes goes on a rampage, and Stark has to don a replica of his original armor to stop him. Fully recovered, Stark confronts Stane who has himself designed armor based on designs seized along with Stark International, dubbing himself the 'Iron Monger'. Defeated in battle, Stane, rather than give Stark the satisfaction of taking him to trial, commits suicide. Shortly thereafter, Stark regains his personal fortune, but decides against repurchasing Stark International until much later; he instead creates Stark Enterprises, headquartered in Los Angeles.
Late 1980s and 1990s
In an attempt to stop other people from misusing his designs, Stark goes about disabling other armored heroes and villains who are using suits based on the Iron Man technology, the designs of which were stolen by his enemy Spymaster. His quest to destroy the stolen technology—originally called "Stark Wars" but is more commonly known as the "Armor Wars"—severely hurts his reputation as Iron Man. After attacking and disabling a series of minor villains such as Stilt-Man, he attacks and defeats the government operative known as Stingray. The situation worsens when Stark realizes that Stingray's armor does not incorporate any of his designs. He publicly "fires" Iron Man while covertly pursuing his agenda. He uses the cover story of wanting to help disable the rogue Iron Man to infiltrate and disable the armor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives known as the Mandroids, as well as the armor of the Guardsmen. In the process, Iron Man and Jim Rhodes allow some of the villains in the Vault to escape. This leads the United States government to declare Iron Man a danger and an outlaw, and severely sours Stark's relationship with Steve Rogers (Captain America, who was in his "Captain" persona at the time). Iron Man travels to Russia where he inadvertently causes the death of the Soviet Titanium Man during a fight. Returning to the U.S., he faces an enemy commissioned by the government named Firepower. Unable to defeat him head on, Stark fakes Iron Man's demise, intending to retire the suit permanently. When Firepower goes rogue, Stark creates a new suit, claiming a new person is in the armor.
Soon after, Stark is nearly killed by Kathy Dare, a mentally unbalanced former lover. She shoots him dead center in his torso which injures his spine, paralyzing him. Stark undergoes special surgery to have a nerve chip implanted into his spine to regain his mobility. Unbeknownst to the industrialist, the nerve chip is a clandestine means by which to gain control over his body. Rival businessmen the Marrs Twins and their cohort Kearson DeWitt are behind the machinations in what came to be known as "Armor Wars II." After several successful tests by DeWitt at manipulating Stark, Tony finds that using his Encephalo Armor can counteract DeWitt's controls. In response, DeWitt suddenly releases his control resulting in excruciating agony throughout Stark's body. The constant "battle" for control of Stark's nervous system and subsequent abdication on DeWitt's end lead to massive nerve damage throughout Tony's body. Stark's nervous system continues its slide towards failure, and he constructs a "skin" made up of artificial nerve circuitry to assist it. Stark begins to pilot a remote-controlled Iron Man armor, but when faced with the Masters of Silence, the telepresence suit proves inadequate. Stark designs a more heavily armed version of the suit to wear, the "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit", which becomes known as the War Machine armor. Ultimately, the damage to his nervous system becomes too extensive. Faking his death, Stark places himself in suspended animation to heal as Rhodes takes over both the running of Stark Enterprises and the mantle of Iron Man, although he uses the War Machine armor. Stark eventually makes a full recovery by using a chip to create an entirely new (artificial) nervous system, and resumes as Iron Man in a new Telepresence Armor. When Rhodes learns that Stark has manipulated his friends by faking his own death, he becomes enraged and the two friends part ways. Rhodes continues on as War Machine in a solo career.
The Avengers story arc "The Crossing" reveals Iron Man as a traitor among the team's ranks, due to years of manipulation by the time-traveling dictator Kang the Conqueror. Stark, as a sleeper agent in Kang's thrall, kills Marilla, the nanny of Crystal and Quicksilver's daughter Luna, as well as Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, then Amanda Chaney, an ally of the Avengers. The "Avengers Forever" limited series retcons these events as the work of a disguised Immortus, not Kang, and that the mental control had gone back only a few months.
Needing help to defeat both Stark and Kang, the team travels back in time to recruit a teenaged Anthony Stark from an alternate timeline to assist them. The young Stark steals an Iron Man suit in order to aid the Avengers against his older self. The sight of his younger self shocks the older Stark enough for him to regain momentary control of his actions, and he sacrifices his life to stop Kang. The young Stark later builds his own suit to become the new Iron Man and remains in the present day.
During the battle with the creature called Onslaught, the teenage Stark dies, along with many other superheroes. Franklin Richards preserves these "dead" heroes in the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe, in which Stark is once again an adult hero; Franklin recreates the heroes in the pocket universe in the forms he is most familiar with rather than what they are at the present. The reborn adult Stark, upon returning to the normal Marvel Universe, merges with the original Stark, who had died during "The Crossing", but was resurrected by Franklin Richards. This new Anthony Stark possesses the memories of both the original and teenage Anthony Stark, and thus considers himself to be essentially both of them. With the aid of the law firm Nelson & Murdock, he regains his fortune and, with Stark Enterprises having been sold to the Fujikawa Corporation following Stark's death, sets up a new company, Stark Solutions. He returns from the pocket universe with a restored and healthy heart. After the Avengers reform, Stark demands a hearing be convened to look into his actions just prior to the Onslaught incident. Cleared of wrongdoing, he rejoins the Avengers.
2000s
At one point, Stark's armor becomes sentient despite fail-safes to prevent its increasingly sophisticated computer systems from doing so. Initially, Stark welcomes this "living" armor for its improved tactical abilities. The armor begins to grow more aggressive, killing indiscriminately and eventually desiring to replace Stark altogether. In the final confrontation on a desert island, Stark suffers another heart attack. The armor sacrifices its own existence to save its creator's life, giving up essential components to give Stark a new, artificial heart. This new heart solves Stark's health problems, but it does not have an internal power supply, so Stark becomes once again dependent on periodic recharging. The sentient armor incident so disturbs Stark that he temporarily returns to using an unsophisticated early model version of his armor to avoid a repeat incident. He dabbles with using liquid metal circuitry known as S.K.I.N. that forms into a protective shell around his body, but eventually returns to more conventional hard metal armors.
During this time, Stark engages in a romance with Rumiko Fujikawa, a wealthy heiress and daughter of the man who had taken over his company during the "Heroes Reborn" period. Her relationship with Stark endures many highs and lows, including infidelity with Stark's rival, Tiberius Stone, in part because the fun-loving Rumiko believes that Stark is too serious and dull. Their relationship ends with Rumiko's death at the hands of an Iron Man impostor in Iron Man vol. 3 #87.
In Iron Man vol. 3 #55 (July 2002), Stark publicly reveals his dual identity as Iron Man, not realizing that by doing so, he has invalidated the agreements protecting his armor from government duplication, since those contracts state that the Iron Man armor would be used by an employee of Tony Stark, not by Stark himself. When he discovers that the United States military is again using his technology, and its defective nature nearly causes a disaster in Washington, D.C. which Iron Man barely manages to avert, Stark accepts a Presidential appointment as Secretary of Defense. In this way, he hopes to monitor and direct how his designs are used.
In the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline, Stark is forced to resign after launching into a tirade against the Latverian ambassador at the United Nations, being manipulated by the mentally imbalanced Scarlet Witch, who destroys Avengers Mansion and kills several members. Stark publicly stands down as Iron Man, but continues using the costume. He joins the Avengers in stopping the breakout in progress from the Raft and even saves Captain America from falling. Tony changes the Avengers base to Stark Tower. The Ghost, the Living Laser and Spymaster reappear and shift Iron Man from standard superhero stories to dealing with politics and industrialism.
New Avengers: Illuminati #1 (June 2006) reveals that years before, Stark had participated with a secret group that included the Black Panther, Professor X, Mister Fantastic, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Namor. The goal of the group (dubbed the Illuminati by Marvel) was to strategize overarching menaces, in which the Black Panther rejects a membership offer. Stark's goal is to create a governing body for all superheroes in the world, but the beliefs of its members instead force them all to share vital information.
"Civil War"
In the "Civil War" storyline, after the actions of inexperienced superheroes the New Warriors result in the destruction of several city blocks in Stamford, Connecticut, there is an outcry across America against superhumans. Learning of the Government's proposed plans, Tony Stark suggests a new plan to instigate a Superhuman Registration Act. The Act would force every superpowered individual in the U.S. to register their identity with the government and act as licensed agents. The Act would force inexperienced superhumans to receive training in how to use and control their abilities, something in which Tony strongly believes. Since his struggle with alcoholism, Stark has carried a tremendous burden of guilt after nearly killing an innocent bystander while piloting the armor drunk. While Reed Richards and Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym both agree with Stark's proposal, not everyone does. After Captain America is ordered to bring in anyone who refuses to register, he and other anti-registration superheroes go rogue, coming into conflict with the pro-registration heroes, led by Iron Man. The war ends when Captain America surrenders to prevent further collateral damage and civilian casualties, although he had defeated Stark by defusing his armor. Stark is appointed the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and organizes a new government-sanctioned group of Avengers. Shortly afterwards, Captain America is assassinated while in custody. This leaves Stark with a great amount of guilt and misgivings about the cost of his victory.
"Secret Invasion"
To tie into the 2008 Iron Man feature film, Marvel launched a new Iron Man ongoing series, The Invincible Iron Man, with writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca. The series inaugural six-part storyline was "The Five Nightmares", which saw Stark targeted by Ezekiel Stane, the son of Stark's former nemesis, Obadiah Stane.
In the "Secret Invasion" storyline, after Tony Stark survives an attempt by Ultron to take over his body, he is confronted in the hospital by Spider-Woman, holding the corpse of a Skrull posing as Elektra. Realizing this is the start of an invasion by the Skrulls, Tony reveals the corpse to the Illuminati and declares that they are at war. After Black Bolt reveals himself as a Skrull and is killed by Namor, a squadron of Skrulls attack, forcing Tony to evacuate the other Illuminati members and destroy the area, killing all the Skrulls. Realizing that they are incapable of trusting each other, the members all separate to form individual plans for the oncoming invasion.
Stark is discredited and publicly vilified after his inability to anticipate or prevent the secret infiltration and invasion of Earth by the Skrulls, and by the Skrull disabling of his StarkTech technology, which had a virtual monopoly on worldwide defense. After the invasion, the U.S. government removes him as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and disbands the Avengers, handing control of the Initiative over to Norman Osborn.
"Dark Reign"
With his Extremis powers failing, Stark uploads a virus to destroy all records of the Registration Act, thus preventing Osborn from learning the identities of his fellow heroes and anything that Osborn could use, including his repulsor generators. The only copy of the database is in Stark's brain, which he tries to delete while on the run from Osborn. Stark goes so far as to inflict brain damage on himself in order to ensure that the relevant information is wiped. When Osborn catches up to the debilitated Stark and beats him savagely, Pepper Potts broadcasts the beatings worldwide, costing Osborn credibility and giving Stark public sympathy. Stark goes into a vegetative state, having previously granted Donald Blake (alter ego of the superhero Thor) power of attorney. A holographic message stored in Pepper's armor reveals that Stark had developed a means of 'rebooting' his mind from his current state prior to his destruction of the database, with Blake and Bucky resolving to use it to restore him to normal. Meanwhile, Stark is trapped in his subconscious, where figments of his own mind prevent him from returning to the waking world. When the procedure fails to work, Bucky calls in Doctor Strange, who succeeds in restoring Stark back to consciousness. The backup Stark created was made prior to the Civil War, and as such he does not remember anything that took place during the event, although he still concludes after reviewing his past actions that he would not have done anything differently. His brain damage means he is now dependent on an arc reactor to sustain his body's autonomous functions.
2010s
"Siege"
In the "Siege" storyline, Tony Stark is seen under the care of Dr. Donald Blake and Maria Hill when Asgard is attacked. Thor is ambushed by Osborn and the Sentry, but rescued by Hill. Osborn declares martial law and unleashes Daken and the Sentry on Broxton to root out Thor and Hill. Hill returns to Stark's hiding place to move him to a safer location and are joined by Speed of the Young Avengers, who has a set of Iron Man's MK III armor that Edwin Jarvis had given Captain America. While Osborn is battling the New Avengers, Stark appears and disables Osborn's Iron Patriot armor. Osborn orders the Sentry to annihilate Asgard, rather than allow the Avengers to have it. After Asgard falls, Stark stands alongside his fellow heroes, as Osborn exclaims they are all doomed and he 'was saving them from him' pointing up towards a Void-possessed Sentry. As the Void tears apart the teams, Loki gives them the power to fight back through the Norn Stones. The Void kills Loki, enraging Thor. Tony tells Thor to get the Void away from Asgard, which allows Tony to drop a commandeered H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarrier on the Void. Thor is forced to killed Sentry when the Void resurfaces. Sometime later, the Super-Human Registration Act is repealed and Tony is given back his company and armor. As a symbol for their heroics and their new unity, Thor places an Asgardian tower on Stark Tower where the Watchtower once stood.
"Heroic Age"
In the 2010–2011 "Stark: Resilient" storyline, Tony builds the Bleeding Edge armor with the help of Mister Fantastic. This new armor fully uses the repulsor tech battery embedded in his chest to power Tony's entire body and mind, thus allowing him access to Extremis once more. Furthermore, the battery operates as his "heart" and is the only thing keeping him alive. Tony announces he will form a new company, Stark Resilient. He states that he will no longer develop weapons, but will use his repulsor technology to give free energy to the world. Justine and Sasha Hammer create their own armored hero, Detroit Steel, to take Stark's place as the Army's leading weapons-builder. Stark's plan consists of building two repulsor-powered cars. The Hammers try to foil his efforts. The first car is destroyed by sabotage, while Detroit Steel attacks Stark Resilient's facilities while Tony tests the second car. Through a legal maneuver, Tony is able to get the Hammers to stop their attacks and releases a successful commercial about his new car.
"Fear Itself"
In the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, Earth is attacked by the Serpent, the God of Fear and the long-forgotten brother of Odin. In Paris, Iron Man fights Grey Gargoyle, who has become Mokk, Breaker of Faith, one of the Serpent's Worthy. Mokk leaves Iron Man unconscious and transforms Detroit Steel and the citizens of Paris into stone. To defeat the Serpent's army, Tony drinks a bottle of wine (thus 'sacrificing' his sobriety) to gain an audience with Odin, who allows Tony to enter the realm of Svartalfheim. Tony and the dwarves of Svartalfheim build enchanted weapons. Tony upgrades his armor with uru-infused enchantments and delivers the finished weapons to the Avengers, who use them for the final battle against the Serpent's forces. Iron Man watches as Thor kills the Serpent, but dies in the process. After the battle is over, Tony melts down the weapons he created and repairs Captain America's shield, which had been broken by Serpent, and gives it back to Captain America. During a subsequent argument with Odin about the gods' lack of involvement in the recent crisis, Odin gives Tony a brief opportunity to see the vastness of the universe the way he sees it. As thanks for Tony's role in the recent crisis, Odin restores all the people that the Grey Gargoyle killed during his rampage.
Return of the Mandarin and Marvel NOW!
In the storylines "Demon" and "The Long Way Down", Stark is subpoenaed by the U.S. government after evidence surfaces of him using the Iron Man armor while under the influence. Mandarin and Zeke Stane upgrade some of Iron Man's old enemies and send them to commit acts of terrorism across the world, intending to discredit Iron Man. General Bruce Babbage forces Stark to wear a tech governor, a device that allows Babbage to deactivate Stark's armor whenever he wants. To fight back, Tony undergoes a surgical procedure that expels the Bleeding Edge technology out of his body and replaces his repulsor node with a new model, forcing Babbage to remove the tech governor off his chest. He announces his retirement as Iron Man, faking Rhodes's death and giving him a new armor so that he becomes the new Iron Man. This leads into the next storyline, "The Future", in which the Mandarin takes control of Stark's mind and uses him to create new armored bodies for the alien spirits inhabiting his rings, but Stark allies himself with some of his old enemies, who have also been imprisoned by Mandarin, and manages to defeat him. The final issue of this storyline concluded Matt Fraction's series.
In the ongoing series that premiered in 2012 as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, Tony Stark has hit a technological ceiling. After the death of Dr. Maya Hansen and the destruction of all of the Extremis Version 2 kits that were being sold to the black market, Tony decides that the Earth is not safe without him learning more from what's in the final frontier. He takes his new suit, enhanced with an artificial intelligence named P.E.P.P.E.R. and joins Peter Quill and The Guardians of the Galaxy after helping them thwart a Badoon attack on Earth.
Superior Iron Man
Tony Stark's personality is inverted during the events of AXIS, bringing out more dark aspects of himself like irresponsibility, egotism and alcoholism. Stark relocates to San Francisco and builds a new, all-white armor. He supplies the citizens of San Francisco with the Extremis 3.0 app, a version of the techno-virus that offers beauty, health or even immortality, free. When every person in the city viewed Iron Man as a messiah for making their dreams come true, he ended the free trial mode and started charging a daily fee of $99.99, causing many to resort to crime to pay for the upgrade. Daredevil confronts Stark at his new Alcatraz Island penthouse, but is easily brushed off. Iron Man uses Extremis 3.0 to temporarily restore Daredevil's sight, just to prove his point. Daredevil deduces that Stark had added Extremis to the water supply and the phones only transmit an activation signal, but Stark subjects Murdock to minor brain damage to prevent him from sharing this revelation with others.
After discovering that new villain Teen Abomination is the son of Happy Hogan, Stark decides to help him, but this minor act of redemption is too late for Pepper Potts, who attacks Stark with the aid of an AI based on Stark's mind. This culminates in a confrontation between the two Starks, as Stark calls on the unwitting aid of all 'infected' with the Extremis upgrade while the AI uses Stark's various old armors to attack him. Although Stark technically wins the battle as he destroys his other armors and deletes the AI backup, Pepper states that she plans to reveal the truth about his goals with Extremis, bluntly informing him that if he continues his Extremis upgrade project, he will have to do it alone, accepting his fate of being regarded as a monster by all who know him.
Time Runs Out
During the "Time Runs Out" storyline, an attempt at reclaiming Wakanda from the Cabal that Namor had created to destroy incursive Earths results in Tony being held captive in the Necropolis. After the Cabal are apparently killed, the Illuminati free Tony, who is forced to flee due to the Illuminati's unwillingness to let Stark be there with them when they meet Rogers and the Avengers. When the Shi'ar and their allies arrive to destroy Earth, the Avengers and the Illuminati unsuccessfully try to retaliate. Iron Man uses Sol's Hammer to destroy the fleet. The incursions continue, and Rogers confronts Stark about what he knows. A fight ensues between them and Stark admits that he had lied and had known about the incursions all along. During the final incursion, Earth-1610's S.H.I.E.L.D. launches a full-scale attack on Earth-616, during which Stark and Rogers are crushed by a Helicarrier.
All-New, All-Different Marvel
After the events of the Secret Wars crossover, Stark returns to his normal self with no signs of his inverted personality. Eight months following the return of the universe as seen in the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event, Tony works in his laboratory non-stop after his position as an innovator had been put in doubt. Because an M.I.T. student reverse-engineered some of his technology, Stark develops a new armor which can change shape according to the situation he would find himself. When Stark's new AI F.R.I.D.A.Y. informs him that Madame Masque has broken into the ruins of Castle Doom, he travels to Latveria to investigate and runs into some revolutionaries who are then defeated by a man in a suit. To his amazement, Iron Man's armor computer identifies him as Doctor Doom with his face restored. Doctor Doom claims that he wanted to help Iron Man.
After learning from Doctor Doom that Madame Masque has taken a decoy of the Wand of Watoomb, Tony Stark confronts Madame Masque. Upon learning that Madame Masque is not allied with Doctor Doom, Tony is attacked by her with a burst of energy that damages his armor. F.R.I.D.A.Y. manages to gain control of the suit and takes Tony to a safe location. Iron Man tracks Madame Masque to Marina del Rey. After finding a tape recorder with her messages, Tony is attacked by several black silhouettes with swords.
Iron Man escapes the ninjas that are attacking him and manages to defeat most of them, but they kill themselves before he can interrogate any of them. Iron Man and Doctor Doom arrive at Mary Jane Watson's newest Chicago night club Jackpot when Madame Masque attacks it. As Mary Jane distracts Madame Masque by knocking off her mask, Iron Man and Doctor Doom discover that Madame Masque is possessed by a demon. Doctor Doom is able to perform an exorcism on her.
Doctor Strange arrives and tells Iron Man he will take Madame Masque with him to fix her metaphysically and then hand her over at S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man also informs him of Doctor Doom's help who had left the scene some time ago. Three days later, Iron Man offers Mary Jane a job to make up for the damage to her nightclub. After speaking with War Machine, Tony Stark meets up at a diner with Amara Perera when they are unexpectedly joined by Doctor Doom who wanted to make sure that the demonic possession that affected Madame Masque has not affected Stark or Amara. Stark shows Mary Jane the demonstration on the people that he will be working with. They are interrupted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. who tells Tony that War Machine is missing. Before heading to Tokyo, Tony receives from Mary Jane the emergency number for Peter Parker. In Tokyo, Iron Man is contacted by Spider-Man at War Machine's last known location as he is being observed by ninjas.
During the Civil War II storyline, Iron Man protests the logic of using precognitive powers to stop future crimes after the recently emerged Inhuman Ulysses predicted Thanos's attack on Project Pegasus. Three weeks later, Iron Man is summoned to the Triskelion after War Machine is killed in battle against Thanos. When Iron Man learns that War Machine and the Ultimates used Ulysses's power to ambush Thanos, he vows to stop anyone from using that power again. Iron Man infiltrates New Attilan and makes off with Ulysses. At Stark Tower, Iron Man vows to find out how Ulysses's precognition works. The Inhumans attack Stark Tower but are stopped by the Avengers, the Ultimates, and S.H.I.E.L.D. During the confrontation, Ulysses has another vision which he projects to Iron Man and everyone present, showing a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of the defeated superheroes. The heroes confront Banner, who is killed by Hawkeye. Barton claims that Banner was about to transform and Banner had previously asked Hawkeye to kill him if he should turn back into the Hulk. Tony is disgusted at this use of Ulysses's power. When his analysis of Ulysses brain is completed, Tony reveals that Ulysses does not actually see the future, but simply assembles large quantities of data to project likely outcomes. While Danvers continues to use the visions as a resource, Tony objects to the concept of profiling people. This results in a stand-off when Tony's side abducts a woman from custody after Ulysses's visions identified her as a deep-cover HYDRA agent, despite the lack of supporting evidence.
Iron Man learns that his biological mother was actually Amanda Armstrong, who had given him up for adoption and that his biological father was a Hydra double agent named Jude. S.H.I.E.L.D. had Armstrong's baby adopted by Howard and Maria Stark.
Marvel NOW! 2016
In July 2016, it was announced that Tony Stark would hand off the mantle of Iron Man to a 15-year-old girl named Riri Williams. Riri is an MIT student who built her own Iron Man suit out of scrap pieces and, as such, attracted Stark's attention. Early depictions of Williams' suit depict it without the Arc Reactor, but leaves the power source for the suit unclear. Another Iron Man-based series titled Infamous Iron Man debuted featuring Doctor Doom sporting his version of the Iron Man armor. This is revealed to be the result of serious injuries sustained by Stark during his final confrontation with Captain Marvel. Danvers' beating leaves Stark in a coma, but he is left alive due to unspecified experiments Stark has carried out on himself over the years.
Existing as an AI
Following the revelation that Stark experimented on himself at the end of Civil War II, Beast concludes that the only option is to let the experiments do their job in healing Tony and recover on his own. In Invincible Iron Man #1, an employee of Stark sends Riri Williams an artificial intelligence housing a copy of Tony Stark's consciousness to help her control and mentor in her own version of the Iron Man armor. This AI is directly copied from Tony's brain, granting sentience, with Williams commenting on Stark existing as a "techno-ghost". As an AI, Stark can walk around as a hard-light object and gains the ability to remote control his vast armory of Iron Man suits. In The Mighty Captain Marvel #3, the Tony Stark AI goes to Antarctica and visits Captain Marvel with the intent on settling their differences from the Second Civil War, she apologizes to him for her regrets, reconciles with him eventually and they become allies once more. Then in Secret Empire, the Tony Stark AI suits up as Iron Man once again and learns of Captain America's betrayal to Hydra and how he ended up like this. As Hydra tightens its grip across America, the Tony Stark AI leads a team known as the Underground to find the Cosmic Cubes to restore Rogers to his normal self. When things start to escalate, Tony and his crew go rogue and in search for answers for the Cube. As Iron Man and the Underground search for them they are intercepted by Captain America and his Hydra team. With both teams encountering each other, they are captured by the Ultron/Hank Pym hybrid, who forces both teams to sit at a dinner table. During "dinner", Ultron reveals information about the Hydra Avengers – such as Odinson working with Hydra to reclaim Mjolnir, Scarlet Witch being possessed by Chthon, and Vision being affected by an AI virus. Ultron argues that he is doing this because the Avengers have become less of a family over the years as so many of them jump to obey Captain America or Iron Man, despite past experience confirming that this is not always a good idea, but Tony counters that the only reason the team failed as a family was because of Hank's abuse towards Wasp. Enraged, Ultron is about to kill everyone, but Ant-Man is able to calm him down by arguing that Hank remains his own inspiration. Ultron allows the Underground to leave with the fragment, arguing that neither side should have an advantage over the other. Back in America, Hydra Supreme has put Namor in a position where he will be forced to sign a peace treaty that gives Rogers access to the Cosmic Cube fragment in Atlantis, but Hydra Supreme muses that he is unconcerned about who will acquire the fragments, as he has an inside man in the Underground. After the Mount was attacked by Thor and the resurrected Hulk led by Hydra, the Underground evacuated the civilians thanks to Hawkeye and the rest of the heroes. Captain America and Iron Man fight as the Mount collapses around them. The Tony Stark AI initiates the Mount's "Clean Slate Protocol", and blows up the Mount, killing Madame Hydra, then apologizes to Steve Rogers about their past differences, but the A.I survives and, in the aftermath, helps the heroes pull the pieces back together to take down Hydra. When Iron Man confronts Hydra Supreme, he and the other heroes are easily overpowered by him and watch the original Captain America defeat his Hydra self and into celebrating their victory.
Marvel Legacy
Mary Jane Watson and other Stark employees find that Stark's body has completely vanished from its pod, despite tests taken mere hours ago showing no sign of improvement or brain activity. It was discovered that Tony Stark's comatose body was taken to the Stark Industries Complex in Dover. Upon awakening when his biological systems rebooted, Tony Stark went into hiding until he fully recovered. Wanting to make sure that James Rhodes was in a similar state that he was in, Tony Stark exhumed his body from Arlington Cemetery and kick-started the biological systems in him. Afterwards, Iron Man and War Machine fought Hood to keep Stark Industries from falling into Hood's hands where he switched to a version of his Extremis armor. Then he proceeded to defeat Jude when he turned up alive.
During "The Ultron Agenda" arc, Iron Man went up against the Ultron/Hank Pym who begun a plan to merge humans with robots while taking up the name "Ultron Pym." Iron Man was briefly fused with his armor. After using Stark Unlimited's atomic separator on himself, Iron Man figured out that Hank Pym was dead the moment he accidentally fused with Ultron. Not wanting to prove Tony right, Ultron Pym surrendered to Iron Man and the Avengers. As it turned out that Iron Man actually died during the Civil War II storyline, Arno Stark used this to his advantage to acquire Stark Unlimited through a merger with Baintronics. With the combined resources, he built the Iron Man Armor Model 66 as his attempt to recreate the Godbuster Armor. Now having a new destiny, Arno Stark became the latest person to take on the Iron Man mantle.
Because of his revelation that he is now a simulated AI at the start of the "Iron Man 2020" storyline, Tony Stark became Mark One and started to establish the A.I. Army which also consists of Albert, Awesome Android, Egghead II, H.E.R.B.I.E., M-11, Machine Man, Machinesmith, Quasimodo, Super-Adaptoid, Walking Stiletto, the Dreadnoughts, a Sentinel, several Constructo-Bots, several Nick Fury LMDs, and an unnamed bomb disposal robot. This group of robots and androids want to obtain equal rights with organic beings through whatever way possible. Mark One provided them with a hideout on Floor Thirteen, a solid light construct that can only be accessed by robots and androids. With the establishment of Floor Thirteen, Mark One keeps the A.I. Army safe from their enemies and oppressors.
Powers, abilities, and equipment
Armor
Iron Man possesses powered armor that gives him superhuman strength and durability, flight, and an array of weapons. The armor is invented and worn by Stark (with occasional short-term exceptions). Other people who have assumed the Iron Man identity include Stark's long-time partner and best friend James Rhodes; close associates Harold "Happy" Hogan; Eddie March; (briefly) Michael O'Brien and Riri Williams.
The weapons systems of the suit have changed over the years, but Iron Man's standard offensive weapons have always been the repulsor rays that are fired from the palms of his gauntlets. Other weapons built into various incarnations of the armor include: the uni-beam projector in its chest; pulse bolts (that pick up kinetic energy along the way; so the farther they travel, the harder they hit); an electromagnetic pulse generator; and a defensive energy shield that can be extended up to 360 degrees. Other capabilities include: generating ultra-freon (i.e., a freeze-beam); creating and manipulating magnetic fields; emitting sonic blasts; and projecting 3-dimensional holograms (to create decoys).
In addition to the general-purpose model he wears, Stark has developed several specialized suits for space travel, deep-sea diving, stealth, and other special purposes. Stark has modified suits, like the Hulkbuster heavy armor. The Hulkbuster armor is composed of add-ons to his so-called modular armor, designed to enhance its strength and durability enough to engage the Hulk in a fight. A later model, created with the help of Odin and the Asgardian metal Uru, is similar to the Destroyer. Stark develops an electronics pack during the Armor Wars that, when attached to armors that use Stark technologies, will burn out those components, rendering the suit useless. This pack is ineffective on later models. While it is typically associated with James Rhodes, the War Machine armor began as one of Stark's specialty armors.
The most recent models of Stark's armor, beginning with the Extremis armor, are now stored in the hollow portions of Stark's bones, and the personal area networking implement used to control it is implanted into his forearm, and connected directly to his central nervous system.
The Extremis has since been removed, and he now uses more conventional armors. Some armors still take a liquid form, but are not stored within his body. His Endo-Sym Armor incorporates a combination of the liquid smart-metal with the alien Venom symbiote, psionically controlled by Stark.
Post-Secret Wars, Stark uses a more streamlined suit of armor that uses nanotechnology to shape shift into other armors or weapons.
Powers
After being critically injured during a battle with the Extremis-enhanced Mallen, Stark injects his nervous system with modified techno-organic virus-like body restructuring machines (the Extremis process). By rewriting his own biology, Stark is able to save his life, gain an enhanced healing factor, and partially merge with the Iron Man armor, superseding the need for bulky, AI-controlled armors in favor of lighter designs, technopathically controlled by his own brain. His enhanced technopathy extends to every piece of technology, limitless and effortlessly due to his ability to interface with communication satellites and wireless connections to increase his "range". Some components of the armor-sheath are now stored in Tony's body, able to be recalled, and extruded from his own skin, at will.
During the "Secret Invasion" storyline the Extremis package is catastrophically shut down by a virus, forcing him again to rely on the previous iteration of his armor, and restoring his previous limitations. Furthermore, Osborn's takeover of most of the few remaining Starktech factories, with Ezekiel Stane systematically crippling the others, limits Tony to the use of lesser, older and weaker armors.
After being forced to "wipe out" his brain to prevent Norman Osborn from gaining his information, Tony Stark is forced to have a new arc reactor, of Rand design installed in his chest. The process greatly improves his strength, stamina and intellect. The procedure left him with virtually no autonomic functions: as his brain was stripped of every biological function, Tony is forced to rely on a digital backup of his memories (leaving him with severe gaps and lapses in his long-term memory) and on software routine in the arc reactor for basic stimuli reaction, such as blinking and breathing. The Bleeding Edge package of armor and physical enhancement is now equal in power, if not a more advanced, version of the old Extremis tech.
Skills
Tony Stark is an inventive genius whose expertise in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science rivals that of Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner, and his expertise in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering surpasses even theirs. He is regarded as one of the most intelligent characters in the Marvel Universe. He graduated with advanced degrees in physics and engineering at the age of 17 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and further developed his knowledge ranging from artificial intelligence to quantum mechanics as time progressed. His expertise extends to his ingenuity in dealing with difficult situations, such as difficult foes and deathtraps, in which he is capable of using available tools, including his suit, in unorthodox but effective ways. For instance, in Stark's final confrontation with Obadiah Stane, the villain managed to have Stark's companions in an unconscious state in a room with motion sensors; when Stark entered the room, Stane warned him that the slightest move would trigger a fatal electrical current to his hostages, thus forcing Stark to stay still and slowly die of dehydration lest he wants his friends to die. However, while Stane was confident that such a trap was inescapable, Stark is able to outwit and defeat its mechanism in seconds, thus freeing the hostages and allowing him to continue the battle against Stane.
He is well respected in the business world, able to command people's attention when he speaks on economic matters, having over the years built up several multimillion-dollar companies from virtually nothing. He is noted for the loyalty he commands from and returns to those who work for him, as well as for his business ethics. Thus he immediately fired an employee who made profitable, but illegal, sales to Doctor Doom. He strives to be environmentally responsible in his businesses.
At a time when Stark was unable to use his armor for a period, he received some combat training from Captain America and has become physically formidable on his own when the situation demands it. In addition, Stark possesses great business and political acumen. On multiple occasions he reacquired control of his companies after losing them amid corporate takeovers.
Due to his membership in the Illuminati, Iron Man was given the Space Infinity Gem to safeguard. It allows the user to exist in any location (or all locations), move any object anywhere throughout the universe and warp or rearrange space.
Supporting characters
Other versions
1602
1602: New World features a 17th-century Spanish Iron Man named Lord Iron. Taken captive in the Holy Land during the English / Spanish war, he is forced to make weapons for them after being tortured by David Banner, the later Hulk of that world. He needs his massive armor to survive. The armor is powered by "lightning bottles" and provides him with super-strength and invulnerability as well as several electricity-powered
With his Moorish associate, Rhodes, Lord Iron is assigned by King James to put an end to the traitors and witchbreed in the New World. Instead, he realizes he has let bitterness consume him, and makes his peace with Banner. He is last seen using his armor to power the colony's printing press.
1872
The Secret Wars War Zone tie-in 1872 reimagines Tony in the Wild West. Tony was once a respected inventor who lives in the town of Timely. When the Union army used his repeating rifle to slaughter a large group of Confederates rather let them surrender, Tony spirals into alcoholism. After Sheriff Steve Rogers is murdered by Mayor Wilson Fisk and his cohorts, Tony builds a large suit of armor resembling the original Iron Man suit to aid Red Wolf in bringing him down. After Fisk is defeated, Tony dedicates his time to aiding the people of Timely with his new invention.
2020
Iron Man 2020 features Arno Stark as a mercenary in the employ of Sunset Bain. In 2012, Arno had traveled to the past in an effort to save his family from a madman's bomb. All he needs are the retinal patterns of the bomb maker, but he runs into the original Blizzard who mistakes him for the "real" Iron Man/Tony Stark. Not having time to deal with this threat, Arno kills Blizzard. While attempting to scan the retinal patterns of the young terrorist, Spider-Man snatches the scanner with his webbing and asks IM 2020 what he is doing. The two battle one another (Arno is "against the clock") when suddenly Arno is pulled back to his time to discover the bomb had a design flaw and exploded prematurely. His wife, son, employees, and factory have all been destroyed.
2093
Tony Stark and Doctor Doom are brought to the year 2093 by Merlin to stop a plot by a primarily robotic Doom and the Iron Man of 2093, Andros Stark. Andros is a psychotic madman and uses his grandfather Arno's armor. Tony defeats Andros while wielding the legendary sword Excalibur.
Andros Stark/Iron Man 2099 voiced by Alessandro Juliani would later be adopted into the second season of Iron Man: Armored Adventures with him being from the year 2099 and traveling back when Tony was a teenager before inventing a AI named "Vortex". Vortex dooms the entire human race with Andros donning a futuristic suit (classed "Hyperspace Mark XL") and the Extremis to kill Tony/Iron Man but goes to S.H.I.E.L.D. for assistance. Andros destroys Iron Man with his ultra-beam, afterward, Hawkeye managed to implant the virus on Andros's armor, and realized that all this is because Tony was trying to save himself by using the virus to stop Andros using his nano-virus which is actually the original seed for the Vortex virus. He travels back in time for a short moment to warn Iron Man that his nano-virus chips were actually the Vortex virus. He quickly destroys the last nano-virus arrow, saving Andros. As a result of this change in the timeline, the future was saved and because of this, Andros is erased from existence after saying his last words to his grandfather.
2099
In the Marvel 2099 line, the new Iron Man of that era is a man named Sonny Frisco. Despite piloting a normal-sized suit of Iron Man armor, Frisco actually suffers from dwarfism. He is a member of the Alchemax corporation's team of Avengers, and secretly uses the help of Vision, a woman with precognitive abilities.
3030
The Iron Man of 3030 is Tony Stark's biracial granddaughter, Rhodey Stark (named after Stark's close friend James Rhodes). She travels to the present in order to help the Avengers save Earth from a rogue planet that had been fired from the future, and departs after warning her grandfather that his life is in danger.
Adam Warlock
In Adam Warlock #2 (1972), Peter Parker's counterpart on Counter-Earth mentions that "the heart of Tony Stark beats unscathed".
Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse, Tony Stark is an agent of the Human High Council. The injury that compromised his heart is caused by the attack of a mutant.
Age of X
Officially code named Iron Man, he prefers the name Steel Corpse. Iron Man was infected by a disease, thought to be of mutant origin, that bonded him permanently to his armor. Not only can he never remove the armor, the disease is causing the armor to slowly consume his flesh, meaning that one day Tony Stark will cease to exist and only the armor will be left. He works with this reality's version of the Avengers to exterminate all mutants, but eventually rebels against his purpose when a 'Trojan horse' in the armor nearly drives him to kill innocent mutant children, forcing his teammates to kill him.
Avataars
In the sword and sorcery world of the Avataars: Covenant of the Shield miniseries, Iron Man's counterpart is Ironheart, one of the Champions of the Realm. A powerful warrior, he wears a huge suit of grey armor.
Bullet Points
In Bullet Points, Iron Man is Steve Rogers, who, due to the assassination of Dr. Abraham Erskine occurring earlier than in the mainstream Marvel universe, never receives the Super-Soldier formula. Instead, he agrees to be bonded to the prototype 'Iron Man' armor despite the intense physical pain and discomfort this will cause. Rogers is later killed fighting an alternative version of the Hulk. Tony Stark, in this reality a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., expresses a desire to continue in Rogers' footsteps as Iron Man, but is rejected owing to a heart condition. He later disobeys this command and adopts the mantle upon the arrival of Galactus.
Contest of Champions
The 2015 Contest of Champions series has a version of Tony Stark that won Civil War with nearly everything working out in his favor. Five years later, Tony has donned the Iron Patriot armor and is the President of the United States. He and his Mighty Avengers team are kidnapped by Maestro and placed onto Battleworld, where Maestro alters their memories to believe the remaining heroes are unregistered and need to be taken in. Their fight is interrupted by that universe's Thunderbolts (led by Steve Rogers). In the next issue, the Mighty Avengers battle the Thunderbolts and Renegade Champions, during which Tony kills Steve and reveals that the reason the Civil War went completely in his favor was because he used the Reality Gem from the Infinity Gauntlet. When he tries to use it again on Battleworld, it doesn't work because he's in a different dimension, and he's killed by Maestro.
Earth X
In the alternative reality of Earth X, Tony Stark builds a headquarters that protects himself from a plague that grants all humans superpowers. Afterwards, he builds the Iron Avengers. His headquarters is revealed to be a giant armor, based on the old Godzilla fighting mecha, the Red Ronin, which he uses to delay the Celestial attack until the coming of Galactus, sacrificing his life in the process. In Paradise X, he becomes part of the angelic Avenging Host of Marvel's "Paradise", with an Iron Man motif.
Earth-691
In the continuity of Earth-691, Tony Stark is devastated by the horrors of the Martian invasion and jettisons his technology into space. It is found by a primitive alien race who use it to become an interstellar menace calling themselves the Stark, who subsequently clash with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 31st century. "Standard" continuity Iron Man (Earth-616) encountered his "creations" when a cadre of rational, scientific members of the Stark called the Programmers bring Tony Stark to the future to help them solve various planet-wide problems.
Earth-2122
In the continuity of Earth-2122, the home of Crusader X, where the British won the American Revolution and still control North America, Anthony Stark is a member of a group called the Sons of Liberty. In this reality, Stark is willing to kill innocent people.
Earth-3490
In the continuity of Earth-3490, Tony Stark was born a woman (Natasha Stark) rather than a man; Stark's superhero alter-ego in this universe is Iron Woman. The Civil War between superheroes in Earth-3490 was averted due to the fact that Stark and Steve Rogers (Captain America) are romantically involved, and have since married.
Exiles
In Exiles, a villainous alternative Iron Man of Earth-2020 is a member of Weapon X, the more ruthless team of reality fixers. After ending up at the 'Crystal Palace' (the Exiles' headquarters) and fighting them there, he is eventually exposed and sent back to his own timeline where he is arrested by the Army for starting a world war.
In one alternative reality Tony Stark has become the absolute ruler of the entire planet Earth, and kills many of that Earth's heroes and mutants. Weapon X arrives on this reality to help him conquer Attilan, though their true purpose is to cause his downfall. Tony is eventually killed by Susan Storm.
In one alternative reality he is partners with both Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Octopus before he created the Iron Man suit.
On an alternative world devastated by the Hulk's Annihilation Wave, Iron Man was one of those killed in the attack. When the Exiles arrange for the dead heroes to be replaced by alternatives, Iron Man's replacement is a version of Spitfire, on the grounds that they have never got along with any alternative Tony Starks.
The Sons of Iron are a group of armor-wearing warriors from an Earth shared by humans and reptilian humanoids. Because they are completely concealed by the Iron Man armor, no-one can tell which they are.
Fantastic Four: The End
In the miniseries Fantastic Four: The End, which is set in a future where Reed Richards' technology has launched humanity into a golden age, Tony Stark has died long ago - but his consciousness survives, 'hopping' from artificial body to artificial body. Most of the bodies shown in the miniseries resemble Iron Man armors, often being identical to existing armors. One notable exception was the bulky, stocky space-armor which played an important role in the battle of humanity's heroes versus several alien armadas.
House of M
Born to Howard and Maria Stark, the heads of the powerful business conglomerate Stark Industries, Tony Stark grew to be an imaginative and brilliant inventor. He worked with his father from an early age, and surpassed his father's technical brilliance by the age of 16. Stark became the key supplier of hi-tech weaponry used to fight mutants, and was on the verge of a technological breakthrough when the Mutant-Human war came to an end. The suits are powered down to become part of a game called Robo Death Match, a television sport with giant robots fighting each other. Stark Industries scored its biggest victory when it secured the Sentinel production contracts, pushing major competitor, Jason Wyngarde, out of business. Erik Magnus and Sebastian Shaw awarded Tony the contract under the condition that he would hire Beast and Forge as observers. McCoy became a key contributor along with Doctor Pym on The Vision project. Tony secretly worked on a special project beneath Stark Industries: a brand new suit of hi-tech armor he planned to use as his new Robo Death Match suit.
Iron Man: The End
In the one-shot Iron Man: The End, an aging Tony Stark works on his greatest creation, a space elevator called "Big Jump." Stark faces retirement due to age and the physical toll of an illness, no longer allowing him to run his business "Stark Universal" and continue to be Iron Man. This leads to the need to groom a replacement.
Iron Maniac
Iron Maniac is an evil alternative universe version of Iron Man from Earth-5012. He first appeared in Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 #2, wearing armor that resembles that of Doctor Doom's. He comes from an alternative reality where most of the Avengers were killed when they encountered the vicious alien Titannus in space. While the team is rescued by the reserve Avengers five years later, it takes another five years to fight back the Trellions, the alien race that has brainwashed Titannus. During that time, a power-hungry Reed Richards turns his back on the surviving heroes. Scarred for life due to an attack from the Human Torch, Iron Man sets his own operation base in Latveria to "take over the world to save it from Richards." Richards somehow manages to banish him into Earth-616 Other differences between his world and Earth-616 include that there is no Spider-Man, and that Hank Pym is another version of the Hulk.
After being transported to Earth-616, Iron Maniac fights the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange, all of whom mistake him for their Doctor Doom. After unmasking himself, they learn his true identity, shortly before he manages to temporarily negate the FF's powers and escape, concluding that he has no reason to trust that they will not turn on him like the FF of his world did. Capturing a recently discovered mutant, the alternative Iron Man attempts to return to his home dimension by using the mutant as a power source, but is attacked by Spider-Man and X-23 as they investigate the situation. After the appearance of Captain America and Black Widow, he realizes that he is in an alternative world, but continues to fight the heroes, calling them all 'Richards' lackeys', proclaiming that he can't trust that they won't turn into 'villains' just as his own former allies did. He is defeated thanks to Spider-Man and X-23's use of their own version of the fastball special to destroy his equipment, shortly after 'warning' the other heroes of the Titannus War (by saying that he would not kill them now because it would be a kindness).
While the alternative Tony Stark is kept locked up and drugged in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, he is briefly visited by his counterpart in this universe, although he is unaware of the visit. Shortly after the alternative Stark is transferred to a conventional cell, Titannus soon arrives and fights the heroes, this time confronting a new group of Defenders assembled by Doctor Strange. When Titannus' comatose lover is revived, she tells him that she never loved him and that he was insane, causing Titannus to kill himself. The alternative Iron Man later discovers from Spider-Man and Wolverine that the Avengers were never massacred in space in this reality because the group had been disassembled; as a result, other heroes only encountered Titannus after he had attacked Tokyo in a rage, leaving the heroes who did encounter him less inclined to believe his story and averting the so-called 'Titannus War'.
Stark subsequently broke free from captivity, having immunized himself to the gas that was used to keep him sedated on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. In the process, he gained the unwilling alliance of the LMD Diamondback. Having convinced her that he is the "real" Tony, the AU Tony Stark erased her memories, reshaping the former LMD into an advanced suit of armor. This armor, even more advanced than the pre-Extremis suit Iron Man wore at that time, was able to replicate any weapon from the wearer's memory. He subsequently battled Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Luke Cage, but was only defeated after the sacrifice of rookie hero Freedom Ring, who kept Iron Maniac occupied long enough for Captain America to knock him out with a shield thrown at the back of his neck.
The name Iron Maniac is what he calls himself, due to being the "sole survivor of a sane world living in a backwards, insane world".
Iron Maniac is known to be at least partially cyberized, with armor plating implanted in his chest (revealed during his escape from the Helicarrier, when he is shot). It is unknown whether the rest of his body is similarly armored or if he possesses other cybernetic enhancements.
He has been briefly mentioned as being held in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier recently in The Irredeemable Ant-Man.
Iron Man Noir
In Iron Man Noir, Tony Stark is an industrialist in the 1930s. He is also an adventurer, whose exploits are recorded in Marvels: A Magazine Of Men's Adventure. He is initially accompanied by his associate James Rhodes, his personal assistant Giulietta Nefaria and his biographer Vergil Munsey. When Nefaria is revealed as working with the Nazis (specifically Baron Zemo and Baron von Strucker) and Vergil is killed, their role in the story is taken by Stark's new biographer Pepper Potts. His heart having been damaged on an earlier adventure, Stark keeps it going with repulsor technology installed and recharged by Stark Industries engineer Edwin Jarvis.
While investigating a mysterious power source in the ruins of Atlantis, Pepper Potts gets kidnapped by the Nazis and taken to their stronghold in Norway. To rescue her, Stark and Rhodes don suits of bulky power armour built by Jarvis, but are shocked to discover that 'Baron Zemo' is actually Tony's missing father Howard Stark, brainwashed by a unique chemical compound to serve the Nazis. Despite his depleted power supply, Tony manages to destroy the various suits of armor that Zemo had built for the Nazis, concluding that his father had died long ago, before returning to the USA.
Inter-company crossovers
In Marvel and DC's Amalgam Comics, Stark is merged with the Green Lantern Hal Jordan into the Iron Lantern. "Hal Stark" wears a suit resembling a green Iron Man armor, powered by a Green Lantern battery.
In the miniseries JLA/Avengers, Iron Man aids the Avengers in the battle against Starro the Conqueror. Afterwards, he creates a dimensional alarm in order to tell when invaders from another dimension come into their universe. After a brief scuffle with the JLA in the Savage Land, the Avengers are confronted by Metron, who gives Tony a Mother Box. Using this, Tony is able to get the Avengers to Metropolis, where the Avengers confront the JLA again. The Avengers escape, but Tony and Hawkeye manage to take Green Lantern's Power Battery before they leave, with Tony able to stop the Flash in his tracks. The two later take down Captain Atom and Green Arrow in order to collect the Casket of Ancient Winters. Tony then leaves and arrives to save Photon and Quasar from Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, allowing them to take the Spear of Destiny. After the battle in the Savage Land, Tony is one of the Avengers and is clueless as to the dimensional shifts that are happening around him. After Cap and Superman attack each other, Tony ends up in Metropolis. When the two worlds are briefly corrected by the Grandmaster, Tony is shown his true future with his alcoholism and his defeat by Obadiah Stane. Accepting this, he aids the JLA and the Avengers in the final battle and helped build the ship that took them to Krona's base. During the battle, he teams up with Kyle Rayner to create a weapon to use against their enemies and the two are shown to be impressed by one another, Kyle expressing his awe at Tony's engineering prowess and Tony asking Kyle where he could get a Green Lantern ring.
Mangaverse
In the Marvel Mangaverse reality, Tony Stark creates the original armor together with Dr. Ho Yinsen and acts as Iron Man for a time, but eventually vanishes after a battle with Namor, the Submariner. He is succeeded by Antoinette (Toni) Stark, his twin sister, a former agent of SHIELD, who turns Iron Man into a massive operation - a veritable army of Iron Men in many forms, with herself as Iron Woman. After she dies in battle against the Hulk, Tony Stark reveals himself again; he has gone underground after spinal cancer reduced him to a disembodied head hooked up to a life support system. However, he has designed a new armor, and a body that he can integrate with.
He also had designed four massive vehicles for the Avengers of his world to use, which could combine (in a manner resembling old fashioned combining super robots like Combattler V and Voltes V) into a skyscraper-sized Iron Man-mecha (Dubbed Ultimate Iron Man in its first appearance, then the Iron Avenger in its battle with the Hulk and finally simply called "the Avenger's mecha" in Volume 2 of the series). Unfortunately it was quickly destroyed by that world's Hulk. Apparently, however, it was rebuilt again by the time of the second volume, this time as a single robotic unit without transformation (or, if it was capable of transformation, it was never demonstrated). This unit helped fight off the giant Galactus spores, but was later destroyed, along with most of the Avengers, single-handedly by the Mangaverse version of Dr. Doom.
Marvel Adventures
The Marvel Adventures Iron Man is very similar to the Earth-616 Iron Man, but with some changes. Instead of suffering damage to his heart due to a booby trap in Vietnam, Tony Stark's heart was damaged when an experimental plane he was flying was brought down by AIM. AIM wanted Stark to build weapons and devices for them. Dr. Gia-Bao Yinsen aided Tony in escaping AIM, but Yinsen died saving his country from AIM. Iron Man does not seem to have problems with alcoholism, since the Marvel Adventures is aimed at a younger demographic. Iron Man's armor resembles his Extremis armor although Iron Man has other armors that fit over his regular armor, as in the case of his underwater armor.
Marvel Apes
The version of Iron Man appearing in the Marvel Apes mini-series is a mandrill, appropriately being named the Iron Mandrill. He is a member of the Apevengers. At one point, he is attacked by the zombified Wasp of the Marvel Zombies universe and infected, though he is later apparently cured when these events are undone via time travel.
Marvel Zombies
The first series
In the Marvel Zombies universe, Tony Stark has been infected by the zombie virus. Alongside a horde of starving undead superhuman zombies, Iron Man attacks the Silver Surfer. The attack is successful, but one of the Surfer's energy bolts hits Iron Man's lower torso, cutting him in half. The zombie "survives" this wound and later gains cosmic powers (including flight) by eating part of the Surfer's corpse. When Galactus arrives, Iron Man and the five other surviving zombies devour him. They are able to absorb Galactus' power, and call themselves "The Galacti".
Marvel Zombies 2
He also appears in Marvel Zombies 2, one of the small group of super-powered zombies that have eaten their way across all known space. Here Stark has had his entire lost lower body replaced with cybernetics. He also appears to have forgotten he had some design in the machine which opened a link to the Ultimate Universe. He was shocked to see Forge, one of the surviving X-Men, wearing his Mark I armored suit. The zombified Hulk kills Iron Man when he stomps through the armor, forcing Tony Stark's flesh and blood through any openings left in the armor. However Iron Man had recently revived next issue, but only as a cameo, on Marvel Zombies 3.
Marvel Zombies Return
In the final issue of Marvel Zombies 2, the remaining zombies are transported to another universe. At the point where the zombies reach this new reality, the period is nearly identical to the one where Tony Stark was an alcoholic. Zombie Giant Man infects Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and a number of other people at Stark Industries. A drunken Tony Stark lacks the will power to become Iron Man despite Pepper Potts' requests, so James Rhodes dons the suit to save him. Crucial to fate of the multiverse are the nanites that Stark has accidentally created, which destroy damaged flesh and tissue as a cure for cancer, and prove to be a potent weapon against the zombies. This was grafted onto Flint Marko's body. He sacrifices himself to kill several zombies in Stark Tower, with Rhodes permanently succeeding him in the role of Iron Man. His nanites are then used by his successor, now a member of the New Avengers, years later to kill the remaining super-powered zombies and end the inter-dimensional zombie threat.
MC2
In the alternative future of MC2, Tony Stark retires after the loss of many heroes in battle, but eventually creates the armored computer program Mainframe, which joins the next generation of Avengers.
Mini Marvels
Iron Man is a recurring character in "Mini Marvels". He appears in story arcs like "The Armored Avengers" & "World War Hulk". He is portrayed as conceited and thinks himself the best of the team. He has a friendly rivalry with Hawkeye.
Newuniversal
In the alternative world of newuniversal, Tony Stark is one of three humans altered by the Fireworks on April 26, 1953, gaining abilities associated with the Cipher glyph. Prior to the Fireworks, Stark is unexceptional, but he then becomes a technological genius. His discoveries revitalise his father's company, Stark Industries, and are "five years ahead of everything everyone else is working on". There are suggestions that he is capable of more, but is not making all of his discoveries public.
Stark's transformation is noticed by the National Security Agency's Project Spitfire, which is discreetly monitoring the superhumans created by the Fireworks. In March 1959, Stark's plane crashes in North Vietnam and he is imprisoned. He escapes by constructing an Iron Man suit from "spare parts" and flying out of the country.
On April 4, 1959, when he returns to the US, the NSA takes Stark to a San Diego naval base, ostensibly to debrief him. Stark is then shot dead by Philip L. Voight, a Project Spitfire agent, to prevent him from making contact with the other superhumans.
The Iron Man suit is seized by Project Spitfire and reverse engineered by Doctor Joe Swann, eventually becoming the basis of the project's H.E.X suit, an exoskeleton designed for combat with superhumans.
Ruins
In the two issue Warren Ellis series Ruins, Tony Stark is a rich industrialist who supplied weapons for the US military in an attempt to win the Vietnam War. This version of Iron Man was injured while mediating between US forces and pro-secessionist Californians by a piece of shrapnel thrown by the National Guard. This embittered Stark who formed a revolutionary cell named the Avengers. This version of Iron Man was betrayed by Scarlet Witch who provided the United States military information to crush the Avengers. Tony Stark is presumably killed.
Spider-Verse
In the Amazing Spider-Man comic's event Spider-Verse, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Scarlet Spider (Kaine) and Spider-man (Ben Reily) meet and fight a clone of Tony Stark (Earth-802) as Iron Man serving one of the Inheritors, Jennix.
Spider-Island
In a Secret Wars Warzone version of Spider-Island, he is mutated into one of the Spider Queen's spider minions and battles Agent Venom and the now monstrous Avengers. Venom sprays Tony with Norman Osborn's Green Goblin formula, freeing Tony from the Queen, but slowly making him insane. He modifies Norman's armor and becomes the Iron Goblin to aid the resistance. When they are surrounded by a number of spider creatures (including Giant Man) with few means of escape, Tony sacrifices himself using the Black Knight's Ebony Blade so he can aid them and die before the Goblin formula completely takes him over.
Spider-Gwen
In Spider-Gwen Tony Stark of Earth-65 is an arms dealer, the owner of global private military company WAR MACHINE, and owner of the coffee chain StarkBucks.
Spider-Man: Life Story
In Spider-Man: Life Story, Tony Stark/Iron Man does not face a traumatizing experience that leads to stop weapons manufacturing as his Earth-616 counterpart did instead he continues to produce them and play a key role in the Vietnam War and a World War III-esque conflict known as "The Russian War" as well as participating in Secret Wars while on Battleworld. Iron Man also became Secretary of Defense in the United States government and was one of the two leaders alongside Captain America in the Superhuman Civil War.
Squadron Supreme
In the Squadron Supreme series, the equivalent of Iron Man is Tucker Ford. Tucker was a very intelligent boy since his early years, however since being raised by his strong-willed mother along with never going to school with anyone his own age made Tucker to have difficulty to make any kind of meaningful personal relationship and because of this, he became very introverted.
As he grew up, he had built an imaginative world where he was a superhero. When trying to explain his imaginations to his therapist, they turned around and mocked him before their colleagues, however being unaware that Tucker had them under electronic surveillance. This experience motivated him to follow his dream and become a real superhero.
As a young adult, he built a powerful, but unstable armour made from nanotechnology in order to achieve his dream, eventually meeting the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury and offered his intelligence and company to Nick Fury to help defend America.
He fails to gain the affection of Nick Fury and to get a kiss from the spider-powered superhuman, Nell Ruggles, also known as Arachnophilia.
He offers to build a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier as a base for the organization and to be a member of the team in order to live out of his imagination. The only person that Tucker had the closest relationship with is Nell, expressing romantic feelings towards her.
Ultimate Marvel
What If
Newer Fantastic Four
In the timeline of What if: Newer Fantastic Four, the Fantastic Four were killed by De'Lila (a rogue Skrull) and the Hulk, so Spider-Man, the Ghost Rider and Wolverine joined together to avenge them as the New Fantastic Four. Thanos of Titan, as in the mainline universe, came into possession of the six Infinity Gems and became ruler of all reality, before erasing half of all living beings from existence. Among those who vanished was Ghost Rider, and, being present at the battle during which he was erased, Iron Man takes his place. The Newer Fantastic Four soon realize they are outmatched. Stark, with help from the Hulk, manages to salvage the empty armor of Ziran, a Celestial, and realizes it can be controlled by thoughts. Stark takes control of the armor and connects it to the Negative Zone, allowing him to call on all the power of that reality. Despite this, he is defeated by Thanos. Stark's sacrifice allows Wolverine to trick Thanos into a position where the Gauntlet could be removed. Spider-Man subsequently uses the Gauntlet to undo the damage Thanos had caused.
Iron Man: Demon in an Armor
In What If: Iron Man: Demon in an Armor, Tony Stark is Doom's college roommate rather than Reed Richards, inspiring Doom to develop a machine that allows him to transfer his mind into Stark's body while leaving Stark trapped in Doom's body with no memory of his past. While Doom uses Stark's connections and company to establish himself, the amnesic Stark- believing himself to be Doom- works to rebuild his life, creating his own company and forming his own reputation from the ground up. This culminates in a confrontation between the two wearing early versions of their respective armours- Doom having developed a green-and-silver Iron Man armour while Stark has created Doom's costume with gold and a red cloak-, during which Doom reveals the truth about their switch, only for Stark to reject the offer to switch back because Doom has destroyed the name of Tony Stark while Doctor von Doom has developed an honorable reputation.
Realm of Kings
In this one-shot, Quasar, the newly resurrected Protector of the Universe travels into the Fault, the immense tear which has appeared in the fabric of spacetime itself after the catastrophic battle between Vulcan and Black Bolt. Reaching what he perceives to be the other end of the tunnel that is the Fault, he arrives in another universe... a dark, twisted universe, the `corpse of a universe´, possessed by Lovecraftian horrors which are worshipped by all the denizens of that universe, including Earth's mightiest heroes. Iron Man is never seen outside his armor, but he, like the others, serves the "Many-angled ones" with total devotion.
X-Men Forever
In this alternative universe of X-Men Forever, Tony Stark, while still publicly the super-hero Iron Man, is also the head of the shadowy organization known as The Consortium. The scientific wing of the organization is headed by the Trask family, who turn out to be his relatives. They create newer versions of the Sentinels and kidnap mutants to use in experimentation to find the cause of the so-called "Burnout" syndrome that causes mutants to die early. However, as part of his efforts to undermine the Consortium's anti-mutant agenda, he becomes Nick Fury's insider and eventually sacrifices his life along with Beast. He assists Storm- who has been split into an amnesic child version of herself and an energy form with full memory and no body- by providing her energy self with a suit based on the now-deceased Black Panther so that her energy can maintain corporeal form, although he is subsequently killed by a twisted clone of Storm before he can reveal her existence to anyone else.
Mutant X
In Mutant X, Tony Stark is Iron Giant Man and part of the anti-mutant group the Avengers. He was later killed by X-Man Captain America along with the other Avengers.
Infinity Warps
During the Infinity Wars storyline, where the universe was combined in half, Iron Man was fused with Thor creating Iron Hammer. Sigurd Stark was the fifth richest person on the world thanks to his genius about technology, however due to his lack of memories before five years, taunted him driving to drink. After going through the Norvegian, he was attacked by some Dark Elves, lead by Krimson Kurse (fusion Crimson Dynamo and Kurse). He got poisoned by an arrow, slowing killing him and taken by the Elves to aid their other prisoner Eitri (fusion of Eitri and Ho Yinsen) in order to build powerful weapons for the Elves. Then, Sigurd became friend with Eitri and together build an armor, that prevented the poison from killing Sigurd, along with a hammer in order to escape the Dark Elves. However, during their escape Eitri is killed and after Sigurd defeated the Elves and Krimson Kurse, he discovered that Krimson was his lost friend who had turned into a Thrall to be a servant to Dark Elves and after that he mercy killed his friend. Sigurd then decided to the All-Father on Asgard to seek help into defeating Malekith (fusion of Malekith and Mandarin) and with the help of his AI assistant H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L. (fusion of Heimdall and J.A.R.V.I.S.) opened the B.I.F.R.O.S.T. and went to Asgard. When travelling, he remembered his old memories: his true name was Stark Odinson, who due to his arrogance, his father Howard Odin (fusion of Howard Stark and Odin) banished his son to Earth where he would learn to how is like to be a mortal. Upon arriving, Malekith had trapped the Aesir and had allied with Madame Hel (fusion of Madame Masque and Hela and Stane Odinson (fusion of Loki and Obadiah Stane). Luckily, Iron Hammer was able to defeat Malekith and Odin allowed his son to become a god again, however Sigurd refused, feeling better as a human.
In other media
In 1966, Iron Man was featured in a series of cartoons. In 1981, Iron Man guest appeared in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, but only as Tony Stark. He went on to feature again in his own series in the 1990s as part of the Marvel Action Hour with the Fantastic Four; Robert Hays provided his voice in these animated cartoons. Iron Man makes an appearance in the episode "Shell Games" of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.
Apart from comic books, Iron Man appears in Capcom's "Vs." video games, including Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Iron Man is a playable character in Iron Man, the 1992 arcade game Captain America and the Avengers, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and its sequel, and Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, as well as being featured as an unlockable character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and Tony Hawk's Underground. In the 2009 animated series, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, most of the characters, including Tony Stark, are teenagers. An anime adaptation aired in Japan in late 2010 as part of a collaboration between Marvel Animation and Madhouse, in which Stark, voiced by Keiji Fujiwara, travels to Japan where he ends up facing off against the Zodiac.
In 2008, a film adaptation titled Iron Man was released, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and directed by Jon Favreau. Iron Man received very positive reviews from film critics, grossing $318 million domestically and $585 million worldwide, and became the first in a series of over 20 films known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character of Tony Stark, again played by Robert Downey Jr., appeared at the end of the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk. Downey reprised his role in Iron Man 2 (2010), Marvel's The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
In 2009, Playtech released an online casino slot machine game called Iron Man. After that they created two more games, Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3.
In October 2016, Eoin Colfer released a young adult novel called Iron Man: The Gauntlet.
Cultural influence and legacy
The rapper Ghostface Killah, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, titled his 1996 debut solo album Ironman, and has since continued to use lyrics related to the Iron Man comics and samples from the animated TV shows on his records. He has adopted the nickname Tony Starks as one of his numerous alter-egos, and was featured in a scene deleted from the Iron Man film.
Paul McCartney's song "Magneto and Titanium Man" was inspired by the X-Men's nemesis and the original version of the Iron Man villain. Another Iron Man villain, the Crimson Dynamo, is mentioned in the lyrics to this song.
The British band Razorlight mentions Tony Stark in a verse of their song, "Hang By, Hang By".
The character of Nathan Stark on the television show Eureka is inspired by Tony Stark.
In 2011, IGN ranked Iron Man 12th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.
Two Iron Man-themed trucks compete in the Monster Jam monster truck racing series. Debuted in Atlanta on 9 January 2010, they are driven by Lee O' Donnell and Morgan Kane.
In 2015, University of Central Florida engineering student Albert Manero, who builds and donates affordable 3D-printed bionic limbs to those in need, constructed a bionic arm based on Iron Man's suit for 7-year-old Alex Pring, a superhero fan who was born with a partially formed right arm. He then delivered the Iron Man arm to Pring with the help of Robert Downey Jr. in character as Tony Stark.
For Major League Baseball Players Weekend in August 2018, New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres designed his custom cleats after Iron Man's suit.
A TV show demonstrated a hovering bullet-mitigating suit with some of the official Marvel design features in 2019.
See also
List of Iron Man enemies
Jetpack man
References
Further reading
Will Cooley and Mark C. Rogers, "Ike's Nightmare: Iron Man and the Military-Industrial Complex," in Ages of Iron Man, Joseph Dorowski, ed., 2015.
Tom DeFalco, Avengers: The Ultimate Guide, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Mark D. White (ed.), Iron Man and Philosophy: Facing the Stark Reality, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
External links
"Stark Reality: A Different Hero for Different Times" by Ian Chant - PopMatters.com
Advanced Iron (fanzine)
Iron Man Library
Tony Stark at Spider-Man Wiki
Avengers (comics) characters
Characters created by Don Heck
Characters created by Jack Kirby
Characters created by Larry Lieber
Characters created by Stan Lee
Cold War in popular culture
Comics characters introduced in 1963
Fictional adoptees
Fictional alcohol abusers
Fictional aerospace engineers
Fictional business executives
Fictional characters from New York City
Fictional cyborgs
Fictional electronic engineers
Fictional inventors
Fictional nuclear engineers
Fictional roboticists
Fictional socialites
Fictional technopaths
Iron Man characters
Marvel Comics adapted into films
Marvel Comics adapted into video games
Marvel Comics American superheroes
Marvel Comics film characters
Marvel Comics male superheroes
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents
Superheroes who are adopted
Telepresence in fiction
Fictional hackers
Fictional mechanics
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[
"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"
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"Iron Man",
"First series",
"When did the first series start?",
"After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner",
"What was the comic about?",
"metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists.",
"Was the comic well received?",
"I don't know.",
"How did they proceed after releasing the comic?",
"Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978).",
"How many comics did they create?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The series had a crossover with the other Avengers related titles as part of the \"Operation: Galactic Storm\" storyline."
] |
C_3f9a97ff3ea5470889d01b9c166015cc_0
|
What kind of crossover?
| 7 |
What kind of crossover with other Avengers related titles?
|
Iron Man
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After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series' indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man. Artist George Tuska began a decade long association with the character with Iron Man #5 (Sept. 1968). Writer Mike Friedrich and artist Jim Starlin's brief collaboration on the Iron Man series introduced Mentor, Starfox, and Thanos in issue #55 (Feb. 1973). Friedrich scripted a metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists. He then wrote the multi-issue "War of the Super-Villains" storyline which ran through 1975. Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978). Micheline and Layton established Tony Stark's alcoholism with the story "Demon in a Bottle", and introduced several supporting characters, including Stark's bodyguard girlfriend Bethany Cabe; Stark's personal pilot and confidant James Rhodes, who later became the superhero War Machine; and rival industrialist Justin Hammer, who was revealed to be the employer of numerous high-tech armed enemies Iron Man fought over the years. The duo also introduced the concept of Stark's specialized armors as he acquired a dangerous vendetta with Doctor Doom. The team worked together through #154 (Jan. 1982), with Michelinie writing three issues without Layton. Following Michelinie and Layton's departures, Dennis O'Neil became the new writer of the series and had Stark relapse into alcoholism. Much of O'Neil's work on this plot thread was based on experiences with alcoholics he knew personally. Jim Rhodes replaced Stark as Iron Man in issue #169 (April 1983) and wore the armor for the next two years of stories. O'Neil returned Tony Stark to the Iron Man role in issue #200 (Nov. 1985). Michelinie and Layton became the creative team once again in issue #215 (Feb. 1987). They crafted the "Armor Wars" storyline beginning in #225 (Dec. 1987) through #231 (June 1988). John Byrne and John Romita Jr. produced a sequel titled "Armor Wars II" in issues #258 (July 1990) to #266 (March 1991). The series had a crossover with the other Avengers related titles as part of the "Operation: Galactic Storm" storyline. CANNOTANSWER
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Operation: Galactic Storm"
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Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The character made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963), and received his own title in Iron Man #1 (May 1968). Also in 1963, the character founded the Avengers alongside Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp and the Hulk.
A wealthy American business magnate, playboy, philanthropist, inventor and ingenious scientist, Anthony Edward Stark suffers a severe chest injury during a kidnapping. When his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction, he instead creates a mechanized suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. Later, Stark develops his suit, adding weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company, Stark Industries. He uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man. Although at first concealing his true identity, Stark eventually publicly reveals himself to be Iron Man.
Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology and industry in the fight against communism. Subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War motifs to contemporary matters of the time.
Throughout most of the character's publication history, Iron Man has been a founding member of the superhero team the Avengers and has been featured in several incarnations of his own various comic book series. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated TV shows and films. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., appearing in the films Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008) in a cameo, Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). The character also appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
Iron Man was ranked 12th on IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes" in 2011 and third in their list of "The Top 50 Avengers" in 2012.
Publication history
Premiere
Iron Man's Marvel Comics premiere in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963) was a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, story-artist Don Heck, and cover-artist and character-designer Jack Kirby. In 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the "quintessential capitalist", a character that would go against the spirit of the times and Marvel's readership. Lee said:
He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies' man, but one with a secret that would plague and torment him as well. Writer Gerry Conway said, "Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just can't be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken. But there's a metaphor going on there. And that's, I think, what made that character interesting." Lee based this playboy's looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, "Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies' man and finally a nutcase." "Without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes," Lee said.
While Lee intended to write the story himself, a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the premiere issue to Lieber, who fleshed out the story. The art was split between Kirby and Heck. "He designed the costume," Heck said of Kirby, "because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts." In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had "a specific model for Tony Stark and the other characters?", Heck replied "No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the same kind of characters that Alex Toth liked, which was an Errol Flynn type." Iron Man first appeared in 13- to 18-page stories in Tales of Suspense, which featured anthology science fiction and supernatural stories. The character's original costume was a bulky gray armored suit, replaced by a golden version in the second story (issue #40 April 1963). It was redesigned as sleeker, red-and-golden armor in issue #48 (December 1963) by that issue's interior artist, Steve Ditko, although Kirby drew it on the cover. As Heck recalled in 1985, "[T]he second costume, the red and yellow one, was designed by Steve Ditko. I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing. The earlier design, the robot-looking one, was more Kirbyish."
In his premiere, Iron Man was an anti-communist hero, defeating various Vietnamese agents. Lee later regretted this early focus. Throughout the character's comic book series, technological advancement and national defense were constant themes for Iron Man, but later issues developed Stark into a more complex and vulnerable character as they depicted his battle with alcoholism (as in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline) and other personal difficulties.
From issue #59 (November 1964) to its final issue #99 (March 1968), the anthological science-fiction backup stories in Tales of Suspense were replaced by a feature starring the superhero Captain America. Lee and Heck introduced several adversaries for the character including the Mandarin in issue #50 (February 1964), the Black Widow in #52 (April 1964) and Hawkeye five issues later.
Lee said that "of all the comic books we published at Marvel, we got more fan mail for Iron Man from women, from females, than any other title ... We didn't get much fan mail from girls, but whenever we did, the letter was usually addressed to Iron Man."
Lee and Kirby included Iron Man in The Avengers #1 (September 1963) as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has since appeared in every subsequent volume of the series.
Writers have updated the war and locale in which Stark is injured. In the original 1963 story, it was the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, it was updated to be the first Gulf War, and in the 2000s updated again to be the war in Afghanistan. Stark's time with the Asian Nobel Prize-winning scientist Ho Yinsen is consistent through nearly all incarnations of the Iron Man origin, depicting Stark and Yinsen building the original armor together. One exception is the direct-to-DVD animated feature film The Invincible Iron Man, in which the armor Stark uses to escape his captors is not the first Iron Man suit.
Themes
The original Iron Man title explored Cold War themes, as did other Stan Lee projects in the early years of Marvel Comics. Where The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk respectively focused on American domestic and government responses to the Communist threat, Iron Man explored industry's role in the struggle. Tony Stark's real-life model, Howard Hughes, was a significant defense contractor who developed new weapons technologies. Hughes was an icon both of American individualism and of the burdens of fame.
Historian Robert Genter, in The Journal of Popular Culture, writes that Tony Stark specifically presents an idealized portrait of the American inventor. Where earlier decades had seen important technological innovations come from famous individuals (e.g., Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers), the 1960s saw new technologies (including weapons) being developed mainly by the research teams of corporations. As a result, little room remained for the inventor who wanted credit for, and creative and economic control over, their own creations.
Issues of entrepreneurial autonomy, government supervision of research, and ultimate loyalty figured prominently in early Iron Man stories—the same issues affecting American scientists and engineers of that era. Tony Stark, writes Genter, is an inventor who finds motive in his emasculation as an autonomous creative individual. This blow is symbolized by his chest wound, inflicted at the moment he is forced to invent things for the purposes of others, instead of just himself. To Genter, Stark's transformation into Iron Man represents Stark's effort to reclaim his autonomy, and thus his manhood. The character's pursuit of women in bed or in battle, writes Genter, represents another aspect of this effort. The pattern finds parallels in other works of 1960s popular fiction by authors such as "Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond), Mickey Spillane (Mike Hammer), and Norman Mailer, who made unregulated sexuality a form of authenticity."
Solo series
After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series's indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man.
This initial series ended with issue #332 (September 1996). Jim Lee, Scott Lobdell, and Jeph Loeb authored a second volume of the series which was drawn primarily by Whilce Portacio and Ryan Benjamin. This volume took place in a parallel universe and ran 13 issues (November 1996 – November 1997). Volume 3, whose first 25 issues were written by Kurt Busiek and then by Busiek and Roger Stern, ran 89 issues (February 1998 – December 2004). Later writers included Joe Quesada, Frank Tieri, Mike Grell, and John Jackson Miller. Issue #41 (June 2001) was additionally numbered #386, reflecting the start of dual numbering starting from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968. The final issue was dual-numbered as #434. The next Iron Man series, Iron Man vol. 4, debuted in early 2005 with the Warren Ellis-written storyline "Extremis", with artist Adi Granov. It ran 35 issues (January 2005 – January 2009), with the cover logo simply Iron Man beginning with issue #13, and Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., beginning issue #15. On the final three issues, the cover logo was overwritten by "War Machine, Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D.", which led to the launch of a War Machine ongoing series.
The Invincible Iron Man by writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca, began with a premiere issue cover-dated July 2008. For a seven-month overlap, Marvel published both volume four and volume five simultaneously. This Invincible volume jumped its numbering of issues from #33 to #500, cover dated March 2011, to reflect the start from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968.
After the conclusion of The Invincible Iron Man a new Iron Man series was started as a part of Marvel Now!. Written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Greg Land, it began with issue #1 in November 2012.
Many Iron Man annuals, miniseries, and one-shot titles have been published through the years, such as Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man (February 1996), Iron Man: The Iron Age #1–2 (August – September 1998), Iron Man: Bad Blood #1–4 (September – December 2000), Iron Man House of M #1–3 (September – November 2005), Fantastic Four / Iron Man: Big in Japan #1–4 (December 2005 – March 2006), Iron Man: The Inevitable #1–6 (February – July 2006), Iron Man / Captain America: Casualties of War (February 2007), Iron Man: Hypervelocity #1–6 (March – August 2007), Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #1–6 (November 2007 – April 2008), and Iron Man: Legacy of Doom (June – September 2008). Publications have included such spin-offs as the one-shot Iron Man 2020 (June 1994), featuring a different Iron Man in the future, and the animated TV series adaptations Marvel Action Hour, Featuring Iron Man #1–8 (November 1994 – June 1995) and Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1–12 (July 2007 – June 2008).
Fictional character biography
Origins
Anthony Edward Stark is the son of wealthy industrialist and head of Stark Industries, Howard Stark, and Maria Stark. A boy genius, he enters MIT at the age of 15 to study engineering and later receives master's degrees in engineering and physics. After his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his father's company.
Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured by enemy forces led by Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu orders Stark to build weapons, but Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow prisoner, Ho Yinsen, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work Stark had greatly admired during college, constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart. In secret, Stark and Yinsen use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor, which Stark uses to escape. During the escape attempt, Yinsen sacrifices his life to save Stark's by distracting the enemy as Stark recharges. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers and rejoins the American forces, on his way meeting a wounded American Marine fighter pilot, James "Rhodey" Rhodes.
Back home, Stark discovers that the shrapnel fragment lodged in his chest cannot be removed without killing him, and he is forced to wear the armor's chestplate beneath his clothes to act as a regulator for his heart. He must recharge the chestplate every day or else risk the shrapnel killing him. The cover story that Stark tells the news media and general public is that Iron Man is his robotic personal bodyguard, and corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fights threats to his company (e.g., Communist opponents Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo, and the Titanium Man), as well as independent villains like the Mandarin (who becomes his greatest enemy). No one suspects Stark of being Iron Man, as he cultivates a strong public image of being a rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable members of the series's supporting cast, at this point, are his personal chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan, and secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts—to both of whom he eventually reveals his dual identity. Meanwhile, James Rhodes finds his own niche as Stark's personal pilot, ultimately revealing himself to be a man of extraordinary skill and daring in his own right.
The series took an anti-Communist stance in its early years, which was softened as public (and therefore, presumably, reader) opposition rose to the Vietnam War. This change evolved in a series of storylines featuring Stark reconsidering his political opinions, and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the U.S. military. Stark shows himself to be occasionally arrogant, and willing to act unethically in order to 'let the ends justify the means'. This leads to personal conflicts with the people around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities. Stark uses his vast personal fortune not only to outfit his own armor, but also to develop weapons for S.H.I.E.L.D.; other technologies (e.g., Quinjets used by the Avengers); and the image inducers used by the X-Men. Eventually, Stark's heart condition is publicly discovered when he was summoned for a Congressional hearing and Stark collapsed when his chestpiece's power failed, causing a heart attack. Stark was medically examined, which revealed his hidden equipment, and was hospitalized, forcing Pepper to have Happy don his employer's armor to pose as Iron Man to protect his boss's secret identity. Eventually, that specific medical issue was resolved with an artificial heart transplant, which still required the chestplate for some time to support the replacement organ.
1970s and early 1980s
Stark expands on his armor designs and begins to build his arsenal of specialized armors for particular situations such as for space travel and stealth. Stark also develops a serious dependency on alcohol in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline. The first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them. At the same time, it is revealed that several minor supervillains armed with advanced weapons who had bedeviled Stark throughout his superhero career are in fact in the employ of Stark's business rival, Justin Hammer, who begins to plague Stark more directly. At one point in Hammer's manipulations, the Iron Man armor is taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man is not immediately under suspicion, Stark is forced to hand the armor over to the authorities. Eventually Stark and Rhodes, who is now his personal pilot and confidant, track down and defeat those responsible, although Hammer would return to bedevil Stark again. With the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe, his friends and his employees, Stark pulls through these crises and overcomes his dependency on alcohol. Even as he recovers from this harrowing personal trial, Stark's life is further complicated when he has a confrontation with Doctor Doom that is interrupted by an opportunistic enemy sending them back in time to the time of King Arthur. Once there, Iron Man thwarts Doom's attempt to solicit the aid of Morgan Le Fay, and the Latverian ruler swears deadly vengeance—to be indulged sometime after the two return to their own time. This incident was collected and published as Doomquest.
Some time later, a ruthless rival, Obadiah Stane, manipulates Stark emotionally into a serious relapse. As a result, Stark loses control of Stark International to Stane, becomes a homeless alcoholic vagrant and gives up his armored identity to Rhodes, who becomes the new Iron Man. Eventually, Stark recovers and joins a new startup, Circuits Maximus. Stark concentrates on new technological designs, including building a new set of armor as part of his recuperative therapy. Rhodes continues to act as Iron Man but steadily grows more aggressive and paranoid, due to the armor not having been calibrated properly for his use. Eventually Rhodes goes on a rampage, and Stark has to don a replica of his original armor to stop him. Fully recovered, Stark confronts Stane who has himself designed armor based on designs seized along with Stark International, dubbing himself the 'Iron Monger'. Defeated in battle, Stane, rather than give Stark the satisfaction of taking him to trial, commits suicide. Shortly thereafter, Stark regains his personal fortune, but decides against repurchasing Stark International until much later; he instead creates Stark Enterprises, headquartered in Los Angeles.
Late 1980s and 1990s
In an attempt to stop other people from misusing his designs, Stark goes about disabling other armored heroes and villains who are using suits based on the Iron Man technology, the designs of which were stolen by his enemy Spymaster. His quest to destroy the stolen technology—originally called "Stark Wars" but is more commonly known as the "Armor Wars"—severely hurts his reputation as Iron Man. After attacking and disabling a series of minor villains such as Stilt-Man, he attacks and defeats the government operative known as Stingray. The situation worsens when Stark realizes that Stingray's armor does not incorporate any of his designs. He publicly "fires" Iron Man while covertly pursuing his agenda. He uses the cover story of wanting to help disable the rogue Iron Man to infiltrate and disable the armor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives known as the Mandroids, as well as the armor of the Guardsmen. In the process, Iron Man and Jim Rhodes allow some of the villains in the Vault to escape. This leads the United States government to declare Iron Man a danger and an outlaw, and severely sours Stark's relationship with Steve Rogers (Captain America, who was in his "Captain" persona at the time). Iron Man travels to Russia where he inadvertently causes the death of the Soviet Titanium Man during a fight. Returning to the U.S., he faces an enemy commissioned by the government named Firepower. Unable to defeat him head on, Stark fakes Iron Man's demise, intending to retire the suit permanently. When Firepower goes rogue, Stark creates a new suit, claiming a new person is in the armor.
Soon after, Stark is nearly killed by Kathy Dare, a mentally unbalanced former lover. She shoots him dead center in his torso which injures his spine, paralyzing him. Stark undergoes special surgery to have a nerve chip implanted into his spine to regain his mobility. Unbeknownst to the industrialist, the nerve chip is a clandestine means by which to gain control over his body. Rival businessmen the Marrs Twins and their cohort Kearson DeWitt are behind the machinations in what came to be known as "Armor Wars II." After several successful tests by DeWitt at manipulating Stark, Tony finds that using his Encephalo Armor can counteract DeWitt's controls. In response, DeWitt suddenly releases his control resulting in excruciating agony throughout Stark's body. The constant "battle" for control of Stark's nervous system and subsequent abdication on DeWitt's end lead to massive nerve damage throughout Tony's body. Stark's nervous system continues its slide towards failure, and he constructs a "skin" made up of artificial nerve circuitry to assist it. Stark begins to pilot a remote-controlled Iron Man armor, but when faced with the Masters of Silence, the telepresence suit proves inadequate. Stark designs a more heavily armed version of the suit to wear, the "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit", which becomes known as the War Machine armor. Ultimately, the damage to his nervous system becomes too extensive. Faking his death, Stark places himself in suspended animation to heal as Rhodes takes over both the running of Stark Enterprises and the mantle of Iron Man, although he uses the War Machine armor. Stark eventually makes a full recovery by using a chip to create an entirely new (artificial) nervous system, and resumes as Iron Man in a new Telepresence Armor. When Rhodes learns that Stark has manipulated his friends by faking his own death, he becomes enraged and the two friends part ways. Rhodes continues on as War Machine in a solo career.
The Avengers story arc "The Crossing" reveals Iron Man as a traitor among the team's ranks, due to years of manipulation by the time-traveling dictator Kang the Conqueror. Stark, as a sleeper agent in Kang's thrall, kills Marilla, the nanny of Crystal and Quicksilver's daughter Luna, as well as Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, then Amanda Chaney, an ally of the Avengers. The "Avengers Forever" limited series retcons these events as the work of a disguised Immortus, not Kang, and that the mental control had gone back only a few months.
Needing help to defeat both Stark and Kang, the team travels back in time to recruit a teenaged Anthony Stark from an alternate timeline to assist them. The young Stark steals an Iron Man suit in order to aid the Avengers against his older self. The sight of his younger self shocks the older Stark enough for him to regain momentary control of his actions, and he sacrifices his life to stop Kang. The young Stark later builds his own suit to become the new Iron Man and remains in the present day.
During the battle with the creature called Onslaught, the teenage Stark dies, along with many other superheroes. Franklin Richards preserves these "dead" heroes in the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe, in which Stark is once again an adult hero; Franklin recreates the heroes in the pocket universe in the forms he is most familiar with rather than what they are at the present. The reborn adult Stark, upon returning to the normal Marvel Universe, merges with the original Stark, who had died during "The Crossing", but was resurrected by Franklin Richards. This new Anthony Stark possesses the memories of both the original and teenage Anthony Stark, and thus considers himself to be essentially both of them. With the aid of the law firm Nelson & Murdock, he regains his fortune and, with Stark Enterprises having been sold to the Fujikawa Corporation following Stark's death, sets up a new company, Stark Solutions. He returns from the pocket universe with a restored and healthy heart. After the Avengers reform, Stark demands a hearing be convened to look into his actions just prior to the Onslaught incident. Cleared of wrongdoing, he rejoins the Avengers.
2000s
At one point, Stark's armor becomes sentient despite fail-safes to prevent its increasingly sophisticated computer systems from doing so. Initially, Stark welcomes this "living" armor for its improved tactical abilities. The armor begins to grow more aggressive, killing indiscriminately and eventually desiring to replace Stark altogether. In the final confrontation on a desert island, Stark suffers another heart attack. The armor sacrifices its own existence to save its creator's life, giving up essential components to give Stark a new, artificial heart. This new heart solves Stark's health problems, but it does not have an internal power supply, so Stark becomes once again dependent on periodic recharging. The sentient armor incident so disturbs Stark that he temporarily returns to using an unsophisticated early model version of his armor to avoid a repeat incident. He dabbles with using liquid metal circuitry known as S.K.I.N. that forms into a protective shell around his body, but eventually returns to more conventional hard metal armors.
During this time, Stark engages in a romance with Rumiko Fujikawa, a wealthy heiress and daughter of the man who had taken over his company during the "Heroes Reborn" period. Her relationship with Stark endures many highs and lows, including infidelity with Stark's rival, Tiberius Stone, in part because the fun-loving Rumiko believes that Stark is too serious and dull. Their relationship ends with Rumiko's death at the hands of an Iron Man impostor in Iron Man vol. 3 #87.
In Iron Man vol. 3 #55 (July 2002), Stark publicly reveals his dual identity as Iron Man, not realizing that by doing so, he has invalidated the agreements protecting his armor from government duplication, since those contracts state that the Iron Man armor would be used by an employee of Tony Stark, not by Stark himself. When he discovers that the United States military is again using his technology, and its defective nature nearly causes a disaster in Washington, D.C. which Iron Man barely manages to avert, Stark accepts a Presidential appointment as Secretary of Defense. In this way, he hopes to monitor and direct how his designs are used.
In the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline, Stark is forced to resign after launching into a tirade against the Latverian ambassador at the United Nations, being manipulated by the mentally imbalanced Scarlet Witch, who destroys Avengers Mansion and kills several members. Stark publicly stands down as Iron Man, but continues using the costume. He joins the Avengers in stopping the breakout in progress from the Raft and even saves Captain America from falling. Tony changes the Avengers base to Stark Tower. The Ghost, the Living Laser and Spymaster reappear and shift Iron Man from standard superhero stories to dealing with politics and industrialism.
New Avengers: Illuminati #1 (June 2006) reveals that years before, Stark had participated with a secret group that included the Black Panther, Professor X, Mister Fantastic, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Namor. The goal of the group (dubbed the Illuminati by Marvel) was to strategize overarching menaces, in which the Black Panther rejects a membership offer. Stark's goal is to create a governing body for all superheroes in the world, but the beliefs of its members instead force them all to share vital information.
"Civil War"
In the "Civil War" storyline, after the actions of inexperienced superheroes the New Warriors result in the destruction of several city blocks in Stamford, Connecticut, there is an outcry across America against superhumans. Learning of the Government's proposed plans, Tony Stark suggests a new plan to instigate a Superhuman Registration Act. The Act would force every superpowered individual in the U.S. to register their identity with the government and act as licensed agents. The Act would force inexperienced superhumans to receive training in how to use and control their abilities, something in which Tony strongly believes. Since his struggle with alcoholism, Stark has carried a tremendous burden of guilt after nearly killing an innocent bystander while piloting the armor drunk. While Reed Richards and Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym both agree with Stark's proposal, not everyone does. After Captain America is ordered to bring in anyone who refuses to register, he and other anti-registration superheroes go rogue, coming into conflict with the pro-registration heroes, led by Iron Man. The war ends when Captain America surrenders to prevent further collateral damage and civilian casualties, although he had defeated Stark by defusing his armor. Stark is appointed the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and organizes a new government-sanctioned group of Avengers. Shortly afterwards, Captain America is assassinated while in custody. This leaves Stark with a great amount of guilt and misgivings about the cost of his victory.
"Secret Invasion"
To tie into the 2008 Iron Man feature film, Marvel launched a new Iron Man ongoing series, The Invincible Iron Man, with writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca. The series inaugural six-part storyline was "The Five Nightmares", which saw Stark targeted by Ezekiel Stane, the son of Stark's former nemesis, Obadiah Stane.
In the "Secret Invasion" storyline, after Tony Stark survives an attempt by Ultron to take over his body, he is confronted in the hospital by Spider-Woman, holding the corpse of a Skrull posing as Elektra. Realizing this is the start of an invasion by the Skrulls, Tony reveals the corpse to the Illuminati and declares that they are at war. After Black Bolt reveals himself as a Skrull and is killed by Namor, a squadron of Skrulls attack, forcing Tony to evacuate the other Illuminati members and destroy the area, killing all the Skrulls. Realizing that they are incapable of trusting each other, the members all separate to form individual plans for the oncoming invasion.
Stark is discredited and publicly vilified after his inability to anticipate or prevent the secret infiltration and invasion of Earth by the Skrulls, and by the Skrull disabling of his StarkTech technology, which had a virtual monopoly on worldwide defense. After the invasion, the U.S. government removes him as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and disbands the Avengers, handing control of the Initiative over to Norman Osborn.
"Dark Reign"
With his Extremis powers failing, Stark uploads a virus to destroy all records of the Registration Act, thus preventing Osborn from learning the identities of his fellow heroes and anything that Osborn could use, including his repulsor generators. The only copy of the database is in Stark's brain, which he tries to delete while on the run from Osborn. Stark goes so far as to inflict brain damage on himself in order to ensure that the relevant information is wiped. When Osborn catches up to the debilitated Stark and beats him savagely, Pepper Potts broadcasts the beatings worldwide, costing Osborn credibility and giving Stark public sympathy. Stark goes into a vegetative state, having previously granted Donald Blake (alter ego of the superhero Thor) power of attorney. A holographic message stored in Pepper's armor reveals that Stark had developed a means of 'rebooting' his mind from his current state prior to his destruction of the database, with Blake and Bucky resolving to use it to restore him to normal. Meanwhile, Stark is trapped in his subconscious, where figments of his own mind prevent him from returning to the waking world. When the procedure fails to work, Bucky calls in Doctor Strange, who succeeds in restoring Stark back to consciousness. The backup Stark created was made prior to the Civil War, and as such he does not remember anything that took place during the event, although he still concludes after reviewing his past actions that he would not have done anything differently. His brain damage means he is now dependent on an arc reactor to sustain his body's autonomous functions.
2010s
"Siege"
In the "Siege" storyline, Tony Stark is seen under the care of Dr. Donald Blake and Maria Hill when Asgard is attacked. Thor is ambushed by Osborn and the Sentry, but rescued by Hill. Osborn declares martial law and unleashes Daken and the Sentry on Broxton to root out Thor and Hill. Hill returns to Stark's hiding place to move him to a safer location and are joined by Speed of the Young Avengers, who has a set of Iron Man's MK III armor that Edwin Jarvis had given Captain America. While Osborn is battling the New Avengers, Stark appears and disables Osborn's Iron Patriot armor. Osborn orders the Sentry to annihilate Asgard, rather than allow the Avengers to have it. After Asgard falls, Stark stands alongside his fellow heroes, as Osborn exclaims they are all doomed and he 'was saving them from him' pointing up towards a Void-possessed Sentry. As the Void tears apart the teams, Loki gives them the power to fight back through the Norn Stones. The Void kills Loki, enraging Thor. Tony tells Thor to get the Void away from Asgard, which allows Tony to drop a commandeered H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarrier on the Void. Thor is forced to killed Sentry when the Void resurfaces. Sometime later, the Super-Human Registration Act is repealed and Tony is given back his company and armor. As a symbol for their heroics and their new unity, Thor places an Asgardian tower on Stark Tower where the Watchtower once stood.
"Heroic Age"
In the 2010–2011 "Stark: Resilient" storyline, Tony builds the Bleeding Edge armor with the help of Mister Fantastic. This new armor fully uses the repulsor tech battery embedded in his chest to power Tony's entire body and mind, thus allowing him access to Extremis once more. Furthermore, the battery operates as his "heart" and is the only thing keeping him alive. Tony announces he will form a new company, Stark Resilient. He states that he will no longer develop weapons, but will use his repulsor technology to give free energy to the world. Justine and Sasha Hammer create their own armored hero, Detroit Steel, to take Stark's place as the Army's leading weapons-builder. Stark's plan consists of building two repulsor-powered cars. The Hammers try to foil his efforts. The first car is destroyed by sabotage, while Detroit Steel attacks Stark Resilient's facilities while Tony tests the second car. Through a legal maneuver, Tony is able to get the Hammers to stop their attacks and releases a successful commercial about his new car.
"Fear Itself"
In the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, Earth is attacked by the Serpent, the God of Fear and the long-forgotten brother of Odin. In Paris, Iron Man fights Grey Gargoyle, who has become Mokk, Breaker of Faith, one of the Serpent's Worthy. Mokk leaves Iron Man unconscious and transforms Detroit Steel and the citizens of Paris into stone. To defeat the Serpent's army, Tony drinks a bottle of wine (thus 'sacrificing' his sobriety) to gain an audience with Odin, who allows Tony to enter the realm of Svartalfheim. Tony and the dwarves of Svartalfheim build enchanted weapons. Tony upgrades his armor with uru-infused enchantments and delivers the finished weapons to the Avengers, who use them for the final battle against the Serpent's forces. Iron Man watches as Thor kills the Serpent, but dies in the process. After the battle is over, Tony melts down the weapons he created and repairs Captain America's shield, which had been broken by Serpent, and gives it back to Captain America. During a subsequent argument with Odin about the gods' lack of involvement in the recent crisis, Odin gives Tony a brief opportunity to see the vastness of the universe the way he sees it. As thanks for Tony's role in the recent crisis, Odin restores all the people that the Grey Gargoyle killed during his rampage.
Return of the Mandarin and Marvel NOW!
In the storylines "Demon" and "The Long Way Down", Stark is subpoenaed by the U.S. government after evidence surfaces of him using the Iron Man armor while under the influence. Mandarin and Zeke Stane upgrade some of Iron Man's old enemies and send them to commit acts of terrorism across the world, intending to discredit Iron Man. General Bruce Babbage forces Stark to wear a tech governor, a device that allows Babbage to deactivate Stark's armor whenever he wants. To fight back, Tony undergoes a surgical procedure that expels the Bleeding Edge technology out of his body and replaces his repulsor node with a new model, forcing Babbage to remove the tech governor off his chest. He announces his retirement as Iron Man, faking Rhodes's death and giving him a new armor so that he becomes the new Iron Man. This leads into the next storyline, "The Future", in which the Mandarin takes control of Stark's mind and uses him to create new armored bodies for the alien spirits inhabiting his rings, but Stark allies himself with some of his old enemies, who have also been imprisoned by Mandarin, and manages to defeat him. The final issue of this storyline concluded Matt Fraction's series.
In the ongoing series that premiered in 2012 as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, Tony Stark has hit a technological ceiling. After the death of Dr. Maya Hansen and the destruction of all of the Extremis Version 2 kits that were being sold to the black market, Tony decides that the Earth is not safe without him learning more from what's in the final frontier. He takes his new suit, enhanced with an artificial intelligence named P.E.P.P.E.R. and joins Peter Quill and The Guardians of the Galaxy after helping them thwart a Badoon attack on Earth.
Superior Iron Man
Tony Stark's personality is inverted during the events of AXIS, bringing out more dark aspects of himself like irresponsibility, egotism and alcoholism. Stark relocates to San Francisco and builds a new, all-white armor. He supplies the citizens of San Francisco with the Extremis 3.0 app, a version of the techno-virus that offers beauty, health or even immortality, free. When every person in the city viewed Iron Man as a messiah for making their dreams come true, he ended the free trial mode and started charging a daily fee of $99.99, causing many to resort to crime to pay for the upgrade. Daredevil confronts Stark at his new Alcatraz Island penthouse, but is easily brushed off. Iron Man uses Extremis 3.0 to temporarily restore Daredevil's sight, just to prove his point. Daredevil deduces that Stark had added Extremis to the water supply and the phones only transmit an activation signal, but Stark subjects Murdock to minor brain damage to prevent him from sharing this revelation with others.
After discovering that new villain Teen Abomination is the son of Happy Hogan, Stark decides to help him, but this minor act of redemption is too late for Pepper Potts, who attacks Stark with the aid of an AI based on Stark's mind. This culminates in a confrontation between the two Starks, as Stark calls on the unwitting aid of all 'infected' with the Extremis upgrade while the AI uses Stark's various old armors to attack him. Although Stark technically wins the battle as he destroys his other armors and deletes the AI backup, Pepper states that she plans to reveal the truth about his goals with Extremis, bluntly informing him that if he continues his Extremis upgrade project, he will have to do it alone, accepting his fate of being regarded as a monster by all who know him.
Time Runs Out
During the "Time Runs Out" storyline, an attempt at reclaiming Wakanda from the Cabal that Namor had created to destroy incursive Earths results in Tony being held captive in the Necropolis. After the Cabal are apparently killed, the Illuminati free Tony, who is forced to flee due to the Illuminati's unwillingness to let Stark be there with them when they meet Rogers and the Avengers. When the Shi'ar and their allies arrive to destroy Earth, the Avengers and the Illuminati unsuccessfully try to retaliate. Iron Man uses Sol's Hammer to destroy the fleet. The incursions continue, and Rogers confronts Stark about what he knows. A fight ensues between them and Stark admits that he had lied and had known about the incursions all along. During the final incursion, Earth-1610's S.H.I.E.L.D. launches a full-scale attack on Earth-616, during which Stark and Rogers are crushed by a Helicarrier.
All-New, All-Different Marvel
After the events of the Secret Wars crossover, Stark returns to his normal self with no signs of his inverted personality. Eight months following the return of the universe as seen in the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event, Tony works in his laboratory non-stop after his position as an innovator had been put in doubt. Because an M.I.T. student reverse-engineered some of his technology, Stark develops a new armor which can change shape according to the situation he would find himself. When Stark's new AI F.R.I.D.A.Y. informs him that Madame Masque has broken into the ruins of Castle Doom, he travels to Latveria to investigate and runs into some revolutionaries who are then defeated by a man in a suit. To his amazement, Iron Man's armor computer identifies him as Doctor Doom with his face restored. Doctor Doom claims that he wanted to help Iron Man.
After learning from Doctor Doom that Madame Masque has taken a decoy of the Wand of Watoomb, Tony Stark confronts Madame Masque. Upon learning that Madame Masque is not allied with Doctor Doom, Tony is attacked by her with a burst of energy that damages his armor. F.R.I.D.A.Y. manages to gain control of the suit and takes Tony to a safe location. Iron Man tracks Madame Masque to Marina del Rey. After finding a tape recorder with her messages, Tony is attacked by several black silhouettes with swords.
Iron Man escapes the ninjas that are attacking him and manages to defeat most of them, but they kill themselves before he can interrogate any of them. Iron Man and Doctor Doom arrive at Mary Jane Watson's newest Chicago night club Jackpot when Madame Masque attacks it. As Mary Jane distracts Madame Masque by knocking off her mask, Iron Man and Doctor Doom discover that Madame Masque is possessed by a demon. Doctor Doom is able to perform an exorcism on her.
Doctor Strange arrives and tells Iron Man he will take Madame Masque with him to fix her metaphysically and then hand her over at S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man also informs him of Doctor Doom's help who had left the scene some time ago. Three days later, Iron Man offers Mary Jane a job to make up for the damage to her nightclub. After speaking with War Machine, Tony Stark meets up at a diner with Amara Perera when they are unexpectedly joined by Doctor Doom who wanted to make sure that the demonic possession that affected Madame Masque has not affected Stark or Amara. Stark shows Mary Jane the demonstration on the people that he will be working with. They are interrupted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. who tells Tony that War Machine is missing. Before heading to Tokyo, Tony receives from Mary Jane the emergency number for Peter Parker. In Tokyo, Iron Man is contacted by Spider-Man at War Machine's last known location as he is being observed by ninjas.
During the Civil War II storyline, Iron Man protests the logic of using precognitive powers to stop future crimes after the recently emerged Inhuman Ulysses predicted Thanos's attack on Project Pegasus. Three weeks later, Iron Man is summoned to the Triskelion after War Machine is killed in battle against Thanos. When Iron Man learns that War Machine and the Ultimates used Ulysses's power to ambush Thanos, he vows to stop anyone from using that power again. Iron Man infiltrates New Attilan and makes off with Ulysses. At Stark Tower, Iron Man vows to find out how Ulysses's precognition works. The Inhumans attack Stark Tower but are stopped by the Avengers, the Ultimates, and S.H.I.E.L.D. During the confrontation, Ulysses has another vision which he projects to Iron Man and everyone present, showing a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of the defeated superheroes. The heroes confront Banner, who is killed by Hawkeye. Barton claims that Banner was about to transform and Banner had previously asked Hawkeye to kill him if he should turn back into the Hulk. Tony is disgusted at this use of Ulysses's power. When his analysis of Ulysses brain is completed, Tony reveals that Ulysses does not actually see the future, but simply assembles large quantities of data to project likely outcomes. While Danvers continues to use the visions as a resource, Tony objects to the concept of profiling people. This results in a stand-off when Tony's side abducts a woman from custody after Ulysses's visions identified her as a deep-cover HYDRA agent, despite the lack of supporting evidence.
Iron Man learns that his biological mother was actually Amanda Armstrong, who had given him up for adoption and that his biological father was a Hydra double agent named Jude. S.H.I.E.L.D. had Armstrong's baby adopted by Howard and Maria Stark.
Marvel NOW! 2016
In July 2016, it was announced that Tony Stark would hand off the mantle of Iron Man to a 15-year-old girl named Riri Williams. Riri is an MIT student who built her own Iron Man suit out of scrap pieces and, as such, attracted Stark's attention. Early depictions of Williams' suit depict it without the Arc Reactor, but leaves the power source for the suit unclear. Another Iron Man-based series titled Infamous Iron Man debuted featuring Doctor Doom sporting his version of the Iron Man armor. This is revealed to be the result of serious injuries sustained by Stark during his final confrontation with Captain Marvel. Danvers' beating leaves Stark in a coma, but he is left alive due to unspecified experiments Stark has carried out on himself over the years.
Existing as an AI
Following the revelation that Stark experimented on himself at the end of Civil War II, Beast concludes that the only option is to let the experiments do their job in healing Tony and recover on his own. In Invincible Iron Man #1, an employee of Stark sends Riri Williams an artificial intelligence housing a copy of Tony Stark's consciousness to help her control and mentor in her own version of the Iron Man armor. This AI is directly copied from Tony's brain, granting sentience, with Williams commenting on Stark existing as a "techno-ghost". As an AI, Stark can walk around as a hard-light object and gains the ability to remote control his vast armory of Iron Man suits. In The Mighty Captain Marvel #3, the Tony Stark AI goes to Antarctica and visits Captain Marvel with the intent on settling their differences from the Second Civil War, she apologizes to him for her regrets, reconciles with him eventually and they become allies once more. Then in Secret Empire, the Tony Stark AI suits up as Iron Man once again and learns of Captain America's betrayal to Hydra and how he ended up like this. As Hydra tightens its grip across America, the Tony Stark AI leads a team known as the Underground to find the Cosmic Cubes to restore Rogers to his normal self. When things start to escalate, Tony and his crew go rogue and in search for answers for the Cube. As Iron Man and the Underground search for them they are intercepted by Captain America and his Hydra team. With both teams encountering each other, they are captured by the Ultron/Hank Pym hybrid, who forces both teams to sit at a dinner table. During "dinner", Ultron reveals information about the Hydra Avengers – such as Odinson working with Hydra to reclaim Mjolnir, Scarlet Witch being possessed by Chthon, and Vision being affected by an AI virus. Ultron argues that he is doing this because the Avengers have become less of a family over the years as so many of them jump to obey Captain America or Iron Man, despite past experience confirming that this is not always a good idea, but Tony counters that the only reason the team failed as a family was because of Hank's abuse towards Wasp. Enraged, Ultron is about to kill everyone, but Ant-Man is able to calm him down by arguing that Hank remains his own inspiration. Ultron allows the Underground to leave with the fragment, arguing that neither side should have an advantage over the other. Back in America, Hydra Supreme has put Namor in a position where he will be forced to sign a peace treaty that gives Rogers access to the Cosmic Cube fragment in Atlantis, but Hydra Supreme muses that he is unconcerned about who will acquire the fragments, as he has an inside man in the Underground. After the Mount was attacked by Thor and the resurrected Hulk led by Hydra, the Underground evacuated the civilians thanks to Hawkeye and the rest of the heroes. Captain America and Iron Man fight as the Mount collapses around them. The Tony Stark AI initiates the Mount's "Clean Slate Protocol", and blows up the Mount, killing Madame Hydra, then apologizes to Steve Rogers about their past differences, but the A.I survives and, in the aftermath, helps the heroes pull the pieces back together to take down Hydra. When Iron Man confronts Hydra Supreme, he and the other heroes are easily overpowered by him and watch the original Captain America defeat his Hydra self and into celebrating their victory.
Marvel Legacy
Mary Jane Watson and other Stark employees find that Stark's body has completely vanished from its pod, despite tests taken mere hours ago showing no sign of improvement or brain activity. It was discovered that Tony Stark's comatose body was taken to the Stark Industries Complex in Dover. Upon awakening when his biological systems rebooted, Tony Stark went into hiding until he fully recovered. Wanting to make sure that James Rhodes was in a similar state that he was in, Tony Stark exhumed his body from Arlington Cemetery and kick-started the biological systems in him. Afterwards, Iron Man and War Machine fought Hood to keep Stark Industries from falling into Hood's hands where he switched to a version of his Extremis armor. Then he proceeded to defeat Jude when he turned up alive.
During "The Ultron Agenda" arc, Iron Man went up against the Ultron/Hank Pym who begun a plan to merge humans with robots while taking up the name "Ultron Pym." Iron Man was briefly fused with his armor. After using Stark Unlimited's atomic separator on himself, Iron Man figured out that Hank Pym was dead the moment he accidentally fused with Ultron. Not wanting to prove Tony right, Ultron Pym surrendered to Iron Man and the Avengers. As it turned out that Iron Man actually died during the Civil War II storyline, Arno Stark used this to his advantage to acquire Stark Unlimited through a merger with Baintronics. With the combined resources, he built the Iron Man Armor Model 66 as his attempt to recreate the Godbuster Armor. Now having a new destiny, Arno Stark became the latest person to take on the Iron Man mantle.
Because of his revelation that he is now a simulated AI at the start of the "Iron Man 2020" storyline, Tony Stark became Mark One and started to establish the A.I. Army which also consists of Albert, Awesome Android, Egghead II, H.E.R.B.I.E., M-11, Machine Man, Machinesmith, Quasimodo, Super-Adaptoid, Walking Stiletto, the Dreadnoughts, a Sentinel, several Constructo-Bots, several Nick Fury LMDs, and an unnamed bomb disposal robot. This group of robots and androids want to obtain equal rights with organic beings through whatever way possible. Mark One provided them with a hideout on Floor Thirteen, a solid light construct that can only be accessed by robots and androids. With the establishment of Floor Thirteen, Mark One keeps the A.I. Army safe from their enemies and oppressors.
Powers, abilities, and equipment
Armor
Iron Man possesses powered armor that gives him superhuman strength and durability, flight, and an array of weapons. The armor is invented and worn by Stark (with occasional short-term exceptions). Other people who have assumed the Iron Man identity include Stark's long-time partner and best friend James Rhodes; close associates Harold "Happy" Hogan; Eddie March; (briefly) Michael O'Brien and Riri Williams.
The weapons systems of the suit have changed over the years, but Iron Man's standard offensive weapons have always been the repulsor rays that are fired from the palms of his gauntlets. Other weapons built into various incarnations of the armor include: the uni-beam projector in its chest; pulse bolts (that pick up kinetic energy along the way; so the farther they travel, the harder they hit); an electromagnetic pulse generator; and a defensive energy shield that can be extended up to 360 degrees. Other capabilities include: generating ultra-freon (i.e., a freeze-beam); creating and manipulating magnetic fields; emitting sonic blasts; and projecting 3-dimensional holograms (to create decoys).
In addition to the general-purpose model he wears, Stark has developed several specialized suits for space travel, deep-sea diving, stealth, and other special purposes. Stark has modified suits, like the Hulkbuster heavy armor. The Hulkbuster armor is composed of add-ons to his so-called modular armor, designed to enhance its strength and durability enough to engage the Hulk in a fight. A later model, created with the help of Odin and the Asgardian metal Uru, is similar to the Destroyer. Stark develops an electronics pack during the Armor Wars that, when attached to armors that use Stark technologies, will burn out those components, rendering the suit useless. This pack is ineffective on later models. While it is typically associated with James Rhodes, the War Machine armor began as one of Stark's specialty armors.
The most recent models of Stark's armor, beginning with the Extremis armor, are now stored in the hollow portions of Stark's bones, and the personal area networking implement used to control it is implanted into his forearm, and connected directly to his central nervous system.
The Extremis has since been removed, and he now uses more conventional armors. Some armors still take a liquid form, but are not stored within his body. His Endo-Sym Armor incorporates a combination of the liquid smart-metal with the alien Venom symbiote, psionically controlled by Stark.
Post-Secret Wars, Stark uses a more streamlined suit of armor that uses nanotechnology to shape shift into other armors or weapons.
Powers
After being critically injured during a battle with the Extremis-enhanced Mallen, Stark injects his nervous system with modified techno-organic virus-like body restructuring machines (the Extremis process). By rewriting his own biology, Stark is able to save his life, gain an enhanced healing factor, and partially merge with the Iron Man armor, superseding the need for bulky, AI-controlled armors in favor of lighter designs, technopathically controlled by his own brain. His enhanced technopathy extends to every piece of technology, limitless and effortlessly due to his ability to interface with communication satellites and wireless connections to increase his "range". Some components of the armor-sheath are now stored in Tony's body, able to be recalled, and extruded from his own skin, at will.
During the "Secret Invasion" storyline the Extremis package is catastrophically shut down by a virus, forcing him again to rely on the previous iteration of his armor, and restoring his previous limitations. Furthermore, Osborn's takeover of most of the few remaining Starktech factories, with Ezekiel Stane systematically crippling the others, limits Tony to the use of lesser, older and weaker armors.
After being forced to "wipe out" his brain to prevent Norman Osborn from gaining his information, Tony Stark is forced to have a new arc reactor, of Rand design installed in his chest. The process greatly improves his strength, stamina and intellect. The procedure left him with virtually no autonomic functions: as his brain was stripped of every biological function, Tony is forced to rely on a digital backup of his memories (leaving him with severe gaps and lapses in his long-term memory) and on software routine in the arc reactor for basic stimuli reaction, such as blinking and breathing. The Bleeding Edge package of armor and physical enhancement is now equal in power, if not a more advanced, version of the old Extremis tech.
Skills
Tony Stark is an inventive genius whose expertise in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science rivals that of Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner, and his expertise in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering surpasses even theirs. He is regarded as one of the most intelligent characters in the Marvel Universe. He graduated with advanced degrees in physics and engineering at the age of 17 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and further developed his knowledge ranging from artificial intelligence to quantum mechanics as time progressed. His expertise extends to his ingenuity in dealing with difficult situations, such as difficult foes and deathtraps, in which he is capable of using available tools, including his suit, in unorthodox but effective ways. For instance, in Stark's final confrontation with Obadiah Stane, the villain managed to have Stark's companions in an unconscious state in a room with motion sensors; when Stark entered the room, Stane warned him that the slightest move would trigger a fatal electrical current to his hostages, thus forcing Stark to stay still and slowly die of dehydration lest he wants his friends to die. However, while Stane was confident that such a trap was inescapable, Stark is able to outwit and defeat its mechanism in seconds, thus freeing the hostages and allowing him to continue the battle against Stane.
He is well respected in the business world, able to command people's attention when he speaks on economic matters, having over the years built up several multimillion-dollar companies from virtually nothing. He is noted for the loyalty he commands from and returns to those who work for him, as well as for his business ethics. Thus he immediately fired an employee who made profitable, but illegal, sales to Doctor Doom. He strives to be environmentally responsible in his businesses.
At a time when Stark was unable to use his armor for a period, he received some combat training from Captain America and has become physically formidable on his own when the situation demands it. In addition, Stark possesses great business and political acumen. On multiple occasions he reacquired control of his companies after losing them amid corporate takeovers.
Due to his membership in the Illuminati, Iron Man was given the Space Infinity Gem to safeguard. It allows the user to exist in any location (or all locations), move any object anywhere throughout the universe and warp or rearrange space.
Supporting characters
Other versions
1602
1602: New World features a 17th-century Spanish Iron Man named Lord Iron. Taken captive in the Holy Land during the English / Spanish war, he is forced to make weapons for them after being tortured by David Banner, the later Hulk of that world. He needs his massive armor to survive. The armor is powered by "lightning bottles" and provides him with super-strength and invulnerability as well as several electricity-powered
With his Moorish associate, Rhodes, Lord Iron is assigned by King James to put an end to the traitors and witchbreed in the New World. Instead, he realizes he has let bitterness consume him, and makes his peace with Banner. He is last seen using his armor to power the colony's printing press.
1872
The Secret Wars War Zone tie-in 1872 reimagines Tony in the Wild West. Tony was once a respected inventor who lives in the town of Timely. When the Union army used his repeating rifle to slaughter a large group of Confederates rather let them surrender, Tony spirals into alcoholism. After Sheriff Steve Rogers is murdered by Mayor Wilson Fisk and his cohorts, Tony builds a large suit of armor resembling the original Iron Man suit to aid Red Wolf in bringing him down. After Fisk is defeated, Tony dedicates his time to aiding the people of Timely with his new invention.
2020
Iron Man 2020 features Arno Stark as a mercenary in the employ of Sunset Bain. In 2012, Arno had traveled to the past in an effort to save his family from a madman's bomb. All he needs are the retinal patterns of the bomb maker, but he runs into the original Blizzard who mistakes him for the "real" Iron Man/Tony Stark. Not having time to deal with this threat, Arno kills Blizzard. While attempting to scan the retinal patterns of the young terrorist, Spider-Man snatches the scanner with his webbing and asks IM 2020 what he is doing. The two battle one another (Arno is "against the clock") when suddenly Arno is pulled back to his time to discover the bomb had a design flaw and exploded prematurely. His wife, son, employees, and factory have all been destroyed.
2093
Tony Stark and Doctor Doom are brought to the year 2093 by Merlin to stop a plot by a primarily robotic Doom and the Iron Man of 2093, Andros Stark. Andros is a psychotic madman and uses his grandfather Arno's armor. Tony defeats Andros while wielding the legendary sword Excalibur.
Andros Stark/Iron Man 2099 voiced by Alessandro Juliani would later be adopted into the second season of Iron Man: Armored Adventures with him being from the year 2099 and traveling back when Tony was a teenager before inventing a AI named "Vortex". Vortex dooms the entire human race with Andros donning a futuristic suit (classed "Hyperspace Mark XL") and the Extremis to kill Tony/Iron Man but goes to S.H.I.E.L.D. for assistance. Andros destroys Iron Man with his ultra-beam, afterward, Hawkeye managed to implant the virus on Andros's armor, and realized that all this is because Tony was trying to save himself by using the virus to stop Andros using his nano-virus which is actually the original seed for the Vortex virus. He travels back in time for a short moment to warn Iron Man that his nano-virus chips were actually the Vortex virus. He quickly destroys the last nano-virus arrow, saving Andros. As a result of this change in the timeline, the future was saved and because of this, Andros is erased from existence after saying his last words to his grandfather.
2099
In the Marvel 2099 line, the new Iron Man of that era is a man named Sonny Frisco. Despite piloting a normal-sized suit of Iron Man armor, Frisco actually suffers from dwarfism. He is a member of the Alchemax corporation's team of Avengers, and secretly uses the help of Vision, a woman with precognitive abilities.
3030
The Iron Man of 3030 is Tony Stark's biracial granddaughter, Rhodey Stark (named after Stark's close friend James Rhodes). She travels to the present in order to help the Avengers save Earth from a rogue planet that had been fired from the future, and departs after warning her grandfather that his life is in danger.
Adam Warlock
In Adam Warlock #2 (1972), Peter Parker's counterpart on Counter-Earth mentions that "the heart of Tony Stark beats unscathed".
Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse, Tony Stark is an agent of the Human High Council. The injury that compromised his heart is caused by the attack of a mutant.
Age of X
Officially code named Iron Man, he prefers the name Steel Corpse. Iron Man was infected by a disease, thought to be of mutant origin, that bonded him permanently to his armor. Not only can he never remove the armor, the disease is causing the armor to slowly consume his flesh, meaning that one day Tony Stark will cease to exist and only the armor will be left. He works with this reality's version of the Avengers to exterminate all mutants, but eventually rebels against his purpose when a 'Trojan horse' in the armor nearly drives him to kill innocent mutant children, forcing his teammates to kill him.
Avataars
In the sword and sorcery world of the Avataars: Covenant of the Shield miniseries, Iron Man's counterpart is Ironheart, one of the Champions of the Realm. A powerful warrior, he wears a huge suit of grey armor.
Bullet Points
In Bullet Points, Iron Man is Steve Rogers, who, due to the assassination of Dr. Abraham Erskine occurring earlier than in the mainstream Marvel universe, never receives the Super-Soldier formula. Instead, he agrees to be bonded to the prototype 'Iron Man' armor despite the intense physical pain and discomfort this will cause. Rogers is later killed fighting an alternative version of the Hulk. Tony Stark, in this reality a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., expresses a desire to continue in Rogers' footsteps as Iron Man, but is rejected owing to a heart condition. He later disobeys this command and adopts the mantle upon the arrival of Galactus.
Contest of Champions
The 2015 Contest of Champions series has a version of Tony Stark that won Civil War with nearly everything working out in his favor. Five years later, Tony has donned the Iron Patriot armor and is the President of the United States. He and his Mighty Avengers team are kidnapped by Maestro and placed onto Battleworld, where Maestro alters their memories to believe the remaining heroes are unregistered and need to be taken in. Their fight is interrupted by that universe's Thunderbolts (led by Steve Rogers). In the next issue, the Mighty Avengers battle the Thunderbolts and Renegade Champions, during which Tony kills Steve and reveals that the reason the Civil War went completely in his favor was because he used the Reality Gem from the Infinity Gauntlet. When he tries to use it again on Battleworld, it doesn't work because he's in a different dimension, and he's killed by Maestro.
Earth X
In the alternative reality of Earth X, Tony Stark builds a headquarters that protects himself from a plague that grants all humans superpowers. Afterwards, he builds the Iron Avengers. His headquarters is revealed to be a giant armor, based on the old Godzilla fighting mecha, the Red Ronin, which he uses to delay the Celestial attack until the coming of Galactus, sacrificing his life in the process. In Paradise X, he becomes part of the angelic Avenging Host of Marvel's "Paradise", with an Iron Man motif.
Earth-691
In the continuity of Earth-691, Tony Stark is devastated by the horrors of the Martian invasion and jettisons his technology into space. It is found by a primitive alien race who use it to become an interstellar menace calling themselves the Stark, who subsequently clash with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 31st century. "Standard" continuity Iron Man (Earth-616) encountered his "creations" when a cadre of rational, scientific members of the Stark called the Programmers bring Tony Stark to the future to help them solve various planet-wide problems.
Earth-2122
In the continuity of Earth-2122, the home of Crusader X, where the British won the American Revolution and still control North America, Anthony Stark is a member of a group called the Sons of Liberty. In this reality, Stark is willing to kill innocent people.
Earth-3490
In the continuity of Earth-3490, Tony Stark was born a woman (Natasha Stark) rather than a man; Stark's superhero alter-ego in this universe is Iron Woman. The Civil War between superheroes in Earth-3490 was averted due to the fact that Stark and Steve Rogers (Captain America) are romantically involved, and have since married.
Exiles
In Exiles, a villainous alternative Iron Man of Earth-2020 is a member of Weapon X, the more ruthless team of reality fixers. After ending up at the 'Crystal Palace' (the Exiles' headquarters) and fighting them there, he is eventually exposed and sent back to his own timeline where he is arrested by the Army for starting a world war.
In one alternative reality Tony Stark has become the absolute ruler of the entire planet Earth, and kills many of that Earth's heroes and mutants. Weapon X arrives on this reality to help him conquer Attilan, though their true purpose is to cause his downfall. Tony is eventually killed by Susan Storm.
In one alternative reality he is partners with both Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Octopus before he created the Iron Man suit.
On an alternative world devastated by the Hulk's Annihilation Wave, Iron Man was one of those killed in the attack. When the Exiles arrange for the dead heroes to be replaced by alternatives, Iron Man's replacement is a version of Spitfire, on the grounds that they have never got along with any alternative Tony Starks.
The Sons of Iron are a group of armor-wearing warriors from an Earth shared by humans and reptilian humanoids. Because they are completely concealed by the Iron Man armor, no-one can tell which they are.
Fantastic Four: The End
In the miniseries Fantastic Four: The End, which is set in a future where Reed Richards' technology has launched humanity into a golden age, Tony Stark has died long ago - but his consciousness survives, 'hopping' from artificial body to artificial body. Most of the bodies shown in the miniseries resemble Iron Man armors, often being identical to existing armors. One notable exception was the bulky, stocky space-armor which played an important role in the battle of humanity's heroes versus several alien armadas.
House of M
Born to Howard and Maria Stark, the heads of the powerful business conglomerate Stark Industries, Tony Stark grew to be an imaginative and brilliant inventor. He worked with his father from an early age, and surpassed his father's technical brilliance by the age of 16. Stark became the key supplier of hi-tech weaponry used to fight mutants, and was on the verge of a technological breakthrough when the Mutant-Human war came to an end. The suits are powered down to become part of a game called Robo Death Match, a television sport with giant robots fighting each other. Stark Industries scored its biggest victory when it secured the Sentinel production contracts, pushing major competitor, Jason Wyngarde, out of business. Erik Magnus and Sebastian Shaw awarded Tony the contract under the condition that he would hire Beast and Forge as observers. McCoy became a key contributor along with Doctor Pym on The Vision project. Tony secretly worked on a special project beneath Stark Industries: a brand new suit of hi-tech armor he planned to use as his new Robo Death Match suit.
Iron Man: The End
In the one-shot Iron Man: The End, an aging Tony Stark works on his greatest creation, a space elevator called "Big Jump." Stark faces retirement due to age and the physical toll of an illness, no longer allowing him to run his business "Stark Universal" and continue to be Iron Man. This leads to the need to groom a replacement.
Iron Maniac
Iron Maniac is an evil alternative universe version of Iron Man from Earth-5012. He first appeared in Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 #2, wearing armor that resembles that of Doctor Doom's. He comes from an alternative reality where most of the Avengers were killed when they encountered the vicious alien Titannus in space. While the team is rescued by the reserve Avengers five years later, it takes another five years to fight back the Trellions, the alien race that has brainwashed Titannus. During that time, a power-hungry Reed Richards turns his back on the surviving heroes. Scarred for life due to an attack from the Human Torch, Iron Man sets his own operation base in Latveria to "take over the world to save it from Richards." Richards somehow manages to banish him into Earth-616 Other differences between his world and Earth-616 include that there is no Spider-Man, and that Hank Pym is another version of the Hulk.
After being transported to Earth-616, Iron Maniac fights the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange, all of whom mistake him for their Doctor Doom. After unmasking himself, they learn his true identity, shortly before he manages to temporarily negate the FF's powers and escape, concluding that he has no reason to trust that they will not turn on him like the FF of his world did. Capturing a recently discovered mutant, the alternative Iron Man attempts to return to his home dimension by using the mutant as a power source, but is attacked by Spider-Man and X-23 as they investigate the situation. After the appearance of Captain America and Black Widow, he realizes that he is in an alternative world, but continues to fight the heroes, calling them all 'Richards' lackeys', proclaiming that he can't trust that they won't turn into 'villains' just as his own former allies did. He is defeated thanks to Spider-Man and X-23's use of their own version of the fastball special to destroy his equipment, shortly after 'warning' the other heroes of the Titannus War (by saying that he would not kill them now because it would be a kindness).
While the alternative Tony Stark is kept locked up and drugged in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, he is briefly visited by his counterpart in this universe, although he is unaware of the visit. Shortly after the alternative Stark is transferred to a conventional cell, Titannus soon arrives and fights the heroes, this time confronting a new group of Defenders assembled by Doctor Strange. When Titannus' comatose lover is revived, she tells him that she never loved him and that he was insane, causing Titannus to kill himself. The alternative Iron Man later discovers from Spider-Man and Wolverine that the Avengers were never massacred in space in this reality because the group had been disassembled; as a result, other heroes only encountered Titannus after he had attacked Tokyo in a rage, leaving the heroes who did encounter him less inclined to believe his story and averting the so-called 'Titannus War'.
Stark subsequently broke free from captivity, having immunized himself to the gas that was used to keep him sedated on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. In the process, he gained the unwilling alliance of the LMD Diamondback. Having convinced her that he is the "real" Tony, the AU Tony Stark erased her memories, reshaping the former LMD into an advanced suit of armor. This armor, even more advanced than the pre-Extremis suit Iron Man wore at that time, was able to replicate any weapon from the wearer's memory. He subsequently battled Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Luke Cage, but was only defeated after the sacrifice of rookie hero Freedom Ring, who kept Iron Maniac occupied long enough for Captain America to knock him out with a shield thrown at the back of his neck.
The name Iron Maniac is what he calls himself, due to being the "sole survivor of a sane world living in a backwards, insane world".
Iron Maniac is known to be at least partially cyberized, with armor plating implanted in his chest (revealed during his escape from the Helicarrier, when he is shot). It is unknown whether the rest of his body is similarly armored or if he possesses other cybernetic enhancements.
He has been briefly mentioned as being held in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier recently in The Irredeemable Ant-Man.
Iron Man Noir
In Iron Man Noir, Tony Stark is an industrialist in the 1930s. He is also an adventurer, whose exploits are recorded in Marvels: A Magazine Of Men's Adventure. He is initially accompanied by his associate James Rhodes, his personal assistant Giulietta Nefaria and his biographer Vergil Munsey. When Nefaria is revealed as working with the Nazis (specifically Baron Zemo and Baron von Strucker) and Vergil is killed, their role in the story is taken by Stark's new biographer Pepper Potts. His heart having been damaged on an earlier adventure, Stark keeps it going with repulsor technology installed and recharged by Stark Industries engineer Edwin Jarvis.
While investigating a mysterious power source in the ruins of Atlantis, Pepper Potts gets kidnapped by the Nazis and taken to their stronghold in Norway. To rescue her, Stark and Rhodes don suits of bulky power armour built by Jarvis, but are shocked to discover that 'Baron Zemo' is actually Tony's missing father Howard Stark, brainwashed by a unique chemical compound to serve the Nazis. Despite his depleted power supply, Tony manages to destroy the various suits of armor that Zemo had built for the Nazis, concluding that his father had died long ago, before returning to the USA.
Inter-company crossovers
In Marvel and DC's Amalgam Comics, Stark is merged with the Green Lantern Hal Jordan into the Iron Lantern. "Hal Stark" wears a suit resembling a green Iron Man armor, powered by a Green Lantern battery.
In the miniseries JLA/Avengers, Iron Man aids the Avengers in the battle against Starro the Conqueror. Afterwards, he creates a dimensional alarm in order to tell when invaders from another dimension come into their universe. After a brief scuffle with the JLA in the Savage Land, the Avengers are confronted by Metron, who gives Tony a Mother Box. Using this, Tony is able to get the Avengers to Metropolis, where the Avengers confront the JLA again. The Avengers escape, but Tony and Hawkeye manage to take Green Lantern's Power Battery before they leave, with Tony able to stop the Flash in his tracks. The two later take down Captain Atom and Green Arrow in order to collect the Casket of Ancient Winters. Tony then leaves and arrives to save Photon and Quasar from Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, allowing them to take the Spear of Destiny. After the battle in the Savage Land, Tony is one of the Avengers and is clueless as to the dimensional shifts that are happening around him. After Cap and Superman attack each other, Tony ends up in Metropolis. When the two worlds are briefly corrected by the Grandmaster, Tony is shown his true future with his alcoholism and his defeat by Obadiah Stane. Accepting this, he aids the JLA and the Avengers in the final battle and helped build the ship that took them to Krona's base. During the battle, he teams up with Kyle Rayner to create a weapon to use against their enemies and the two are shown to be impressed by one another, Kyle expressing his awe at Tony's engineering prowess and Tony asking Kyle where he could get a Green Lantern ring.
Mangaverse
In the Marvel Mangaverse reality, Tony Stark creates the original armor together with Dr. Ho Yinsen and acts as Iron Man for a time, but eventually vanishes after a battle with Namor, the Submariner. He is succeeded by Antoinette (Toni) Stark, his twin sister, a former agent of SHIELD, who turns Iron Man into a massive operation - a veritable army of Iron Men in many forms, with herself as Iron Woman. After she dies in battle against the Hulk, Tony Stark reveals himself again; he has gone underground after spinal cancer reduced him to a disembodied head hooked up to a life support system. However, he has designed a new armor, and a body that he can integrate with.
He also had designed four massive vehicles for the Avengers of his world to use, which could combine (in a manner resembling old fashioned combining super robots like Combattler V and Voltes V) into a skyscraper-sized Iron Man-mecha (Dubbed Ultimate Iron Man in its first appearance, then the Iron Avenger in its battle with the Hulk and finally simply called "the Avenger's mecha" in Volume 2 of the series). Unfortunately it was quickly destroyed by that world's Hulk. Apparently, however, it was rebuilt again by the time of the second volume, this time as a single robotic unit without transformation (or, if it was capable of transformation, it was never demonstrated). This unit helped fight off the giant Galactus spores, but was later destroyed, along with most of the Avengers, single-handedly by the Mangaverse version of Dr. Doom.
Marvel Adventures
The Marvel Adventures Iron Man is very similar to the Earth-616 Iron Man, but with some changes. Instead of suffering damage to his heart due to a booby trap in Vietnam, Tony Stark's heart was damaged when an experimental plane he was flying was brought down by AIM. AIM wanted Stark to build weapons and devices for them. Dr. Gia-Bao Yinsen aided Tony in escaping AIM, but Yinsen died saving his country from AIM. Iron Man does not seem to have problems with alcoholism, since the Marvel Adventures is aimed at a younger demographic. Iron Man's armor resembles his Extremis armor although Iron Man has other armors that fit over his regular armor, as in the case of his underwater armor.
Marvel Apes
The version of Iron Man appearing in the Marvel Apes mini-series is a mandrill, appropriately being named the Iron Mandrill. He is a member of the Apevengers. At one point, he is attacked by the zombified Wasp of the Marvel Zombies universe and infected, though he is later apparently cured when these events are undone via time travel.
Marvel Zombies
The first series
In the Marvel Zombies universe, Tony Stark has been infected by the zombie virus. Alongside a horde of starving undead superhuman zombies, Iron Man attacks the Silver Surfer. The attack is successful, but one of the Surfer's energy bolts hits Iron Man's lower torso, cutting him in half. The zombie "survives" this wound and later gains cosmic powers (including flight) by eating part of the Surfer's corpse. When Galactus arrives, Iron Man and the five other surviving zombies devour him. They are able to absorb Galactus' power, and call themselves "The Galacti".
Marvel Zombies 2
He also appears in Marvel Zombies 2, one of the small group of super-powered zombies that have eaten their way across all known space. Here Stark has had his entire lost lower body replaced with cybernetics. He also appears to have forgotten he had some design in the machine which opened a link to the Ultimate Universe. He was shocked to see Forge, one of the surviving X-Men, wearing his Mark I armored suit. The zombified Hulk kills Iron Man when he stomps through the armor, forcing Tony Stark's flesh and blood through any openings left in the armor. However Iron Man had recently revived next issue, but only as a cameo, on Marvel Zombies 3.
Marvel Zombies Return
In the final issue of Marvel Zombies 2, the remaining zombies are transported to another universe. At the point where the zombies reach this new reality, the period is nearly identical to the one where Tony Stark was an alcoholic. Zombie Giant Man infects Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and a number of other people at Stark Industries. A drunken Tony Stark lacks the will power to become Iron Man despite Pepper Potts' requests, so James Rhodes dons the suit to save him. Crucial to fate of the multiverse are the nanites that Stark has accidentally created, which destroy damaged flesh and tissue as a cure for cancer, and prove to be a potent weapon against the zombies. This was grafted onto Flint Marko's body. He sacrifices himself to kill several zombies in Stark Tower, with Rhodes permanently succeeding him in the role of Iron Man. His nanites are then used by his successor, now a member of the New Avengers, years later to kill the remaining super-powered zombies and end the inter-dimensional zombie threat.
MC2
In the alternative future of MC2, Tony Stark retires after the loss of many heroes in battle, but eventually creates the armored computer program Mainframe, which joins the next generation of Avengers.
Mini Marvels
Iron Man is a recurring character in "Mini Marvels". He appears in story arcs like "The Armored Avengers" & "World War Hulk". He is portrayed as conceited and thinks himself the best of the team. He has a friendly rivalry with Hawkeye.
Newuniversal
In the alternative world of newuniversal, Tony Stark is one of three humans altered by the Fireworks on April 26, 1953, gaining abilities associated with the Cipher glyph. Prior to the Fireworks, Stark is unexceptional, but he then becomes a technological genius. His discoveries revitalise his father's company, Stark Industries, and are "five years ahead of everything everyone else is working on". There are suggestions that he is capable of more, but is not making all of his discoveries public.
Stark's transformation is noticed by the National Security Agency's Project Spitfire, which is discreetly monitoring the superhumans created by the Fireworks. In March 1959, Stark's plane crashes in North Vietnam and he is imprisoned. He escapes by constructing an Iron Man suit from "spare parts" and flying out of the country.
On April 4, 1959, when he returns to the US, the NSA takes Stark to a San Diego naval base, ostensibly to debrief him. Stark is then shot dead by Philip L. Voight, a Project Spitfire agent, to prevent him from making contact with the other superhumans.
The Iron Man suit is seized by Project Spitfire and reverse engineered by Doctor Joe Swann, eventually becoming the basis of the project's H.E.X suit, an exoskeleton designed for combat with superhumans.
Ruins
In the two issue Warren Ellis series Ruins, Tony Stark is a rich industrialist who supplied weapons for the US military in an attempt to win the Vietnam War. This version of Iron Man was injured while mediating between US forces and pro-secessionist Californians by a piece of shrapnel thrown by the National Guard. This embittered Stark who formed a revolutionary cell named the Avengers. This version of Iron Man was betrayed by Scarlet Witch who provided the United States military information to crush the Avengers. Tony Stark is presumably killed.
Spider-Verse
In the Amazing Spider-Man comic's event Spider-Verse, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Scarlet Spider (Kaine) and Spider-man (Ben Reily) meet and fight a clone of Tony Stark (Earth-802) as Iron Man serving one of the Inheritors, Jennix.
Spider-Island
In a Secret Wars Warzone version of Spider-Island, he is mutated into one of the Spider Queen's spider minions and battles Agent Venom and the now monstrous Avengers. Venom sprays Tony with Norman Osborn's Green Goblin formula, freeing Tony from the Queen, but slowly making him insane. He modifies Norman's armor and becomes the Iron Goblin to aid the resistance. When they are surrounded by a number of spider creatures (including Giant Man) with few means of escape, Tony sacrifices himself using the Black Knight's Ebony Blade so he can aid them and die before the Goblin formula completely takes him over.
Spider-Gwen
In Spider-Gwen Tony Stark of Earth-65 is an arms dealer, the owner of global private military company WAR MACHINE, and owner of the coffee chain StarkBucks.
Spider-Man: Life Story
In Spider-Man: Life Story, Tony Stark/Iron Man does not face a traumatizing experience that leads to stop weapons manufacturing as his Earth-616 counterpart did instead he continues to produce them and play a key role in the Vietnam War and a World War III-esque conflict known as "The Russian War" as well as participating in Secret Wars while on Battleworld. Iron Man also became Secretary of Defense in the United States government and was one of the two leaders alongside Captain America in the Superhuman Civil War.
Squadron Supreme
In the Squadron Supreme series, the equivalent of Iron Man is Tucker Ford. Tucker was a very intelligent boy since his early years, however since being raised by his strong-willed mother along with never going to school with anyone his own age made Tucker to have difficulty to make any kind of meaningful personal relationship and because of this, he became very introverted.
As he grew up, he had built an imaginative world where he was a superhero. When trying to explain his imaginations to his therapist, they turned around and mocked him before their colleagues, however being unaware that Tucker had them under electronic surveillance. This experience motivated him to follow his dream and become a real superhero.
As a young adult, he built a powerful, but unstable armour made from nanotechnology in order to achieve his dream, eventually meeting the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury and offered his intelligence and company to Nick Fury to help defend America.
He fails to gain the affection of Nick Fury and to get a kiss from the spider-powered superhuman, Nell Ruggles, also known as Arachnophilia.
He offers to build a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier as a base for the organization and to be a member of the team in order to live out of his imagination. The only person that Tucker had the closest relationship with is Nell, expressing romantic feelings towards her.
Ultimate Marvel
What If
Newer Fantastic Four
In the timeline of What if: Newer Fantastic Four, the Fantastic Four were killed by De'Lila (a rogue Skrull) and the Hulk, so Spider-Man, the Ghost Rider and Wolverine joined together to avenge them as the New Fantastic Four. Thanos of Titan, as in the mainline universe, came into possession of the six Infinity Gems and became ruler of all reality, before erasing half of all living beings from existence. Among those who vanished was Ghost Rider, and, being present at the battle during which he was erased, Iron Man takes his place. The Newer Fantastic Four soon realize they are outmatched. Stark, with help from the Hulk, manages to salvage the empty armor of Ziran, a Celestial, and realizes it can be controlled by thoughts. Stark takes control of the armor and connects it to the Negative Zone, allowing him to call on all the power of that reality. Despite this, he is defeated by Thanos. Stark's sacrifice allows Wolverine to trick Thanos into a position where the Gauntlet could be removed. Spider-Man subsequently uses the Gauntlet to undo the damage Thanos had caused.
Iron Man: Demon in an Armor
In What If: Iron Man: Demon in an Armor, Tony Stark is Doom's college roommate rather than Reed Richards, inspiring Doom to develop a machine that allows him to transfer his mind into Stark's body while leaving Stark trapped in Doom's body with no memory of his past. While Doom uses Stark's connections and company to establish himself, the amnesic Stark- believing himself to be Doom- works to rebuild his life, creating his own company and forming his own reputation from the ground up. This culminates in a confrontation between the two wearing early versions of their respective armours- Doom having developed a green-and-silver Iron Man armour while Stark has created Doom's costume with gold and a red cloak-, during which Doom reveals the truth about their switch, only for Stark to reject the offer to switch back because Doom has destroyed the name of Tony Stark while Doctor von Doom has developed an honorable reputation.
Realm of Kings
In this one-shot, Quasar, the newly resurrected Protector of the Universe travels into the Fault, the immense tear which has appeared in the fabric of spacetime itself after the catastrophic battle between Vulcan and Black Bolt. Reaching what he perceives to be the other end of the tunnel that is the Fault, he arrives in another universe... a dark, twisted universe, the `corpse of a universe´, possessed by Lovecraftian horrors which are worshipped by all the denizens of that universe, including Earth's mightiest heroes. Iron Man is never seen outside his armor, but he, like the others, serves the "Many-angled ones" with total devotion.
X-Men Forever
In this alternative universe of X-Men Forever, Tony Stark, while still publicly the super-hero Iron Man, is also the head of the shadowy organization known as The Consortium. The scientific wing of the organization is headed by the Trask family, who turn out to be his relatives. They create newer versions of the Sentinels and kidnap mutants to use in experimentation to find the cause of the so-called "Burnout" syndrome that causes mutants to die early. However, as part of his efforts to undermine the Consortium's anti-mutant agenda, he becomes Nick Fury's insider and eventually sacrifices his life along with Beast. He assists Storm- who has been split into an amnesic child version of herself and an energy form with full memory and no body- by providing her energy self with a suit based on the now-deceased Black Panther so that her energy can maintain corporeal form, although he is subsequently killed by a twisted clone of Storm before he can reveal her existence to anyone else.
Mutant X
In Mutant X, Tony Stark is Iron Giant Man and part of the anti-mutant group the Avengers. He was later killed by X-Man Captain America along with the other Avengers.
Infinity Warps
During the Infinity Wars storyline, where the universe was combined in half, Iron Man was fused with Thor creating Iron Hammer. Sigurd Stark was the fifth richest person on the world thanks to his genius about technology, however due to his lack of memories before five years, taunted him driving to drink. After going through the Norvegian, he was attacked by some Dark Elves, lead by Krimson Kurse (fusion Crimson Dynamo and Kurse). He got poisoned by an arrow, slowing killing him and taken by the Elves to aid their other prisoner Eitri (fusion of Eitri and Ho Yinsen) in order to build powerful weapons for the Elves. Then, Sigurd became friend with Eitri and together build an armor, that prevented the poison from killing Sigurd, along with a hammer in order to escape the Dark Elves. However, during their escape Eitri is killed and after Sigurd defeated the Elves and Krimson Kurse, he discovered that Krimson was his lost friend who had turned into a Thrall to be a servant to Dark Elves and after that he mercy killed his friend. Sigurd then decided to the All-Father on Asgard to seek help into defeating Malekith (fusion of Malekith and Mandarin) and with the help of his AI assistant H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L. (fusion of Heimdall and J.A.R.V.I.S.) opened the B.I.F.R.O.S.T. and went to Asgard. When travelling, he remembered his old memories: his true name was Stark Odinson, who due to his arrogance, his father Howard Odin (fusion of Howard Stark and Odin) banished his son to Earth where he would learn to how is like to be a mortal. Upon arriving, Malekith had trapped the Aesir and had allied with Madame Hel (fusion of Madame Masque and Hela and Stane Odinson (fusion of Loki and Obadiah Stane). Luckily, Iron Hammer was able to defeat Malekith and Odin allowed his son to become a god again, however Sigurd refused, feeling better as a human.
In other media
In 1966, Iron Man was featured in a series of cartoons. In 1981, Iron Man guest appeared in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, but only as Tony Stark. He went on to feature again in his own series in the 1990s as part of the Marvel Action Hour with the Fantastic Four; Robert Hays provided his voice in these animated cartoons. Iron Man makes an appearance in the episode "Shell Games" of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.
Apart from comic books, Iron Man appears in Capcom's "Vs." video games, including Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Iron Man is a playable character in Iron Man, the 1992 arcade game Captain America and the Avengers, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and its sequel, and Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, as well as being featured as an unlockable character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and Tony Hawk's Underground. In the 2009 animated series, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, most of the characters, including Tony Stark, are teenagers. An anime adaptation aired in Japan in late 2010 as part of a collaboration between Marvel Animation and Madhouse, in which Stark, voiced by Keiji Fujiwara, travels to Japan where he ends up facing off against the Zodiac.
In 2008, a film adaptation titled Iron Man was released, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and directed by Jon Favreau. Iron Man received very positive reviews from film critics, grossing $318 million domestically and $585 million worldwide, and became the first in a series of over 20 films known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character of Tony Stark, again played by Robert Downey Jr., appeared at the end of the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk. Downey reprised his role in Iron Man 2 (2010), Marvel's The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
In 2009, Playtech released an online casino slot machine game called Iron Man. After that they created two more games, Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3.
In October 2016, Eoin Colfer released a young adult novel called Iron Man: The Gauntlet.
Cultural influence and legacy
The rapper Ghostface Killah, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, titled his 1996 debut solo album Ironman, and has since continued to use lyrics related to the Iron Man comics and samples from the animated TV shows on his records. He has adopted the nickname Tony Starks as one of his numerous alter-egos, and was featured in a scene deleted from the Iron Man film.
Paul McCartney's song "Magneto and Titanium Man" was inspired by the X-Men's nemesis and the original version of the Iron Man villain. Another Iron Man villain, the Crimson Dynamo, is mentioned in the lyrics to this song.
The British band Razorlight mentions Tony Stark in a verse of their song, "Hang By, Hang By".
The character of Nathan Stark on the television show Eureka is inspired by Tony Stark.
In 2011, IGN ranked Iron Man 12th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.
Two Iron Man-themed trucks compete in the Monster Jam monster truck racing series. Debuted in Atlanta on 9 January 2010, they are driven by Lee O' Donnell and Morgan Kane.
In 2015, University of Central Florida engineering student Albert Manero, who builds and donates affordable 3D-printed bionic limbs to those in need, constructed a bionic arm based on Iron Man's suit for 7-year-old Alex Pring, a superhero fan who was born with a partially formed right arm. He then delivered the Iron Man arm to Pring with the help of Robert Downey Jr. in character as Tony Stark.
For Major League Baseball Players Weekend in August 2018, New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres designed his custom cleats after Iron Man's suit.
A TV show demonstrated a hovering bullet-mitigating suit with some of the official Marvel design features in 2019.
See also
List of Iron Man enemies
Jetpack man
References
Further reading
Will Cooley and Mark C. Rogers, "Ike's Nightmare: Iron Man and the Military-Industrial Complex," in Ages of Iron Man, Joseph Dorowski, ed., 2015.
Tom DeFalco, Avengers: The Ultimate Guide, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Mark D. White (ed.), Iron Man and Philosophy: Facing the Stark Reality, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
External links
"Stark Reality: A Different Hero for Different Times" by Ian Chant - PopMatters.com
Advanced Iron (fanzine)
Iron Man Library
Tony Stark at Spider-Man Wiki
Avengers (comics) characters
Characters created by Don Heck
Characters created by Jack Kirby
Characters created by Larry Lieber
Characters created by Stan Lee
Cold War in popular culture
Comics characters introduced in 1963
Fictional adoptees
Fictional alcohol abusers
Fictional aerospace engineers
Fictional business executives
Fictional characters from New York City
Fictional cyborgs
Fictional electronic engineers
Fictional inventors
Fictional nuclear engineers
Fictional roboticists
Fictional socialites
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Iron Man characters
Marvel Comics adapted into films
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Marvel Comics American superheroes
Marvel Comics film characters
Marvel Comics male superheroes
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents
Superheroes who are adopted
Telepresence in fiction
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Fictional mechanics
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"Iron Man",
"First series",
"When did the first series start?",
"After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner",
"What was the comic about?",
"metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists.",
"Was the comic well received?",
"I don't know.",
"How did they proceed after releasing the comic?",
"Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978).",
"How many comics did they create?",
"I don't know.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"The series had a crossover with the other Avengers related titles as part of the \"Operation: Galactic Storm\" storyline.",
"What kind of crossover?",
"Operation: Galactic Storm\""
] |
C_3f9a97ff3ea5470889d01b9c166015cc_0
|
Did they turn it in to a movie?
| 8 |
Did Iron Man turn "Operation: Galactic Storm" in to a movie?
|
Iron Man
|
After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series' indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man. Artist George Tuska began a decade long association with the character with Iron Man #5 (Sept. 1968). Writer Mike Friedrich and artist Jim Starlin's brief collaboration on the Iron Man series introduced Mentor, Starfox, and Thanos in issue #55 (Feb. 1973). Friedrich scripted a metafictional story in which Iron Man visited the San Diego Comic Convention and met several Marvel Comics writers and artists. He then wrote the multi-issue "War of the Super-Villains" storyline which ran through 1975. Writer David Michelinie, co-plotter/inker Bob Layton, and penciler John Romita Jr. became the creative team on the series with Iron Man #116 (Nov. 1978). Micheline and Layton established Tony Stark's alcoholism with the story "Demon in a Bottle", and introduced several supporting characters, including Stark's bodyguard girlfriend Bethany Cabe; Stark's personal pilot and confidant James Rhodes, who later became the superhero War Machine; and rival industrialist Justin Hammer, who was revealed to be the employer of numerous high-tech armed enemies Iron Man fought over the years. The duo also introduced the concept of Stark's specialized armors as he acquired a dangerous vendetta with Doctor Doom. The team worked together through #154 (Jan. 1982), with Michelinie writing three issues without Layton. Following Michelinie and Layton's departures, Dennis O'Neil became the new writer of the series and had Stark relapse into alcoholism. Much of O'Neil's work on this plot thread was based on experiences with alcoholics he knew personally. Jim Rhodes replaced Stark as Iron Man in issue #169 (April 1983) and wore the armor for the next two years of stories. O'Neil returned Tony Stark to the Iron Man role in issue #200 (Nov. 1985). Michelinie and Layton became the creative team once again in issue #215 (Feb. 1987). They crafted the "Armor Wars" storyline beginning in #225 (Dec. 1987) through #231 (June 1988). John Byrne and John Romita Jr. produced a sequel titled "Armor Wars II" in issues #258 (July 1990) to #266 (March 1991). The series had a crossover with the other Avengers related titles as part of the "Operation: Galactic Storm" storyline. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The character made his first appearance in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963), and received his own title in Iron Man #1 (May 1968). Also in 1963, the character founded the Avengers alongside Thor, Ant-Man, Wasp and the Hulk.
A wealthy American business magnate, playboy, philanthropist, inventor and ingenious scientist, Anthony Edward Stark suffers a severe chest injury during a kidnapping. When his captors attempt to force him to build a weapon of mass destruction, he instead creates a mechanized suit of armor to save his life and escape captivity. Later, Stark develops his suit, adding weapons and other technological devices he designed through his company, Stark Industries. He uses the suit and successive versions to protect the world as Iron Man. Although at first concealing his true identity, Stark eventually publicly reveals himself to be Iron Man.
Initially, Iron Man was a vehicle for Stan Lee to explore Cold War themes, particularly the role of American technology and industry in the fight against communism. Subsequent re-imaginings of Iron Man have transitioned from Cold War motifs to contemporary matters of the time.
Throughout most of the character's publication history, Iron Man has been a founding member of the superhero team the Avengers and has been featured in several incarnations of his own various comic book series. Iron Man has been adapted for several animated TV shows and films. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character was portrayed by Robert Downey Jr., appearing in the films Iron Man (2008), The Incredible Hulk (2008) in a cameo, Iron Man 2 (2010), The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019). The character also appeared in Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
Iron Man was ranked 12th on IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes" in 2011 and third in their list of "The Top 50 Avengers" in 2012.
Publication history
Premiere
Iron Man's Marvel Comics premiere in Tales of Suspense #39 (cover dated March 1963) was a collaboration among editor and story-plotter Stan Lee, scripter Larry Lieber, story-artist Don Heck, and cover-artist and character-designer Jack Kirby. In 1963, Lee had been toying with the idea of a businessman superhero. He wanted to create the "quintessential capitalist", a character that would go against the spirit of the times and Marvel's readership. Lee said:
He set out to make the new character a wealthy, glamorous ladies' man, but one with a secret that would plague and torment him as well. Writer Gerry Conway said, "Here you have this character, who on the outside is invulnerable, I mean, just can't be touched, but inside is a wounded figure. Stan made it very much an in-your-face wound, you know, his heart was broken, you know, literally broken. But there's a metaphor going on there. And that's, I think, what made that character interesting." Lee based this playboy's looks and personality on Howard Hughes, explaining, "Howard Hughes was one of the most colorful men of our time. He was an inventor, an adventurer, a multi-billionaire, a ladies' man and finally a nutcase." "Without being crazy, he was Howard Hughes," Lee said.
While Lee intended to write the story himself, a minor deadline emergency eventually forced him to hand over the premiere issue to Lieber, who fleshed out the story. The art was split between Kirby and Heck. "He designed the costume," Heck said of Kirby, "because he was doing the cover. The covers were always done first. But I created the look of the characters, like Tony Stark and his secretary Pepper Potts." In a 1990 interview, when asked if he had "a specific model for Tony Stark and the other characters?", Heck replied "No, I would be thinking more along the lines of some characters I like, which would be the same kind of characters that Alex Toth liked, which was an Errol Flynn type." Iron Man first appeared in 13- to 18-page stories in Tales of Suspense, which featured anthology science fiction and supernatural stories. The character's original costume was a bulky gray armored suit, replaced by a golden version in the second story (issue #40 April 1963). It was redesigned as sleeker, red-and-golden armor in issue #48 (December 1963) by that issue's interior artist, Steve Ditko, although Kirby drew it on the cover. As Heck recalled in 1985, "[T]he second costume, the red and yellow one, was designed by Steve Ditko. I found it easier than drawing that bulky old thing. The earlier design, the robot-looking one, was more Kirbyish."
In his premiere, Iron Man was an anti-communist hero, defeating various Vietnamese agents. Lee later regretted this early focus. Throughout the character's comic book series, technological advancement and national defense were constant themes for Iron Man, but later issues developed Stark into a more complex and vulnerable character as they depicted his battle with alcoholism (as in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline) and other personal difficulties.
From issue #59 (November 1964) to its final issue #99 (March 1968), the anthological science-fiction backup stories in Tales of Suspense were replaced by a feature starring the superhero Captain America. Lee and Heck introduced several adversaries for the character including the Mandarin in issue #50 (February 1964), the Black Widow in #52 (April 1964) and Hawkeye five issues later.
Lee said that "of all the comic books we published at Marvel, we got more fan mail for Iron Man from women, from females, than any other title ... We didn't get much fan mail from girls, but whenever we did, the letter was usually addressed to Iron Man."
Lee and Kirby included Iron Man in The Avengers #1 (September 1963) as a founding member of the superhero team. The character has since appeared in every subsequent volume of the series.
Writers have updated the war and locale in which Stark is injured. In the original 1963 story, it was the Vietnam War. In the 1990s, it was updated to be the first Gulf War, and in the 2000s updated again to be the war in Afghanistan. Stark's time with the Asian Nobel Prize-winning scientist Ho Yinsen is consistent through nearly all incarnations of the Iron Man origin, depicting Stark and Yinsen building the original armor together. One exception is the direct-to-DVD animated feature film The Invincible Iron Man, in which the armor Stark uses to escape his captors is not the first Iron Man suit.
Themes
The original Iron Man title explored Cold War themes, as did other Stan Lee projects in the early years of Marvel Comics. Where The Fantastic Four and The Incredible Hulk respectively focused on American domestic and government responses to the Communist threat, Iron Man explored industry's role in the struggle. Tony Stark's real-life model, Howard Hughes, was a significant defense contractor who developed new weapons technologies. Hughes was an icon both of American individualism and of the burdens of fame.
Historian Robert Genter, in The Journal of Popular Culture, writes that Tony Stark specifically presents an idealized portrait of the American inventor. Where earlier decades had seen important technological innovations come from famous individuals (e.g., Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers), the 1960s saw new technologies (including weapons) being developed mainly by the research teams of corporations. As a result, little room remained for the inventor who wanted credit for, and creative and economic control over, their own creations.
Issues of entrepreneurial autonomy, government supervision of research, and ultimate loyalty figured prominently in early Iron Man stories—the same issues affecting American scientists and engineers of that era. Tony Stark, writes Genter, is an inventor who finds motive in his emasculation as an autonomous creative individual. This blow is symbolized by his chest wound, inflicted at the moment he is forced to invent things for the purposes of others, instead of just himself. To Genter, Stark's transformation into Iron Man represents Stark's effort to reclaim his autonomy, and thus his manhood. The character's pursuit of women in bed or in battle, writes Genter, represents another aspect of this effort. The pattern finds parallels in other works of 1960s popular fiction by authors such as "Ian Fleming (creator of James Bond), Mickey Spillane (Mike Hammer), and Norman Mailer, who made unregulated sexuality a form of authenticity."
Solo series
After issue #99 (March 1968), the Tales of Suspense series was renamed Captain America. An Iron Man story appeared in the one-shot comic Iron Man and Sub-Mariner (April 1968), before the "Golden Avenger" made his solo debut with Iron Man #1 (May 1968). The series's indicia gives its copyright title Iron Man, while the trademarked cover logo of most issues is The Invincible Iron Man.
This initial series ended with issue #332 (September 1996). Jim Lee, Scott Lobdell, and Jeph Loeb authored a second volume of the series which was drawn primarily by Whilce Portacio and Ryan Benjamin. This volume took place in a parallel universe and ran 13 issues (November 1996 – November 1997). Volume 3, whose first 25 issues were written by Kurt Busiek and then by Busiek and Roger Stern, ran 89 issues (February 1998 – December 2004). Later writers included Joe Quesada, Frank Tieri, Mike Grell, and John Jackson Miller. Issue #41 (June 2001) was additionally numbered #386, reflecting the start of dual numbering starting from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968. The final issue was dual-numbered as #434. The next Iron Man series, Iron Man vol. 4, debuted in early 2005 with the Warren Ellis-written storyline "Extremis", with artist Adi Granov. It ran 35 issues (January 2005 – January 2009), with the cover logo simply Iron Man beginning with issue #13, and Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., beginning issue #15. On the final three issues, the cover logo was overwritten by "War Machine, Weapon of S.H.I.E.L.D.", which led to the launch of a War Machine ongoing series.
The Invincible Iron Man by writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca, began with a premiere issue cover-dated July 2008. For a seven-month overlap, Marvel published both volume four and volume five simultaneously. This Invincible volume jumped its numbering of issues from #33 to #500, cover dated March 2011, to reflect the start from the premiere issue of volume one in 1968.
After the conclusion of The Invincible Iron Man a new Iron Man series was started as a part of Marvel Now!. Written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Greg Land, it began with issue #1 in November 2012.
Many Iron Man annuals, miniseries, and one-shot titles have been published through the years, such as Age of Innocence: The Rebirth of Iron Man (February 1996), Iron Man: The Iron Age #1–2 (August – September 1998), Iron Man: Bad Blood #1–4 (September – December 2000), Iron Man House of M #1–3 (September – November 2005), Fantastic Four / Iron Man: Big in Japan #1–4 (December 2005 – March 2006), Iron Man: The Inevitable #1–6 (February – July 2006), Iron Man / Captain America: Casualties of War (February 2007), Iron Man: Hypervelocity #1–6 (March – August 2007), Iron Man: Enter the Mandarin #1–6 (November 2007 – April 2008), and Iron Man: Legacy of Doom (June – September 2008). Publications have included such spin-offs as the one-shot Iron Man 2020 (June 1994), featuring a different Iron Man in the future, and the animated TV series adaptations Marvel Action Hour, Featuring Iron Man #1–8 (November 1994 – June 1995) and Marvel Adventures Iron Man #1–12 (July 2007 – June 2008).
Fictional character biography
Origins
Anthony Edward Stark is the son of wealthy industrialist and head of Stark Industries, Howard Stark, and Maria Stark. A boy genius, he enters MIT at the age of 15 to study engineering and later receives master's degrees in engineering and physics. After his parents are killed in a car accident, he inherits his father's company.
Stark is injured by a booby trap and captured by enemy forces led by Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu orders Stark to build weapons, but Stark's injuries are dire and shrapnel is moving towards his heart. His fellow prisoner, Ho Yinsen, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose work Stark had greatly admired during college, constructs a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from reaching Stark's heart. In secret, Stark and Yinsen use the workshop to design and construct a suit of powered armor, which Stark uses to escape. During the escape attempt, Yinsen sacrifices his life to save Stark's by distracting the enemy as Stark recharges. Stark takes revenge on his kidnappers and rejoins the American forces, on his way meeting a wounded American Marine fighter pilot, James "Rhodey" Rhodes.
Back home, Stark discovers that the shrapnel fragment lodged in his chest cannot be removed without killing him, and he is forced to wear the armor's chestplate beneath his clothes to act as a regulator for his heart. He must recharge the chestplate every day or else risk the shrapnel killing him. The cover story that Stark tells the news media and general public is that Iron Man is his robotic personal bodyguard, and corporate mascot. To that end, Iron Man fights threats to his company (e.g., Communist opponents Black Widow, the Crimson Dynamo, and the Titanium Man), as well as independent villains like the Mandarin (who becomes his greatest enemy). No one suspects Stark of being Iron Man, as he cultivates a strong public image of being a rich playboy and industrialist. Two notable members of the series's supporting cast, at this point, are his personal chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan, and secretary Virginia "Pepper" Potts—to both of whom he eventually reveals his dual identity. Meanwhile, James Rhodes finds his own niche as Stark's personal pilot, ultimately revealing himself to be a man of extraordinary skill and daring in his own right.
The series took an anti-Communist stance in its early years, which was softened as public (and therefore, presumably, reader) opposition rose to the Vietnam War. This change evolved in a series of storylines featuring Stark reconsidering his political opinions, and the morality of manufacturing weapons for the U.S. military. Stark shows himself to be occasionally arrogant, and willing to act unethically in order to 'let the ends justify the means'. This leads to personal conflicts with the people around him, both in his civilian and superhero identities. Stark uses his vast personal fortune not only to outfit his own armor, but also to develop weapons for S.H.I.E.L.D.; other technologies (e.g., Quinjets used by the Avengers); and the image inducers used by the X-Men. Eventually, Stark's heart condition is publicly discovered when he was summoned for a Congressional hearing and Stark collapsed when his chestpiece's power failed, causing a heart attack. Stark was medically examined, which revealed his hidden equipment, and was hospitalized, forcing Pepper to have Happy don his employer's armor to pose as Iron Man to protect his boss's secret identity. Eventually, that specific medical issue was resolved with an artificial heart transplant, which still required the chestplate for some time to support the replacement organ.
1970s and early 1980s
Stark expands on his armor designs and begins to build his arsenal of specialized armors for particular situations such as for space travel and stealth. Stark also develops a serious dependency on alcohol in the "Demon in a Bottle" storyline. The first time it becomes a problem is when Stark discovers that the national security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. has been buying a controlling interest in his company in order to ensure Stark's continued weapons development for them. At the same time, it is revealed that several minor supervillains armed with advanced weapons who had bedeviled Stark throughout his superhero career are in fact in the employ of Stark's business rival, Justin Hammer, who begins to plague Stark more directly. At one point in Hammer's manipulations, the Iron Man armor is taken over and used to murder a diplomat. Although Iron Man is not immediately under suspicion, Stark is forced to hand the armor over to the authorities. Eventually Stark and Rhodes, who is now his personal pilot and confidant, track down and defeat those responsible, although Hammer would return to bedevil Stark again. With the support of his then-girlfriend, Bethany Cabe, his friends and his employees, Stark pulls through these crises and overcomes his dependency on alcohol. Even as he recovers from this harrowing personal trial, Stark's life is further complicated when he has a confrontation with Doctor Doom that is interrupted by an opportunistic enemy sending them back in time to the time of King Arthur. Once there, Iron Man thwarts Doom's attempt to solicit the aid of Morgan Le Fay, and the Latverian ruler swears deadly vengeance—to be indulged sometime after the two return to their own time. This incident was collected and published as Doomquest.
Some time later, a ruthless rival, Obadiah Stane, manipulates Stark emotionally into a serious relapse. As a result, Stark loses control of Stark International to Stane, becomes a homeless alcoholic vagrant and gives up his armored identity to Rhodes, who becomes the new Iron Man. Eventually, Stark recovers and joins a new startup, Circuits Maximus. Stark concentrates on new technological designs, including building a new set of armor as part of his recuperative therapy. Rhodes continues to act as Iron Man but steadily grows more aggressive and paranoid, due to the armor not having been calibrated properly for his use. Eventually Rhodes goes on a rampage, and Stark has to don a replica of his original armor to stop him. Fully recovered, Stark confronts Stane who has himself designed armor based on designs seized along with Stark International, dubbing himself the 'Iron Monger'. Defeated in battle, Stane, rather than give Stark the satisfaction of taking him to trial, commits suicide. Shortly thereafter, Stark regains his personal fortune, but decides against repurchasing Stark International until much later; he instead creates Stark Enterprises, headquartered in Los Angeles.
Late 1980s and 1990s
In an attempt to stop other people from misusing his designs, Stark goes about disabling other armored heroes and villains who are using suits based on the Iron Man technology, the designs of which were stolen by his enemy Spymaster. His quest to destroy the stolen technology—originally called "Stark Wars" but is more commonly known as the "Armor Wars"—severely hurts his reputation as Iron Man. After attacking and disabling a series of minor villains such as Stilt-Man, he attacks and defeats the government operative known as Stingray. The situation worsens when Stark realizes that Stingray's armor does not incorporate any of his designs. He publicly "fires" Iron Man while covertly pursuing his agenda. He uses the cover story of wanting to help disable the rogue Iron Man to infiltrate and disable the armor of the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives known as the Mandroids, as well as the armor of the Guardsmen. In the process, Iron Man and Jim Rhodes allow some of the villains in the Vault to escape. This leads the United States government to declare Iron Man a danger and an outlaw, and severely sours Stark's relationship with Steve Rogers (Captain America, who was in his "Captain" persona at the time). Iron Man travels to Russia where he inadvertently causes the death of the Soviet Titanium Man during a fight. Returning to the U.S., he faces an enemy commissioned by the government named Firepower. Unable to defeat him head on, Stark fakes Iron Man's demise, intending to retire the suit permanently. When Firepower goes rogue, Stark creates a new suit, claiming a new person is in the armor.
Soon after, Stark is nearly killed by Kathy Dare, a mentally unbalanced former lover. She shoots him dead center in his torso which injures his spine, paralyzing him. Stark undergoes special surgery to have a nerve chip implanted into his spine to regain his mobility. Unbeknownst to the industrialist, the nerve chip is a clandestine means by which to gain control over his body. Rival businessmen the Marrs Twins and their cohort Kearson DeWitt are behind the machinations in what came to be known as "Armor Wars II." After several successful tests by DeWitt at manipulating Stark, Tony finds that using his Encephalo Armor can counteract DeWitt's controls. In response, DeWitt suddenly releases his control resulting in excruciating agony throughout Stark's body. The constant "battle" for control of Stark's nervous system and subsequent abdication on DeWitt's end lead to massive nerve damage throughout Tony's body. Stark's nervous system continues its slide towards failure, and he constructs a "skin" made up of artificial nerve circuitry to assist it. Stark begins to pilot a remote-controlled Iron Man armor, but when faced with the Masters of Silence, the telepresence suit proves inadequate. Stark designs a more heavily armed version of the suit to wear, the "Variable Threat Response Battle Suit", which becomes known as the War Machine armor. Ultimately, the damage to his nervous system becomes too extensive. Faking his death, Stark places himself in suspended animation to heal as Rhodes takes over both the running of Stark Enterprises and the mantle of Iron Man, although he uses the War Machine armor. Stark eventually makes a full recovery by using a chip to create an entirely new (artificial) nervous system, and resumes as Iron Man in a new Telepresence Armor. When Rhodes learns that Stark has manipulated his friends by faking his own death, he becomes enraged and the two friends part ways. Rhodes continues on as War Machine in a solo career.
The Avengers story arc "The Crossing" reveals Iron Man as a traitor among the team's ranks, due to years of manipulation by the time-traveling dictator Kang the Conqueror. Stark, as a sleeper agent in Kang's thrall, kills Marilla, the nanny of Crystal and Quicksilver's daughter Luna, as well as Rita DeMara, the female Yellowjacket, then Amanda Chaney, an ally of the Avengers. The "Avengers Forever" limited series retcons these events as the work of a disguised Immortus, not Kang, and that the mental control had gone back only a few months.
Needing help to defeat both Stark and Kang, the team travels back in time to recruit a teenaged Anthony Stark from an alternate timeline to assist them. The young Stark steals an Iron Man suit in order to aid the Avengers against his older self. The sight of his younger self shocks the older Stark enough for him to regain momentary control of his actions, and he sacrifices his life to stop Kang. The young Stark later builds his own suit to become the new Iron Man and remains in the present day.
During the battle with the creature called Onslaught, the teenage Stark dies, along with many other superheroes. Franklin Richards preserves these "dead" heroes in the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe, in which Stark is once again an adult hero; Franklin recreates the heroes in the pocket universe in the forms he is most familiar with rather than what they are at the present. The reborn adult Stark, upon returning to the normal Marvel Universe, merges with the original Stark, who had died during "The Crossing", but was resurrected by Franklin Richards. This new Anthony Stark possesses the memories of both the original and teenage Anthony Stark, and thus considers himself to be essentially both of them. With the aid of the law firm Nelson & Murdock, he regains his fortune and, with Stark Enterprises having been sold to the Fujikawa Corporation following Stark's death, sets up a new company, Stark Solutions. He returns from the pocket universe with a restored and healthy heart. After the Avengers reform, Stark demands a hearing be convened to look into his actions just prior to the Onslaught incident. Cleared of wrongdoing, he rejoins the Avengers.
2000s
At one point, Stark's armor becomes sentient despite fail-safes to prevent its increasingly sophisticated computer systems from doing so. Initially, Stark welcomes this "living" armor for its improved tactical abilities. The armor begins to grow more aggressive, killing indiscriminately and eventually desiring to replace Stark altogether. In the final confrontation on a desert island, Stark suffers another heart attack. The armor sacrifices its own existence to save its creator's life, giving up essential components to give Stark a new, artificial heart. This new heart solves Stark's health problems, but it does not have an internal power supply, so Stark becomes once again dependent on periodic recharging. The sentient armor incident so disturbs Stark that he temporarily returns to using an unsophisticated early model version of his armor to avoid a repeat incident. He dabbles with using liquid metal circuitry known as S.K.I.N. that forms into a protective shell around his body, but eventually returns to more conventional hard metal armors.
During this time, Stark engages in a romance with Rumiko Fujikawa, a wealthy heiress and daughter of the man who had taken over his company during the "Heroes Reborn" period. Her relationship with Stark endures many highs and lows, including infidelity with Stark's rival, Tiberius Stone, in part because the fun-loving Rumiko believes that Stark is too serious and dull. Their relationship ends with Rumiko's death at the hands of an Iron Man impostor in Iron Man vol. 3 #87.
In Iron Man vol. 3 #55 (July 2002), Stark publicly reveals his dual identity as Iron Man, not realizing that by doing so, he has invalidated the agreements protecting his armor from government duplication, since those contracts state that the Iron Man armor would be used by an employee of Tony Stark, not by Stark himself. When he discovers that the United States military is again using his technology, and its defective nature nearly causes a disaster in Washington, D.C. which Iron Man barely manages to avert, Stark accepts a Presidential appointment as Secretary of Defense. In this way, he hopes to monitor and direct how his designs are used.
In the "Avengers Disassembled" storyline, Stark is forced to resign after launching into a tirade against the Latverian ambassador at the United Nations, being manipulated by the mentally imbalanced Scarlet Witch, who destroys Avengers Mansion and kills several members. Stark publicly stands down as Iron Man, but continues using the costume. He joins the Avengers in stopping the breakout in progress from the Raft and even saves Captain America from falling. Tony changes the Avengers base to Stark Tower. The Ghost, the Living Laser and Spymaster reappear and shift Iron Man from standard superhero stories to dealing with politics and industrialism.
New Avengers: Illuminati #1 (June 2006) reveals that years before, Stark had participated with a secret group that included the Black Panther, Professor X, Mister Fantastic, Black Bolt, Doctor Strange, and Namor. The goal of the group (dubbed the Illuminati by Marvel) was to strategize overarching menaces, in which the Black Panther rejects a membership offer. Stark's goal is to create a governing body for all superheroes in the world, but the beliefs of its members instead force them all to share vital information.
"Civil War"
In the "Civil War" storyline, after the actions of inexperienced superheroes the New Warriors result in the destruction of several city blocks in Stamford, Connecticut, there is an outcry across America against superhumans. Learning of the Government's proposed plans, Tony Stark suggests a new plan to instigate a Superhuman Registration Act. The Act would force every superpowered individual in the U.S. to register their identity with the government and act as licensed agents. The Act would force inexperienced superhumans to receive training in how to use and control their abilities, something in which Tony strongly believes. Since his struggle with alcoholism, Stark has carried a tremendous burden of guilt after nearly killing an innocent bystander while piloting the armor drunk. While Reed Richards and Dr. Henry "Hank" Pym both agree with Stark's proposal, not everyone does. After Captain America is ordered to bring in anyone who refuses to register, he and other anti-registration superheroes go rogue, coming into conflict with the pro-registration heroes, led by Iron Man. The war ends when Captain America surrenders to prevent further collateral damage and civilian casualties, although he had defeated Stark by defusing his armor. Stark is appointed the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., and organizes a new government-sanctioned group of Avengers. Shortly afterwards, Captain America is assassinated while in custody. This leaves Stark with a great amount of guilt and misgivings about the cost of his victory.
"Secret Invasion"
To tie into the 2008 Iron Man feature film, Marvel launched a new Iron Man ongoing series, The Invincible Iron Man, with writer Matt Fraction and artist Salvador Larroca. The series inaugural six-part storyline was "The Five Nightmares", which saw Stark targeted by Ezekiel Stane, the son of Stark's former nemesis, Obadiah Stane.
In the "Secret Invasion" storyline, after Tony Stark survives an attempt by Ultron to take over his body, he is confronted in the hospital by Spider-Woman, holding the corpse of a Skrull posing as Elektra. Realizing this is the start of an invasion by the Skrulls, Tony reveals the corpse to the Illuminati and declares that they are at war. After Black Bolt reveals himself as a Skrull and is killed by Namor, a squadron of Skrulls attack, forcing Tony to evacuate the other Illuminati members and destroy the area, killing all the Skrulls. Realizing that they are incapable of trusting each other, the members all separate to form individual plans for the oncoming invasion.
Stark is discredited and publicly vilified after his inability to anticipate or prevent the secret infiltration and invasion of Earth by the Skrulls, and by the Skrull disabling of his StarkTech technology, which had a virtual monopoly on worldwide defense. After the invasion, the U.S. government removes him as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and disbands the Avengers, handing control of the Initiative over to Norman Osborn.
"Dark Reign"
With his Extremis powers failing, Stark uploads a virus to destroy all records of the Registration Act, thus preventing Osborn from learning the identities of his fellow heroes and anything that Osborn could use, including his repulsor generators. The only copy of the database is in Stark's brain, which he tries to delete while on the run from Osborn. Stark goes so far as to inflict brain damage on himself in order to ensure that the relevant information is wiped. When Osborn catches up to the debilitated Stark and beats him savagely, Pepper Potts broadcasts the beatings worldwide, costing Osborn credibility and giving Stark public sympathy. Stark goes into a vegetative state, having previously granted Donald Blake (alter ego of the superhero Thor) power of attorney. A holographic message stored in Pepper's armor reveals that Stark had developed a means of 'rebooting' his mind from his current state prior to his destruction of the database, with Blake and Bucky resolving to use it to restore him to normal. Meanwhile, Stark is trapped in his subconscious, where figments of his own mind prevent him from returning to the waking world. When the procedure fails to work, Bucky calls in Doctor Strange, who succeeds in restoring Stark back to consciousness. The backup Stark created was made prior to the Civil War, and as such he does not remember anything that took place during the event, although he still concludes after reviewing his past actions that he would not have done anything differently. His brain damage means he is now dependent on an arc reactor to sustain his body's autonomous functions.
2010s
"Siege"
In the "Siege" storyline, Tony Stark is seen under the care of Dr. Donald Blake and Maria Hill when Asgard is attacked. Thor is ambushed by Osborn and the Sentry, but rescued by Hill. Osborn declares martial law and unleashes Daken and the Sentry on Broxton to root out Thor and Hill. Hill returns to Stark's hiding place to move him to a safer location and are joined by Speed of the Young Avengers, who has a set of Iron Man's MK III armor that Edwin Jarvis had given Captain America. While Osborn is battling the New Avengers, Stark appears and disables Osborn's Iron Patriot armor. Osborn orders the Sentry to annihilate Asgard, rather than allow the Avengers to have it. After Asgard falls, Stark stands alongside his fellow heroes, as Osborn exclaims they are all doomed and he 'was saving them from him' pointing up towards a Void-possessed Sentry. As the Void tears apart the teams, Loki gives them the power to fight back through the Norn Stones. The Void kills Loki, enraging Thor. Tony tells Thor to get the Void away from Asgard, which allows Tony to drop a commandeered H.A.M.M.E.R. Helicarrier on the Void. Thor is forced to killed Sentry when the Void resurfaces. Sometime later, the Super-Human Registration Act is repealed and Tony is given back his company and armor. As a symbol for their heroics and their new unity, Thor places an Asgardian tower on Stark Tower where the Watchtower once stood.
"Heroic Age"
In the 2010–2011 "Stark: Resilient" storyline, Tony builds the Bleeding Edge armor with the help of Mister Fantastic. This new armor fully uses the repulsor tech battery embedded in his chest to power Tony's entire body and mind, thus allowing him access to Extremis once more. Furthermore, the battery operates as his "heart" and is the only thing keeping him alive. Tony announces he will form a new company, Stark Resilient. He states that he will no longer develop weapons, but will use his repulsor technology to give free energy to the world. Justine and Sasha Hammer create their own armored hero, Detroit Steel, to take Stark's place as the Army's leading weapons-builder. Stark's plan consists of building two repulsor-powered cars. The Hammers try to foil his efforts. The first car is destroyed by sabotage, while Detroit Steel attacks Stark Resilient's facilities while Tony tests the second car. Through a legal maneuver, Tony is able to get the Hammers to stop their attacks and releases a successful commercial about his new car.
"Fear Itself"
In the 2011 "Fear Itself" storyline, Earth is attacked by the Serpent, the God of Fear and the long-forgotten brother of Odin. In Paris, Iron Man fights Grey Gargoyle, who has become Mokk, Breaker of Faith, one of the Serpent's Worthy. Mokk leaves Iron Man unconscious and transforms Detroit Steel and the citizens of Paris into stone. To defeat the Serpent's army, Tony drinks a bottle of wine (thus 'sacrificing' his sobriety) to gain an audience with Odin, who allows Tony to enter the realm of Svartalfheim. Tony and the dwarves of Svartalfheim build enchanted weapons. Tony upgrades his armor with uru-infused enchantments and delivers the finished weapons to the Avengers, who use them for the final battle against the Serpent's forces. Iron Man watches as Thor kills the Serpent, but dies in the process. After the battle is over, Tony melts down the weapons he created and repairs Captain America's shield, which had been broken by Serpent, and gives it back to Captain America. During a subsequent argument with Odin about the gods' lack of involvement in the recent crisis, Odin gives Tony a brief opportunity to see the vastness of the universe the way he sees it. As thanks for Tony's role in the recent crisis, Odin restores all the people that the Grey Gargoyle killed during his rampage.
Return of the Mandarin and Marvel NOW!
In the storylines "Demon" and "The Long Way Down", Stark is subpoenaed by the U.S. government after evidence surfaces of him using the Iron Man armor while under the influence. Mandarin and Zeke Stane upgrade some of Iron Man's old enemies and send them to commit acts of terrorism across the world, intending to discredit Iron Man. General Bruce Babbage forces Stark to wear a tech governor, a device that allows Babbage to deactivate Stark's armor whenever he wants. To fight back, Tony undergoes a surgical procedure that expels the Bleeding Edge technology out of his body and replaces his repulsor node with a new model, forcing Babbage to remove the tech governor off his chest. He announces his retirement as Iron Man, faking Rhodes's death and giving him a new armor so that he becomes the new Iron Man. This leads into the next storyline, "The Future", in which the Mandarin takes control of Stark's mind and uses him to create new armored bodies for the alien spirits inhabiting his rings, but Stark allies himself with some of his old enemies, who have also been imprisoned by Mandarin, and manages to defeat him. The final issue of this storyline concluded Matt Fraction's series.
In the ongoing series that premiered in 2012 as part of the Marvel NOW! relaunch, Tony Stark has hit a technological ceiling. After the death of Dr. Maya Hansen and the destruction of all of the Extremis Version 2 kits that were being sold to the black market, Tony decides that the Earth is not safe without him learning more from what's in the final frontier. He takes his new suit, enhanced with an artificial intelligence named P.E.P.P.E.R. and joins Peter Quill and The Guardians of the Galaxy after helping them thwart a Badoon attack on Earth.
Superior Iron Man
Tony Stark's personality is inverted during the events of AXIS, bringing out more dark aspects of himself like irresponsibility, egotism and alcoholism. Stark relocates to San Francisco and builds a new, all-white armor. He supplies the citizens of San Francisco with the Extremis 3.0 app, a version of the techno-virus that offers beauty, health or even immortality, free. When every person in the city viewed Iron Man as a messiah for making their dreams come true, he ended the free trial mode and started charging a daily fee of $99.99, causing many to resort to crime to pay for the upgrade. Daredevil confronts Stark at his new Alcatraz Island penthouse, but is easily brushed off. Iron Man uses Extremis 3.0 to temporarily restore Daredevil's sight, just to prove his point. Daredevil deduces that Stark had added Extremis to the water supply and the phones only transmit an activation signal, but Stark subjects Murdock to minor brain damage to prevent him from sharing this revelation with others.
After discovering that new villain Teen Abomination is the son of Happy Hogan, Stark decides to help him, but this minor act of redemption is too late for Pepper Potts, who attacks Stark with the aid of an AI based on Stark's mind. This culminates in a confrontation between the two Starks, as Stark calls on the unwitting aid of all 'infected' with the Extremis upgrade while the AI uses Stark's various old armors to attack him. Although Stark technically wins the battle as he destroys his other armors and deletes the AI backup, Pepper states that she plans to reveal the truth about his goals with Extremis, bluntly informing him that if he continues his Extremis upgrade project, he will have to do it alone, accepting his fate of being regarded as a monster by all who know him.
Time Runs Out
During the "Time Runs Out" storyline, an attempt at reclaiming Wakanda from the Cabal that Namor had created to destroy incursive Earths results in Tony being held captive in the Necropolis. After the Cabal are apparently killed, the Illuminati free Tony, who is forced to flee due to the Illuminati's unwillingness to let Stark be there with them when they meet Rogers and the Avengers. When the Shi'ar and their allies arrive to destroy Earth, the Avengers and the Illuminati unsuccessfully try to retaliate. Iron Man uses Sol's Hammer to destroy the fleet. The incursions continue, and Rogers confronts Stark about what he knows. A fight ensues between them and Stark admits that he had lied and had known about the incursions all along. During the final incursion, Earth-1610's S.H.I.E.L.D. launches a full-scale attack on Earth-616, during which Stark and Rogers are crushed by a Helicarrier.
All-New, All-Different Marvel
After the events of the Secret Wars crossover, Stark returns to his normal self with no signs of his inverted personality. Eight months following the return of the universe as seen in the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" event, Tony works in his laboratory non-stop after his position as an innovator had been put in doubt. Because an M.I.T. student reverse-engineered some of his technology, Stark develops a new armor which can change shape according to the situation he would find himself. When Stark's new AI F.R.I.D.A.Y. informs him that Madame Masque has broken into the ruins of Castle Doom, he travels to Latveria to investigate and runs into some revolutionaries who are then defeated by a man in a suit. To his amazement, Iron Man's armor computer identifies him as Doctor Doom with his face restored. Doctor Doom claims that he wanted to help Iron Man.
After learning from Doctor Doom that Madame Masque has taken a decoy of the Wand of Watoomb, Tony Stark confronts Madame Masque. Upon learning that Madame Masque is not allied with Doctor Doom, Tony is attacked by her with a burst of energy that damages his armor. F.R.I.D.A.Y. manages to gain control of the suit and takes Tony to a safe location. Iron Man tracks Madame Masque to Marina del Rey. After finding a tape recorder with her messages, Tony is attacked by several black silhouettes with swords.
Iron Man escapes the ninjas that are attacking him and manages to defeat most of them, but they kill themselves before he can interrogate any of them. Iron Man and Doctor Doom arrive at Mary Jane Watson's newest Chicago night club Jackpot when Madame Masque attacks it. As Mary Jane distracts Madame Masque by knocking off her mask, Iron Man and Doctor Doom discover that Madame Masque is possessed by a demon. Doctor Doom is able to perform an exorcism on her.
Doctor Strange arrives and tells Iron Man he will take Madame Masque with him to fix her metaphysically and then hand her over at S.H.I.E.L.D. Iron Man also informs him of Doctor Doom's help who had left the scene some time ago. Three days later, Iron Man offers Mary Jane a job to make up for the damage to her nightclub. After speaking with War Machine, Tony Stark meets up at a diner with Amara Perera when they are unexpectedly joined by Doctor Doom who wanted to make sure that the demonic possession that affected Madame Masque has not affected Stark or Amara. Stark shows Mary Jane the demonstration on the people that he will be working with. They are interrupted by F.R.I.D.A.Y. who tells Tony that War Machine is missing. Before heading to Tokyo, Tony receives from Mary Jane the emergency number for Peter Parker. In Tokyo, Iron Man is contacted by Spider-Man at War Machine's last known location as he is being observed by ninjas.
During the Civil War II storyline, Iron Man protests the logic of using precognitive powers to stop future crimes after the recently emerged Inhuman Ulysses predicted Thanos's attack on Project Pegasus. Three weeks later, Iron Man is summoned to the Triskelion after War Machine is killed in battle against Thanos. When Iron Man learns that War Machine and the Ultimates used Ulysses's power to ambush Thanos, he vows to stop anyone from using that power again. Iron Man infiltrates New Attilan and makes off with Ulysses. At Stark Tower, Iron Man vows to find out how Ulysses's precognition works. The Inhumans attack Stark Tower but are stopped by the Avengers, the Ultimates, and S.H.I.E.L.D. During the confrontation, Ulysses has another vision which he projects to Iron Man and everyone present, showing a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of the defeated superheroes. The heroes confront Banner, who is killed by Hawkeye. Barton claims that Banner was about to transform and Banner had previously asked Hawkeye to kill him if he should turn back into the Hulk. Tony is disgusted at this use of Ulysses's power. When his analysis of Ulysses brain is completed, Tony reveals that Ulysses does not actually see the future, but simply assembles large quantities of data to project likely outcomes. While Danvers continues to use the visions as a resource, Tony objects to the concept of profiling people. This results in a stand-off when Tony's side abducts a woman from custody after Ulysses's visions identified her as a deep-cover HYDRA agent, despite the lack of supporting evidence.
Iron Man learns that his biological mother was actually Amanda Armstrong, who had given him up for adoption and that his biological father was a Hydra double agent named Jude. S.H.I.E.L.D. had Armstrong's baby adopted by Howard and Maria Stark.
Marvel NOW! 2016
In July 2016, it was announced that Tony Stark would hand off the mantle of Iron Man to a 15-year-old girl named Riri Williams. Riri is an MIT student who built her own Iron Man suit out of scrap pieces and, as such, attracted Stark's attention. Early depictions of Williams' suit depict it without the Arc Reactor, but leaves the power source for the suit unclear. Another Iron Man-based series titled Infamous Iron Man debuted featuring Doctor Doom sporting his version of the Iron Man armor. This is revealed to be the result of serious injuries sustained by Stark during his final confrontation with Captain Marvel. Danvers' beating leaves Stark in a coma, but he is left alive due to unspecified experiments Stark has carried out on himself over the years.
Existing as an AI
Following the revelation that Stark experimented on himself at the end of Civil War II, Beast concludes that the only option is to let the experiments do their job in healing Tony and recover on his own. In Invincible Iron Man #1, an employee of Stark sends Riri Williams an artificial intelligence housing a copy of Tony Stark's consciousness to help her control and mentor in her own version of the Iron Man armor. This AI is directly copied from Tony's brain, granting sentience, with Williams commenting on Stark existing as a "techno-ghost". As an AI, Stark can walk around as a hard-light object and gains the ability to remote control his vast armory of Iron Man suits. In The Mighty Captain Marvel #3, the Tony Stark AI goes to Antarctica and visits Captain Marvel with the intent on settling their differences from the Second Civil War, she apologizes to him for her regrets, reconciles with him eventually and they become allies once more. Then in Secret Empire, the Tony Stark AI suits up as Iron Man once again and learns of Captain America's betrayal to Hydra and how he ended up like this. As Hydra tightens its grip across America, the Tony Stark AI leads a team known as the Underground to find the Cosmic Cubes to restore Rogers to his normal self. When things start to escalate, Tony and his crew go rogue and in search for answers for the Cube. As Iron Man and the Underground search for them they are intercepted by Captain America and his Hydra team. With both teams encountering each other, they are captured by the Ultron/Hank Pym hybrid, who forces both teams to sit at a dinner table. During "dinner", Ultron reveals information about the Hydra Avengers – such as Odinson working with Hydra to reclaim Mjolnir, Scarlet Witch being possessed by Chthon, and Vision being affected by an AI virus. Ultron argues that he is doing this because the Avengers have become less of a family over the years as so many of them jump to obey Captain America or Iron Man, despite past experience confirming that this is not always a good idea, but Tony counters that the only reason the team failed as a family was because of Hank's abuse towards Wasp. Enraged, Ultron is about to kill everyone, but Ant-Man is able to calm him down by arguing that Hank remains his own inspiration. Ultron allows the Underground to leave with the fragment, arguing that neither side should have an advantage over the other. Back in America, Hydra Supreme has put Namor in a position where he will be forced to sign a peace treaty that gives Rogers access to the Cosmic Cube fragment in Atlantis, but Hydra Supreme muses that he is unconcerned about who will acquire the fragments, as he has an inside man in the Underground. After the Mount was attacked by Thor and the resurrected Hulk led by Hydra, the Underground evacuated the civilians thanks to Hawkeye and the rest of the heroes. Captain America and Iron Man fight as the Mount collapses around them. The Tony Stark AI initiates the Mount's "Clean Slate Protocol", and blows up the Mount, killing Madame Hydra, then apologizes to Steve Rogers about their past differences, but the A.I survives and, in the aftermath, helps the heroes pull the pieces back together to take down Hydra. When Iron Man confronts Hydra Supreme, he and the other heroes are easily overpowered by him and watch the original Captain America defeat his Hydra self and into celebrating their victory.
Marvel Legacy
Mary Jane Watson and other Stark employees find that Stark's body has completely vanished from its pod, despite tests taken mere hours ago showing no sign of improvement or brain activity. It was discovered that Tony Stark's comatose body was taken to the Stark Industries Complex in Dover. Upon awakening when his biological systems rebooted, Tony Stark went into hiding until he fully recovered. Wanting to make sure that James Rhodes was in a similar state that he was in, Tony Stark exhumed his body from Arlington Cemetery and kick-started the biological systems in him. Afterwards, Iron Man and War Machine fought Hood to keep Stark Industries from falling into Hood's hands where he switched to a version of his Extremis armor. Then he proceeded to defeat Jude when he turned up alive.
During "The Ultron Agenda" arc, Iron Man went up against the Ultron/Hank Pym who begun a plan to merge humans with robots while taking up the name "Ultron Pym." Iron Man was briefly fused with his armor. After using Stark Unlimited's atomic separator on himself, Iron Man figured out that Hank Pym was dead the moment he accidentally fused with Ultron. Not wanting to prove Tony right, Ultron Pym surrendered to Iron Man and the Avengers. As it turned out that Iron Man actually died during the Civil War II storyline, Arno Stark used this to his advantage to acquire Stark Unlimited through a merger with Baintronics. With the combined resources, he built the Iron Man Armor Model 66 as his attempt to recreate the Godbuster Armor. Now having a new destiny, Arno Stark became the latest person to take on the Iron Man mantle.
Because of his revelation that he is now a simulated AI at the start of the "Iron Man 2020" storyline, Tony Stark became Mark One and started to establish the A.I. Army which also consists of Albert, Awesome Android, Egghead II, H.E.R.B.I.E., M-11, Machine Man, Machinesmith, Quasimodo, Super-Adaptoid, Walking Stiletto, the Dreadnoughts, a Sentinel, several Constructo-Bots, several Nick Fury LMDs, and an unnamed bomb disposal robot. This group of robots and androids want to obtain equal rights with organic beings through whatever way possible. Mark One provided them with a hideout on Floor Thirteen, a solid light construct that can only be accessed by robots and androids. With the establishment of Floor Thirteen, Mark One keeps the A.I. Army safe from their enemies and oppressors.
Powers, abilities, and equipment
Armor
Iron Man possesses powered armor that gives him superhuman strength and durability, flight, and an array of weapons. The armor is invented and worn by Stark (with occasional short-term exceptions). Other people who have assumed the Iron Man identity include Stark's long-time partner and best friend James Rhodes; close associates Harold "Happy" Hogan; Eddie March; (briefly) Michael O'Brien and Riri Williams.
The weapons systems of the suit have changed over the years, but Iron Man's standard offensive weapons have always been the repulsor rays that are fired from the palms of his gauntlets. Other weapons built into various incarnations of the armor include: the uni-beam projector in its chest; pulse bolts (that pick up kinetic energy along the way; so the farther they travel, the harder they hit); an electromagnetic pulse generator; and a defensive energy shield that can be extended up to 360 degrees. Other capabilities include: generating ultra-freon (i.e., a freeze-beam); creating and manipulating magnetic fields; emitting sonic blasts; and projecting 3-dimensional holograms (to create decoys).
In addition to the general-purpose model he wears, Stark has developed several specialized suits for space travel, deep-sea diving, stealth, and other special purposes. Stark has modified suits, like the Hulkbuster heavy armor. The Hulkbuster armor is composed of add-ons to his so-called modular armor, designed to enhance its strength and durability enough to engage the Hulk in a fight. A later model, created with the help of Odin and the Asgardian metal Uru, is similar to the Destroyer. Stark develops an electronics pack during the Armor Wars that, when attached to armors that use Stark technologies, will burn out those components, rendering the suit useless. This pack is ineffective on later models. While it is typically associated with James Rhodes, the War Machine armor began as one of Stark's specialty armors.
The most recent models of Stark's armor, beginning with the Extremis armor, are now stored in the hollow portions of Stark's bones, and the personal area networking implement used to control it is implanted into his forearm, and connected directly to his central nervous system.
The Extremis has since been removed, and he now uses more conventional armors. Some armors still take a liquid form, but are not stored within his body. His Endo-Sym Armor incorporates a combination of the liquid smart-metal with the alien Venom symbiote, psionically controlled by Stark.
Post-Secret Wars, Stark uses a more streamlined suit of armor that uses nanotechnology to shape shift into other armors or weapons.
Powers
After being critically injured during a battle with the Extremis-enhanced Mallen, Stark injects his nervous system with modified techno-organic virus-like body restructuring machines (the Extremis process). By rewriting his own biology, Stark is able to save his life, gain an enhanced healing factor, and partially merge with the Iron Man armor, superseding the need for bulky, AI-controlled armors in favor of lighter designs, technopathically controlled by his own brain. His enhanced technopathy extends to every piece of technology, limitless and effortlessly due to his ability to interface with communication satellites and wireless connections to increase his "range". Some components of the armor-sheath are now stored in Tony's body, able to be recalled, and extruded from his own skin, at will.
During the "Secret Invasion" storyline the Extremis package is catastrophically shut down by a virus, forcing him again to rely on the previous iteration of his armor, and restoring his previous limitations. Furthermore, Osborn's takeover of most of the few remaining Starktech factories, with Ezekiel Stane systematically crippling the others, limits Tony to the use of lesser, older and weaker armors.
After being forced to "wipe out" his brain to prevent Norman Osborn from gaining his information, Tony Stark is forced to have a new arc reactor, of Rand design installed in his chest. The process greatly improves his strength, stamina and intellect. The procedure left him with virtually no autonomic functions: as his brain was stripped of every biological function, Tony is forced to rely on a digital backup of his memories (leaving him with severe gaps and lapses in his long-term memory) and on software routine in the arc reactor for basic stimuli reaction, such as blinking and breathing. The Bleeding Edge package of armor and physical enhancement is now equal in power, if not a more advanced, version of the old Extremis tech.
Skills
Tony Stark is an inventive genius whose expertise in the fields of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and computer science rivals that of Reed Richards, Hank Pym, and Bruce Banner, and his expertise in electrical engineering and mechanical engineering surpasses even theirs. He is regarded as one of the most intelligent characters in the Marvel Universe. He graduated with advanced degrees in physics and engineering at the age of 17 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and further developed his knowledge ranging from artificial intelligence to quantum mechanics as time progressed. His expertise extends to his ingenuity in dealing with difficult situations, such as difficult foes and deathtraps, in which he is capable of using available tools, including his suit, in unorthodox but effective ways. For instance, in Stark's final confrontation with Obadiah Stane, the villain managed to have Stark's companions in an unconscious state in a room with motion sensors; when Stark entered the room, Stane warned him that the slightest move would trigger a fatal electrical current to his hostages, thus forcing Stark to stay still and slowly die of dehydration lest he wants his friends to die. However, while Stane was confident that such a trap was inescapable, Stark is able to outwit and defeat its mechanism in seconds, thus freeing the hostages and allowing him to continue the battle against Stane.
He is well respected in the business world, able to command people's attention when he speaks on economic matters, having over the years built up several multimillion-dollar companies from virtually nothing. He is noted for the loyalty he commands from and returns to those who work for him, as well as for his business ethics. Thus he immediately fired an employee who made profitable, but illegal, sales to Doctor Doom. He strives to be environmentally responsible in his businesses.
At a time when Stark was unable to use his armor for a period, he received some combat training from Captain America and has become physically formidable on his own when the situation demands it. In addition, Stark possesses great business and political acumen. On multiple occasions he reacquired control of his companies after losing them amid corporate takeovers.
Due to his membership in the Illuminati, Iron Man was given the Space Infinity Gem to safeguard. It allows the user to exist in any location (or all locations), move any object anywhere throughout the universe and warp or rearrange space.
Supporting characters
Other versions
1602
1602: New World features a 17th-century Spanish Iron Man named Lord Iron. Taken captive in the Holy Land during the English / Spanish war, he is forced to make weapons for them after being tortured by David Banner, the later Hulk of that world. He needs his massive armor to survive. The armor is powered by "lightning bottles" and provides him with super-strength and invulnerability as well as several electricity-powered
With his Moorish associate, Rhodes, Lord Iron is assigned by King James to put an end to the traitors and witchbreed in the New World. Instead, he realizes he has let bitterness consume him, and makes his peace with Banner. He is last seen using his armor to power the colony's printing press.
1872
The Secret Wars War Zone tie-in 1872 reimagines Tony in the Wild West. Tony was once a respected inventor who lives in the town of Timely. When the Union army used his repeating rifle to slaughter a large group of Confederates rather let them surrender, Tony spirals into alcoholism. After Sheriff Steve Rogers is murdered by Mayor Wilson Fisk and his cohorts, Tony builds a large suit of armor resembling the original Iron Man suit to aid Red Wolf in bringing him down. After Fisk is defeated, Tony dedicates his time to aiding the people of Timely with his new invention.
2020
Iron Man 2020 features Arno Stark as a mercenary in the employ of Sunset Bain. In 2012, Arno had traveled to the past in an effort to save his family from a madman's bomb. All he needs are the retinal patterns of the bomb maker, but he runs into the original Blizzard who mistakes him for the "real" Iron Man/Tony Stark. Not having time to deal with this threat, Arno kills Blizzard. While attempting to scan the retinal patterns of the young terrorist, Spider-Man snatches the scanner with his webbing and asks IM 2020 what he is doing. The two battle one another (Arno is "against the clock") when suddenly Arno is pulled back to his time to discover the bomb had a design flaw and exploded prematurely. His wife, son, employees, and factory have all been destroyed.
2093
Tony Stark and Doctor Doom are brought to the year 2093 by Merlin to stop a plot by a primarily robotic Doom and the Iron Man of 2093, Andros Stark. Andros is a psychotic madman and uses his grandfather Arno's armor. Tony defeats Andros while wielding the legendary sword Excalibur.
Andros Stark/Iron Man 2099 voiced by Alessandro Juliani would later be adopted into the second season of Iron Man: Armored Adventures with him being from the year 2099 and traveling back when Tony was a teenager before inventing a AI named "Vortex". Vortex dooms the entire human race with Andros donning a futuristic suit (classed "Hyperspace Mark XL") and the Extremis to kill Tony/Iron Man but goes to S.H.I.E.L.D. for assistance. Andros destroys Iron Man with his ultra-beam, afterward, Hawkeye managed to implant the virus on Andros's armor, and realized that all this is because Tony was trying to save himself by using the virus to stop Andros using his nano-virus which is actually the original seed for the Vortex virus. He travels back in time for a short moment to warn Iron Man that his nano-virus chips were actually the Vortex virus. He quickly destroys the last nano-virus arrow, saving Andros. As a result of this change in the timeline, the future was saved and because of this, Andros is erased from existence after saying his last words to his grandfather.
2099
In the Marvel 2099 line, the new Iron Man of that era is a man named Sonny Frisco. Despite piloting a normal-sized suit of Iron Man armor, Frisco actually suffers from dwarfism. He is a member of the Alchemax corporation's team of Avengers, and secretly uses the help of Vision, a woman with precognitive abilities.
3030
The Iron Man of 3030 is Tony Stark's biracial granddaughter, Rhodey Stark (named after Stark's close friend James Rhodes). She travels to the present in order to help the Avengers save Earth from a rogue planet that had been fired from the future, and departs after warning her grandfather that his life is in danger.
Adam Warlock
In Adam Warlock #2 (1972), Peter Parker's counterpart on Counter-Earth mentions that "the heart of Tony Stark beats unscathed".
Age of Apocalypse
In the Age of Apocalypse, Tony Stark is an agent of the Human High Council. The injury that compromised his heart is caused by the attack of a mutant.
Age of X
Officially code named Iron Man, he prefers the name Steel Corpse. Iron Man was infected by a disease, thought to be of mutant origin, that bonded him permanently to his armor. Not only can he never remove the armor, the disease is causing the armor to slowly consume his flesh, meaning that one day Tony Stark will cease to exist and only the armor will be left. He works with this reality's version of the Avengers to exterminate all mutants, but eventually rebels against his purpose when a 'Trojan horse' in the armor nearly drives him to kill innocent mutant children, forcing his teammates to kill him.
Avataars
In the sword and sorcery world of the Avataars: Covenant of the Shield miniseries, Iron Man's counterpart is Ironheart, one of the Champions of the Realm. A powerful warrior, he wears a huge suit of grey armor.
Bullet Points
In Bullet Points, Iron Man is Steve Rogers, who, due to the assassination of Dr. Abraham Erskine occurring earlier than in the mainstream Marvel universe, never receives the Super-Soldier formula. Instead, he agrees to be bonded to the prototype 'Iron Man' armor despite the intense physical pain and discomfort this will cause. Rogers is later killed fighting an alternative version of the Hulk. Tony Stark, in this reality a member of S.H.I.E.L.D., expresses a desire to continue in Rogers' footsteps as Iron Man, but is rejected owing to a heart condition. He later disobeys this command and adopts the mantle upon the arrival of Galactus.
Contest of Champions
The 2015 Contest of Champions series has a version of Tony Stark that won Civil War with nearly everything working out in his favor. Five years later, Tony has donned the Iron Patriot armor and is the President of the United States. He and his Mighty Avengers team are kidnapped by Maestro and placed onto Battleworld, where Maestro alters their memories to believe the remaining heroes are unregistered and need to be taken in. Their fight is interrupted by that universe's Thunderbolts (led by Steve Rogers). In the next issue, the Mighty Avengers battle the Thunderbolts and Renegade Champions, during which Tony kills Steve and reveals that the reason the Civil War went completely in his favor was because he used the Reality Gem from the Infinity Gauntlet. When he tries to use it again on Battleworld, it doesn't work because he's in a different dimension, and he's killed by Maestro.
Earth X
In the alternative reality of Earth X, Tony Stark builds a headquarters that protects himself from a plague that grants all humans superpowers. Afterwards, he builds the Iron Avengers. His headquarters is revealed to be a giant armor, based on the old Godzilla fighting mecha, the Red Ronin, which he uses to delay the Celestial attack until the coming of Galactus, sacrificing his life in the process. In Paradise X, he becomes part of the angelic Avenging Host of Marvel's "Paradise", with an Iron Man motif.
Earth-691
In the continuity of Earth-691, Tony Stark is devastated by the horrors of the Martian invasion and jettisons his technology into space. It is found by a primitive alien race who use it to become an interstellar menace calling themselves the Stark, who subsequently clash with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the 31st century. "Standard" continuity Iron Man (Earth-616) encountered his "creations" when a cadre of rational, scientific members of the Stark called the Programmers bring Tony Stark to the future to help them solve various planet-wide problems.
Earth-2122
In the continuity of Earth-2122, the home of Crusader X, where the British won the American Revolution and still control North America, Anthony Stark is a member of a group called the Sons of Liberty. In this reality, Stark is willing to kill innocent people.
Earth-3490
In the continuity of Earth-3490, Tony Stark was born a woman (Natasha Stark) rather than a man; Stark's superhero alter-ego in this universe is Iron Woman. The Civil War between superheroes in Earth-3490 was averted due to the fact that Stark and Steve Rogers (Captain America) are romantically involved, and have since married.
Exiles
In Exiles, a villainous alternative Iron Man of Earth-2020 is a member of Weapon X, the more ruthless team of reality fixers. After ending up at the 'Crystal Palace' (the Exiles' headquarters) and fighting them there, he is eventually exposed and sent back to his own timeline where he is arrested by the Army for starting a world war.
In one alternative reality Tony Stark has become the absolute ruler of the entire planet Earth, and kills many of that Earth's heroes and mutants. Weapon X arrives on this reality to help him conquer Attilan, though their true purpose is to cause his downfall. Tony is eventually killed by Susan Storm.
In one alternative reality he is partners with both Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Octopus before he created the Iron Man suit.
On an alternative world devastated by the Hulk's Annihilation Wave, Iron Man was one of those killed in the attack. When the Exiles arrange for the dead heroes to be replaced by alternatives, Iron Man's replacement is a version of Spitfire, on the grounds that they have never got along with any alternative Tony Starks.
The Sons of Iron are a group of armor-wearing warriors from an Earth shared by humans and reptilian humanoids. Because they are completely concealed by the Iron Man armor, no-one can tell which they are.
Fantastic Four: The End
In the miniseries Fantastic Four: The End, which is set in a future where Reed Richards' technology has launched humanity into a golden age, Tony Stark has died long ago - but his consciousness survives, 'hopping' from artificial body to artificial body. Most of the bodies shown in the miniseries resemble Iron Man armors, often being identical to existing armors. One notable exception was the bulky, stocky space-armor which played an important role in the battle of humanity's heroes versus several alien armadas.
House of M
Born to Howard and Maria Stark, the heads of the powerful business conglomerate Stark Industries, Tony Stark grew to be an imaginative and brilliant inventor. He worked with his father from an early age, and surpassed his father's technical brilliance by the age of 16. Stark became the key supplier of hi-tech weaponry used to fight mutants, and was on the verge of a technological breakthrough when the Mutant-Human war came to an end. The suits are powered down to become part of a game called Robo Death Match, a television sport with giant robots fighting each other. Stark Industries scored its biggest victory when it secured the Sentinel production contracts, pushing major competitor, Jason Wyngarde, out of business. Erik Magnus and Sebastian Shaw awarded Tony the contract under the condition that he would hire Beast and Forge as observers. McCoy became a key contributor along with Doctor Pym on The Vision project. Tony secretly worked on a special project beneath Stark Industries: a brand new suit of hi-tech armor he planned to use as his new Robo Death Match suit.
Iron Man: The End
In the one-shot Iron Man: The End, an aging Tony Stark works on his greatest creation, a space elevator called "Big Jump." Stark faces retirement due to age and the physical toll of an illness, no longer allowing him to run his business "Stark Universal" and continue to be Iron Man. This leads to the need to groom a replacement.
Iron Maniac
Iron Maniac is an evil alternative universe version of Iron Man from Earth-5012. He first appeared in Marvel Team-Up vol. 3 #2, wearing armor that resembles that of Doctor Doom's. He comes from an alternative reality where most of the Avengers were killed when they encountered the vicious alien Titannus in space. While the team is rescued by the reserve Avengers five years later, it takes another five years to fight back the Trellions, the alien race that has brainwashed Titannus. During that time, a power-hungry Reed Richards turns his back on the surviving heroes. Scarred for life due to an attack from the Human Torch, Iron Man sets his own operation base in Latveria to "take over the world to save it from Richards." Richards somehow manages to banish him into Earth-616 Other differences between his world and Earth-616 include that there is no Spider-Man, and that Hank Pym is another version of the Hulk.
After being transported to Earth-616, Iron Maniac fights the Fantastic Four and Doctor Strange, all of whom mistake him for their Doctor Doom. After unmasking himself, they learn his true identity, shortly before he manages to temporarily negate the FF's powers and escape, concluding that he has no reason to trust that they will not turn on him like the FF of his world did. Capturing a recently discovered mutant, the alternative Iron Man attempts to return to his home dimension by using the mutant as a power source, but is attacked by Spider-Man and X-23 as they investigate the situation. After the appearance of Captain America and Black Widow, he realizes that he is in an alternative world, but continues to fight the heroes, calling them all 'Richards' lackeys', proclaiming that he can't trust that they won't turn into 'villains' just as his own former allies did. He is defeated thanks to Spider-Man and X-23's use of their own version of the fastball special to destroy his equipment, shortly after 'warning' the other heroes of the Titannus War (by saying that he would not kill them now because it would be a kindness).
While the alternative Tony Stark is kept locked up and drugged in the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, he is briefly visited by his counterpart in this universe, although he is unaware of the visit. Shortly after the alternative Stark is transferred to a conventional cell, Titannus soon arrives and fights the heroes, this time confronting a new group of Defenders assembled by Doctor Strange. When Titannus' comatose lover is revived, she tells him that she never loved him and that he was insane, causing Titannus to kill himself. The alternative Iron Man later discovers from Spider-Man and Wolverine that the Avengers were never massacred in space in this reality because the group had been disassembled; as a result, other heroes only encountered Titannus after he had attacked Tokyo in a rage, leaving the heroes who did encounter him less inclined to believe his story and averting the so-called 'Titannus War'.
Stark subsequently broke free from captivity, having immunized himself to the gas that was used to keep him sedated on board the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier. In the process, he gained the unwilling alliance of the LMD Diamondback. Having convinced her that he is the "real" Tony, the AU Tony Stark erased her memories, reshaping the former LMD into an advanced suit of armor. This armor, even more advanced than the pre-Extremis suit Iron Man wore at that time, was able to replicate any weapon from the wearer's memory. He subsequently battled Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America and Luke Cage, but was only defeated after the sacrifice of rookie hero Freedom Ring, who kept Iron Maniac occupied long enough for Captain America to knock him out with a shield thrown at the back of his neck.
The name Iron Maniac is what he calls himself, due to being the "sole survivor of a sane world living in a backwards, insane world".
Iron Maniac is known to be at least partially cyberized, with armor plating implanted in his chest (revealed during his escape from the Helicarrier, when he is shot). It is unknown whether the rest of his body is similarly armored or if he possesses other cybernetic enhancements.
He has been briefly mentioned as being held in a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier recently in The Irredeemable Ant-Man.
Iron Man Noir
In Iron Man Noir, Tony Stark is an industrialist in the 1930s. He is also an adventurer, whose exploits are recorded in Marvels: A Magazine Of Men's Adventure. He is initially accompanied by his associate James Rhodes, his personal assistant Giulietta Nefaria and his biographer Vergil Munsey. When Nefaria is revealed as working with the Nazis (specifically Baron Zemo and Baron von Strucker) and Vergil is killed, their role in the story is taken by Stark's new biographer Pepper Potts. His heart having been damaged on an earlier adventure, Stark keeps it going with repulsor technology installed and recharged by Stark Industries engineer Edwin Jarvis.
While investigating a mysterious power source in the ruins of Atlantis, Pepper Potts gets kidnapped by the Nazis and taken to their stronghold in Norway. To rescue her, Stark and Rhodes don suits of bulky power armour built by Jarvis, but are shocked to discover that 'Baron Zemo' is actually Tony's missing father Howard Stark, brainwashed by a unique chemical compound to serve the Nazis. Despite his depleted power supply, Tony manages to destroy the various suits of armor that Zemo had built for the Nazis, concluding that his father had died long ago, before returning to the USA.
Inter-company crossovers
In Marvel and DC's Amalgam Comics, Stark is merged with the Green Lantern Hal Jordan into the Iron Lantern. "Hal Stark" wears a suit resembling a green Iron Man armor, powered by a Green Lantern battery.
In the miniseries JLA/Avengers, Iron Man aids the Avengers in the battle against Starro the Conqueror. Afterwards, he creates a dimensional alarm in order to tell when invaders from another dimension come into their universe. After a brief scuffle with the JLA in the Savage Land, the Avengers are confronted by Metron, who gives Tony a Mother Box. Using this, Tony is able to get the Avengers to Metropolis, where the Avengers confront the JLA again. The Avengers escape, but Tony and Hawkeye manage to take Green Lantern's Power Battery before they leave, with Tony able to stop the Flash in his tracks. The two later take down Captain Atom and Green Arrow in order to collect the Casket of Ancient Winters. Tony then leaves and arrives to save Photon and Quasar from Wonder Woman and Green Lantern, allowing them to take the Spear of Destiny. After the battle in the Savage Land, Tony is one of the Avengers and is clueless as to the dimensional shifts that are happening around him. After Cap and Superman attack each other, Tony ends up in Metropolis. When the two worlds are briefly corrected by the Grandmaster, Tony is shown his true future with his alcoholism and his defeat by Obadiah Stane. Accepting this, he aids the JLA and the Avengers in the final battle and helped build the ship that took them to Krona's base. During the battle, he teams up with Kyle Rayner to create a weapon to use against their enemies and the two are shown to be impressed by one another, Kyle expressing his awe at Tony's engineering prowess and Tony asking Kyle where he could get a Green Lantern ring.
Mangaverse
In the Marvel Mangaverse reality, Tony Stark creates the original armor together with Dr. Ho Yinsen and acts as Iron Man for a time, but eventually vanishes after a battle with Namor, the Submariner. He is succeeded by Antoinette (Toni) Stark, his twin sister, a former agent of SHIELD, who turns Iron Man into a massive operation - a veritable army of Iron Men in many forms, with herself as Iron Woman. After she dies in battle against the Hulk, Tony Stark reveals himself again; he has gone underground after spinal cancer reduced him to a disembodied head hooked up to a life support system. However, he has designed a new armor, and a body that he can integrate with.
He also had designed four massive vehicles for the Avengers of his world to use, which could combine (in a manner resembling old fashioned combining super robots like Combattler V and Voltes V) into a skyscraper-sized Iron Man-mecha (Dubbed Ultimate Iron Man in its first appearance, then the Iron Avenger in its battle with the Hulk and finally simply called "the Avenger's mecha" in Volume 2 of the series). Unfortunately it was quickly destroyed by that world's Hulk. Apparently, however, it was rebuilt again by the time of the second volume, this time as a single robotic unit without transformation (or, if it was capable of transformation, it was never demonstrated). This unit helped fight off the giant Galactus spores, but was later destroyed, along with most of the Avengers, single-handedly by the Mangaverse version of Dr. Doom.
Marvel Adventures
The Marvel Adventures Iron Man is very similar to the Earth-616 Iron Man, but with some changes. Instead of suffering damage to his heart due to a booby trap in Vietnam, Tony Stark's heart was damaged when an experimental plane he was flying was brought down by AIM. AIM wanted Stark to build weapons and devices for them. Dr. Gia-Bao Yinsen aided Tony in escaping AIM, but Yinsen died saving his country from AIM. Iron Man does not seem to have problems with alcoholism, since the Marvel Adventures is aimed at a younger demographic. Iron Man's armor resembles his Extremis armor although Iron Man has other armors that fit over his regular armor, as in the case of his underwater armor.
Marvel Apes
The version of Iron Man appearing in the Marvel Apes mini-series is a mandrill, appropriately being named the Iron Mandrill. He is a member of the Apevengers. At one point, he is attacked by the zombified Wasp of the Marvel Zombies universe and infected, though he is later apparently cured when these events are undone via time travel.
Marvel Zombies
The first series
In the Marvel Zombies universe, Tony Stark has been infected by the zombie virus. Alongside a horde of starving undead superhuman zombies, Iron Man attacks the Silver Surfer. The attack is successful, but one of the Surfer's energy bolts hits Iron Man's lower torso, cutting him in half. The zombie "survives" this wound and later gains cosmic powers (including flight) by eating part of the Surfer's corpse. When Galactus arrives, Iron Man and the five other surviving zombies devour him. They are able to absorb Galactus' power, and call themselves "The Galacti".
Marvel Zombies 2
He also appears in Marvel Zombies 2, one of the small group of super-powered zombies that have eaten their way across all known space. Here Stark has had his entire lost lower body replaced with cybernetics. He also appears to have forgotten he had some design in the machine which opened a link to the Ultimate Universe. He was shocked to see Forge, one of the surviving X-Men, wearing his Mark I armored suit. The zombified Hulk kills Iron Man when he stomps through the armor, forcing Tony Stark's flesh and blood through any openings left in the armor. However Iron Man had recently revived next issue, but only as a cameo, on Marvel Zombies 3.
Marvel Zombies Return
In the final issue of Marvel Zombies 2, the remaining zombies are transported to another universe. At the point where the zombies reach this new reality, the period is nearly identical to the one where Tony Stark was an alcoholic. Zombie Giant Man infects Happy Hogan, Pepper Potts and a number of other people at Stark Industries. A drunken Tony Stark lacks the will power to become Iron Man despite Pepper Potts' requests, so James Rhodes dons the suit to save him. Crucial to fate of the multiverse are the nanites that Stark has accidentally created, which destroy damaged flesh and tissue as a cure for cancer, and prove to be a potent weapon against the zombies. This was grafted onto Flint Marko's body. He sacrifices himself to kill several zombies in Stark Tower, with Rhodes permanently succeeding him in the role of Iron Man. His nanites are then used by his successor, now a member of the New Avengers, years later to kill the remaining super-powered zombies and end the inter-dimensional zombie threat.
MC2
In the alternative future of MC2, Tony Stark retires after the loss of many heroes in battle, but eventually creates the armored computer program Mainframe, which joins the next generation of Avengers.
Mini Marvels
Iron Man is a recurring character in "Mini Marvels". He appears in story arcs like "The Armored Avengers" & "World War Hulk". He is portrayed as conceited and thinks himself the best of the team. He has a friendly rivalry with Hawkeye.
Newuniversal
In the alternative world of newuniversal, Tony Stark is one of three humans altered by the Fireworks on April 26, 1953, gaining abilities associated with the Cipher glyph. Prior to the Fireworks, Stark is unexceptional, but he then becomes a technological genius. His discoveries revitalise his father's company, Stark Industries, and are "five years ahead of everything everyone else is working on". There are suggestions that he is capable of more, but is not making all of his discoveries public.
Stark's transformation is noticed by the National Security Agency's Project Spitfire, which is discreetly monitoring the superhumans created by the Fireworks. In March 1959, Stark's plane crashes in North Vietnam and he is imprisoned. He escapes by constructing an Iron Man suit from "spare parts" and flying out of the country.
On April 4, 1959, when he returns to the US, the NSA takes Stark to a San Diego naval base, ostensibly to debrief him. Stark is then shot dead by Philip L. Voight, a Project Spitfire agent, to prevent him from making contact with the other superhumans.
The Iron Man suit is seized by Project Spitfire and reverse engineered by Doctor Joe Swann, eventually becoming the basis of the project's H.E.X suit, an exoskeleton designed for combat with superhumans.
Ruins
In the two issue Warren Ellis series Ruins, Tony Stark is a rich industrialist who supplied weapons for the US military in an attempt to win the Vietnam War. This version of Iron Man was injured while mediating between US forces and pro-secessionist Californians by a piece of shrapnel thrown by the National Guard. This embittered Stark who formed a revolutionary cell named the Avengers. This version of Iron Man was betrayed by Scarlet Witch who provided the United States military information to crush the Avengers. Tony Stark is presumably killed.
Spider-Verse
In the Amazing Spider-Man comic's event Spider-Verse, Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew), Scarlet Spider (Kaine) and Spider-man (Ben Reily) meet and fight a clone of Tony Stark (Earth-802) as Iron Man serving one of the Inheritors, Jennix.
Spider-Island
In a Secret Wars Warzone version of Spider-Island, he is mutated into one of the Spider Queen's spider minions and battles Agent Venom and the now monstrous Avengers. Venom sprays Tony with Norman Osborn's Green Goblin formula, freeing Tony from the Queen, but slowly making him insane. He modifies Norman's armor and becomes the Iron Goblin to aid the resistance. When they are surrounded by a number of spider creatures (including Giant Man) with few means of escape, Tony sacrifices himself using the Black Knight's Ebony Blade so he can aid them and die before the Goblin formula completely takes him over.
Spider-Gwen
In Spider-Gwen Tony Stark of Earth-65 is an arms dealer, the owner of global private military company WAR MACHINE, and owner of the coffee chain StarkBucks.
Spider-Man: Life Story
In Spider-Man: Life Story, Tony Stark/Iron Man does not face a traumatizing experience that leads to stop weapons manufacturing as his Earth-616 counterpart did instead he continues to produce them and play a key role in the Vietnam War and a World War III-esque conflict known as "The Russian War" as well as participating in Secret Wars while on Battleworld. Iron Man also became Secretary of Defense in the United States government and was one of the two leaders alongside Captain America in the Superhuman Civil War.
Squadron Supreme
In the Squadron Supreme series, the equivalent of Iron Man is Tucker Ford. Tucker was a very intelligent boy since his early years, however since being raised by his strong-willed mother along with never going to school with anyone his own age made Tucker to have difficulty to make any kind of meaningful personal relationship and because of this, he became very introverted.
As he grew up, he had built an imaginative world where he was a superhero. When trying to explain his imaginations to his therapist, they turned around and mocked him before their colleagues, however being unaware that Tucker had them under electronic surveillance. This experience motivated him to follow his dream and become a real superhero.
As a young adult, he built a powerful, but unstable armour made from nanotechnology in order to achieve his dream, eventually meeting the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., Nick Fury and offered his intelligence and company to Nick Fury to help defend America.
He fails to gain the affection of Nick Fury and to get a kiss from the spider-powered superhuman, Nell Ruggles, also known as Arachnophilia.
He offers to build a S.H.I.E.L.D. Hellicarrier as a base for the organization and to be a member of the team in order to live out of his imagination. The only person that Tucker had the closest relationship with is Nell, expressing romantic feelings towards her.
Ultimate Marvel
What If
Newer Fantastic Four
In the timeline of What if: Newer Fantastic Four, the Fantastic Four were killed by De'Lila (a rogue Skrull) and the Hulk, so Spider-Man, the Ghost Rider and Wolverine joined together to avenge them as the New Fantastic Four. Thanos of Titan, as in the mainline universe, came into possession of the six Infinity Gems and became ruler of all reality, before erasing half of all living beings from existence. Among those who vanished was Ghost Rider, and, being present at the battle during which he was erased, Iron Man takes his place. The Newer Fantastic Four soon realize they are outmatched. Stark, with help from the Hulk, manages to salvage the empty armor of Ziran, a Celestial, and realizes it can be controlled by thoughts. Stark takes control of the armor and connects it to the Negative Zone, allowing him to call on all the power of that reality. Despite this, he is defeated by Thanos. Stark's sacrifice allows Wolverine to trick Thanos into a position where the Gauntlet could be removed. Spider-Man subsequently uses the Gauntlet to undo the damage Thanos had caused.
Iron Man: Demon in an Armor
In What If: Iron Man: Demon in an Armor, Tony Stark is Doom's college roommate rather than Reed Richards, inspiring Doom to develop a machine that allows him to transfer his mind into Stark's body while leaving Stark trapped in Doom's body with no memory of his past. While Doom uses Stark's connections and company to establish himself, the amnesic Stark- believing himself to be Doom- works to rebuild his life, creating his own company and forming his own reputation from the ground up. This culminates in a confrontation between the two wearing early versions of their respective armours- Doom having developed a green-and-silver Iron Man armour while Stark has created Doom's costume with gold and a red cloak-, during which Doom reveals the truth about their switch, only for Stark to reject the offer to switch back because Doom has destroyed the name of Tony Stark while Doctor von Doom has developed an honorable reputation.
Realm of Kings
In this one-shot, Quasar, the newly resurrected Protector of the Universe travels into the Fault, the immense tear which has appeared in the fabric of spacetime itself after the catastrophic battle between Vulcan and Black Bolt. Reaching what he perceives to be the other end of the tunnel that is the Fault, he arrives in another universe... a dark, twisted universe, the `corpse of a universe´, possessed by Lovecraftian horrors which are worshipped by all the denizens of that universe, including Earth's mightiest heroes. Iron Man is never seen outside his armor, but he, like the others, serves the "Many-angled ones" with total devotion.
X-Men Forever
In this alternative universe of X-Men Forever, Tony Stark, while still publicly the super-hero Iron Man, is also the head of the shadowy organization known as The Consortium. The scientific wing of the organization is headed by the Trask family, who turn out to be his relatives. They create newer versions of the Sentinels and kidnap mutants to use in experimentation to find the cause of the so-called "Burnout" syndrome that causes mutants to die early. However, as part of his efforts to undermine the Consortium's anti-mutant agenda, he becomes Nick Fury's insider and eventually sacrifices his life along with Beast. He assists Storm- who has been split into an amnesic child version of herself and an energy form with full memory and no body- by providing her energy self with a suit based on the now-deceased Black Panther so that her energy can maintain corporeal form, although he is subsequently killed by a twisted clone of Storm before he can reveal her existence to anyone else.
Mutant X
In Mutant X, Tony Stark is Iron Giant Man and part of the anti-mutant group the Avengers. He was later killed by X-Man Captain America along with the other Avengers.
Infinity Warps
During the Infinity Wars storyline, where the universe was combined in half, Iron Man was fused with Thor creating Iron Hammer. Sigurd Stark was the fifth richest person on the world thanks to his genius about technology, however due to his lack of memories before five years, taunted him driving to drink. After going through the Norvegian, he was attacked by some Dark Elves, lead by Krimson Kurse (fusion Crimson Dynamo and Kurse). He got poisoned by an arrow, slowing killing him and taken by the Elves to aid their other prisoner Eitri (fusion of Eitri and Ho Yinsen) in order to build powerful weapons for the Elves. Then, Sigurd became friend with Eitri and together build an armor, that prevented the poison from killing Sigurd, along with a hammer in order to escape the Dark Elves. However, during their escape Eitri is killed and after Sigurd defeated the Elves and Krimson Kurse, he discovered that Krimson was his lost friend who had turned into a Thrall to be a servant to Dark Elves and after that he mercy killed his friend. Sigurd then decided to the All-Father on Asgard to seek help into defeating Malekith (fusion of Malekith and Mandarin) and with the help of his AI assistant H.E.I.M.D.A.L.L. (fusion of Heimdall and J.A.R.V.I.S.) opened the B.I.F.R.O.S.T. and went to Asgard. When travelling, he remembered his old memories: his true name was Stark Odinson, who due to his arrogance, his father Howard Odin (fusion of Howard Stark and Odin) banished his son to Earth where he would learn to how is like to be a mortal. Upon arriving, Malekith had trapped the Aesir and had allied with Madame Hel (fusion of Madame Masque and Hela and Stane Odinson (fusion of Loki and Obadiah Stane). Luckily, Iron Hammer was able to defeat Malekith and Odin allowed his son to become a god again, however Sigurd refused, feeling better as a human.
In other media
In 1966, Iron Man was featured in a series of cartoons. In 1981, Iron Man guest appeared in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, but only as Tony Stark. He went on to feature again in his own series in the 1990s as part of the Marvel Action Hour with the Fantastic Four; Robert Hays provided his voice in these animated cartoons. Iron Man makes an appearance in the episode "Shell Games" of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.
Apart from comic books, Iron Man appears in Capcom's "Vs." video games, including Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds, and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. Iron Man is a playable character in Iron Man, the 1992 arcade game Captain America and the Avengers, Marvel: Ultimate Alliance and its sequel, and Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, as well as being featured as an unlockable character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and Tony Hawk's Underground. In the 2009 animated series, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, most of the characters, including Tony Stark, are teenagers. An anime adaptation aired in Japan in late 2010 as part of a collaboration between Marvel Animation and Madhouse, in which Stark, voiced by Keiji Fujiwara, travels to Japan where he ends up facing off against the Zodiac.
In 2008, a film adaptation titled Iron Man was released, starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark and directed by Jon Favreau. Iron Man received very positive reviews from film critics, grossing $318 million domestically and $585 million worldwide, and became the first in a series of over 20 films known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The character of Tony Stark, again played by Robert Downey Jr., appeared at the end of the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk. Downey reprised his role in Iron Man 2 (2010), Marvel's The Avengers (2012), Iron Man 3 (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019).
In 2009, Playtech released an online casino slot machine game called Iron Man. After that they created two more games, Iron Man 2 and Iron Man 3.
In October 2016, Eoin Colfer released a young adult novel called Iron Man: The Gauntlet.
Cultural influence and legacy
The rapper Ghostface Killah, a member of Wu-Tang Clan, titled his 1996 debut solo album Ironman, and has since continued to use lyrics related to the Iron Man comics and samples from the animated TV shows on his records. He has adopted the nickname Tony Starks as one of his numerous alter-egos, and was featured in a scene deleted from the Iron Man film.
Paul McCartney's song "Magneto and Titanium Man" was inspired by the X-Men's nemesis and the original version of the Iron Man villain. Another Iron Man villain, the Crimson Dynamo, is mentioned in the lyrics to this song.
The British band Razorlight mentions Tony Stark in a verse of their song, "Hang By, Hang By".
The character of Nathan Stark on the television show Eureka is inspired by Tony Stark.
In 2011, IGN ranked Iron Man 12th in the Top 100 Comic Book Heroes.
Two Iron Man-themed trucks compete in the Monster Jam monster truck racing series. Debuted in Atlanta on 9 January 2010, they are driven by Lee O' Donnell and Morgan Kane.
In 2015, University of Central Florida engineering student Albert Manero, who builds and donates affordable 3D-printed bionic limbs to those in need, constructed a bionic arm based on Iron Man's suit for 7-year-old Alex Pring, a superhero fan who was born with a partially formed right arm. He then delivered the Iron Man arm to Pring with the help of Robert Downey Jr. in character as Tony Stark.
For Major League Baseball Players Weekend in August 2018, New York Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres designed his custom cleats after Iron Man's suit.
A TV show demonstrated a hovering bullet-mitigating suit with some of the official Marvel design features in 2019.
See also
List of Iron Man enemies
Jetpack man
References
Further reading
Will Cooley and Mark C. Rogers, "Ike's Nightmare: Iron Man and the Military-Industrial Complex," in Ages of Iron Man, Joseph Dorowski, ed., 2015.
Tom DeFalco, Avengers: The Ultimate Guide, Dorling Kindersley, 2005.
Mark D. White (ed.), Iron Man and Philosophy: Facing the Stark Reality, Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
External links
"Stark Reality: A Different Hero for Different Times" by Ian Chant - PopMatters.com
Advanced Iron (fanzine)
Iron Man Library
Tony Stark at Spider-Man Wiki
Avengers (comics) characters
Characters created by Don Heck
Characters created by Jack Kirby
Characters created by Larry Lieber
Characters created by Stan Lee
Cold War in popular culture
Comics characters introduced in 1963
Fictional adoptees
Fictional alcohol abusers
Fictional aerospace engineers
Fictional business executives
Fictional characters from New York City
Fictional cyborgs
Fictional electronic engineers
Fictional inventors
Fictional nuclear engineers
Fictional roboticists
Fictional socialites
Fictional technopaths
Iron Man characters
Marvel Comics adapted into films
Marvel Comics adapted into video games
Marvel Comics American superheroes
Marvel Comics film characters
Marvel Comics male superheroes
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents
Superheroes who are adopted
Telepresence in fiction
Fictional hackers
Fictional mechanics
| false |
[
"U Turn is a 2016 Indian Kannada-language supernatural thriller film written, produced and directed by Pawan Kumar. It stars Shraddha Srinath in the lead role. Roger Narayan, Dileep Raj and Radhika Chetan feature in supporting roles. The plot revolves around the death of motorists who break a traffic rule at a particular flyover in Bangalore and subsequent pinning down of the culprit by an intern journalist and police inspector duo.\n\nU-Turn was first remade in Malayalam in 2017 as Careful. Director Pawan Kumar remade it into a Telugu-Tamil bilingual in 2018 with the same title - thereby making it the third Kannada movie to be remade in three other South Indian languages after School Master and Sampathige Savaal.\n\nThe movie was remade in Sinhala in 2019 also titled U Turn - thereby becoming the first Kannada movie to be remade in Sinhala. \n\nThe Filipino remake with the same name was released on pay-to-view basis on 30 October 2020. With that, U Turn became the first Indian movie to be remade in Filipino \n\nThe Bengali remake titled Flyover was released on 2 April 2021. The Hindi remake with the same title was announced by Ekta Kapoor in July 2021. \n\nOnce that version releases, it will become the second Indian movie to be remade in seven languages after Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana and will surpass the record set by the 1986 movie Anuraga Aralithu for being the Kannada movie to be remade in highest number of languages. It was the seventh Kannada movie to be remade in a foreign language and the first Kannada movie to be remade in two foreign languages.\n\nPlot \nRachana (Shraddha Srinath), an intern, with The Indian Express, a daily newspaper, is working on an article on the incidents at a Bangalore flyover. She also has a crush on the crime reporter Aditya, whose help she seeks for research material on accidents on the flyover. She finds that each day some motorists move the concrete blocks that partition the road just to take a quick U-turn and avoid the traffic. They don’t move them back and the blocks are left to lie randomly on the road leading to many accidents. A homeless man sitting on the flyover notes down the vehicle numbers of commuters who violate the rule to take the U-turn and gives the list to Rachana. She obtains the details of the culprits using her contact in the traffic department, with the intention of confronting them for their \"short-cut\" and writing an article for the paper. Her attempt to meet the first person on the list goes in vain.\n\nLater the same day, the police take her into custody and accuse her of killing the same person she wanted to meet. She is shocked and tells her side of the story. Though the senior police officer rejects it, sub-inspector Nayak finds it believable and does some investigation. It is revealed that all the persons Rachana has on her list have committed suicide. They also noticed that they have committed suicide the same day they took the wrong \"u-turn\". Rachana and Nayak find another number has been noted by the homeless man which is to be delivered to Rachana the next day. The duo trace the address and try to rescue the man, a lawyer, who has taken the u-turn on the same day. As nothing seems suspicious, both leave only to encounter the very death of the lawyer whom they came to rescue.\n\nLater Rachana tries to confront the homeless man for the injuries in the fly-over. Meanwhile, she sees two young men violate the U-Turn and reports it to Nayak. Nayak locks them up in an old Police lock-up to save them. But they start fighting and eventually die under the nose of the police.\n\nWith no way of finding the real cause of the death of the culprits, Rachana herself takes the wrong u-turn and waits for something to happen. The one who has been killing the culprits is a woman named Maya, because she and her daughter Aarna died in an accident due to the concrete roadblocks that were moved by the culprits in order to make way for their u-turn. Using her supernatural powers, Maya tries to kill Rachana as well. But Rachana promises to find the person who was responsible for Maya's death. Maya agrees. Rachana, with the help of Nayak, tries to find the person who moved the blocks on the day of Maya's accident. They find out the phone number and address of the guy who moved the block. Rachana writes this on a balloon and leaves it on the flyover for Maya to find. She then invites her boyfriend Aditya for dinner.\n\nDuring dinner she tries to call the number she found out earlier. It turns out to be Aditya's work mobile number. Devastated she confronts Aditya and informs him that due to his negligence a mother and daughter lost their lives. Aditya says it was not him who made the U-turn. He merely exchanged his bike with his friend. In the final twist, it is revealed that the guy who moved the block was Maya's own husband. Maya's ghost is waiting in Aditya's house to kill him when Maya's husband whom Rachna has informed about the events turns up and explains to Maya that it was because of him that they lost their lives. He then tries to commit suicide by jumping from the balcony. Maya's ghost saves him and tells him that his punishment is to suffer in this world without his wife and daughter.\n\nCast \n\n Shraddha Srinath as Rachana\n Roger Narayan as Sub-inspector Nayak\n Radhika Chetan as Maya\n Dileep Raj as Aditya\n Skanda Ashok as Ritesh\n Krishna Hebbale as Inspector Sudhakar\n Pratibha Nandakumar as lady constable Sarojamma\n Pramod Shetty as Sundar\n Aarna Kulkarni as Aarna\n Chethan D'Souza as Raju\n Kennedi Gopalan as the Homeless flyover man\n Ram Manjjonaath as Police Officer Muddanna\n Rajath Mayee as auto rickshaw driver\n Surya Vasishta as Doctor\n\nProduction \nAccording to the director, the script of the movie took place on the road. He says, \"U-Turn happened in July when I used to drop my daughter Lucy to school and traffic used to be high. I used to park in front of her school for more than an hour and used the time to write the script.\"\n\n\"U Turn\", which has been made under Pawan Kumar's newly launched banner PK Studios, has Poornachandra Tejaswi's music, Satya Hegde, Advitha Gurumurthy and Siddharth Nuni's cinematography and Suresh's editing. Shraddha Srinath and Dilip Raj, who has done many supporting roles before, are playing the main roles. Roger Narayan, Skanda, Krishna, Pavan, Naveen, Divya, Pramod, Aarna, Kennedy, Chethan D'Souza, Delson D'Souza and others are in the cast.\n\nReception \nSunayana Suresh of The Times of India rated the film four out of five, and wrote, \"The film can be read on philosophical and symbolic levels with leitmotifs and what not, but the triumph is that it even appeals to the lay viewer who seeks thrill and entertainment and nothing more.\" Shyam Prasad S of Bangalore Mirror wrote, \"It is what happens post interval that makes or breaks any film. Here, Pawan Kumar takes the easier route and robs U-Turn of becoming a great film.\" J Hurtado of Screen Anarchy wrote, \"Pawan Kumar's U TURN Will Keep You Guessing Until The Last Minute. U-Turn is a film that constantly challenges and defies categorization in the service of telling its own story.\"\n\nRemakes \nU Turn was remade in Malayalam in 2017 as Careful. It was later remade into a Telugu-Tamil bilingual in 2018 with the same title by Pawan Kumar himself. The film was also officially remade in Sri Lanka in Sinhala in 2019 with the same title. The Filipino remake with the same title was released on 30 October 2020. The film was remade in Bengali as Flyover and released on 2 April 2021. The Hindi remake with the same title was announced by Ekta Kapoor in July 2021.\nThe director had revealed that the rights for the Malay language remake were sold out. He also revealed that there are plans to remake the film in Chinese, Thai, Marathi and Gujarati.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal source \n \n \n\n2016 films\nKannada-language films\n2010s Kannada-language films\nIndian thriller films\nFilms set in Bangalore\nFilms shot in Bangalore\nKannada films remade in other languages\nIndian films\n2016 thriller films",
"Destiny Etiko (born 12 August 1989) is a Nigerian actress who won the City People Movie Award for most Promising Actress (English) at the City People Entertainment Awards in 2016.\n\nEarly life and education\nEtiko was born in Udi, a village located precisely in Enugu state, a southeastern geographical area of Nigeria occupied predominantly by the igbo people of Nigeria. \nEtiko received both her primary and secondary school education in Enugu State where she obtained her First School Leaving Certificate and the West African Senior School Certificate. Etiko in bid to obtain a university degree relocated to Anambra state then applied to study Theater Arts In Nnamdi Azikiwe University located in Awka. Etiko was accepted and granted admission and eventually graduated with a degree in Theater Arts.\n\nCareer\nEtiko described in an interview with Vanguard, a Nigerian newspaper, that after registering with the Actors Guild of Nigeria she ventured into the Nigerian movie industry commonly known as Nollywood in 2011 and described her experience then as a difficult one because she had to combine her acting career with her school requirements as she was still a student at the time. Etiko's career received prominence after she featured in a movie titled Idemili which was produced in 2012 by Ernest Obi but was not released until 2014. Her role in the movie earned her a City People Entertainment Awards nomination. Before her role in the movie titled Idemili, Etiko had appeared in other movies although did not receive prominent roles in them.\n\nAwards and nominations\n\nPersonal life\nUnlike what has become the norm in the Nigerian movie industry which is relocating to Lagos state in order to succeed as a creative, Etiko who was born in Enugu state, still resides there and has been living there throughout the course of her acting career. Etiko in an interview affirmed that she had been a victim of sexual harassment against women by male movie producers who are by far the majority as pertains movie productions in Nigeria. Etiko in 2019 gifted her mum an apartment and praised her for supporting her decision to become an actress. Her father on the other hand had vehemently opposed her decision to become an actress at the initial time. In May 2020, she lost her father.\n\nWithout mincing words, Destiny Etiko remains one of the most generous and selfless actresses in the Nigerian movie industry. Her goodwill towards the less privileged people has earned her so much love and affection from the masses. Currently, the actress set up a non-profit organization in her name which is aimed basically at alleviating the miserable condition of people languishing in penury and destitution. Destiny Etiko Foundation (DEF) on countless occasions have reached out to people in various localities in order to lend a helping hand in any little way.\n\nDestiny Etiko alongside her crew members has visited schools, widows and poverty-stricken individuals in the interior parts of Nigeria and subsequently blessed them with items such as bags of rice, garri and so on. There is no doubt that benevolent gestures like such bring about much love from people and blessings from God; little wonder they say ‘one good turn deserves another’. Hence it is in her nature to show excessive love to the helpless, they reciprocate in the little way they can by continuously blowing her trumpet.\n\nSelected filmography\nThe prince & I (2019)\nHeart of Love (2019)\nMy sisters love (2019)\nPoor Billionaire (2019)\nVirgin goddess (2019)\nQueen of love (2019)\nThe Sacred Cowry (2019)\nThe Return of Ezendiala (2019)\nBarren Kingdom (2019)\nPains of the Orphan (2019)\nClap of Royalty (2019)\nThe Hidden Sin (2019)\nFamily Yoke (2019)\nKing’s Word (2019)\nSound of Evil (2019)\nMy Private Part (2019) as Stella\nPower of Royalty (2019)\nSunset of Love (2019)\nLondon Prince (2019)\nWoman of Power (2019)\nTears of Regret (2018)\nEvil Seekers (2017)\nFear of a Woman (2016)\n3 Days to Wed (2016) \nThe Storm (2016)\nLiving in Poverty (2020)\nHour of Victory (2020)\nWrong turn (2021)\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n\nLiving people\n21st-century Nigerian actresses\nIgbo actresses\n1989 births\nPeople from Udi"
] |
[
"Gong (band)",
"The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972-74)"
] |
C_6045c4a8119245e68a570f9e7aa052f6_0
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were they played on the radio?
| 1 |
were Gong played on the radio?
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Gong (band)
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1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deia to look after she and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake. In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. As they settled in, they were played a rough mix of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, then already in production. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers, and who had replaced Oldfield in Ayers' band. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound. Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to she and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deia with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deia, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy. In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price. CANNOTANSWER
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was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,
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Gong are a progressive rock band that incorporates elements of jazz and space rock into their musical style. The group was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian musician Daevid Allen and English vocalist Gilli Smyth. Band members have included Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell and Theo Travis. Others who have played on stage with Gong include Don Cherry, Chris Cutler, Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Dave Stewart and Tatsuya Yoshida.
Gong's 1970 debut album, Magick Brother, featured a psychedelic pop sound. By the following year, the second album, Camembert Electrique, featured the more psychedelic rock/space rock sound with which they would be most associated. Between 1973 and 1974, Gong released their best known work, the allegorical Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, describing the adventures of Zero the Hero, the Good Witch Yoni and the Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong.
In 1975, Allen and Smyth left the band, which continued without them, releasing a series of jazz rock albums under the leadership of drummer Pierre Moerlen. This incarnation soon became known as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. Meanwhile, Smyth formed Mother Gong while Allen initiated a series of spin-off groups, including Planet Gong, New York Gong and Gongmaison, before returning to lead Gong once again in 1990 until his death in 2015. With Allen's encouragement, the band decided to continue, releasing the album Rejoice! I'm Dead! in September 2016 and The Universe Also Collapses in 2019.
History
Protogong (1967–68)
In September 1967, Australian singer and guitarist Daevid Allen, a member of the English psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom for 3 years following a French tour because his visa had expired. He settled in Paris, where he and his partner, London-born Sorbonne professor Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of Gong (later referred to by Allen as "Protogong") along with Ziska Baum on vocals and Loren Standlee on flute. However, the nascent band came to an abrupt end during the May 1968 student revolution, when Allen and Smyth were forced to flee the country after a warrant was issued for their arrest. They headed for Deià in Majorca, where they had lived for a time in 1966.
Gong 'proper' begins (1968–1971)
In August 1969, film director Jérôme Laperrousaz, a close friend of the pair, invited them back to France to record a soundtrack for a motorcycle racing movie which he was planning. This came to nothing at the time, but they were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly-formed independent label BYG Actuel to record an album, and so set about forming a new electric Gong band in Paris, recruiting their first rhythm section of Christian Tritsch (bass) and Rachid Houari (drums and percussion) and re-connecting with a saxophonist called Didier Malherbe whom they had met in Deià. However, Tritsch was not ready in time for the sessions and so Allen played the bass guitar himself. The album, entitled Magick Brother, was completed in October.
The re-born Gong played its debut gig at the BYG Actuel Festival in the small Belgian town of Amougies, on 27 October 1969, joined by Danny Laloux on hunting horn and percussion, and Dieter Gewissler and Gerry Fields on violin, and was introduced to the stage by bemused compere Frank Zappa. Magick Brother was released in March 1970, followed in April by a non-album single, "Est-Ce Que Je Suis; Garçon Ou Fille?" b/w "Hip Hip Hypnotise Ya", which again featured Laloux and Gewissler. In October, the band moved into an abandoned 12-room hunting lodge called Pavillon du Hay, near Voisines and Sens, 120 km south-east of Paris. They would be based there until early 1974.
Houari left the band in the spring of 1971 and was replaced by English drummer Pip Pyle, whom Allen had been introduced to by Robert Wyatt during the recording of his debut solo album, Banana Moon. The new line-up recorded a soundtrack for Laperrousaz's movie, now entitled Continental Circus, backed poet Dashiell Hedayat on his album Obsolete, and played at the second Glastonbury Festival, later documented on the Glastonbury Fayre album. Next, they began work on their second studio album, Camembert Electrique, later referred to by Allen as "the first real band album". It established the progressive, space rock sound which would make their name, leading, in the autumn, to their first UK tour. However, by the end of the year Pyle had left the group, to be replaced by another English drummer, Laurie Allan.
The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972–74)
Gong went through increasing line-up disruption in 1972. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deià to look after her and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake.
In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound.
Flying Teapot was released on 25 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first instalment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to her and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deià with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deià, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy.
In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.
Daevid Allen's departure and Shamal (1975–76)
Increasing tension and personality clashes led to Tim Blake being asked to leave in February 1975 during rehearsals for a tour. He was not replaced. Then, at a gig in Cheltenham on 10 April, the day before the release of Steve Hillage's Fish Rising album, Daevid Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him from doing so, and he left the band. The others decided to carry on without him.
In August, Pierre Moerlen was persuaded to return, replacing the unhappy and alcoholic Davison, and the band now also added Mireille Bauer on percussion, Jorge Pinchevsky on violin and Patrice Lemoine on synthesizer and, for the first time in Gong, keyboards. They toured the UK in November 1975, as documented on the 2005 release Live in Sherwood Forest '75, and worked on material for their next album, Shamal. Hillage, however, was increasingly uncomfortable without Allen, and with now being seen as the band's de facto leader. With a solo career beckoning, he and Giraudy decided to leave before Shamal was completed, participating in it only as guests. Howlett took over as lead male vocalist and Sandy Colley, Lemoine's partner and the band's cook, became his female counterpart. The album was released in February 1976 and they toured in support until a crisis was precipitated in May when Pinchevsky was refused entry to the U.K. for carrying marijuana. Ex-King Crimson violinist David Cross was tried out as a possible replacement, but before any progress could be made with this new line-up, the band split into two camps: Howlett wanted to keep vocals, but Moerlen and Bauer wanted the music to be entirely instrumental, with Malherbe undecided. Virgin Records executive Simon Draper chose Moerlen's way and Howlett left, quickly followed by Lemoine and Colley.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong and other 70s offshoots (1976–1980)
For contractual reasons, the Gong name remained in play for another two years, but the band was now effectively Pierre Moerlen's Gong, having little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen. Moerlen formed a new mallet percussion based line-up, adding his brother Benoit Moerlen, future Weather Report percussionist Mino Cinelu, journeyman guitarist Allan Holdsworth and Flying Teapot bassist Francis Moze to record the album Gazeuse! in late 1976. Malherbe, Holdsworth, Moze and Cinelu all left soon afterwards, but Moerlen kept a band going with American bassist Hansford Rowe until the late 1980s. To avoid confusion, it first became known as Gong-Expresso and then, from 1978, as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. One last album, Pentanine, was recorded in 2002 with Russian musicians before Moerlen died unexpectedly in May 2005, aged 53.
A Gong reunion event held in Paris in May 1977 brought together all of the current strands which had developed and re-asserted the primacy of the Daevid Allen-led band. It featured sets by Tim Blake, Lady June, Howlett's Strontium 90, Steve Hillage, 'Shamal Gong', Gong-Expresso, Daevid Allen and Euterpe, and was headlined by Trilogy Gong, the classic lineup of Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett and Moerlen. Their performance was documented on the live album Gong est Mort, Vive Gong. Strontium 90 was Mike Howlett's short-lived band which was notable for having two bass players, and for introducing Police members Sting and Stewart Copeland to their future guitarist Andy Summers.
Daevid Allen continued to develop the Gong mythology in his solo albums and with two new bands: Planet Gong (1977), which comprised Allen and Smyth playing with the British festival band Here & Now, and New York Gong (1979), comprising Allen and the American musicians who would later become known as Material. At the same time, Gilli Smyth formed Mother Gong with English guitarist/producer Harry Williamson and Didier Malherbe, and played in Spain and England. Allen delighted in this proliferation of groups and considered his role at this time to be that of an instigator, traveling around the world leaving active Gong-related bands in his wake.
Gongmaison and reunion (1989–1992)
After spending most of the Eighties in his native Australia, Allen returned to the UK in 1988 with a new project, The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, whose revolving cast included violinist Graham Clark and Gong saxophonist Didier Malherbe. This morphed into Gongmaison in 1989, which added Harry Williamson from Mother Gong and had a techno-influenced sound with electronic beats, as well as live percussion from Shyamal Maïtra. In 1990, the Gong name was revived for a one-off U.K. T.V. appearance with a line-up featuring Allen, Smyth and Malherbe, plus early 70s drummer Pip Pyle and three members of Here & Now (band): Stephen Lewry (lead guitar), Keith Bailey (bass) and Paul Noble (synth). In April 1992, Gongmaison became Gong permanently with the combined line-up of Allen, Malherbe, Bailey and Pyle, plus Graham Clark and Shyamal Maïtra from Gongmaison. Together they recorded the album Shapeshifter (subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 4) and toured extensively.
25th anniversary celebration (1994) and worldwide touring (1996–2001)
In 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th birthday with a show in London which featured the return of Gilli Smyth, bassist Mike Howlett and lead guitarist Stephen Lewry of Here & Now. This formed the basis of the band which toured worldwide from 1996 to 2001, with Pierre Moerlen replacing Pip Pyle on drums from 1997 through 1999. The album Zero to Infinity was released in 2000, by which time the line-up had changed again to Allen, Smyth, Malherbe and Howlett, plus new recruits on sax and Chris Taylor on drums. This line-up was unique in the band's history in having two sax/flute players.
Acid Mothers Gong (2003–04)
2003 saw a radical new line-up including Acid Mothers Temple members Kawabata Makoto and Cotton Casino, plus University of Errors guitarist Josh Pollock. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando drummed on the 2004 studio album Acid Motherhood, but for the subsequent live dates the rhythm section was Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and Acid Mothers Temple bassist Tsuyama Atsushi. A live album recorded by this line-up in 2004 was released as Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo and they played a few more one-off shows in 2006 and 2007.
Gong Family Unconventions (2004–06)
The European version of Gong had retired from regular touring in 2001, but there were subsequent one-off reunions, most notably at the "Gong Family Unconventions" (Uncons), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms as a one-day event and featured many ex-members and Gong family bands including Here & Now, House of Thandoy, Thom the Poet, Invisible Opera Company, Andy Bole, Bubbledub and Joie Hinton. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here & Now, System 7, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The next Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: 'Classic' Gong (Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Howlett, Travis, Taylor, plus the return of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy), System 7, The Steve Hillage Band, Hadouk, Tim Blake and Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch, Eat Static, Sacred Geometry Band, Acid Mothers Gong and many others. These events have all been compèred by Thom the Poet (now "Thom Moon 10").
Gong Global Family (2007)
In November 2007, Daevid Allen held a series of concerts in Brazil with a new band which he called Gong Global Family. This consisted of Allen on vocals and guitar, Josh Pollock on guitar, Fabio Golfetti (of Violeta de Outono) on guitar, Gabriel Costa (also from Violeta de Outono) on bass, Marcelo Ringel on flute and tenor saxophone, and Fred Barley on drums. He also performed with his other band, University of Errors (Allen, Pollock, Barley and Michael Clare). These shows took place in São Paulo on 21 and 22 November and São Carlos on 24 November. The 21 November show was filmed and released in the UK on DVD and CD by Voiceprint Records. These musicians, minus Marcelo, also recorded some new songs at Mosh studio, São Paulo.
Continuing to record, tour and evolve (2008–2014)
In June 2008, Gong played two concerts in London, at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank (opening Massive Attack's Meltdown festival) and at The Forum, with a line-up of Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett, Taylor and Travis. This line-up then released a new album, 2032, in 2009 and toured in support, including the Glade stage at Glastonbury Festival. They played at The Big Chill festival in the UK on 9 August 2009 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Travis, Taylor and new bassist Dave Sturt, as well as the Beautiful Days festival in Devon and the Lounge On The Farm festival near Canterbury.
Gong played four UK live shows in September 2010 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and new wind player Ian East. Support for these shows was provided by Nik Turner's Space Ritual.
Gong toured Europe in the fall of 2012 with the line-up of Allen, Smyth, Sturt and East, plus Orlando Allen (Acid Mothers Gong) on drums, and Fabio Golfetti (Gong Global Family) on guitar. It would be Gilli Smyth's final tour with the band.
They played in Brazil in May 2013 and again in 2014, this time with the addition of Kavus Torabi on guitar.
The 2014 line-up released a new studio album entitled I See You on 10 November, with Gilli Smyth guesting. However, Daevid Allen had been diagnosed with a cancerous cyst in his neck and had to undergo radiation therapy followed by an extensive period of recuperation. The I See You tour went ahead without him, and the line-up of Sturt, East, Golfetti, Torabi and a "mystery drummer" (revealed to be Cheb Nettles) played five dates in France and two in the UK.
The deaths of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth (2015–16)
On 5 February 2015, Daevid Allen released a statement announcing that the cancer had returned to his neck and had also spread to his lungs, and that he was "not interested in endless surgical operations", leaving him with "approximately six months to live". Just over a month after the initial announcement, on 13 March 2015, Daevid's son Orlando announced through Facebook that Allen had died in Byron Bay, Australia, aged 77.
On 11 April 2015, it was revealed that Allen had written an email to the band prior to his death, expressing his wish that the five remaining members continue performing following his passing and suggesting that Kavus Torabi become the new frontman of the band.
Gilli Smyth died on 22 August 2016, aged 83. She had been admitted to hospital in Byron Bay with pneumonia a couple of days previously.
Post-Daevid Allen: Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016–present)
On 5 July 2016, it was announced that the band line-up consisting of Kavus Torabi, Fabio Golfetti, Dave Sturt, Ian East and Cheb Nettles had recorded a new album entitled Rejoice! I'm Dead!, featuring guest appearances from Steve Hillage on guitar, Didier Malherbe on duduk and Graham Clark on violin, with Daevid Allen's vocals appearing on two tracks. Rejoice! I'm Dead! was released on 16 September 2016 through Snapper Music. On May 2019, the lineup followed up with their fifteenth album The Universe Also Collapses.
On August 2019, Universal Music announced the boxed set, Love From The Planet Gong: The Virgin Years 1973–75, encompassing Gong's tenure with Virgin Records, would be released on 27 September. Curated by Hillage, it contains remasters of four studio albums and previously unreleased live recordings made between 1973 and 1975.
Music and lyrics
Style and influences
Gong's music fuses many influences into a distinctive style which has been variously described by critics and journalists as experimental rock, jazz fusion, jazz rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock and space rock. Gong has also been associated with the Canterbury scene of progressive rock bands.
Rolling Stone described Gong's music as combining "psychedelic English whimsy, German kosmische space jams and Gallic libertine fusion."
Daevid Allen's guitar playing was influenced by Syd Barrett.
Mythology
The Gong mythology is a humorous collection of recurring characters and allegorical themes which permeate the albums of Gong and Daevid Allen, and to a lesser extent the early works of Steve Hillage. The characters were often based on, or used as pseudonyms for, band members, while the story itself was based on a vision which Allen had during the full moon of Easter 1966, in Deià, Majorca, in which he claimed he could see his future laid out before him. This mythology was hinted at through Gong's earlier albums but was not the central theme until the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy of 1973/74. It contains many similarities to concepts from Buddhist philosophy, e.g. optimism, the search for self, the denial of absolute reality and the search for the path to enlightenment. There are frequent references to the production and consumption of "tea", perhaps suggesting mushroom tea, although the word has also long been used to describe cannabis, especially in the 1940s and 1950s.
Flying Teapot: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 1 (1973)
The story begins on the album Flying Teapot (1973), when a pig-farming Egyptologist called Mista T. Being is sold a "magick ear ring" by an "antique teapot street vendor and tea label collector" called Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from the Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Being and Fish head off to the Hymnalayas of Tibet (sic) where they meet the "great beer yogi" Banana Ananda in a cave. Ananda tends to chant "Banana Nirvana Mañana" a lot and gets drunk on Foster's Australian Lager. (This latter development mirrors the real-life experience of band members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth who met their saxophonist, Didier Malherbe, in a cave in Majorca.)
Meanwhile, the mythology's central character, Zero the Hero, is going about his everyday life when he suddenly has a vision in Charing Cross Road, London. He is compelled to seek heroes and starts worshiping the Cock Pot Pixie, one of a number of Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong. These pixies are green, have propellers on their heads, and fly around in teapots (inspired by [Bertrand] Russell's teapot).
Zero is soon distracted by a cat to whom he offers his fish and chips. The cat is actually the Good Witch Yoni, and she gives Zero a potion in return.
Angel's Egg: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 2 (1973)
The second part, Angel's Egg (1973), begins with Zero falling asleep under the influence of the potion and finding himself floating through space. After accidentally scaring a space pilot called Captain Capricorn, Zero locates the Planet Gong, and spends some time with a prostitute who introduces him to the moon goddess Selene.
Zero's drug-induced trip to the Planet Gong continues, and the Pot Head Pixies explain to him how their flying teapots fly: a system known as Glidding. He is then taken to the One Invisible Temple of Gong.
Inside the temple, Zero is shown the Angel's Egg, the physical embodiment of the 32 Octave Doctors (descendants of the Great God Cell). The Angel's Egg is the magic-eye mandala that features on much of the band's sleeve-art. It is also a sort of recycling plant for Pot Head Pixies.
A grand plan is revealed to Zero: there will be a Great Melting Feast of Freeks which Zero must organise on Earth. When everyone is enjoying the Feast, a huge global concert, the Switch Doctor will turn everybody's third eye on, ushering in a New Age on Earth. The Switch Doctor is the Earth's resident Octave Doctor, who lives near Banana Ananda's cave, in a "potheadquarters" called the Compagnie d'Opera Invisible de Thibet (C.O.I.T.) and transmits all the details to the Gong Band via the Bananamoon Observatory.
You: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 3 (1974)
In the third instalment, You (1974), Zero must first return from his trip. He asks Hiram the Master Builder how to structure his vision and build his own Invisible Temple. Having done this, Zero establishes that he must organise the Great Melting Feast of Freeks on the Isle of Everywhere: Bali.
The event is going well, and the Switch Doctor switches on everyone's third eyes except for Zero's, for he is out the back, indulging in Earthly pleasures ("fruitcake").
Zero has missed out on the whole third eye revelation experience and is forced to continue his existence spinning around on the wheel of births and deaths and slowly converging on the Angel's Egg in a way which, to a certain extent, resembles Buddhist reincarnation.
Continuations (1992–2009)
The album Shapeshifter (1992) is the fourth instalment in the saga, in which Zero meets an urban shaman who agrees to take him to the next level of awareness on the proviso that Zero spends nine months on an aeroplane traveling where he wants, but not using money or eating anything other than airline food. Zero eventually dies in Australia under mysterious circumstances.
The next instalment is the album Zero to Infinity (2000), which sees Zero's spirit enjoying a body-free and virtual existence. During the course of this he becomes an android spheroid Zeroid. With the help of a strange animal called a gongalope, he learns that all the wisdom of the world exists within him and practises Lafta yoga and tea making. At the end he becomes one with an Invisible Temple and has a lot of fun.
The final instalment of the story, 2032 (2009), is set in that year, one which Daevid Allen had seen as significant for the enlightenment of humanity. The Planet Gong now serves as more of a digital portal for a humanity still grappling with contemporary issues of life.
Influence on other artists
Gong's influence has been seen in artists such as Ozric Tentacles and Insane Clown Posse, whose member Violent J listened to Gong's music for inspiration during the recording of ICP's 2009 album Bang! Pow! Boom!. Gong's music has also found fandom in the ambient music scene.
The Southern rock band Raging Slab has covered Gong's "The Pot Head Pixies" for NORML's Hempilation release. Japanese psych-rock band Acid Mothers Temple frequently covers Gong's "Master Builder", titled as "Om Riff", and have released 2 full albums dedicated to album-length renditions of the song; 2005's "IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno" and 2012's "IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out".
Actor Sherman Hemsley, best known for his role on The Jeffersons, was an avowed Gong fanatic, going so far as to have a Flying Teapot room in his house. The room, which had darkened windows, played Flying Teapot continuously via tape loops.
Personnel
Current members
Fabio Golfetti – lead guitar (2007, 2012–present)
Dave Sturt – bass (2009–present)
Ian East – saxophone, flute (2010–present)
Kavus Torabi – guitar, vocals (2014–present)
Cheb Nettles – drums (2014–present)
Discography
Daevid Allen's Gong
Magick Brother (1970)
Camembert Electrique (1971)
Continental Circus (1972, soundtrack)
Flying Teapot (1973)
Angel's Egg (1973)
You (1974)
Shapeshifter (1992)
Zero to Infinity (2000)
Acid Motherhood (2004) (with Acid Mothers Temple)
2032 (2009)
I See You (2014)
post-Daevid Allen
Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016)
The Universe Also Collapses (2019)
"Shamal Gong"
Shamal * (1976) (issued as a "Gong" album)
* Usually regarded as a transitional album between Daevid Allen's incarnation of the band and the Pierre Moerlen-led fusion line-up of the late 1970s.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Gazeuse! (1976) (Expresso in North America) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Expresso II (1978) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Downwind (1979)
Time Is the Key (1979)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (1980)
Leave It Open (1981)
Breakthrough (1986)
Second Wind (1988)
Full Circle Live '88 (1998)
Pentanine (2004)
Tribute (2010) (post-Pierre Moerlen)
Planet Gong
Live Floating Anarchy 1977 (1978)
New York Gong
About Time (1980)
Gongmaison
Gongmaison (1989)
Mother Gong
Fairy Tales (1979)
Mother Gong / Anthony Phillips – Battle of the Birds (1981)
Robot Woman (1981)
Robot Woman 2 (1982)
Robot Woman 3 (1986)
Fish in the Sky (1988)
The Owl and the Tree (with Daevid Allen) (1989)
Wild Child (1991)
She Made the World Magenta (1993)
Eye (1994)
Tree in Fish (1994)
Gilli Smyth, Daevid Allen and Orlando Allen
I Am Your Egg (2005)
Live albums
Haunted Chateau (1969)
Glastonbury Fayre (Gong contributed one side to this triple LP) (1971)
Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (contributed one side) (1973)
Gong est Mort, Vive Gong (French live album) (1977)
Gong Live Etc (UK live album) (1977)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1980)
Live at Sheffield '74 (1990)
Live au Bataclan 1973 (1990)
Live Floating Anarchy 1991 (Planet Gong) (1992)
Live 1991 (Mother Gong) (1992)
Live on T.V. 1990 (1993)
25th Birthday Party (1995)
Pre-Modernist Wireless: The Peel Sessions (1995)
Full Circle Live '88 (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1998)
Live 2 Infinitea (2000)
OK Friends (2002)
Glastonbury 1971 (2002)
Live in Sherwood Forest '75 (Shamal-Gong) (2005)
Glastonbury '79–'81 (Mother Gong) (2005)
Gong in the 70s (2006)
Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo (Acid Mothers Gong) (2006)
Mothergong O Amsterdam (Mother Gong) (2007)
Live in Brazil (2009)
Pulsing Signals (2022)
Compilation albums
Wingful of Eyes (A Retrospective, '75–'78) (Virgin Records, 1986)
The Mystery and the History of the Planet Gong (1989)
The Best of Gong (Charly Records, 1995)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 1997)
Best of Mother Gong (1998)
The World of Daevid Allen and Gong (3 CD compilation including almost all of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy and early album tracks) (2003)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 2005)
Gong in the 70's (Voiceprint, 2006)
A Storm in a Teapot (Charly, 2013)
Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy (4 CD or 5 LP box set) (Charly, 2015)
Love from the Planet Gong: The Virgin Years (1973–75) (Virgin, 2019)
Other appearances
Obsolete (album by French singer Dashiell Hedayat) (1971)
The Book of AM (produced by Daevid Allen, with Mother Gong musicians) (1978)
Filmography
2015: Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (DVD)
References
Further reading
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 1. SAF Publishing, 2007
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 2. SAF Publishing, 2009
Brown, Brian. "Gong: Angel's Egg", (Crawdaddy!) 26 March 2008
External links
Official web site for Gong, GAS and Gliss
Gong at Calyx, The Canterbury Music Website, by Aymeric Leroy – includes detailed chronology
"Not Just Another Gong Website" – comprehensive tapeography
The Archive – Archival photos of Gong, Mother Gong, Steve Hillage, Nik Turner, Here & Now, Hawkwind and many Free Festivals from the 1960s–1980s
Acid Motherhood voted weirdest album cover of all time
Canterbury scene
Concept album series
Musical groups established in 1967
Virgin Records artists
French progressive rock groups
British progressive rock groups
British psychedelic rock music groups
Space rock musical groups
Musical groups from Paris
Freak artists
French psychedelic rock music groups
| false |
[
"Folk Face were a comedy band formed in 2005 by BBC Radio 1 DJ Dave Vitty and BBC Newsreader Dominic Byrne. Mainly appearing on The Chris Moyles Show, they also appeared in person at the Glastonbury Festival and at several Radio 1 events. They mainly did cover versions in a tongue-in-cheek folk music style. \n\nThey appeared at the Glastonbury Festival in 2005, but disbanded soon after, only re-forming for a one-off on 20 June 2007 for The Chris Moyles Show to give away tickets for the Glastonbury Festival 2007. \n\nByrne played guitar for the band, however Vitty played different instruments, these being the bongos in 2005 and the nose flute in 2007. \n\nThey auditioned for Dave Grohl on 6 July 2007, while Grohl was in London for Live Earth, in the hope of securing a warm up slot at one of the Foo Fighters future gigs. Grohl was reminded of this and asked to consider it while on air on Radio 1 on the 22 November 2007, however no confirmation of an offer for supporting the band, this time for the Radio 1 Foo Fighters Gig at Wembley on 7 June 2008, was made. Folk Face also played live on 15 February 2008, at Mote Park in Kent, when Radio 1 announced that their One Big Weekend would be coming from Maidstone, also playing the actual event on 10 May 2008. Folk Face were mistaken for band Scouting for Girls who also played live at the launch, in the BBC's in-house magazine Ariel. \n\nFolk Face auditioned for Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, for a chance to represent the UK at the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest. Folk Face failed to impress Lloyd Webber, who commented that the lyrics could have upset Russia among other countries.\n\nMore recently, Folk Face played a song at the 2009 Big Weekend in Swindon, as part of the breakfast show team's set of song parodies. They also toured the UK for the first time through August and September 2010.\n\nOn 11 April 2011, they announced on The Chris Moyles Show that Folk Face would play Glastonbury Festival 2011.\n\nOn 10 January 2013 Dominic Byrne tweeted that it was a \"sad day today with the news that Folkface are no more.\" However, he did state that there was the possibility that the band could re-form for a farewell show in the summer.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nRadio1 Blog Entry About Folk Face\n\nEnglish folk musical groups\nEnglish musical duos\nFolk music duos\nEnglish comedy duos\nBritish comedy musical groups",
"Ellen and the Escapades were an acoustic/pop/rock band from Leeds, England. In 2009, the band were chosen by BBC Introducing to perform at Reading Festival and Leeds Festival. The following year, Ellen and the Escapades won the Q Magazine/Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition and performed on three of the festival's main stages.\n\nThe band receive regular national radio play from BBC 6 Music and Amazing Radio. They have often also been played on BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 2, as well as on XFM.\nEllen and the Escapades played a set on The Black Isle Brewery Grassroots Stage on Saturday 4 August at the 2012 Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival near Beauly, Invernes-shire.\n\nIn February 2015, the band announced via their Facebook page that they would be breaking up.\n\nReleases\n\"All The Crooked Scenes\" (Single) - 2 April 2012\nAll The Crooked Scenes (Album) - 16 April 2012 \n\"Without You\" (Single Album Version) - 21 October 2012 \n\"The Worlds Greatest\" (Single) - 16 August 2012 \n\"Lost Cause\" (Single) - 2 June 2014\n\nReferences\n\n \n\nEnglish pop rock music groups\nMusical groups from Leeds"
] |
[
"Gong (band)",
"The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972-74)",
"were they played on the radio?",
"was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,"
] |
C_6045c4a8119245e68a570f9e7aa052f6_0
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what is the trilogy?
| 2 |
what is the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy?
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Gong (band)
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1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deia to look after she and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake. In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. As they settled in, they were played a rough mix of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, then already in production. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers, and who had replaced Oldfield in Ayers' band. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound. Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to she and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deia with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deia, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy. In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price. CANNOTANSWER
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1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong.
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Gong are a progressive rock band that incorporates elements of jazz and space rock into their musical style. The group was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian musician Daevid Allen and English vocalist Gilli Smyth. Band members have included Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell and Theo Travis. Others who have played on stage with Gong include Don Cherry, Chris Cutler, Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Dave Stewart and Tatsuya Yoshida.
Gong's 1970 debut album, Magick Brother, featured a psychedelic pop sound. By the following year, the second album, Camembert Electrique, featured the more psychedelic rock/space rock sound with which they would be most associated. Between 1973 and 1974, Gong released their best known work, the allegorical Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, describing the adventures of Zero the Hero, the Good Witch Yoni and the Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong.
In 1975, Allen and Smyth left the band, which continued without them, releasing a series of jazz rock albums under the leadership of drummer Pierre Moerlen. This incarnation soon became known as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. Meanwhile, Smyth formed Mother Gong while Allen initiated a series of spin-off groups, including Planet Gong, New York Gong and Gongmaison, before returning to lead Gong once again in 1990 until his death in 2015. With Allen's encouragement, the band decided to continue, releasing the album Rejoice! I'm Dead! in September 2016 and The Universe Also Collapses in 2019.
History
Protogong (1967–68)
In September 1967, Australian singer and guitarist Daevid Allen, a member of the English psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom for 3 years following a French tour because his visa had expired. He settled in Paris, where he and his partner, London-born Sorbonne professor Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of Gong (later referred to by Allen as "Protogong") along with Ziska Baum on vocals and Loren Standlee on flute. However, the nascent band came to an abrupt end during the May 1968 student revolution, when Allen and Smyth were forced to flee the country after a warrant was issued for their arrest. They headed for Deià in Majorca, where they had lived for a time in 1966.
Gong 'proper' begins (1968–1971)
In August 1969, film director Jérôme Laperrousaz, a close friend of the pair, invited them back to France to record a soundtrack for a motorcycle racing movie which he was planning. This came to nothing at the time, but they were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly-formed independent label BYG Actuel to record an album, and so set about forming a new electric Gong band in Paris, recruiting their first rhythm section of Christian Tritsch (bass) and Rachid Houari (drums and percussion) and re-connecting with a saxophonist called Didier Malherbe whom they had met in Deià. However, Tritsch was not ready in time for the sessions and so Allen played the bass guitar himself. The album, entitled Magick Brother, was completed in October.
The re-born Gong played its debut gig at the BYG Actuel Festival in the small Belgian town of Amougies, on 27 October 1969, joined by Danny Laloux on hunting horn and percussion, and Dieter Gewissler and Gerry Fields on violin, and was introduced to the stage by bemused compere Frank Zappa. Magick Brother was released in March 1970, followed in April by a non-album single, "Est-Ce Que Je Suis; Garçon Ou Fille?" b/w "Hip Hip Hypnotise Ya", which again featured Laloux and Gewissler. In October, the band moved into an abandoned 12-room hunting lodge called Pavillon du Hay, near Voisines and Sens, 120 km south-east of Paris. They would be based there until early 1974.
Houari left the band in the spring of 1971 and was replaced by English drummer Pip Pyle, whom Allen had been introduced to by Robert Wyatt during the recording of his debut solo album, Banana Moon. The new line-up recorded a soundtrack for Laperrousaz's movie, now entitled Continental Circus, backed poet Dashiell Hedayat on his album Obsolete, and played at the second Glastonbury Festival, later documented on the Glastonbury Fayre album. Next, they began work on their second studio album, Camembert Electrique, later referred to by Allen as "the first real band album". It established the progressive, space rock sound which would make their name, leading, in the autumn, to their first UK tour. However, by the end of the year Pyle had left the group, to be replaced by another English drummer, Laurie Allan.
The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972–74)
Gong went through increasing line-up disruption in 1972. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deià to look after her and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake.
In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound.
Flying Teapot was released on 25 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first instalment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to her and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deià with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deià, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy.
In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.
Daevid Allen's departure and Shamal (1975–76)
Increasing tension and personality clashes led to Tim Blake being asked to leave in February 1975 during rehearsals for a tour. He was not replaced. Then, at a gig in Cheltenham on 10 April, the day before the release of Steve Hillage's Fish Rising album, Daevid Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him from doing so, and he left the band. The others decided to carry on without him.
In August, Pierre Moerlen was persuaded to return, replacing the unhappy and alcoholic Davison, and the band now also added Mireille Bauer on percussion, Jorge Pinchevsky on violin and Patrice Lemoine on synthesizer and, for the first time in Gong, keyboards. They toured the UK in November 1975, as documented on the 2005 release Live in Sherwood Forest '75, and worked on material for their next album, Shamal. Hillage, however, was increasingly uncomfortable without Allen, and with now being seen as the band's de facto leader. With a solo career beckoning, he and Giraudy decided to leave before Shamal was completed, participating in it only as guests. Howlett took over as lead male vocalist and Sandy Colley, Lemoine's partner and the band's cook, became his female counterpart. The album was released in February 1976 and they toured in support until a crisis was precipitated in May when Pinchevsky was refused entry to the U.K. for carrying marijuana. Ex-King Crimson violinist David Cross was tried out as a possible replacement, but before any progress could be made with this new line-up, the band split into two camps: Howlett wanted to keep vocals, but Moerlen and Bauer wanted the music to be entirely instrumental, with Malherbe undecided. Virgin Records executive Simon Draper chose Moerlen's way and Howlett left, quickly followed by Lemoine and Colley.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong and other 70s offshoots (1976–1980)
For contractual reasons, the Gong name remained in play for another two years, but the band was now effectively Pierre Moerlen's Gong, having little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen. Moerlen formed a new mallet percussion based line-up, adding his brother Benoit Moerlen, future Weather Report percussionist Mino Cinelu, journeyman guitarist Allan Holdsworth and Flying Teapot bassist Francis Moze to record the album Gazeuse! in late 1976. Malherbe, Holdsworth, Moze and Cinelu all left soon afterwards, but Moerlen kept a band going with American bassist Hansford Rowe until the late 1980s. To avoid confusion, it first became known as Gong-Expresso and then, from 1978, as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. One last album, Pentanine, was recorded in 2002 with Russian musicians before Moerlen died unexpectedly in May 2005, aged 53.
A Gong reunion event held in Paris in May 1977 brought together all of the current strands which had developed and re-asserted the primacy of the Daevid Allen-led band. It featured sets by Tim Blake, Lady June, Howlett's Strontium 90, Steve Hillage, 'Shamal Gong', Gong-Expresso, Daevid Allen and Euterpe, and was headlined by Trilogy Gong, the classic lineup of Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett and Moerlen. Their performance was documented on the live album Gong est Mort, Vive Gong. Strontium 90 was Mike Howlett's short-lived band which was notable for having two bass players, and for introducing Police members Sting and Stewart Copeland to their future guitarist Andy Summers.
Daevid Allen continued to develop the Gong mythology in his solo albums and with two new bands: Planet Gong (1977), which comprised Allen and Smyth playing with the British festival band Here & Now, and New York Gong (1979), comprising Allen and the American musicians who would later become known as Material. At the same time, Gilli Smyth formed Mother Gong with English guitarist/producer Harry Williamson and Didier Malherbe, and played in Spain and England. Allen delighted in this proliferation of groups and considered his role at this time to be that of an instigator, traveling around the world leaving active Gong-related bands in his wake.
Gongmaison and reunion (1989–1992)
After spending most of the Eighties in his native Australia, Allen returned to the UK in 1988 with a new project, The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, whose revolving cast included violinist Graham Clark and Gong saxophonist Didier Malherbe. This morphed into Gongmaison in 1989, which added Harry Williamson from Mother Gong and had a techno-influenced sound with electronic beats, as well as live percussion from Shyamal Maïtra. In 1990, the Gong name was revived for a one-off U.K. T.V. appearance with a line-up featuring Allen, Smyth and Malherbe, plus early 70s drummer Pip Pyle and three members of Here & Now (band): Stephen Lewry (lead guitar), Keith Bailey (bass) and Paul Noble (synth). In April 1992, Gongmaison became Gong permanently with the combined line-up of Allen, Malherbe, Bailey and Pyle, plus Graham Clark and Shyamal Maïtra from Gongmaison. Together they recorded the album Shapeshifter (subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 4) and toured extensively.
25th anniversary celebration (1994) and worldwide touring (1996–2001)
In 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th birthday with a show in London which featured the return of Gilli Smyth, bassist Mike Howlett and lead guitarist Stephen Lewry of Here & Now. This formed the basis of the band which toured worldwide from 1996 to 2001, with Pierre Moerlen replacing Pip Pyle on drums from 1997 through 1999. The album Zero to Infinity was released in 2000, by which time the line-up had changed again to Allen, Smyth, Malherbe and Howlett, plus new recruits on sax and Chris Taylor on drums. This line-up was unique in the band's history in having two sax/flute players.
Acid Mothers Gong (2003–04)
2003 saw a radical new line-up including Acid Mothers Temple members Kawabata Makoto and Cotton Casino, plus University of Errors guitarist Josh Pollock. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando drummed on the 2004 studio album Acid Motherhood, but for the subsequent live dates the rhythm section was Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and Acid Mothers Temple bassist Tsuyama Atsushi. A live album recorded by this line-up in 2004 was released as Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo and they played a few more one-off shows in 2006 and 2007.
Gong Family Unconventions (2004–06)
The European version of Gong had retired from regular touring in 2001, but there were subsequent one-off reunions, most notably at the "Gong Family Unconventions" (Uncons), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms as a one-day event and featured many ex-members and Gong family bands including Here & Now, House of Thandoy, Thom the Poet, Invisible Opera Company, Andy Bole, Bubbledub and Joie Hinton. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here & Now, System 7, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The next Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: 'Classic' Gong (Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Howlett, Travis, Taylor, plus the return of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy), System 7, The Steve Hillage Band, Hadouk, Tim Blake and Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch, Eat Static, Sacred Geometry Band, Acid Mothers Gong and many others. These events have all been compèred by Thom the Poet (now "Thom Moon 10").
Gong Global Family (2007)
In November 2007, Daevid Allen held a series of concerts in Brazil with a new band which he called Gong Global Family. This consisted of Allen on vocals and guitar, Josh Pollock on guitar, Fabio Golfetti (of Violeta de Outono) on guitar, Gabriel Costa (also from Violeta de Outono) on bass, Marcelo Ringel on flute and tenor saxophone, and Fred Barley on drums. He also performed with his other band, University of Errors (Allen, Pollock, Barley and Michael Clare). These shows took place in São Paulo on 21 and 22 November and São Carlos on 24 November. The 21 November show was filmed and released in the UK on DVD and CD by Voiceprint Records. These musicians, minus Marcelo, also recorded some new songs at Mosh studio, São Paulo.
Continuing to record, tour and evolve (2008–2014)
In June 2008, Gong played two concerts in London, at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank (opening Massive Attack's Meltdown festival) and at The Forum, with a line-up of Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett, Taylor and Travis. This line-up then released a new album, 2032, in 2009 and toured in support, including the Glade stage at Glastonbury Festival. They played at The Big Chill festival in the UK on 9 August 2009 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Travis, Taylor and new bassist Dave Sturt, as well as the Beautiful Days festival in Devon and the Lounge On The Farm festival near Canterbury.
Gong played four UK live shows in September 2010 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and new wind player Ian East. Support for these shows was provided by Nik Turner's Space Ritual.
Gong toured Europe in the fall of 2012 with the line-up of Allen, Smyth, Sturt and East, plus Orlando Allen (Acid Mothers Gong) on drums, and Fabio Golfetti (Gong Global Family) on guitar. It would be Gilli Smyth's final tour with the band.
They played in Brazil in May 2013 and again in 2014, this time with the addition of Kavus Torabi on guitar.
The 2014 line-up released a new studio album entitled I See You on 10 November, with Gilli Smyth guesting. However, Daevid Allen had been diagnosed with a cancerous cyst in his neck and had to undergo radiation therapy followed by an extensive period of recuperation. The I See You tour went ahead without him, and the line-up of Sturt, East, Golfetti, Torabi and a "mystery drummer" (revealed to be Cheb Nettles) played five dates in France and two in the UK.
The deaths of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth (2015–16)
On 5 February 2015, Daevid Allen released a statement announcing that the cancer had returned to his neck and had also spread to his lungs, and that he was "not interested in endless surgical operations", leaving him with "approximately six months to live". Just over a month after the initial announcement, on 13 March 2015, Daevid's son Orlando announced through Facebook that Allen had died in Byron Bay, Australia, aged 77.
On 11 April 2015, it was revealed that Allen had written an email to the band prior to his death, expressing his wish that the five remaining members continue performing following his passing and suggesting that Kavus Torabi become the new frontman of the band.
Gilli Smyth died on 22 August 2016, aged 83. She had been admitted to hospital in Byron Bay with pneumonia a couple of days previously.
Post-Daevid Allen: Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016–present)
On 5 July 2016, it was announced that the band line-up consisting of Kavus Torabi, Fabio Golfetti, Dave Sturt, Ian East and Cheb Nettles had recorded a new album entitled Rejoice! I'm Dead!, featuring guest appearances from Steve Hillage on guitar, Didier Malherbe on duduk and Graham Clark on violin, with Daevid Allen's vocals appearing on two tracks. Rejoice! I'm Dead! was released on 16 September 2016 through Snapper Music. On May 2019, the lineup followed up with their fifteenth album The Universe Also Collapses.
On August 2019, Universal Music announced the boxed set, Love From The Planet Gong: The Virgin Years 1973–75, encompassing Gong's tenure with Virgin Records, would be released on 27 September. Curated by Hillage, it contains remasters of four studio albums and previously unreleased live recordings made between 1973 and 1975.
Music and lyrics
Style and influences
Gong's music fuses many influences into a distinctive style which has been variously described by critics and journalists as experimental rock, jazz fusion, jazz rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock and space rock. Gong has also been associated with the Canterbury scene of progressive rock bands.
Rolling Stone described Gong's music as combining "psychedelic English whimsy, German kosmische space jams and Gallic libertine fusion."
Daevid Allen's guitar playing was influenced by Syd Barrett.
Mythology
The Gong mythology is a humorous collection of recurring characters and allegorical themes which permeate the albums of Gong and Daevid Allen, and to a lesser extent the early works of Steve Hillage. The characters were often based on, or used as pseudonyms for, band members, while the story itself was based on a vision which Allen had during the full moon of Easter 1966, in Deià, Majorca, in which he claimed he could see his future laid out before him. This mythology was hinted at through Gong's earlier albums but was not the central theme until the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy of 1973/74. It contains many similarities to concepts from Buddhist philosophy, e.g. optimism, the search for self, the denial of absolute reality and the search for the path to enlightenment. There are frequent references to the production and consumption of "tea", perhaps suggesting mushroom tea, although the word has also long been used to describe cannabis, especially in the 1940s and 1950s.
Flying Teapot: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 1 (1973)
The story begins on the album Flying Teapot (1973), when a pig-farming Egyptologist called Mista T. Being is sold a "magick ear ring" by an "antique teapot street vendor and tea label collector" called Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from the Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Being and Fish head off to the Hymnalayas of Tibet (sic) where they meet the "great beer yogi" Banana Ananda in a cave. Ananda tends to chant "Banana Nirvana Mañana" a lot and gets drunk on Foster's Australian Lager. (This latter development mirrors the real-life experience of band members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth who met their saxophonist, Didier Malherbe, in a cave in Majorca.)
Meanwhile, the mythology's central character, Zero the Hero, is going about his everyday life when he suddenly has a vision in Charing Cross Road, London. He is compelled to seek heroes and starts worshiping the Cock Pot Pixie, one of a number of Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong. These pixies are green, have propellers on their heads, and fly around in teapots (inspired by [Bertrand] Russell's teapot).
Zero is soon distracted by a cat to whom he offers his fish and chips. The cat is actually the Good Witch Yoni, and she gives Zero a potion in return.
Angel's Egg: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 2 (1973)
The second part, Angel's Egg (1973), begins with Zero falling asleep under the influence of the potion and finding himself floating through space. After accidentally scaring a space pilot called Captain Capricorn, Zero locates the Planet Gong, and spends some time with a prostitute who introduces him to the moon goddess Selene.
Zero's drug-induced trip to the Planet Gong continues, and the Pot Head Pixies explain to him how their flying teapots fly: a system known as Glidding. He is then taken to the One Invisible Temple of Gong.
Inside the temple, Zero is shown the Angel's Egg, the physical embodiment of the 32 Octave Doctors (descendants of the Great God Cell). The Angel's Egg is the magic-eye mandala that features on much of the band's sleeve-art. It is also a sort of recycling plant for Pot Head Pixies.
A grand plan is revealed to Zero: there will be a Great Melting Feast of Freeks which Zero must organise on Earth. When everyone is enjoying the Feast, a huge global concert, the Switch Doctor will turn everybody's third eye on, ushering in a New Age on Earth. The Switch Doctor is the Earth's resident Octave Doctor, who lives near Banana Ananda's cave, in a "potheadquarters" called the Compagnie d'Opera Invisible de Thibet (C.O.I.T.) and transmits all the details to the Gong Band via the Bananamoon Observatory.
You: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 3 (1974)
In the third instalment, You (1974), Zero must first return from his trip. He asks Hiram the Master Builder how to structure his vision and build his own Invisible Temple. Having done this, Zero establishes that he must organise the Great Melting Feast of Freeks on the Isle of Everywhere: Bali.
The event is going well, and the Switch Doctor switches on everyone's third eyes except for Zero's, for he is out the back, indulging in Earthly pleasures ("fruitcake").
Zero has missed out on the whole third eye revelation experience and is forced to continue his existence spinning around on the wheel of births and deaths and slowly converging on the Angel's Egg in a way which, to a certain extent, resembles Buddhist reincarnation.
Continuations (1992–2009)
The album Shapeshifter (1992) is the fourth instalment in the saga, in which Zero meets an urban shaman who agrees to take him to the next level of awareness on the proviso that Zero spends nine months on an aeroplane traveling where he wants, but not using money or eating anything other than airline food. Zero eventually dies in Australia under mysterious circumstances.
The next instalment is the album Zero to Infinity (2000), which sees Zero's spirit enjoying a body-free and virtual existence. During the course of this he becomes an android spheroid Zeroid. With the help of a strange animal called a gongalope, he learns that all the wisdom of the world exists within him and practises Lafta yoga and tea making. At the end he becomes one with an Invisible Temple and has a lot of fun.
The final instalment of the story, 2032 (2009), is set in that year, one which Daevid Allen had seen as significant for the enlightenment of humanity. The Planet Gong now serves as more of a digital portal for a humanity still grappling with contemporary issues of life.
Influence on other artists
Gong's influence has been seen in artists such as Ozric Tentacles and Insane Clown Posse, whose member Violent J listened to Gong's music for inspiration during the recording of ICP's 2009 album Bang! Pow! Boom!. Gong's music has also found fandom in the ambient music scene.
The Southern rock band Raging Slab has covered Gong's "The Pot Head Pixies" for NORML's Hempilation release. Japanese psych-rock band Acid Mothers Temple frequently covers Gong's "Master Builder", titled as "Om Riff", and have released 2 full albums dedicated to album-length renditions of the song; 2005's "IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno" and 2012's "IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out".
Actor Sherman Hemsley, best known for his role on The Jeffersons, was an avowed Gong fanatic, going so far as to have a Flying Teapot room in his house. The room, which had darkened windows, played Flying Teapot continuously via tape loops.
Personnel
Current members
Fabio Golfetti – lead guitar (2007, 2012–present)
Dave Sturt – bass (2009–present)
Ian East – saxophone, flute (2010–present)
Kavus Torabi – guitar, vocals (2014–present)
Cheb Nettles – drums (2014–present)
Discography
Daevid Allen's Gong
Magick Brother (1970)
Camembert Electrique (1971)
Continental Circus (1972, soundtrack)
Flying Teapot (1973)
Angel's Egg (1973)
You (1974)
Shapeshifter (1992)
Zero to Infinity (2000)
Acid Motherhood (2004) (with Acid Mothers Temple)
2032 (2009)
I See You (2014)
post-Daevid Allen
Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016)
The Universe Also Collapses (2019)
"Shamal Gong"
Shamal * (1976) (issued as a "Gong" album)
* Usually regarded as a transitional album between Daevid Allen's incarnation of the band and the Pierre Moerlen-led fusion line-up of the late 1970s.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Gazeuse! (1976) (Expresso in North America) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Expresso II (1978) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Downwind (1979)
Time Is the Key (1979)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (1980)
Leave It Open (1981)
Breakthrough (1986)
Second Wind (1988)
Full Circle Live '88 (1998)
Pentanine (2004)
Tribute (2010) (post-Pierre Moerlen)
Planet Gong
Live Floating Anarchy 1977 (1978)
New York Gong
About Time (1980)
Gongmaison
Gongmaison (1989)
Mother Gong
Fairy Tales (1979)
Mother Gong / Anthony Phillips – Battle of the Birds (1981)
Robot Woman (1981)
Robot Woman 2 (1982)
Robot Woman 3 (1986)
Fish in the Sky (1988)
The Owl and the Tree (with Daevid Allen) (1989)
Wild Child (1991)
She Made the World Magenta (1993)
Eye (1994)
Tree in Fish (1994)
Gilli Smyth, Daevid Allen and Orlando Allen
I Am Your Egg (2005)
Live albums
Haunted Chateau (1969)
Glastonbury Fayre (Gong contributed one side to this triple LP) (1971)
Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (contributed one side) (1973)
Gong est Mort, Vive Gong (French live album) (1977)
Gong Live Etc (UK live album) (1977)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1980)
Live at Sheffield '74 (1990)
Live au Bataclan 1973 (1990)
Live Floating Anarchy 1991 (Planet Gong) (1992)
Live 1991 (Mother Gong) (1992)
Live on T.V. 1990 (1993)
25th Birthday Party (1995)
Pre-Modernist Wireless: The Peel Sessions (1995)
Full Circle Live '88 (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1998)
Live 2 Infinitea (2000)
OK Friends (2002)
Glastonbury 1971 (2002)
Live in Sherwood Forest '75 (Shamal-Gong) (2005)
Glastonbury '79–'81 (Mother Gong) (2005)
Gong in the 70s (2006)
Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo (Acid Mothers Gong) (2006)
Mothergong O Amsterdam (Mother Gong) (2007)
Live in Brazil (2009)
Pulsing Signals (2022)
Compilation albums
Wingful of Eyes (A Retrospective, '75–'78) (Virgin Records, 1986)
The Mystery and the History of the Planet Gong (1989)
The Best of Gong (Charly Records, 1995)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 1997)
Best of Mother Gong (1998)
The World of Daevid Allen and Gong (3 CD compilation including almost all of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy and early album tracks) (2003)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 2005)
Gong in the 70's (Voiceprint, 2006)
A Storm in a Teapot (Charly, 2013)
Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy (4 CD or 5 LP box set) (Charly, 2015)
Love from the Planet Gong: The Virgin Years (1973–75) (Virgin, 2019)
Other appearances
Obsolete (album by French singer Dashiell Hedayat) (1971)
The Book of AM (produced by Daevid Allen, with Mother Gong musicians) (1978)
Filmography
2015: Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (DVD)
References
Further reading
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 1. SAF Publishing, 2007
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 2. SAF Publishing, 2009
Brown, Brian. "Gong: Angel's Egg", (Crawdaddy!) 26 March 2008
External links
Official web site for Gong, GAS and Gliss
Gong at Calyx, The Canterbury Music Website, by Aymeric Leroy – includes detailed chronology
"Not Just Another Gong Website" – comprehensive tapeography
The Archive – Archival photos of Gong, Mother Gong, Steve Hillage, Nik Turner, Here & Now, Hawkwind and many Free Festivals from the 1960s–1980s
Acid Motherhood voted weirdest album cover of all time
Canterbury scene
Concept album series
Musical groups established in 1967
Virgin Records artists
French progressive rock groups
British progressive rock groups
British psychedelic rock music groups
Space rock musical groups
Musical groups from Paris
Freak artists
French psychedelic rock music groups
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[
"The Bum Trilogy consists of three books by Australian author Andy Griffiths. They are aimed at children aged around ten and contain much toilet humor.\n\nName change\nIn the United States, the word \"bum\" has another meaning (i.e. homeless vagrant), so it is changed to \"butt\" in the versions sold there. The third book is further renamed to Butt Wars: The Final Conflict.\n\nGriffiths' reference guide to \"prehistoric bumosaurs\", What Bumosaur Is That?, was published in May 2007. It is not a part of the trilogy, although the book was mentioned in the trilogy.\n\nBooks\nThe Day My Bum Went Psycho\nZombie Bums from Uranus\nBumageddon: The Final Pongflict (also known as Butt Wars! The Final Conflict)\n\nExternal links\n The Bum Trilogy's website \n Pan Macmillan's Bumageddon game\n\nNovel series",
"What's Left of Me is a novel by author Kat Zhang. The book is the first of a trilogy, The Hybrid Chronicles.\n\nPlot\nThe Hybrid Chronicles books are set in an alternate universe society in which at birth every body possesses two 'souls', or human identities. One of these identities is supposed to fade away with age. Those who retain both souls are labelled 'hybrids' and are ostracized from normal society. The series' protagonists, Addie and Eva, inhabit the same body. The girls hide the presence of Eva, the recessive soul, for fear of what might happen if they were ever discovered. Over the course of the trilogy, the girls are at first institutionalized for their hybrid nature, then join a resistance force for hybrid rights.\n\nReception\nThe Hybrid Chronicles has received generally positive reception from several websites.\n\nThe first in the trilogy, What's Left of Me, was chosen as a 2012 BEA Buzz book and given a starred review on Publishers Weekly.\n\nReferences\n\n2012 American novels\nDystopian novels"
] |
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"Gong (band)",
"The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972-74)",
"were they played on the radio?",
"was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,",
"what is the trilogy?",
"1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong."
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C_6045c4a8119245e68a570f9e7aa052f6_0
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Besides 1972 seeing the start of increasing line-up disruptions for Gong , are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
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Gong (band)
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1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deia to look after she and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake. In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. As they settled in, they were played a rough mix of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, then already in production. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers, and who had replaced Oldfield in Ayers' band. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound. Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to she and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deia with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deia, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy. In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price. CANNOTANSWER
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Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,
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Gong are a progressive rock band that incorporates elements of jazz and space rock into their musical style. The group was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian musician Daevid Allen and English vocalist Gilli Smyth. Band members have included Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell and Theo Travis. Others who have played on stage with Gong include Don Cherry, Chris Cutler, Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Dave Stewart and Tatsuya Yoshida.
Gong's 1970 debut album, Magick Brother, featured a psychedelic pop sound. By the following year, the second album, Camembert Electrique, featured the more psychedelic rock/space rock sound with which they would be most associated. Between 1973 and 1974, Gong released their best known work, the allegorical Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, describing the adventures of Zero the Hero, the Good Witch Yoni and the Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong.
In 1975, Allen and Smyth left the band, which continued without them, releasing a series of jazz rock albums under the leadership of drummer Pierre Moerlen. This incarnation soon became known as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. Meanwhile, Smyth formed Mother Gong while Allen initiated a series of spin-off groups, including Planet Gong, New York Gong and Gongmaison, before returning to lead Gong once again in 1990 until his death in 2015. With Allen's encouragement, the band decided to continue, releasing the album Rejoice! I'm Dead! in September 2016 and The Universe Also Collapses in 2019.
History
Protogong (1967–68)
In September 1967, Australian singer and guitarist Daevid Allen, a member of the English psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom for 3 years following a French tour because his visa had expired. He settled in Paris, where he and his partner, London-born Sorbonne professor Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of Gong (later referred to by Allen as "Protogong") along with Ziska Baum on vocals and Loren Standlee on flute. However, the nascent band came to an abrupt end during the May 1968 student revolution, when Allen and Smyth were forced to flee the country after a warrant was issued for their arrest. They headed for Deià in Majorca, where they had lived for a time in 1966.
Gong 'proper' begins (1968–1971)
In August 1969, film director Jérôme Laperrousaz, a close friend of the pair, invited them back to France to record a soundtrack for a motorcycle racing movie which he was planning. This came to nothing at the time, but they were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly-formed independent label BYG Actuel to record an album, and so set about forming a new electric Gong band in Paris, recruiting their first rhythm section of Christian Tritsch (bass) and Rachid Houari (drums and percussion) and re-connecting with a saxophonist called Didier Malherbe whom they had met in Deià. However, Tritsch was not ready in time for the sessions and so Allen played the bass guitar himself. The album, entitled Magick Brother, was completed in October.
The re-born Gong played its debut gig at the BYG Actuel Festival in the small Belgian town of Amougies, on 27 October 1969, joined by Danny Laloux on hunting horn and percussion, and Dieter Gewissler and Gerry Fields on violin, and was introduced to the stage by bemused compere Frank Zappa. Magick Brother was released in March 1970, followed in April by a non-album single, "Est-Ce Que Je Suis; Garçon Ou Fille?" b/w "Hip Hip Hypnotise Ya", which again featured Laloux and Gewissler. In October, the band moved into an abandoned 12-room hunting lodge called Pavillon du Hay, near Voisines and Sens, 120 km south-east of Paris. They would be based there until early 1974.
Houari left the band in the spring of 1971 and was replaced by English drummer Pip Pyle, whom Allen had been introduced to by Robert Wyatt during the recording of his debut solo album, Banana Moon. The new line-up recorded a soundtrack for Laperrousaz's movie, now entitled Continental Circus, backed poet Dashiell Hedayat on his album Obsolete, and played at the second Glastonbury Festival, later documented on the Glastonbury Fayre album. Next, they began work on their second studio album, Camembert Electrique, later referred to by Allen as "the first real band album". It established the progressive, space rock sound which would make their name, leading, in the autumn, to their first UK tour. However, by the end of the year Pyle had left the group, to be replaced by another English drummer, Laurie Allan.
The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972–74)
Gong went through increasing line-up disruption in 1972. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deià to look after her and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake.
In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound.
Flying Teapot was released on 25 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first instalment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to her and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deià with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deià, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy.
In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.
Daevid Allen's departure and Shamal (1975–76)
Increasing tension and personality clashes led to Tim Blake being asked to leave in February 1975 during rehearsals for a tour. He was not replaced. Then, at a gig in Cheltenham on 10 April, the day before the release of Steve Hillage's Fish Rising album, Daevid Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him from doing so, and he left the band. The others decided to carry on without him.
In August, Pierre Moerlen was persuaded to return, replacing the unhappy and alcoholic Davison, and the band now also added Mireille Bauer on percussion, Jorge Pinchevsky on violin and Patrice Lemoine on synthesizer and, for the first time in Gong, keyboards. They toured the UK in November 1975, as documented on the 2005 release Live in Sherwood Forest '75, and worked on material for their next album, Shamal. Hillage, however, was increasingly uncomfortable without Allen, and with now being seen as the band's de facto leader. With a solo career beckoning, he and Giraudy decided to leave before Shamal was completed, participating in it only as guests. Howlett took over as lead male vocalist and Sandy Colley, Lemoine's partner and the band's cook, became his female counterpart. The album was released in February 1976 and they toured in support until a crisis was precipitated in May when Pinchevsky was refused entry to the U.K. for carrying marijuana. Ex-King Crimson violinist David Cross was tried out as a possible replacement, but before any progress could be made with this new line-up, the band split into two camps: Howlett wanted to keep vocals, but Moerlen and Bauer wanted the music to be entirely instrumental, with Malherbe undecided. Virgin Records executive Simon Draper chose Moerlen's way and Howlett left, quickly followed by Lemoine and Colley.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong and other 70s offshoots (1976–1980)
For contractual reasons, the Gong name remained in play for another two years, but the band was now effectively Pierre Moerlen's Gong, having little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen. Moerlen formed a new mallet percussion based line-up, adding his brother Benoit Moerlen, future Weather Report percussionist Mino Cinelu, journeyman guitarist Allan Holdsworth and Flying Teapot bassist Francis Moze to record the album Gazeuse! in late 1976. Malherbe, Holdsworth, Moze and Cinelu all left soon afterwards, but Moerlen kept a band going with American bassist Hansford Rowe until the late 1980s. To avoid confusion, it first became known as Gong-Expresso and then, from 1978, as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. One last album, Pentanine, was recorded in 2002 with Russian musicians before Moerlen died unexpectedly in May 2005, aged 53.
A Gong reunion event held in Paris in May 1977 brought together all of the current strands which had developed and re-asserted the primacy of the Daevid Allen-led band. It featured sets by Tim Blake, Lady June, Howlett's Strontium 90, Steve Hillage, 'Shamal Gong', Gong-Expresso, Daevid Allen and Euterpe, and was headlined by Trilogy Gong, the classic lineup of Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett and Moerlen. Their performance was documented on the live album Gong est Mort, Vive Gong. Strontium 90 was Mike Howlett's short-lived band which was notable for having two bass players, and for introducing Police members Sting and Stewart Copeland to their future guitarist Andy Summers.
Daevid Allen continued to develop the Gong mythology in his solo albums and with two new bands: Planet Gong (1977), which comprised Allen and Smyth playing with the British festival band Here & Now, and New York Gong (1979), comprising Allen and the American musicians who would later become known as Material. At the same time, Gilli Smyth formed Mother Gong with English guitarist/producer Harry Williamson and Didier Malherbe, and played in Spain and England. Allen delighted in this proliferation of groups and considered his role at this time to be that of an instigator, traveling around the world leaving active Gong-related bands in his wake.
Gongmaison and reunion (1989–1992)
After spending most of the Eighties in his native Australia, Allen returned to the UK in 1988 with a new project, The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, whose revolving cast included violinist Graham Clark and Gong saxophonist Didier Malherbe. This morphed into Gongmaison in 1989, which added Harry Williamson from Mother Gong and had a techno-influenced sound with electronic beats, as well as live percussion from Shyamal Maïtra. In 1990, the Gong name was revived for a one-off U.K. T.V. appearance with a line-up featuring Allen, Smyth and Malherbe, plus early 70s drummer Pip Pyle and three members of Here & Now (band): Stephen Lewry (lead guitar), Keith Bailey (bass) and Paul Noble (synth). In April 1992, Gongmaison became Gong permanently with the combined line-up of Allen, Malherbe, Bailey and Pyle, plus Graham Clark and Shyamal Maïtra from Gongmaison. Together they recorded the album Shapeshifter (subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 4) and toured extensively.
25th anniversary celebration (1994) and worldwide touring (1996–2001)
In 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th birthday with a show in London which featured the return of Gilli Smyth, bassist Mike Howlett and lead guitarist Stephen Lewry of Here & Now. This formed the basis of the band which toured worldwide from 1996 to 2001, with Pierre Moerlen replacing Pip Pyle on drums from 1997 through 1999. The album Zero to Infinity was released in 2000, by which time the line-up had changed again to Allen, Smyth, Malherbe and Howlett, plus new recruits on sax and Chris Taylor on drums. This line-up was unique in the band's history in having two sax/flute players.
Acid Mothers Gong (2003–04)
2003 saw a radical new line-up including Acid Mothers Temple members Kawabata Makoto and Cotton Casino, plus University of Errors guitarist Josh Pollock. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando drummed on the 2004 studio album Acid Motherhood, but for the subsequent live dates the rhythm section was Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and Acid Mothers Temple bassist Tsuyama Atsushi. A live album recorded by this line-up in 2004 was released as Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo and they played a few more one-off shows in 2006 and 2007.
Gong Family Unconventions (2004–06)
The European version of Gong had retired from regular touring in 2001, but there were subsequent one-off reunions, most notably at the "Gong Family Unconventions" (Uncons), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms as a one-day event and featured many ex-members and Gong family bands including Here & Now, House of Thandoy, Thom the Poet, Invisible Opera Company, Andy Bole, Bubbledub and Joie Hinton. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here & Now, System 7, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The next Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: 'Classic' Gong (Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Howlett, Travis, Taylor, plus the return of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy), System 7, The Steve Hillage Band, Hadouk, Tim Blake and Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch, Eat Static, Sacred Geometry Band, Acid Mothers Gong and many others. These events have all been compèred by Thom the Poet (now "Thom Moon 10").
Gong Global Family (2007)
In November 2007, Daevid Allen held a series of concerts in Brazil with a new band which he called Gong Global Family. This consisted of Allen on vocals and guitar, Josh Pollock on guitar, Fabio Golfetti (of Violeta de Outono) on guitar, Gabriel Costa (also from Violeta de Outono) on bass, Marcelo Ringel on flute and tenor saxophone, and Fred Barley on drums. He also performed with his other band, University of Errors (Allen, Pollock, Barley and Michael Clare). These shows took place in São Paulo on 21 and 22 November and São Carlos on 24 November. The 21 November show was filmed and released in the UK on DVD and CD by Voiceprint Records. These musicians, minus Marcelo, also recorded some new songs at Mosh studio, São Paulo.
Continuing to record, tour and evolve (2008–2014)
In June 2008, Gong played two concerts in London, at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank (opening Massive Attack's Meltdown festival) and at The Forum, with a line-up of Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett, Taylor and Travis. This line-up then released a new album, 2032, in 2009 and toured in support, including the Glade stage at Glastonbury Festival. They played at The Big Chill festival in the UK on 9 August 2009 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Travis, Taylor and new bassist Dave Sturt, as well as the Beautiful Days festival in Devon and the Lounge On The Farm festival near Canterbury.
Gong played four UK live shows in September 2010 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and new wind player Ian East. Support for these shows was provided by Nik Turner's Space Ritual.
Gong toured Europe in the fall of 2012 with the line-up of Allen, Smyth, Sturt and East, plus Orlando Allen (Acid Mothers Gong) on drums, and Fabio Golfetti (Gong Global Family) on guitar. It would be Gilli Smyth's final tour with the band.
They played in Brazil in May 2013 and again in 2014, this time with the addition of Kavus Torabi on guitar.
The 2014 line-up released a new studio album entitled I See You on 10 November, with Gilli Smyth guesting. However, Daevid Allen had been diagnosed with a cancerous cyst in his neck and had to undergo radiation therapy followed by an extensive period of recuperation. The I See You tour went ahead without him, and the line-up of Sturt, East, Golfetti, Torabi and a "mystery drummer" (revealed to be Cheb Nettles) played five dates in France and two in the UK.
The deaths of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth (2015–16)
On 5 February 2015, Daevid Allen released a statement announcing that the cancer had returned to his neck and had also spread to his lungs, and that he was "not interested in endless surgical operations", leaving him with "approximately six months to live". Just over a month after the initial announcement, on 13 March 2015, Daevid's son Orlando announced through Facebook that Allen had died in Byron Bay, Australia, aged 77.
On 11 April 2015, it was revealed that Allen had written an email to the band prior to his death, expressing his wish that the five remaining members continue performing following his passing and suggesting that Kavus Torabi become the new frontman of the band.
Gilli Smyth died on 22 August 2016, aged 83. She had been admitted to hospital in Byron Bay with pneumonia a couple of days previously.
Post-Daevid Allen: Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016–present)
On 5 July 2016, it was announced that the band line-up consisting of Kavus Torabi, Fabio Golfetti, Dave Sturt, Ian East and Cheb Nettles had recorded a new album entitled Rejoice! I'm Dead!, featuring guest appearances from Steve Hillage on guitar, Didier Malherbe on duduk and Graham Clark on violin, with Daevid Allen's vocals appearing on two tracks. Rejoice! I'm Dead! was released on 16 September 2016 through Snapper Music. On May 2019, the lineup followed up with their fifteenth album The Universe Also Collapses.
On August 2019, Universal Music announced the boxed set, Love From The Planet Gong: The Virgin Years 1973–75, encompassing Gong's tenure with Virgin Records, would be released on 27 September. Curated by Hillage, it contains remasters of four studio albums and previously unreleased live recordings made between 1973 and 1975.
Music and lyrics
Style and influences
Gong's music fuses many influences into a distinctive style which has been variously described by critics and journalists as experimental rock, jazz fusion, jazz rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock and space rock. Gong has also been associated with the Canterbury scene of progressive rock bands.
Rolling Stone described Gong's music as combining "psychedelic English whimsy, German kosmische space jams and Gallic libertine fusion."
Daevid Allen's guitar playing was influenced by Syd Barrett.
Mythology
The Gong mythology is a humorous collection of recurring characters and allegorical themes which permeate the albums of Gong and Daevid Allen, and to a lesser extent the early works of Steve Hillage. The characters were often based on, or used as pseudonyms for, band members, while the story itself was based on a vision which Allen had during the full moon of Easter 1966, in Deià, Majorca, in which he claimed he could see his future laid out before him. This mythology was hinted at through Gong's earlier albums but was not the central theme until the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy of 1973/74. It contains many similarities to concepts from Buddhist philosophy, e.g. optimism, the search for self, the denial of absolute reality and the search for the path to enlightenment. There are frequent references to the production and consumption of "tea", perhaps suggesting mushroom tea, although the word has also long been used to describe cannabis, especially in the 1940s and 1950s.
Flying Teapot: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 1 (1973)
The story begins on the album Flying Teapot (1973), when a pig-farming Egyptologist called Mista T. Being is sold a "magick ear ring" by an "antique teapot street vendor and tea label collector" called Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from the Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Being and Fish head off to the Hymnalayas of Tibet (sic) where they meet the "great beer yogi" Banana Ananda in a cave. Ananda tends to chant "Banana Nirvana Mañana" a lot and gets drunk on Foster's Australian Lager. (This latter development mirrors the real-life experience of band members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth who met their saxophonist, Didier Malherbe, in a cave in Majorca.)
Meanwhile, the mythology's central character, Zero the Hero, is going about his everyday life when he suddenly has a vision in Charing Cross Road, London. He is compelled to seek heroes and starts worshiping the Cock Pot Pixie, one of a number of Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong. These pixies are green, have propellers on their heads, and fly around in teapots (inspired by [Bertrand] Russell's teapot).
Zero is soon distracted by a cat to whom he offers his fish and chips. The cat is actually the Good Witch Yoni, and she gives Zero a potion in return.
Angel's Egg: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 2 (1973)
The second part, Angel's Egg (1973), begins with Zero falling asleep under the influence of the potion and finding himself floating through space. After accidentally scaring a space pilot called Captain Capricorn, Zero locates the Planet Gong, and spends some time with a prostitute who introduces him to the moon goddess Selene.
Zero's drug-induced trip to the Planet Gong continues, and the Pot Head Pixies explain to him how their flying teapots fly: a system known as Glidding. He is then taken to the One Invisible Temple of Gong.
Inside the temple, Zero is shown the Angel's Egg, the physical embodiment of the 32 Octave Doctors (descendants of the Great God Cell). The Angel's Egg is the magic-eye mandala that features on much of the band's sleeve-art. It is also a sort of recycling plant for Pot Head Pixies.
A grand plan is revealed to Zero: there will be a Great Melting Feast of Freeks which Zero must organise on Earth. When everyone is enjoying the Feast, a huge global concert, the Switch Doctor will turn everybody's third eye on, ushering in a New Age on Earth. The Switch Doctor is the Earth's resident Octave Doctor, who lives near Banana Ananda's cave, in a "potheadquarters" called the Compagnie d'Opera Invisible de Thibet (C.O.I.T.) and transmits all the details to the Gong Band via the Bananamoon Observatory.
You: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 3 (1974)
In the third instalment, You (1974), Zero must first return from his trip. He asks Hiram the Master Builder how to structure his vision and build his own Invisible Temple. Having done this, Zero establishes that he must organise the Great Melting Feast of Freeks on the Isle of Everywhere: Bali.
The event is going well, and the Switch Doctor switches on everyone's third eyes except for Zero's, for he is out the back, indulging in Earthly pleasures ("fruitcake").
Zero has missed out on the whole third eye revelation experience and is forced to continue his existence spinning around on the wheel of births and deaths and slowly converging on the Angel's Egg in a way which, to a certain extent, resembles Buddhist reincarnation.
Continuations (1992–2009)
The album Shapeshifter (1992) is the fourth instalment in the saga, in which Zero meets an urban shaman who agrees to take him to the next level of awareness on the proviso that Zero spends nine months on an aeroplane traveling where he wants, but not using money or eating anything other than airline food. Zero eventually dies in Australia under mysterious circumstances.
The next instalment is the album Zero to Infinity (2000), which sees Zero's spirit enjoying a body-free and virtual existence. During the course of this he becomes an android spheroid Zeroid. With the help of a strange animal called a gongalope, he learns that all the wisdom of the world exists within him and practises Lafta yoga and tea making. At the end he becomes one with an Invisible Temple and has a lot of fun.
The final instalment of the story, 2032 (2009), is set in that year, one which Daevid Allen had seen as significant for the enlightenment of humanity. The Planet Gong now serves as more of a digital portal for a humanity still grappling with contemporary issues of life.
Influence on other artists
Gong's influence has been seen in artists such as Ozric Tentacles and Insane Clown Posse, whose member Violent J listened to Gong's music for inspiration during the recording of ICP's 2009 album Bang! Pow! Boom!. Gong's music has also found fandom in the ambient music scene.
The Southern rock band Raging Slab has covered Gong's "The Pot Head Pixies" for NORML's Hempilation release. Japanese psych-rock band Acid Mothers Temple frequently covers Gong's "Master Builder", titled as "Om Riff", and have released 2 full albums dedicated to album-length renditions of the song; 2005's "IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno" and 2012's "IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out".
Actor Sherman Hemsley, best known for his role on The Jeffersons, was an avowed Gong fanatic, going so far as to have a Flying Teapot room in his house. The room, which had darkened windows, played Flying Teapot continuously via tape loops.
Personnel
Current members
Fabio Golfetti – lead guitar (2007, 2012–present)
Dave Sturt – bass (2009–present)
Ian East – saxophone, flute (2010–present)
Kavus Torabi – guitar, vocals (2014–present)
Cheb Nettles – drums (2014–present)
Discography
Daevid Allen's Gong
Magick Brother (1970)
Camembert Electrique (1971)
Continental Circus (1972, soundtrack)
Flying Teapot (1973)
Angel's Egg (1973)
You (1974)
Shapeshifter (1992)
Zero to Infinity (2000)
Acid Motherhood (2004) (with Acid Mothers Temple)
2032 (2009)
I See You (2014)
post-Daevid Allen
Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016)
The Universe Also Collapses (2019)
"Shamal Gong"
Shamal * (1976) (issued as a "Gong" album)
* Usually regarded as a transitional album between Daevid Allen's incarnation of the band and the Pierre Moerlen-led fusion line-up of the late 1970s.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Gazeuse! (1976) (Expresso in North America) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Expresso II (1978) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Downwind (1979)
Time Is the Key (1979)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (1980)
Leave It Open (1981)
Breakthrough (1986)
Second Wind (1988)
Full Circle Live '88 (1998)
Pentanine (2004)
Tribute (2010) (post-Pierre Moerlen)
Planet Gong
Live Floating Anarchy 1977 (1978)
New York Gong
About Time (1980)
Gongmaison
Gongmaison (1989)
Mother Gong
Fairy Tales (1979)
Mother Gong / Anthony Phillips – Battle of the Birds (1981)
Robot Woman (1981)
Robot Woman 2 (1982)
Robot Woman 3 (1986)
Fish in the Sky (1988)
The Owl and the Tree (with Daevid Allen) (1989)
Wild Child (1991)
She Made the World Magenta (1993)
Eye (1994)
Tree in Fish (1994)
Gilli Smyth, Daevid Allen and Orlando Allen
I Am Your Egg (2005)
Live albums
Haunted Chateau (1969)
Glastonbury Fayre (Gong contributed one side to this triple LP) (1971)
Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (contributed one side) (1973)
Gong est Mort, Vive Gong (French live album) (1977)
Gong Live Etc (UK live album) (1977)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1980)
Live at Sheffield '74 (1990)
Live au Bataclan 1973 (1990)
Live Floating Anarchy 1991 (Planet Gong) (1992)
Live 1991 (Mother Gong) (1992)
Live on T.V. 1990 (1993)
25th Birthday Party (1995)
Pre-Modernist Wireless: The Peel Sessions (1995)
Full Circle Live '88 (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1998)
Live 2 Infinitea (2000)
OK Friends (2002)
Glastonbury 1971 (2002)
Live in Sherwood Forest '75 (Shamal-Gong) (2005)
Glastonbury '79–'81 (Mother Gong) (2005)
Gong in the 70s (2006)
Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo (Acid Mothers Gong) (2006)
Mothergong O Amsterdam (Mother Gong) (2007)
Live in Brazil (2009)
Pulsing Signals (2022)
Compilation albums
Wingful of Eyes (A Retrospective, '75–'78) (Virgin Records, 1986)
The Mystery and the History of the Planet Gong (1989)
The Best of Gong (Charly Records, 1995)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 1997)
Best of Mother Gong (1998)
The World of Daevid Allen and Gong (3 CD compilation including almost all of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy and early album tracks) (2003)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 2005)
Gong in the 70's (Voiceprint, 2006)
A Storm in a Teapot (Charly, 2013)
Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy (4 CD or 5 LP box set) (Charly, 2015)
Love from the Planet Gong: The Virgin Years (1973–75) (Virgin, 2019)
Other appearances
Obsolete (album by French singer Dashiell Hedayat) (1971)
The Book of AM (produced by Daevid Allen, with Mother Gong musicians) (1978)
Filmography
2015: Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (DVD)
References
Further reading
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 1. SAF Publishing, 2007
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 2. SAF Publishing, 2009
Brown, Brian. "Gong: Angel's Egg", (Crawdaddy!) 26 March 2008
External links
Official web site for Gong, GAS and Gliss
Gong at Calyx, The Canterbury Music Website, by Aymeric Leroy – includes detailed chronology
"Not Just Another Gong Website" – comprehensive tapeography
The Archive – Archival photos of Gong, Mother Gong, Steve Hillage, Nik Turner, Here & Now, Hawkwind and many Free Festivals from the 1960s–1980s
Acid Motherhood voted weirdest album cover of all time
Canterbury scene
Concept album series
Musical groups established in 1967
Virgin Records artists
French progressive rock groups
British progressive rock groups
British psychedelic rock music groups
Space rock musical groups
Musical groups from Paris
Freak artists
French psychedelic rock music groups
| 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"
] |
[
"Gong (band)",
"The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972-74)",
"were they played on the radio?",
"was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,",
"what is the trilogy?",
"1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,"
] |
C_6045c4a8119245e68a570f9e7aa052f6_0
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did they go high on charts?
| 4 |
did Gong go high on charts?
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Gong (band)
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1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deia to look after she and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake. In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. As they settled in, they were played a rough mix of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, then already in production. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers, and who had replaced Oldfield in Ayers' band. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound. Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to she and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deia with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deia, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy. In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price. CANNOTANSWER
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pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts.
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Gong are a progressive rock band that incorporates elements of jazz and space rock into their musical style. The group was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian musician Daevid Allen and English vocalist Gilli Smyth. Band members have included Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell and Theo Travis. Others who have played on stage with Gong include Don Cherry, Chris Cutler, Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Dave Stewart and Tatsuya Yoshida.
Gong's 1970 debut album, Magick Brother, featured a psychedelic pop sound. By the following year, the second album, Camembert Electrique, featured the more psychedelic rock/space rock sound with which they would be most associated. Between 1973 and 1974, Gong released their best known work, the allegorical Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, describing the adventures of Zero the Hero, the Good Witch Yoni and the Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong.
In 1975, Allen and Smyth left the band, which continued without them, releasing a series of jazz rock albums under the leadership of drummer Pierre Moerlen. This incarnation soon became known as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. Meanwhile, Smyth formed Mother Gong while Allen initiated a series of spin-off groups, including Planet Gong, New York Gong and Gongmaison, before returning to lead Gong once again in 1990 until his death in 2015. With Allen's encouragement, the band decided to continue, releasing the album Rejoice! I'm Dead! in September 2016 and The Universe Also Collapses in 2019.
History
Protogong (1967–68)
In September 1967, Australian singer and guitarist Daevid Allen, a member of the English psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom for 3 years following a French tour because his visa had expired. He settled in Paris, where he and his partner, London-born Sorbonne professor Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of Gong (later referred to by Allen as "Protogong") along with Ziska Baum on vocals and Loren Standlee on flute. However, the nascent band came to an abrupt end during the May 1968 student revolution, when Allen and Smyth were forced to flee the country after a warrant was issued for their arrest. They headed for Deià in Majorca, where they had lived for a time in 1966.
Gong 'proper' begins (1968–1971)
In August 1969, film director Jérôme Laperrousaz, a close friend of the pair, invited them back to France to record a soundtrack for a motorcycle racing movie which he was planning. This came to nothing at the time, but they were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly-formed independent label BYG Actuel to record an album, and so set about forming a new electric Gong band in Paris, recruiting their first rhythm section of Christian Tritsch (bass) and Rachid Houari (drums and percussion) and re-connecting with a saxophonist called Didier Malherbe whom they had met in Deià. However, Tritsch was not ready in time for the sessions and so Allen played the bass guitar himself. The album, entitled Magick Brother, was completed in October.
The re-born Gong played its debut gig at the BYG Actuel Festival in the small Belgian town of Amougies, on 27 October 1969, joined by Danny Laloux on hunting horn and percussion, and Dieter Gewissler and Gerry Fields on violin, and was introduced to the stage by bemused compere Frank Zappa. Magick Brother was released in March 1970, followed in April by a non-album single, "Est-Ce Que Je Suis; Garçon Ou Fille?" b/w "Hip Hip Hypnotise Ya", which again featured Laloux and Gewissler. In October, the band moved into an abandoned 12-room hunting lodge called Pavillon du Hay, near Voisines and Sens, 120 km south-east of Paris. They would be based there until early 1974.
Houari left the band in the spring of 1971 and was replaced by English drummer Pip Pyle, whom Allen had been introduced to by Robert Wyatt during the recording of his debut solo album, Banana Moon. The new line-up recorded a soundtrack for Laperrousaz's movie, now entitled Continental Circus, backed poet Dashiell Hedayat on his album Obsolete, and played at the second Glastonbury Festival, later documented on the Glastonbury Fayre album. Next, they began work on their second studio album, Camembert Electrique, later referred to by Allen as "the first real band album". It established the progressive, space rock sound which would make their name, leading, in the autumn, to their first UK tour. However, by the end of the year Pyle had left the group, to be replaced by another English drummer, Laurie Allan.
The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972–74)
Gong went through increasing line-up disruption in 1972. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deià to look after her and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake.
In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound.
Flying Teapot was released on 25 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first instalment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to her and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deià with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deià, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy.
In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.
Daevid Allen's departure and Shamal (1975–76)
Increasing tension and personality clashes led to Tim Blake being asked to leave in February 1975 during rehearsals for a tour. He was not replaced. Then, at a gig in Cheltenham on 10 April, the day before the release of Steve Hillage's Fish Rising album, Daevid Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him from doing so, and he left the band. The others decided to carry on without him.
In August, Pierre Moerlen was persuaded to return, replacing the unhappy and alcoholic Davison, and the band now also added Mireille Bauer on percussion, Jorge Pinchevsky on violin and Patrice Lemoine on synthesizer and, for the first time in Gong, keyboards. They toured the UK in November 1975, as documented on the 2005 release Live in Sherwood Forest '75, and worked on material for their next album, Shamal. Hillage, however, was increasingly uncomfortable without Allen, and with now being seen as the band's de facto leader. With a solo career beckoning, he and Giraudy decided to leave before Shamal was completed, participating in it only as guests. Howlett took over as lead male vocalist and Sandy Colley, Lemoine's partner and the band's cook, became his female counterpart. The album was released in February 1976 and they toured in support until a crisis was precipitated in May when Pinchevsky was refused entry to the U.K. for carrying marijuana. Ex-King Crimson violinist David Cross was tried out as a possible replacement, but before any progress could be made with this new line-up, the band split into two camps: Howlett wanted to keep vocals, but Moerlen and Bauer wanted the music to be entirely instrumental, with Malherbe undecided. Virgin Records executive Simon Draper chose Moerlen's way and Howlett left, quickly followed by Lemoine and Colley.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong and other 70s offshoots (1976–1980)
For contractual reasons, the Gong name remained in play for another two years, but the band was now effectively Pierre Moerlen's Gong, having little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen. Moerlen formed a new mallet percussion based line-up, adding his brother Benoit Moerlen, future Weather Report percussionist Mino Cinelu, journeyman guitarist Allan Holdsworth and Flying Teapot bassist Francis Moze to record the album Gazeuse! in late 1976. Malherbe, Holdsworth, Moze and Cinelu all left soon afterwards, but Moerlen kept a band going with American bassist Hansford Rowe until the late 1980s. To avoid confusion, it first became known as Gong-Expresso and then, from 1978, as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. One last album, Pentanine, was recorded in 2002 with Russian musicians before Moerlen died unexpectedly in May 2005, aged 53.
A Gong reunion event held in Paris in May 1977 brought together all of the current strands which had developed and re-asserted the primacy of the Daevid Allen-led band. It featured sets by Tim Blake, Lady June, Howlett's Strontium 90, Steve Hillage, 'Shamal Gong', Gong-Expresso, Daevid Allen and Euterpe, and was headlined by Trilogy Gong, the classic lineup of Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett and Moerlen. Their performance was documented on the live album Gong est Mort, Vive Gong. Strontium 90 was Mike Howlett's short-lived band which was notable for having two bass players, and for introducing Police members Sting and Stewart Copeland to their future guitarist Andy Summers.
Daevid Allen continued to develop the Gong mythology in his solo albums and with two new bands: Planet Gong (1977), which comprised Allen and Smyth playing with the British festival band Here & Now, and New York Gong (1979), comprising Allen and the American musicians who would later become known as Material. At the same time, Gilli Smyth formed Mother Gong with English guitarist/producer Harry Williamson and Didier Malherbe, and played in Spain and England. Allen delighted in this proliferation of groups and considered his role at this time to be that of an instigator, traveling around the world leaving active Gong-related bands in his wake.
Gongmaison and reunion (1989–1992)
After spending most of the Eighties in his native Australia, Allen returned to the UK in 1988 with a new project, The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, whose revolving cast included violinist Graham Clark and Gong saxophonist Didier Malherbe. This morphed into Gongmaison in 1989, which added Harry Williamson from Mother Gong and had a techno-influenced sound with electronic beats, as well as live percussion from Shyamal Maïtra. In 1990, the Gong name was revived for a one-off U.K. T.V. appearance with a line-up featuring Allen, Smyth and Malherbe, plus early 70s drummer Pip Pyle and three members of Here & Now (band): Stephen Lewry (lead guitar), Keith Bailey (bass) and Paul Noble (synth). In April 1992, Gongmaison became Gong permanently with the combined line-up of Allen, Malherbe, Bailey and Pyle, plus Graham Clark and Shyamal Maïtra from Gongmaison. Together they recorded the album Shapeshifter (subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 4) and toured extensively.
25th anniversary celebration (1994) and worldwide touring (1996–2001)
In 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th birthday with a show in London which featured the return of Gilli Smyth, bassist Mike Howlett and lead guitarist Stephen Lewry of Here & Now. This formed the basis of the band which toured worldwide from 1996 to 2001, with Pierre Moerlen replacing Pip Pyle on drums from 1997 through 1999. The album Zero to Infinity was released in 2000, by which time the line-up had changed again to Allen, Smyth, Malherbe and Howlett, plus new recruits on sax and Chris Taylor on drums. This line-up was unique in the band's history in having two sax/flute players.
Acid Mothers Gong (2003–04)
2003 saw a radical new line-up including Acid Mothers Temple members Kawabata Makoto and Cotton Casino, plus University of Errors guitarist Josh Pollock. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando drummed on the 2004 studio album Acid Motherhood, but for the subsequent live dates the rhythm section was Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and Acid Mothers Temple bassist Tsuyama Atsushi. A live album recorded by this line-up in 2004 was released as Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo and they played a few more one-off shows in 2006 and 2007.
Gong Family Unconventions (2004–06)
The European version of Gong had retired from regular touring in 2001, but there were subsequent one-off reunions, most notably at the "Gong Family Unconventions" (Uncons), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms as a one-day event and featured many ex-members and Gong family bands including Here & Now, House of Thandoy, Thom the Poet, Invisible Opera Company, Andy Bole, Bubbledub and Joie Hinton. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here & Now, System 7, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The next Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: 'Classic' Gong (Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Howlett, Travis, Taylor, plus the return of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy), System 7, The Steve Hillage Band, Hadouk, Tim Blake and Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch, Eat Static, Sacred Geometry Band, Acid Mothers Gong and many others. These events have all been compèred by Thom the Poet (now "Thom Moon 10").
Gong Global Family (2007)
In November 2007, Daevid Allen held a series of concerts in Brazil with a new band which he called Gong Global Family. This consisted of Allen on vocals and guitar, Josh Pollock on guitar, Fabio Golfetti (of Violeta de Outono) on guitar, Gabriel Costa (also from Violeta de Outono) on bass, Marcelo Ringel on flute and tenor saxophone, and Fred Barley on drums. He also performed with his other band, University of Errors (Allen, Pollock, Barley and Michael Clare). These shows took place in São Paulo on 21 and 22 November and São Carlos on 24 November. The 21 November show was filmed and released in the UK on DVD and CD by Voiceprint Records. These musicians, minus Marcelo, also recorded some new songs at Mosh studio, São Paulo.
Continuing to record, tour and evolve (2008–2014)
In June 2008, Gong played two concerts in London, at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank (opening Massive Attack's Meltdown festival) and at The Forum, with a line-up of Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett, Taylor and Travis. This line-up then released a new album, 2032, in 2009 and toured in support, including the Glade stage at Glastonbury Festival. They played at The Big Chill festival in the UK on 9 August 2009 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Travis, Taylor and new bassist Dave Sturt, as well as the Beautiful Days festival in Devon and the Lounge On The Farm festival near Canterbury.
Gong played four UK live shows in September 2010 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and new wind player Ian East. Support for these shows was provided by Nik Turner's Space Ritual.
Gong toured Europe in the fall of 2012 with the line-up of Allen, Smyth, Sturt and East, plus Orlando Allen (Acid Mothers Gong) on drums, and Fabio Golfetti (Gong Global Family) on guitar. It would be Gilli Smyth's final tour with the band.
They played in Brazil in May 2013 and again in 2014, this time with the addition of Kavus Torabi on guitar.
The 2014 line-up released a new studio album entitled I See You on 10 November, with Gilli Smyth guesting. However, Daevid Allen had been diagnosed with a cancerous cyst in his neck and had to undergo radiation therapy followed by an extensive period of recuperation. The I See You tour went ahead without him, and the line-up of Sturt, East, Golfetti, Torabi and a "mystery drummer" (revealed to be Cheb Nettles) played five dates in France and two in the UK.
The deaths of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth (2015–16)
On 5 February 2015, Daevid Allen released a statement announcing that the cancer had returned to his neck and had also spread to his lungs, and that he was "not interested in endless surgical operations", leaving him with "approximately six months to live". Just over a month after the initial announcement, on 13 March 2015, Daevid's son Orlando announced through Facebook that Allen had died in Byron Bay, Australia, aged 77.
On 11 April 2015, it was revealed that Allen had written an email to the band prior to his death, expressing his wish that the five remaining members continue performing following his passing and suggesting that Kavus Torabi become the new frontman of the band.
Gilli Smyth died on 22 August 2016, aged 83. She had been admitted to hospital in Byron Bay with pneumonia a couple of days previously.
Post-Daevid Allen: Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016–present)
On 5 July 2016, it was announced that the band line-up consisting of Kavus Torabi, Fabio Golfetti, Dave Sturt, Ian East and Cheb Nettles had recorded a new album entitled Rejoice! I'm Dead!, featuring guest appearances from Steve Hillage on guitar, Didier Malherbe on duduk and Graham Clark on violin, with Daevid Allen's vocals appearing on two tracks. Rejoice! I'm Dead! was released on 16 September 2016 through Snapper Music. On May 2019, the lineup followed up with their fifteenth album The Universe Also Collapses.
On August 2019, Universal Music announced the boxed set, Love From The Planet Gong: The Virgin Years 1973–75, encompassing Gong's tenure with Virgin Records, would be released on 27 September. Curated by Hillage, it contains remasters of four studio albums and previously unreleased live recordings made between 1973 and 1975.
Music and lyrics
Style and influences
Gong's music fuses many influences into a distinctive style which has been variously described by critics and journalists as experimental rock, jazz fusion, jazz rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock and space rock. Gong has also been associated with the Canterbury scene of progressive rock bands.
Rolling Stone described Gong's music as combining "psychedelic English whimsy, German kosmische space jams and Gallic libertine fusion."
Daevid Allen's guitar playing was influenced by Syd Barrett.
Mythology
The Gong mythology is a humorous collection of recurring characters and allegorical themes which permeate the albums of Gong and Daevid Allen, and to a lesser extent the early works of Steve Hillage. The characters were often based on, or used as pseudonyms for, band members, while the story itself was based on a vision which Allen had during the full moon of Easter 1966, in Deià, Majorca, in which he claimed he could see his future laid out before him. This mythology was hinted at through Gong's earlier albums but was not the central theme until the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy of 1973/74. It contains many similarities to concepts from Buddhist philosophy, e.g. optimism, the search for self, the denial of absolute reality and the search for the path to enlightenment. There are frequent references to the production and consumption of "tea", perhaps suggesting mushroom tea, although the word has also long been used to describe cannabis, especially in the 1940s and 1950s.
Flying Teapot: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 1 (1973)
The story begins on the album Flying Teapot (1973), when a pig-farming Egyptologist called Mista T. Being is sold a "magick ear ring" by an "antique teapot street vendor and tea label collector" called Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from the Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Being and Fish head off to the Hymnalayas of Tibet (sic) where they meet the "great beer yogi" Banana Ananda in a cave. Ananda tends to chant "Banana Nirvana Mañana" a lot and gets drunk on Foster's Australian Lager. (This latter development mirrors the real-life experience of band members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth who met their saxophonist, Didier Malherbe, in a cave in Majorca.)
Meanwhile, the mythology's central character, Zero the Hero, is going about his everyday life when he suddenly has a vision in Charing Cross Road, London. He is compelled to seek heroes and starts worshiping the Cock Pot Pixie, one of a number of Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong. These pixies are green, have propellers on their heads, and fly around in teapots (inspired by [Bertrand] Russell's teapot).
Zero is soon distracted by a cat to whom he offers his fish and chips. The cat is actually the Good Witch Yoni, and she gives Zero a potion in return.
Angel's Egg: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 2 (1973)
The second part, Angel's Egg (1973), begins with Zero falling asleep under the influence of the potion and finding himself floating through space. After accidentally scaring a space pilot called Captain Capricorn, Zero locates the Planet Gong, and spends some time with a prostitute who introduces him to the moon goddess Selene.
Zero's drug-induced trip to the Planet Gong continues, and the Pot Head Pixies explain to him how their flying teapots fly: a system known as Glidding. He is then taken to the One Invisible Temple of Gong.
Inside the temple, Zero is shown the Angel's Egg, the physical embodiment of the 32 Octave Doctors (descendants of the Great God Cell). The Angel's Egg is the magic-eye mandala that features on much of the band's sleeve-art. It is also a sort of recycling plant for Pot Head Pixies.
A grand plan is revealed to Zero: there will be a Great Melting Feast of Freeks which Zero must organise on Earth. When everyone is enjoying the Feast, a huge global concert, the Switch Doctor will turn everybody's third eye on, ushering in a New Age on Earth. The Switch Doctor is the Earth's resident Octave Doctor, who lives near Banana Ananda's cave, in a "potheadquarters" called the Compagnie d'Opera Invisible de Thibet (C.O.I.T.) and transmits all the details to the Gong Band via the Bananamoon Observatory.
You: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 3 (1974)
In the third instalment, You (1974), Zero must first return from his trip. He asks Hiram the Master Builder how to structure his vision and build his own Invisible Temple. Having done this, Zero establishes that he must organise the Great Melting Feast of Freeks on the Isle of Everywhere: Bali.
The event is going well, and the Switch Doctor switches on everyone's third eyes except for Zero's, for he is out the back, indulging in Earthly pleasures ("fruitcake").
Zero has missed out on the whole third eye revelation experience and is forced to continue his existence spinning around on the wheel of births and deaths and slowly converging on the Angel's Egg in a way which, to a certain extent, resembles Buddhist reincarnation.
Continuations (1992–2009)
The album Shapeshifter (1992) is the fourth instalment in the saga, in which Zero meets an urban shaman who agrees to take him to the next level of awareness on the proviso that Zero spends nine months on an aeroplane traveling where he wants, but not using money or eating anything other than airline food. Zero eventually dies in Australia under mysterious circumstances.
The next instalment is the album Zero to Infinity (2000), which sees Zero's spirit enjoying a body-free and virtual existence. During the course of this he becomes an android spheroid Zeroid. With the help of a strange animal called a gongalope, he learns that all the wisdom of the world exists within him and practises Lafta yoga and tea making. At the end he becomes one with an Invisible Temple and has a lot of fun.
The final instalment of the story, 2032 (2009), is set in that year, one which Daevid Allen had seen as significant for the enlightenment of humanity. The Planet Gong now serves as more of a digital portal for a humanity still grappling with contemporary issues of life.
Influence on other artists
Gong's influence has been seen in artists such as Ozric Tentacles and Insane Clown Posse, whose member Violent J listened to Gong's music for inspiration during the recording of ICP's 2009 album Bang! Pow! Boom!. Gong's music has also found fandom in the ambient music scene.
The Southern rock band Raging Slab has covered Gong's "The Pot Head Pixies" for NORML's Hempilation release. Japanese psych-rock band Acid Mothers Temple frequently covers Gong's "Master Builder", titled as "Om Riff", and have released 2 full albums dedicated to album-length renditions of the song; 2005's "IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno" and 2012's "IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out".
Actor Sherman Hemsley, best known for his role on The Jeffersons, was an avowed Gong fanatic, going so far as to have a Flying Teapot room in his house. The room, which had darkened windows, played Flying Teapot continuously via tape loops.
Personnel
Current members
Fabio Golfetti – lead guitar (2007, 2012–present)
Dave Sturt – bass (2009–present)
Ian East – saxophone, flute (2010–present)
Kavus Torabi – guitar, vocals (2014–present)
Cheb Nettles – drums (2014–present)
Discography
Daevid Allen's Gong
Magick Brother (1970)
Camembert Electrique (1971)
Continental Circus (1972, soundtrack)
Flying Teapot (1973)
Angel's Egg (1973)
You (1974)
Shapeshifter (1992)
Zero to Infinity (2000)
Acid Motherhood (2004) (with Acid Mothers Temple)
2032 (2009)
I See You (2014)
post-Daevid Allen
Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016)
The Universe Also Collapses (2019)
"Shamal Gong"
Shamal * (1976) (issued as a "Gong" album)
* Usually regarded as a transitional album between Daevid Allen's incarnation of the band and the Pierre Moerlen-led fusion line-up of the late 1970s.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Gazeuse! (1976) (Expresso in North America) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Expresso II (1978) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Downwind (1979)
Time Is the Key (1979)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (1980)
Leave It Open (1981)
Breakthrough (1986)
Second Wind (1988)
Full Circle Live '88 (1998)
Pentanine (2004)
Tribute (2010) (post-Pierre Moerlen)
Planet Gong
Live Floating Anarchy 1977 (1978)
New York Gong
About Time (1980)
Gongmaison
Gongmaison (1989)
Mother Gong
Fairy Tales (1979)
Mother Gong / Anthony Phillips – Battle of the Birds (1981)
Robot Woman (1981)
Robot Woman 2 (1982)
Robot Woman 3 (1986)
Fish in the Sky (1988)
The Owl and the Tree (with Daevid Allen) (1989)
Wild Child (1991)
She Made the World Magenta (1993)
Eye (1994)
Tree in Fish (1994)
Gilli Smyth, Daevid Allen and Orlando Allen
I Am Your Egg (2005)
Live albums
Haunted Chateau (1969)
Glastonbury Fayre (Gong contributed one side to this triple LP) (1971)
Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (contributed one side) (1973)
Gong est Mort, Vive Gong (French live album) (1977)
Gong Live Etc (UK live album) (1977)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1980)
Live at Sheffield '74 (1990)
Live au Bataclan 1973 (1990)
Live Floating Anarchy 1991 (Planet Gong) (1992)
Live 1991 (Mother Gong) (1992)
Live on T.V. 1990 (1993)
25th Birthday Party (1995)
Pre-Modernist Wireless: The Peel Sessions (1995)
Full Circle Live '88 (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1998)
Live 2 Infinitea (2000)
OK Friends (2002)
Glastonbury 1971 (2002)
Live in Sherwood Forest '75 (Shamal-Gong) (2005)
Glastonbury '79–'81 (Mother Gong) (2005)
Gong in the 70s (2006)
Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo (Acid Mothers Gong) (2006)
Mothergong O Amsterdam (Mother Gong) (2007)
Live in Brazil (2009)
Pulsing Signals (2022)
Compilation albums
Wingful of Eyes (A Retrospective, '75–'78) (Virgin Records, 1986)
The Mystery and the History of the Planet Gong (1989)
The Best of Gong (Charly Records, 1995)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 1997)
Best of Mother Gong (1998)
The World of Daevid Allen and Gong (3 CD compilation including almost all of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy and early album tracks) (2003)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 2005)
Gong in the 70's (Voiceprint, 2006)
A Storm in a Teapot (Charly, 2013)
Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy (4 CD or 5 LP box set) (Charly, 2015)
Love from the Planet Gong: The Virgin Years (1973–75) (Virgin, 2019)
Other appearances
Obsolete (album by French singer Dashiell Hedayat) (1971)
The Book of AM (produced by Daevid Allen, with Mother Gong musicians) (1978)
Filmography
2015: Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (DVD)
References
Further reading
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 1. SAF Publishing, 2007
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 2. SAF Publishing, 2009
Brown, Brian. "Gong: Angel's Egg", (Crawdaddy!) 26 March 2008
External links
Official web site for Gong, GAS and Gliss
Gong at Calyx, The Canterbury Music Website, by Aymeric Leroy – includes detailed chronology
"Not Just Another Gong Website" – comprehensive tapeography
The Archive – Archival photos of Gong, Mother Gong, Steve Hillage, Nik Turner, Here & Now, Hawkwind and many Free Festivals from the 1960s–1980s
Acid Motherhood voted weirdest album cover of all time
Canterbury scene
Concept album series
Musical groups established in 1967
Virgin Records artists
French progressive rock groups
British progressive rock groups
British psychedelic rock music groups
Space rock musical groups
Musical groups from Paris
Freak artists
French psychedelic rock music groups
| true |
[
"\"Where Did We Go Wrong\" is a song by American recording artists Toni Braxton and Babyface. It was written by Braxton and Babyface for their collaborative studio album Love, Marriage & Divorce (2014), while production was helmed by latter. The song was released on December 17, 2013 as the second single from the album. \"Where Did We Go Wrong\" peaked at number 11 on the US Adult R&B Songs and was ranked 38th on the chart's year-end listing.\n\nCommercial performance\n\"Where Did We Go Wrong\" peaked at number 11 on the US Adult R&B Songs on May 3, 2014, and entered the top 40 of the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart. Billboard ranked the song 38th on the 2014 Adult R&B Songs year-end chart.\n\nPromotion\nBraxton and Babyface performed \"Where Did We Go Wrong\" on American morning television show Good Morning America on July 2, 2014.\n\nCredits and personnel \nCredits adapted from the liner notes of Love, Marriage & Divorce.\n\nPaul Boutin – mixing, recording\nToni Braxton – vocals, writer\nAntonio Dixon – percussion\nKenneth \"Babyface\" Edmonds – bass, guitar, producer, vocals, writer\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\n2013 singles\nToni Braxton songs\nSongs written by Toni Braxton\nContemporary R&B ballads\n2013 songs\nSongs written by Babyface (musician)\nMotown singles\nSong recordings produced by Babyface (musician)\nBabyface (musician) songs\nVocal duets",
"\"Everywhere I Go\" is a 1985 single by Christian music singer Amy Grant. It was released as the second single from her Unguarded album. Unlike \"Find a Way\" before it and \"Wise Up\" after it, the song failed to reach The Billboard Hot 100. However, the song did make the Adult Contemporary and Christian music charts in the United States.\n\n\"Everywhere I Go\" is a somewhat downtempo inspirational song that features heavy use of the synthesizer and some sound effects. The lyrics praise God's constant presence in Grant's life. In the Unguarded liner notes, Grant calls the song \"my own version of Psalm 139.\"\n\nBackground\n\nThe lead single from Unguarded was \"Find A Way\". That song went #1 on the Christian music charts, but also gave Grant her first hit on pop radio (as well as the first-ever Contemporary Christian music song to chart on pop radio). \"Everywhere I Go\" capitalized on Grant's newfound mainstream success and was released to both Christian and mainstream pop radio. The song's lyrics, however, are somewhat more explicit with respect to Grant's Christian faith than those of the other Unguarded singles, which may explain why \"Everywhere I Go\" did not perform quite as well on the mainstream charts. In 1986, Grant released her first compilation album, The Collection. Both \"Find a Way\" and \"Everywhere I Go\" were included, the only two songs from the still-new \"Unguarded\" to make the cut.\n\nPersonnel \n Amy Grant – lead and backing vocals\n Shane Keister – Yamaha GS1, synthesizer programming\n Michael W. Smith – Memorymoog, Yamaha GS2\n Jon Goin – electric guitar\n Dann Huff – electric guitar\n Mike Brignardello – bass\n Paul Leim – drums\n Gary Chapman – backing vocals \n Diana Hanna – backing vocals\n\nChart Success\n\nEverywhere I Go performed well on Christian radio, peaking at #4 on the Christian music charts in the U.S. On mainstream radio, the single did not make The Billboard Hot 100; however, the song still achieved notable mainstream exposure. The single peaked at #28 on the mainstream Adult Contemporary chart.\n\nCover versions\n\nThe song has been covered by several artists. Five Iron Frenzy notably released a punk rock version of the song on their 1997 album, Upbeats and Beatdowns.\n\nCharts\n\nAmy Grant songs\n1985 singles\n1985 songs\nWord Records singles"
] |
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"The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972-74)",
"were they played on the radio?",
"was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,",
"what is the trilogy?",
"1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,",
"did they go high on charts?",
"pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts."
] |
C_6045c4a8119245e68a570f9e7aa052f6_0
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did they win any awards?
| 5 |
did Gong win any awards?
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Gong (band)
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1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deia to look after she and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake. In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. As they settled in, they were played a rough mix of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, then already in production. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers, and who had replaced Oldfield in Ayers' band. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound. Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to she and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deia with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deia, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy. In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Gong are a progressive rock band that incorporates elements of jazz and space rock into their musical style. The group was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian musician Daevid Allen and English vocalist Gilli Smyth. Band members have included Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell and Theo Travis. Others who have played on stage with Gong include Don Cherry, Chris Cutler, Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Dave Stewart and Tatsuya Yoshida.
Gong's 1970 debut album, Magick Brother, featured a psychedelic pop sound. By the following year, the second album, Camembert Electrique, featured the more psychedelic rock/space rock sound with which they would be most associated. Between 1973 and 1974, Gong released their best known work, the allegorical Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, describing the adventures of Zero the Hero, the Good Witch Yoni and the Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong.
In 1975, Allen and Smyth left the band, which continued without them, releasing a series of jazz rock albums under the leadership of drummer Pierre Moerlen. This incarnation soon became known as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. Meanwhile, Smyth formed Mother Gong while Allen initiated a series of spin-off groups, including Planet Gong, New York Gong and Gongmaison, before returning to lead Gong once again in 1990 until his death in 2015. With Allen's encouragement, the band decided to continue, releasing the album Rejoice! I'm Dead! in September 2016 and The Universe Also Collapses in 2019.
History
Protogong (1967–68)
In September 1967, Australian singer and guitarist Daevid Allen, a member of the English psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom for 3 years following a French tour because his visa had expired. He settled in Paris, where he and his partner, London-born Sorbonne professor Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of Gong (later referred to by Allen as "Protogong") along with Ziska Baum on vocals and Loren Standlee on flute. However, the nascent band came to an abrupt end during the May 1968 student revolution, when Allen and Smyth were forced to flee the country after a warrant was issued for their arrest. They headed for Deià in Majorca, where they had lived for a time in 1966.
Gong 'proper' begins (1968–1971)
In August 1969, film director Jérôme Laperrousaz, a close friend of the pair, invited them back to France to record a soundtrack for a motorcycle racing movie which he was planning. This came to nothing at the time, but they were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly-formed independent label BYG Actuel to record an album, and so set about forming a new electric Gong band in Paris, recruiting their first rhythm section of Christian Tritsch (bass) and Rachid Houari (drums and percussion) and re-connecting with a saxophonist called Didier Malherbe whom they had met in Deià. However, Tritsch was not ready in time for the sessions and so Allen played the bass guitar himself. The album, entitled Magick Brother, was completed in October.
The re-born Gong played its debut gig at the BYG Actuel Festival in the small Belgian town of Amougies, on 27 October 1969, joined by Danny Laloux on hunting horn and percussion, and Dieter Gewissler and Gerry Fields on violin, and was introduced to the stage by bemused compere Frank Zappa. Magick Brother was released in March 1970, followed in April by a non-album single, "Est-Ce Que Je Suis; Garçon Ou Fille?" b/w "Hip Hip Hypnotise Ya", which again featured Laloux and Gewissler. In October, the band moved into an abandoned 12-room hunting lodge called Pavillon du Hay, near Voisines and Sens, 120 km south-east of Paris. They would be based there until early 1974.
Houari left the band in the spring of 1971 and was replaced by English drummer Pip Pyle, whom Allen had been introduced to by Robert Wyatt during the recording of his debut solo album, Banana Moon. The new line-up recorded a soundtrack for Laperrousaz's movie, now entitled Continental Circus, backed poet Dashiell Hedayat on his album Obsolete, and played at the second Glastonbury Festival, later documented on the Glastonbury Fayre album. Next, they began work on their second studio album, Camembert Electrique, later referred to by Allen as "the first real band album". It established the progressive, space rock sound which would make their name, leading, in the autumn, to their first UK tour. However, by the end of the year Pyle had left the group, to be replaced by another English drummer, Laurie Allan.
The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972–74)
Gong went through increasing line-up disruption in 1972. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deià to look after her and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake.
In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound.
Flying Teapot was released on 25 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first instalment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to her and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deià with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deià, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy.
In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.
Daevid Allen's departure and Shamal (1975–76)
Increasing tension and personality clashes led to Tim Blake being asked to leave in February 1975 during rehearsals for a tour. He was not replaced. Then, at a gig in Cheltenham on 10 April, the day before the release of Steve Hillage's Fish Rising album, Daevid Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him from doing so, and he left the band. The others decided to carry on without him.
In August, Pierre Moerlen was persuaded to return, replacing the unhappy and alcoholic Davison, and the band now also added Mireille Bauer on percussion, Jorge Pinchevsky on violin and Patrice Lemoine on synthesizer and, for the first time in Gong, keyboards. They toured the UK in November 1975, as documented on the 2005 release Live in Sherwood Forest '75, and worked on material for their next album, Shamal. Hillage, however, was increasingly uncomfortable without Allen, and with now being seen as the band's de facto leader. With a solo career beckoning, he and Giraudy decided to leave before Shamal was completed, participating in it only as guests. Howlett took over as lead male vocalist and Sandy Colley, Lemoine's partner and the band's cook, became his female counterpart. The album was released in February 1976 and they toured in support until a crisis was precipitated in May when Pinchevsky was refused entry to the U.K. for carrying marijuana. Ex-King Crimson violinist David Cross was tried out as a possible replacement, but before any progress could be made with this new line-up, the band split into two camps: Howlett wanted to keep vocals, but Moerlen and Bauer wanted the music to be entirely instrumental, with Malherbe undecided. Virgin Records executive Simon Draper chose Moerlen's way and Howlett left, quickly followed by Lemoine and Colley.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong and other 70s offshoots (1976–1980)
For contractual reasons, the Gong name remained in play for another two years, but the band was now effectively Pierre Moerlen's Gong, having little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen. Moerlen formed a new mallet percussion based line-up, adding his brother Benoit Moerlen, future Weather Report percussionist Mino Cinelu, journeyman guitarist Allan Holdsworth and Flying Teapot bassist Francis Moze to record the album Gazeuse! in late 1976. Malherbe, Holdsworth, Moze and Cinelu all left soon afterwards, but Moerlen kept a band going with American bassist Hansford Rowe until the late 1980s. To avoid confusion, it first became known as Gong-Expresso and then, from 1978, as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. One last album, Pentanine, was recorded in 2002 with Russian musicians before Moerlen died unexpectedly in May 2005, aged 53.
A Gong reunion event held in Paris in May 1977 brought together all of the current strands which had developed and re-asserted the primacy of the Daevid Allen-led band. It featured sets by Tim Blake, Lady June, Howlett's Strontium 90, Steve Hillage, 'Shamal Gong', Gong-Expresso, Daevid Allen and Euterpe, and was headlined by Trilogy Gong, the classic lineup of Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett and Moerlen. Their performance was documented on the live album Gong est Mort, Vive Gong. Strontium 90 was Mike Howlett's short-lived band which was notable for having two bass players, and for introducing Police members Sting and Stewart Copeland to their future guitarist Andy Summers.
Daevid Allen continued to develop the Gong mythology in his solo albums and with two new bands: Planet Gong (1977), which comprised Allen and Smyth playing with the British festival band Here & Now, and New York Gong (1979), comprising Allen and the American musicians who would later become known as Material. At the same time, Gilli Smyth formed Mother Gong with English guitarist/producer Harry Williamson and Didier Malherbe, and played in Spain and England. Allen delighted in this proliferation of groups and considered his role at this time to be that of an instigator, traveling around the world leaving active Gong-related bands in his wake.
Gongmaison and reunion (1989–1992)
After spending most of the Eighties in his native Australia, Allen returned to the UK in 1988 with a new project, The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, whose revolving cast included violinist Graham Clark and Gong saxophonist Didier Malherbe. This morphed into Gongmaison in 1989, which added Harry Williamson from Mother Gong and had a techno-influenced sound with electronic beats, as well as live percussion from Shyamal Maïtra. In 1990, the Gong name was revived for a one-off U.K. T.V. appearance with a line-up featuring Allen, Smyth and Malherbe, plus early 70s drummer Pip Pyle and three members of Here & Now (band): Stephen Lewry (lead guitar), Keith Bailey (bass) and Paul Noble (synth). In April 1992, Gongmaison became Gong permanently with the combined line-up of Allen, Malherbe, Bailey and Pyle, plus Graham Clark and Shyamal Maïtra from Gongmaison. Together they recorded the album Shapeshifter (subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 4) and toured extensively.
25th anniversary celebration (1994) and worldwide touring (1996–2001)
In 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th birthday with a show in London which featured the return of Gilli Smyth, bassist Mike Howlett and lead guitarist Stephen Lewry of Here & Now. This formed the basis of the band which toured worldwide from 1996 to 2001, with Pierre Moerlen replacing Pip Pyle on drums from 1997 through 1999. The album Zero to Infinity was released in 2000, by which time the line-up had changed again to Allen, Smyth, Malherbe and Howlett, plus new recruits on sax and Chris Taylor on drums. This line-up was unique in the band's history in having two sax/flute players.
Acid Mothers Gong (2003–04)
2003 saw a radical new line-up including Acid Mothers Temple members Kawabata Makoto and Cotton Casino, plus University of Errors guitarist Josh Pollock. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando drummed on the 2004 studio album Acid Motherhood, but for the subsequent live dates the rhythm section was Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and Acid Mothers Temple bassist Tsuyama Atsushi. A live album recorded by this line-up in 2004 was released as Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo and they played a few more one-off shows in 2006 and 2007.
Gong Family Unconventions (2004–06)
The European version of Gong had retired from regular touring in 2001, but there were subsequent one-off reunions, most notably at the "Gong Family Unconventions" (Uncons), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms as a one-day event and featured many ex-members and Gong family bands including Here & Now, House of Thandoy, Thom the Poet, Invisible Opera Company, Andy Bole, Bubbledub and Joie Hinton. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here & Now, System 7, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The next Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: 'Classic' Gong (Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Howlett, Travis, Taylor, plus the return of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy), System 7, The Steve Hillage Band, Hadouk, Tim Blake and Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch, Eat Static, Sacred Geometry Band, Acid Mothers Gong and many others. These events have all been compèred by Thom the Poet (now "Thom Moon 10").
Gong Global Family (2007)
In November 2007, Daevid Allen held a series of concerts in Brazil with a new band which he called Gong Global Family. This consisted of Allen on vocals and guitar, Josh Pollock on guitar, Fabio Golfetti (of Violeta de Outono) on guitar, Gabriel Costa (also from Violeta de Outono) on bass, Marcelo Ringel on flute and tenor saxophone, and Fred Barley on drums. He also performed with his other band, University of Errors (Allen, Pollock, Barley and Michael Clare). These shows took place in São Paulo on 21 and 22 November and São Carlos on 24 November. The 21 November show was filmed and released in the UK on DVD and CD by Voiceprint Records. These musicians, minus Marcelo, also recorded some new songs at Mosh studio, São Paulo.
Continuing to record, tour and evolve (2008–2014)
In June 2008, Gong played two concerts in London, at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank (opening Massive Attack's Meltdown festival) and at The Forum, with a line-up of Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett, Taylor and Travis. This line-up then released a new album, 2032, in 2009 and toured in support, including the Glade stage at Glastonbury Festival. They played at The Big Chill festival in the UK on 9 August 2009 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Travis, Taylor and new bassist Dave Sturt, as well as the Beautiful Days festival in Devon and the Lounge On The Farm festival near Canterbury.
Gong played four UK live shows in September 2010 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and new wind player Ian East. Support for these shows was provided by Nik Turner's Space Ritual.
Gong toured Europe in the fall of 2012 with the line-up of Allen, Smyth, Sturt and East, plus Orlando Allen (Acid Mothers Gong) on drums, and Fabio Golfetti (Gong Global Family) on guitar. It would be Gilli Smyth's final tour with the band.
They played in Brazil in May 2013 and again in 2014, this time with the addition of Kavus Torabi on guitar.
The 2014 line-up released a new studio album entitled I See You on 10 November, with Gilli Smyth guesting. However, Daevid Allen had been diagnosed with a cancerous cyst in his neck and had to undergo radiation therapy followed by an extensive period of recuperation. The I See You tour went ahead without him, and the line-up of Sturt, East, Golfetti, Torabi and a "mystery drummer" (revealed to be Cheb Nettles) played five dates in France and two in the UK.
The deaths of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth (2015–16)
On 5 February 2015, Daevid Allen released a statement announcing that the cancer had returned to his neck and had also spread to his lungs, and that he was "not interested in endless surgical operations", leaving him with "approximately six months to live". Just over a month after the initial announcement, on 13 March 2015, Daevid's son Orlando announced through Facebook that Allen had died in Byron Bay, Australia, aged 77.
On 11 April 2015, it was revealed that Allen had written an email to the band prior to his death, expressing his wish that the five remaining members continue performing following his passing and suggesting that Kavus Torabi become the new frontman of the band.
Gilli Smyth died on 22 August 2016, aged 83. She had been admitted to hospital in Byron Bay with pneumonia a couple of days previously.
Post-Daevid Allen: Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016–present)
On 5 July 2016, it was announced that the band line-up consisting of Kavus Torabi, Fabio Golfetti, Dave Sturt, Ian East and Cheb Nettles had recorded a new album entitled Rejoice! I'm Dead!, featuring guest appearances from Steve Hillage on guitar, Didier Malherbe on duduk and Graham Clark on violin, with Daevid Allen's vocals appearing on two tracks. Rejoice! I'm Dead! was released on 16 September 2016 through Snapper Music. On May 2019, the lineup followed up with their fifteenth album The Universe Also Collapses.
On August 2019, Universal Music announced the boxed set, Love From The Planet Gong: The Virgin Years 1973–75, encompassing Gong's tenure with Virgin Records, would be released on 27 September. Curated by Hillage, it contains remasters of four studio albums and previously unreleased live recordings made between 1973 and 1975.
Music and lyrics
Style and influences
Gong's music fuses many influences into a distinctive style which has been variously described by critics and journalists as experimental rock, jazz fusion, jazz rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock and space rock. Gong has also been associated with the Canterbury scene of progressive rock bands.
Rolling Stone described Gong's music as combining "psychedelic English whimsy, German kosmische space jams and Gallic libertine fusion."
Daevid Allen's guitar playing was influenced by Syd Barrett.
Mythology
The Gong mythology is a humorous collection of recurring characters and allegorical themes which permeate the albums of Gong and Daevid Allen, and to a lesser extent the early works of Steve Hillage. The characters were often based on, or used as pseudonyms for, band members, while the story itself was based on a vision which Allen had during the full moon of Easter 1966, in Deià, Majorca, in which he claimed he could see his future laid out before him. This mythology was hinted at through Gong's earlier albums but was not the central theme until the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy of 1973/74. It contains many similarities to concepts from Buddhist philosophy, e.g. optimism, the search for self, the denial of absolute reality and the search for the path to enlightenment. There are frequent references to the production and consumption of "tea", perhaps suggesting mushroom tea, although the word has also long been used to describe cannabis, especially in the 1940s and 1950s.
Flying Teapot: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 1 (1973)
The story begins on the album Flying Teapot (1973), when a pig-farming Egyptologist called Mista T. Being is sold a "magick ear ring" by an "antique teapot street vendor and tea label collector" called Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from the Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Being and Fish head off to the Hymnalayas of Tibet (sic) where they meet the "great beer yogi" Banana Ananda in a cave. Ananda tends to chant "Banana Nirvana Mañana" a lot and gets drunk on Foster's Australian Lager. (This latter development mirrors the real-life experience of band members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth who met their saxophonist, Didier Malherbe, in a cave in Majorca.)
Meanwhile, the mythology's central character, Zero the Hero, is going about his everyday life when he suddenly has a vision in Charing Cross Road, London. He is compelled to seek heroes and starts worshiping the Cock Pot Pixie, one of a number of Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong. These pixies are green, have propellers on their heads, and fly around in teapots (inspired by [Bertrand] Russell's teapot).
Zero is soon distracted by a cat to whom he offers his fish and chips. The cat is actually the Good Witch Yoni, and she gives Zero a potion in return.
Angel's Egg: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 2 (1973)
The second part, Angel's Egg (1973), begins with Zero falling asleep under the influence of the potion and finding himself floating through space. After accidentally scaring a space pilot called Captain Capricorn, Zero locates the Planet Gong, and spends some time with a prostitute who introduces him to the moon goddess Selene.
Zero's drug-induced trip to the Planet Gong continues, and the Pot Head Pixies explain to him how their flying teapots fly: a system known as Glidding. He is then taken to the One Invisible Temple of Gong.
Inside the temple, Zero is shown the Angel's Egg, the physical embodiment of the 32 Octave Doctors (descendants of the Great God Cell). The Angel's Egg is the magic-eye mandala that features on much of the band's sleeve-art. It is also a sort of recycling plant for Pot Head Pixies.
A grand plan is revealed to Zero: there will be a Great Melting Feast of Freeks which Zero must organise on Earth. When everyone is enjoying the Feast, a huge global concert, the Switch Doctor will turn everybody's third eye on, ushering in a New Age on Earth. The Switch Doctor is the Earth's resident Octave Doctor, who lives near Banana Ananda's cave, in a "potheadquarters" called the Compagnie d'Opera Invisible de Thibet (C.O.I.T.) and transmits all the details to the Gong Band via the Bananamoon Observatory.
You: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 3 (1974)
In the third instalment, You (1974), Zero must first return from his trip. He asks Hiram the Master Builder how to structure his vision and build his own Invisible Temple. Having done this, Zero establishes that he must organise the Great Melting Feast of Freeks on the Isle of Everywhere: Bali.
The event is going well, and the Switch Doctor switches on everyone's third eyes except for Zero's, for he is out the back, indulging in Earthly pleasures ("fruitcake").
Zero has missed out on the whole third eye revelation experience and is forced to continue his existence spinning around on the wheel of births and deaths and slowly converging on the Angel's Egg in a way which, to a certain extent, resembles Buddhist reincarnation.
Continuations (1992–2009)
The album Shapeshifter (1992) is the fourth instalment in the saga, in which Zero meets an urban shaman who agrees to take him to the next level of awareness on the proviso that Zero spends nine months on an aeroplane traveling where he wants, but not using money or eating anything other than airline food. Zero eventually dies in Australia under mysterious circumstances.
The next instalment is the album Zero to Infinity (2000), which sees Zero's spirit enjoying a body-free and virtual existence. During the course of this he becomes an android spheroid Zeroid. With the help of a strange animal called a gongalope, he learns that all the wisdom of the world exists within him and practises Lafta yoga and tea making. At the end he becomes one with an Invisible Temple and has a lot of fun.
The final instalment of the story, 2032 (2009), is set in that year, one which Daevid Allen had seen as significant for the enlightenment of humanity. The Planet Gong now serves as more of a digital portal for a humanity still grappling with contemporary issues of life.
Influence on other artists
Gong's influence has been seen in artists such as Ozric Tentacles and Insane Clown Posse, whose member Violent J listened to Gong's music for inspiration during the recording of ICP's 2009 album Bang! Pow! Boom!. Gong's music has also found fandom in the ambient music scene.
The Southern rock band Raging Slab has covered Gong's "The Pot Head Pixies" for NORML's Hempilation release. Japanese psych-rock band Acid Mothers Temple frequently covers Gong's "Master Builder", titled as "Om Riff", and have released 2 full albums dedicated to album-length renditions of the song; 2005's "IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno" and 2012's "IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out".
Actor Sherman Hemsley, best known for his role on The Jeffersons, was an avowed Gong fanatic, going so far as to have a Flying Teapot room in his house. The room, which had darkened windows, played Flying Teapot continuously via tape loops.
Personnel
Current members
Fabio Golfetti – lead guitar (2007, 2012–present)
Dave Sturt – bass (2009–present)
Ian East – saxophone, flute (2010–present)
Kavus Torabi – guitar, vocals (2014–present)
Cheb Nettles – drums (2014–present)
Discography
Daevid Allen's Gong
Magick Brother (1970)
Camembert Electrique (1971)
Continental Circus (1972, soundtrack)
Flying Teapot (1973)
Angel's Egg (1973)
You (1974)
Shapeshifter (1992)
Zero to Infinity (2000)
Acid Motherhood (2004) (with Acid Mothers Temple)
2032 (2009)
I See You (2014)
post-Daevid Allen
Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016)
The Universe Also Collapses (2019)
"Shamal Gong"
Shamal * (1976) (issued as a "Gong" album)
* Usually regarded as a transitional album between Daevid Allen's incarnation of the band and the Pierre Moerlen-led fusion line-up of the late 1970s.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Gazeuse! (1976) (Expresso in North America) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Expresso II (1978) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Downwind (1979)
Time Is the Key (1979)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (1980)
Leave It Open (1981)
Breakthrough (1986)
Second Wind (1988)
Full Circle Live '88 (1998)
Pentanine (2004)
Tribute (2010) (post-Pierre Moerlen)
Planet Gong
Live Floating Anarchy 1977 (1978)
New York Gong
About Time (1980)
Gongmaison
Gongmaison (1989)
Mother Gong
Fairy Tales (1979)
Mother Gong / Anthony Phillips – Battle of the Birds (1981)
Robot Woman (1981)
Robot Woman 2 (1982)
Robot Woman 3 (1986)
Fish in the Sky (1988)
The Owl and the Tree (with Daevid Allen) (1989)
Wild Child (1991)
She Made the World Magenta (1993)
Eye (1994)
Tree in Fish (1994)
Gilli Smyth, Daevid Allen and Orlando Allen
I Am Your Egg (2005)
Live albums
Haunted Chateau (1969)
Glastonbury Fayre (Gong contributed one side to this triple LP) (1971)
Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (contributed one side) (1973)
Gong est Mort, Vive Gong (French live album) (1977)
Gong Live Etc (UK live album) (1977)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1980)
Live at Sheffield '74 (1990)
Live au Bataclan 1973 (1990)
Live Floating Anarchy 1991 (Planet Gong) (1992)
Live 1991 (Mother Gong) (1992)
Live on T.V. 1990 (1993)
25th Birthday Party (1995)
Pre-Modernist Wireless: The Peel Sessions (1995)
Full Circle Live '88 (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1998)
Live 2 Infinitea (2000)
OK Friends (2002)
Glastonbury 1971 (2002)
Live in Sherwood Forest '75 (Shamal-Gong) (2005)
Glastonbury '79–'81 (Mother Gong) (2005)
Gong in the 70s (2006)
Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo (Acid Mothers Gong) (2006)
Mothergong O Amsterdam (Mother Gong) (2007)
Live in Brazil (2009)
Pulsing Signals (2022)
Compilation albums
Wingful of Eyes (A Retrospective, '75–'78) (Virgin Records, 1986)
The Mystery and the History of the Planet Gong (1989)
The Best of Gong (Charly Records, 1995)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 1997)
Best of Mother Gong (1998)
The World of Daevid Allen and Gong (3 CD compilation including almost all of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy and early album tracks) (2003)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 2005)
Gong in the 70's (Voiceprint, 2006)
A Storm in a Teapot (Charly, 2013)
Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy (4 CD or 5 LP box set) (Charly, 2015)
Love from the Planet Gong: The Virgin Years (1973–75) (Virgin, 2019)
Other appearances
Obsolete (album by French singer Dashiell Hedayat) (1971)
The Book of AM (produced by Daevid Allen, with Mother Gong musicians) (1978)
Filmography
2015: Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (DVD)
References
Further reading
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 1. SAF Publishing, 2007
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 2. SAF Publishing, 2009
Brown, Brian. "Gong: Angel's Egg", (Crawdaddy!) 26 March 2008
External links
Official web site for Gong, GAS and Gliss
Gong at Calyx, The Canterbury Music Website, by Aymeric Leroy – includes detailed chronology
"Not Just Another Gong Website" – comprehensive tapeography
The Archive – Archival photos of Gong, Mother Gong, Steve Hillage, Nik Turner, Here & Now, Hawkwind and many Free Festivals from the 1960s–1980s
Acid Motherhood voted weirdest album cover of all time
Canterbury scene
Concept album series
Musical groups established in 1967
Virgin Records artists
French progressive rock groups
British progressive rock groups
British psychedelic rock music groups
Space rock musical groups
Musical groups from Paris
Freak artists
French psychedelic rock music groups
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"Le Cousin is a 1997 French film directed by Alain Corneau.\n\nPlot \nThe film deals with the relationship of the police and an informant in the drug scene.\n\nAwards and nominations\nLe Cousin was nominated for 5 César Awards but did not win in any category.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1997 films\n1997 crime films\nFilms about drugs\nFilms directed by Alain Corneau\nFrench crime films\nFrench films\nFrench-language films",
"The African National Congress was a political party in Trinidad and Tobago. The party first contested national elections in 1961, when it received just 0.5% of the vote and failed to win a seat. They did not put forward any candidates for the 1966 elections, but returned for the 1971 elections, in which they received 2.4% of the vote, but again failed to win a seat as the People's National Movement won all 36. The party did not contest any further elections.\n\nReferences\n\nDefunct political parties in Trinidad and Tobago"
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[
"Gong (band)",
"The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972-74)",
"were they played on the radio?",
"was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,",
"what is the trilogy?",
"1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,",
"did they go high on charts?",
"pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts.",
"did they win any awards?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_6045c4a8119245e68a570f9e7aa052f6_0
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what happened after they didn't make the charts?
| 6 |
what happened after Gong didn't make the charts?
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Gong (band)
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1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deia to look after she and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake. In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. As they settled in, they were played a rough mix of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, then already in production. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers, and who had replaced Oldfield in Ayers' band. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound. Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to she and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deia with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deia, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy. In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price. CANNOTANSWER
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The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.
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Gong are a progressive rock band that incorporates elements of jazz and space rock into their musical style. The group was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian musician Daevid Allen and English vocalist Gilli Smyth. Band members have included Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell and Theo Travis. Others who have played on stage with Gong include Don Cherry, Chris Cutler, Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Dave Stewart and Tatsuya Yoshida.
Gong's 1970 debut album, Magick Brother, featured a psychedelic pop sound. By the following year, the second album, Camembert Electrique, featured the more psychedelic rock/space rock sound with which they would be most associated. Between 1973 and 1974, Gong released their best known work, the allegorical Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, describing the adventures of Zero the Hero, the Good Witch Yoni and the Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong.
In 1975, Allen and Smyth left the band, which continued without them, releasing a series of jazz rock albums under the leadership of drummer Pierre Moerlen. This incarnation soon became known as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. Meanwhile, Smyth formed Mother Gong while Allen initiated a series of spin-off groups, including Planet Gong, New York Gong and Gongmaison, before returning to lead Gong once again in 1990 until his death in 2015. With Allen's encouragement, the band decided to continue, releasing the album Rejoice! I'm Dead! in September 2016 and The Universe Also Collapses in 2019.
History
Protogong (1967–68)
In September 1967, Australian singer and guitarist Daevid Allen, a member of the English psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom for 3 years following a French tour because his visa had expired. He settled in Paris, where he and his partner, London-born Sorbonne professor Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of Gong (later referred to by Allen as "Protogong") along with Ziska Baum on vocals and Loren Standlee on flute. However, the nascent band came to an abrupt end during the May 1968 student revolution, when Allen and Smyth were forced to flee the country after a warrant was issued for their arrest. They headed for Deià in Majorca, where they had lived for a time in 1966.
Gong 'proper' begins (1968–1971)
In August 1969, film director Jérôme Laperrousaz, a close friend of the pair, invited them back to France to record a soundtrack for a motorcycle racing movie which he was planning. This came to nothing at the time, but they were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly-formed independent label BYG Actuel to record an album, and so set about forming a new electric Gong band in Paris, recruiting their first rhythm section of Christian Tritsch (bass) and Rachid Houari (drums and percussion) and re-connecting with a saxophonist called Didier Malherbe whom they had met in Deià. However, Tritsch was not ready in time for the sessions and so Allen played the bass guitar himself. The album, entitled Magick Brother, was completed in October.
The re-born Gong played its debut gig at the BYG Actuel Festival in the small Belgian town of Amougies, on 27 October 1969, joined by Danny Laloux on hunting horn and percussion, and Dieter Gewissler and Gerry Fields on violin, and was introduced to the stage by bemused compere Frank Zappa. Magick Brother was released in March 1970, followed in April by a non-album single, "Est-Ce Que Je Suis; Garçon Ou Fille?" b/w "Hip Hip Hypnotise Ya", which again featured Laloux and Gewissler. In October, the band moved into an abandoned 12-room hunting lodge called Pavillon du Hay, near Voisines and Sens, 120 km south-east of Paris. They would be based there until early 1974.
Houari left the band in the spring of 1971 and was replaced by English drummer Pip Pyle, whom Allen had been introduced to by Robert Wyatt during the recording of his debut solo album, Banana Moon. The new line-up recorded a soundtrack for Laperrousaz's movie, now entitled Continental Circus, backed poet Dashiell Hedayat on his album Obsolete, and played at the second Glastonbury Festival, later documented on the Glastonbury Fayre album. Next, they began work on their second studio album, Camembert Electrique, later referred to by Allen as "the first real band album". It established the progressive, space rock sound which would make their name, leading, in the autumn, to their first UK tour. However, by the end of the year Pyle had left the group, to be replaced by another English drummer, Laurie Allan.
The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972–74)
Gong went through increasing line-up disruption in 1972. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deià to look after her and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake.
In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound.
Flying Teapot was released on 25 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first instalment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to her and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deià with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deià, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy.
In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.
Daevid Allen's departure and Shamal (1975–76)
Increasing tension and personality clashes led to Tim Blake being asked to leave in February 1975 during rehearsals for a tour. He was not replaced. Then, at a gig in Cheltenham on 10 April, the day before the release of Steve Hillage's Fish Rising album, Daevid Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him from doing so, and he left the band. The others decided to carry on without him.
In August, Pierre Moerlen was persuaded to return, replacing the unhappy and alcoholic Davison, and the band now also added Mireille Bauer on percussion, Jorge Pinchevsky on violin and Patrice Lemoine on synthesizer and, for the first time in Gong, keyboards. They toured the UK in November 1975, as documented on the 2005 release Live in Sherwood Forest '75, and worked on material for their next album, Shamal. Hillage, however, was increasingly uncomfortable without Allen, and with now being seen as the band's de facto leader. With a solo career beckoning, he and Giraudy decided to leave before Shamal was completed, participating in it only as guests. Howlett took over as lead male vocalist and Sandy Colley, Lemoine's partner and the band's cook, became his female counterpart. The album was released in February 1976 and they toured in support until a crisis was precipitated in May when Pinchevsky was refused entry to the U.K. for carrying marijuana. Ex-King Crimson violinist David Cross was tried out as a possible replacement, but before any progress could be made with this new line-up, the band split into two camps: Howlett wanted to keep vocals, but Moerlen and Bauer wanted the music to be entirely instrumental, with Malherbe undecided. Virgin Records executive Simon Draper chose Moerlen's way and Howlett left, quickly followed by Lemoine and Colley.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong and other 70s offshoots (1976–1980)
For contractual reasons, the Gong name remained in play for another two years, but the band was now effectively Pierre Moerlen's Gong, having little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen. Moerlen formed a new mallet percussion based line-up, adding his brother Benoit Moerlen, future Weather Report percussionist Mino Cinelu, journeyman guitarist Allan Holdsworth and Flying Teapot bassist Francis Moze to record the album Gazeuse! in late 1976. Malherbe, Holdsworth, Moze and Cinelu all left soon afterwards, but Moerlen kept a band going with American bassist Hansford Rowe until the late 1980s. To avoid confusion, it first became known as Gong-Expresso and then, from 1978, as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. One last album, Pentanine, was recorded in 2002 with Russian musicians before Moerlen died unexpectedly in May 2005, aged 53.
A Gong reunion event held in Paris in May 1977 brought together all of the current strands which had developed and re-asserted the primacy of the Daevid Allen-led band. It featured sets by Tim Blake, Lady June, Howlett's Strontium 90, Steve Hillage, 'Shamal Gong', Gong-Expresso, Daevid Allen and Euterpe, and was headlined by Trilogy Gong, the classic lineup of Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett and Moerlen. Their performance was documented on the live album Gong est Mort, Vive Gong. Strontium 90 was Mike Howlett's short-lived band which was notable for having two bass players, and for introducing Police members Sting and Stewart Copeland to their future guitarist Andy Summers.
Daevid Allen continued to develop the Gong mythology in his solo albums and with two new bands: Planet Gong (1977), which comprised Allen and Smyth playing with the British festival band Here & Now, and New York Gong (1979), comprising Allen and the American musicians who would later become known as Material. At the same time, Gilli Smyth formed Mother Gong with English guitarist/producer Harry Williamson and Didier Malherbe, and played in Spain and England. Allen delighted in this proliferation of groups and considered his role at this time to be that of an instigator, traveling around the world leaving active Gong-related bands in his wake.
Gongmaison and reunion (1989–1992)
After spending most of the Eighties in his native Australia, Allen returned to the UK in 1988 with a new project, The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, whose revolving cast included violinist Graham Clark and Gong saxophonist Didier Malherbe. This morphed into Gongmaison in 1989, which added Harry Williamson from Mother Gong and had a techno-influenced sound with electronic beats, as well as live percussion from Shyamal Maïtra. In 1990, the Gong name was revived for a one-off U.K. T.V. appearance with a line-up featuring Allen, Smyth and Malherbe, plus early 70s drummer Pip Pyle and three members of Here & Now (band): Stephen Lewry (lead guitar), Keith Bailey (bass) and Paul Noble (synth). In April 1992, Gongmaison became Gong permanently with the combined line-up of Allen, Malherbe, Bailey and Pyle, plus Graham Clark and Shyamal Maïtra from Gongmaison. Together they recorded the album Shapeshifter (subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 4) and toured extensively.
25th anniversary celebration (1994) and worldwide touring (1996–2001)
In 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th birthday with a show in London which featured the return of Gilli Smyth, bassist Mike Howlett and lead guitarist Stephen Lewry of Here & Now. This formed the basis of the band which toured worldwide from 1996 to 2001, with Pierre Moerlen replacing Pip Pyle on drums from 1997 through 1999. The album Zero to Infinity was released in 2000, by which time the line-up had changed again to Allen, Smyth, Malherbe and Howlett, plus new recruits on sax and Chris Taylor on drums. This line-up was unique in the band's history in having two sax/flute players.
Acid Mothers Gong (2003–04)
2003 saw a radical new line-up including Acid Mothers Temple members Kawabata Makoto and Cotton Casino, plus University of Errors guitarist Josh Pollock. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando drummed on the 2004 studio album Acid Motherhood, but for the subsequent live dates the rhythm section was Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and Acid Mothers Temple bassist Tsuyama Atsushi. A live album recorded by this line-up in 2004 was released as Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo and they played a few more one-off shows in 2006 and 2007.
Gong Family Unconventions (2004–06)
The European version of Gong had retired from regular touring in 2001, but there were subsequent one-off reunions, most notably at the "Gong Family Unconventions" (Uncons), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms as a one-day event and featured many ex-members and Gong family bands including Here & Now, House of Thandoy, Thom the Poet, Invisible Opera Company, Andy Bole, Bubbledub and Joie Hinton. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here & Now, System 7, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The next Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: 'Classic' Gong (Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Howlett, Travis, Taylor, plus the return of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy), System 7, The Steve Hillage Band, Hadouk, Tim Blake and Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch, Eat Static, Sacred Geometry Band, Acid Mothers Gong and many others. These events have all been compèred by Thom the Poet (now "Thom Moon 10").
Gong Global Family (2007)
In November 2007, Daevid Allen held a series of concerts in Brazil with a new band which he called Gong Global Family. This consisted of Allen on vocals and guitar, Josh Pollock on guitar, Fabio Golfetti (of Violeta de Outono) on guitar, Gabriel Costa (also from Violeta de Outono) on bass, Marcelo Ringel on flute and tenor saxophone, and Fred Barley on drums. He also performed with his other band, University of Errors (Allen, Pollock, Barley and Michael Clare). These shows took place in São Paulo on 21 and 22 November and São Carlos on 24 November. The 21 November show was filmed and released in the UK on DVD and CD by Voiceprint Records. These musicians, minus Marcelo, also recorded some new songs at Mosh studio, São Paulo.
Continuing to record, tour and evolve (2008–2014)
In June 2008, Gong played two concerts in London, at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank (opening Massive Attack's Meltdown festival) and at The Forum, with a line-up of Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett, Taylor and Travis. This line-up then released a new album, 2032, in 2009 and toured in support, including the Glade stage at Glastonbury Festival. They played at The Big Chill festival in the UK on 9 August 2009 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Travis, Taylor and new bassist Dave Sturt, as well as the Beautiful Days festival in Devon and the Lounge On The Farm festival near Canterbury.
Gong played four UK live shows in September 2010 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and new wind player Ian East. Support for these shows was provided by Nik Turner's Space Ritual.
Gong toured Europe in the fall of 2012 with the line-up of Allen, Smyth, Sturt and East, plus Orlando Allen (Acid Mothers Gong) on drums, and Fabio Golfetti (Gong Global Family) on guitar. It would be Gilli Smyth's final tour with the band.
They played in Brazil in May 2013 and again in 2014, this time with the addition of Kavus Torabi on guitar.
The 2014 line-up released a new studio album entitled I See You on 10 November, with Gilli Smyth guesting. However, Daevid Allen had been diagnosed with a cancerous cyst in his neck and had to undergo radiation therapy followed by an extensive period of recuperation. The I See You tour went ahead without him, and the line-up of Sturt, East, Golfetti, Torabi and a "mystery drummer" (revealed to be Cheb Nettles) played five dates in France and two in the UK.
The deaths of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth (2015–16)
On 5 February 2015, Daevid Allen released a statement announcing that the cancer had returned to his neck and had also spread to his lungs, and that he was "not interested in endless surgical operations", leaving him with "approximately six months to live". Just over a month after the initial announcement, on 13 March 2015, Daevid's son Orlando announced through Facebook that Allen had died in Byron Bay, Australia, aged 77.
On 11 April 2015, it was revealed that Allen had written an email to the band prior to his death, expressing his wish that the five remaining members continue performing following his passing and suggesting that Kavus Torabi become the new frontman of the band.
Gilli Smyth died on 22 August 2016, aged 83. She had been admitted to hospital in Byron Bay with pneumonia a couple of days previously.
Post-Daevid Allen: Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016–present)
On 5 July 2016, it was announced that the band line-up consisting of Kavus Torabi, Fabio Golfetti, Dave Sturt, Ian East and Cheb Nettles had recorded a new album entitled Rejoice! I'm Dead!, featuring guest appearances from Steve Hillage on guitar, Didier Malherbe on duduk and Graham Clark on violin, with Daevid Allen's vocals appearing on two tracks. Rejoice! I'm Dead! was released on 16 September 2016 through Snapper Music. On May 2019, the lineup followed up with their fifteenth album The Universe Also Collapses.
On August 2019, Universal Music announced the boxed set, Love From The Planet Gong: The Virgin Years 1973–75, encompassing Gong's tenure with Virgin Records, would be released on 27 September. Curated by Hillage, it contains remasters of four studio albums and previously unreleased live recordings made between 1973 and 1975.
Music and lyrics
Style and influences
Gong's music fuses many influences into a distinctive style which has been variously described by critics and journalists as experimental rock, jazz fusion, jazz rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock and space rock. Gong has also been associated with the Canterbury scene of progressive rock bands.
Rolling Stone described Gong's music as combining "psychedelic English whimsy, German kosmische space jams and Gallic libertine fusion."
Daevid Allen's guitar playing was influenced by Syd Barrett.
Mythology
The Gong mythology is a humorous collection of recurring characters and allegorical themes which permeate the albums of Gong and Daevid Allen, and to a lesser extent the early works of Steve Hillage. The characters were often based on, or used as pseudonyms for, band members, while the story itself was based on a vision which Allen had during the full moon of Easter 1966, in Deià, Majorca, in which he claimed he could see his future laid out before him. This mythology was hinted at through Gong's earlier albums but was not the central theme until the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy of 1973/74. It contains many similarities to concepts from Buddhist philosophy, e.g. optimism, the search for self, the denial of absolute reality and the search for the path to enlightenment. There are frequent references to the production and consumption of "tea", perhaps suggesting mushroom tea, although the word has also long been used to describe cannabis, especially in the 1940s and 1950s.
Flying Teapot: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 1 (1973)
The story begins on the album Flying Teapot (1973), when a pig-farming Egyptologist called Mista T. Being is sold a "magick ear ring" by an "antique teapot street vendor and tea label collector" called Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from the Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Being and Fish head off to the Hymnalayas of Tibet (sic) where they meet the "great beer yogi" Banana Ananda in a cave. Ananda tends to chant "Banana Nirvana Mañana" a lot and gets drunk on Foster's Australian Lager. (This latter development mirrors the real-life experience of band members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth who met their saxophonist, Didier Malherbe, in a cave in Majorca.)
Meanwhile, the mythology's central character, Zero the Hero, is going about his everyday life when he suddenly has a vision in Charing Cross Road, London. He is compelled to seek heroes and starts worshiping the Cock Pot Pixie, one of a number of Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong. These pixies are green, have propellers on their heads, and fly around in teapots (inspired by [Bertrand] Russell's teapot).
Zero is soon distracted by a cat to whom he offers his fish and chips. The cat is actually the Good Witch Yoni, and she gives Zero a potion in return.
Angel's Egg: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 2 (1973)
The second part, Angel's Egg (1973), begins with Zero falling asleep under the influence of the potion and finding himself floating through space. After accidentally scaring a space pilot called Captain Capricorn, Zero locates the Planet Gong, and spends some time with a prostitute who introduces him to the moon goddess Selene.
Zero's drug-induced trip to the Planet Gong continues, and the Pot Head Pixies explain to him how their flying teapots fly: a system known as Glidding. He is then taken to the One Invisible Temple of Gong.
Inside the temple, Zero is shown the Angel's Egg, the physical embodiment of the 32 Octave Doctors (descendants of the Great God Cell). The Angel's Egg is the magic-eye mandala that features on much of the band's sleeve-art. It is also a sort of recycling plant for Pot Head Pixies.
A grand plan is revealed to Zero: there will be a Great Melting Feast of Freeks which Zero must organise on Earth. When everyone is enjoying the Feast, a huge global concert, the Switch Doctor will turn everybody's third eye on, ushering in a New Age on Earth. The Switch Doctor is the Earth's resident Octave Doctor, who lives near Banana Ananda's cave, in a "potheadquarters" called the Compagnie d'Opera Invisible de Thibet (C.O.I.T.) and transmits all the details to the Gong Band via the Bananamoon Observatory.
You: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 3 (1974)
In the third instalment, You (1974), Zero must first return from his trip. He asks Hiram the Master Builder how to structure his vision and build his own Invisible Temple. Having done this, Zero establishes that he must organise the Great Melting Feast of Freeks on the Isle of Everywhere: Bali.
The event is going well, and the Switch Doctor switches on everyone's third eyes except for Zero's, for he is out the back, indulging in Earthly pleasures ("fruitcake").
Zero has missed out on the whole third eye revelation experience and is forced to continue his existence spinning around on the wheel of births and deaths and slowly converging on the Angel's Egg in a way which, to a certain extent, resembles Buddhist reincarnation.
Continuations (1992–2009)
The album Shapeshifter (1992) is the fourth instalment in the saga, in which Zero meets an urban shaman who agrees to take him to the next level of awareness on the proviso that Zero spends nine months on an aeroplane traveling where he wants, but not using money or eating anything other than airline food. Zero eventually dies in Australia under mysterious circumstances.
The next instalment is the album Zero to Infinity (2000), which sees Zero's spirit enjoying a body-free and virtual existence. During the course of this he becomes an android spheroid Zeroid. With the help of a strange animal called a gongalope, he learns that all the wisdom of the world exists within him and practises Lafta yoga and tea making. At the end he becomes one with an Invisible Temple and has a lot of fun.
The final instalment of the story, 2032 (2009), is set in that year, one which Daevid Allen had seen as significant for the enlightenment of humanity. The Planet Gong now serves as more of a digital portal for a humanity still grappling with contemporary issues of life.
Influence on other artists
Gong's influence has been seen in artists such as Ozric Tentacles and Insane Clown Posse, whose member Violent J listened to Gong's music for inspiration during the recording of ICP's 2009 album Bang! Pow! Boom!. Gong's music has also found fandom in the ambient music scene.
The Southern rock band Raging Slab has covered Gong's "The Pot Head Pixies" for NORML's Hempilation release. Japanese psych-rock band Acid Mothers Temple frequently covers Gong's "Master Builder", titled as "Om Riff", and have released 2 full albums dedicated to album-length renditions of the song; 2005's "IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno" and 2012's "IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out".
Actor Sherman Hemsley, best known for his role on The Jeffersons, was an avowed Gong fanatic, going so far as to have a Flying Teapot room in his house. The room, which had darkened windows, played Flying Teapot continuously via tape loops.
Personnel
Current members
Fabio Golfetti – lead guitar (2007, 2012–present)
Dave Sturt – bass (2009–present)
Ian East – saxophone, flute (2010–present)
Kavus Torabi – guitar, vocals (2014–present)
Cheb Nettles – drums (2014–present)
Discography
Daevid Allen's Gong
Magick Brother (1970)
Camembert Electrique (1971)
Continental Circus (1972, soundtrack)
Flying Teapot (1973)
Angel's Egg (1973)
You (1974)
Shapeshifter (1992)
Zero to Infinity (2000)
Acid Motherhood (2004) (with Acid Mothers Temple)
2032 (2009)
I See You (2014)
post-Daevid Allen
Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016)
The Universe Also Collapses (2019)
"Shamal Gong"
Shamal * (1976) (issued as a "Gong" album)
* Usually regarded as a transitional album between Daevid Allen's incarnation of the band and the Pierre Moerlen-led fusion line-up of the late 1970s.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Gazeuse! (1976) (Expresso in North America) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Expresso II (1978) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Downwind (1979)
Time Is the Key (1979)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (1980)
Leave It Open (1981)
Breakthrough (1986)
Second Wind (1988)
Full Circle Live '88 (1998)
Pentanine (2004)
Tribute (2010) (post-Pierre Moerlen)
Planet Gong
Live Floating Anarchy 1977 (1978)
New York Gong
About Time (1980)
Gongmaison
Gongmaison (1989)
Mother Gong
Fairy Tales (1979)
Mother Gong / Anthony Phillips – Battle of the Birds (1981)
Robot Woman (1981)
Robot Woman 2 (1982)
Robot Woman 3 (1986)
Fish in the Sky (1988)
The Owl and the Tree (with Daevid Allen) (1989)
Wild Child (1991)
She Made the World Magenta (1993)
Eye (1994)
Tree in Fish (1994)
Gilli Smyth, Daevid Allen and Orlando Allen
I Am Your Egg (2005)
Live albums
Haunted Chateau (1969)
Glastonbury Fayre (Gong contributed one side to this triple LP) (1971)
Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (contributed one side) (1973)
Gong est Mort, Vive Gong (French live album) (1977)
Gong Live Etc (UK live album) (1977)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1980)
Live at Sheffield '74 (1990)
Live au Bataclan 1973 (1990)
Live Floating Anarchy 1991 (Planet Gong) (1992)
Live 1991 (Mother Gong) (1992)
Live on T.V. 1990 (1993)
25th Birthday Party (1995)
Pre-Modernist Wireless: The Peel Sessions (1995)
Full Circle Live '88 (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1998)
Live 2 Infinitea (2000)
OK Friends (2002)
Glastonbury 1971 (2002)
Live in Sherwood Forest '75 (Shamal-Gong) (2005)
Glastonbury '79–'81 (Mother Gong) (2005)
Gong in the 70s (2006)
Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo (Acid Mothers Gong) (2006)
Mothergong O Amsterdam (Mother Gong) (2007)
Live in Brazil (2009)
Pulsing Signals (2022)
Compilation albums
Wingful of Eyes (A Retrospective, '75–'78) (Virgin Records, 1986)
The Mystery and the History of the Planet Gong (1989)
The Best of Gong (Charly Records, 1995)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 1997)
Best of Mother Gong (1998)
The World of Daevid Allen and Gong (3 CD compilation including almost all of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy and early album tracks) (2003)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 2005)
Gong in the 70's (Voiceprint, 2006)
A Storm in a Teapot (Charly, 2013)
Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy (4 CD or 5 LP box set) (Charly, 2015)
Love from the Planet Gong: The Virgin Years (1973–75) (Virgin, 2019)
Other appearances
Obsolete (album by French singer Dashiell Hedayat) (1971)
The Book of AM (produced by Daevid Allen, with Mother Gong musicians) (1978)
Filmography
2015: Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (DVD)
References
Further reading
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 1. SAF Publishing, 2007
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 2. SAF Publishing, 2009
Brown, Brian. "Gong: Angel's Egg", (Crawdaddy!) 26 March 2008
External links
Official web site for Gong, GAS and Gliss
Gong at Calyx, The Canterbury Music Website, by Aymeric Leroy – includes detailed chronology
"Not Just Another Gong Website" – comprehensive tapeography
The Archive – Archival photos of Gong, Mother Gong, Steve Hillage, Nik Turner, Here & Now, Hawkwind and many Free Festivals from the 1960s–1980s
Acid Motherhood voted weirdest album cover of all time
Canterbury scene
Concept album series
Musical groups established in 1967
Virgin Records artists
French progressive rock groups
British progressive rock groups
British psychedelic rock music groups
Space rock musical groups
Musical groups from Paris
Freak artists
French psychedelic rock music groups
| true |
[
"The Very Best of Jessi Colter: An Outlaw, a Lady is a compilation album released by Capitol records; the collection features Country music singer Jessi Colter's biggest hits from the 1970s and 1980s.\n\nThe album includes Colter's signature song, the pop-country crossover hit \"I'm Not Lisa\", plus, its follow-up -- \"What's Happened to Blue Eyes\"—which reached #5 on the Country charts in 1975. The album includes nine of Colter's ten total charted hits.\n\nTrack listing \n\"You Mean to Say\" - 2:30\n\"Suspicious Minds\" (with Waylon Jennings) - 3:57\n\"Under Your Spell Again\" (with Waylon Jennings) - 2:53\n\"I'm Not Lisa\" - 3:23\n\"What's Happened to Blue Eyes\" - 2:22\n\"You Ain't Been Loved (Like I'm Gonna Love You)\" - 2:59\n\"Storms Never Last\" (with Waylon Jennings) - 4:16\n\"It's Morning (And I Still Love You)\" - 2:25\n\"Without You\" - 3:59\n\"Here I Am\" - 3:46\n\"I Belong to Him\" - 4:06\n\"New Wine\" - 3:50\n\"I Thought I Heard You Calling My Name\" - 3:57\n\"You Hung the Moon (Didn't You Waylon?)\" - 3:23\n\"Maybe You Should've Been Listening\" - 4:39\n\"That's the Way a Cowboy Rocks and Rolls\" - 3:24\n\"Hold Back the Tears\" - 3:03\n\"The Wild Side of Life/It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels\" (medley) (with Waylon Jennings) - 3:21\n\nReferences\n\nJessi Colter albums\n2003 greatest hits albums\nCapitol Records compilation albums",
"Unreleased (1998–2010) is the fourth compilation album by Australian alternative rock band Powderfinger, released on 27 November 2020. The album comprises ten previously unheard and unreleased tracks recorded between the years of 1998 and 2010, and stored on various hard drives and tapes within the band's archives.\n\nBackground\nIn August 2020, Powderfinger told Double J that they had stumbled across a range of recordings in their vaults while searching for extra material to accompany the 20th-anniversary reissue of their Odyssey Number Five album.\n\nThe release was first teased in late August, the group revealing that they would be issuing a record of unheard tracks later in the year, with \"Day by Day\" serving as its first single in mid-September.\n\nThe album's release date and track listing was confirmed on 15 October 2020, with guitarist Darren Middleton telling Double J, \"Essentially what you're going to hear is the band spanning about 10 years, with songs that for one reason or another just didn't make the cut at the time, or just didn't suit the purposes of whatever we were doing.\"\n\nSingles\n\"Day by Day\" was announced in late August and officially released on 17 September 2020. The song was recorded for but not included on 2003's Vulture Street. Vocalist Bernard Fanning said, \"'Day by Day' was never completed until we opened the archives and went sniffing around for tracks that had never been released. We never even really had a rough mix of it as we had obviously decided at the time that it didn't quite fit with the rest of the songs on that album. Looking back now, I'm not sure why and I'm actually amazed we didn't find a place for it on the record. Once we found it, we had Nick DiDia remix it and get it into shape.\"\n\n\"Daybreak\" was released on 13 November 2020 as the album's second single.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly charts\n\nYear-end charts\n\nReferences\n\nPowderfinger albums\n2020 compilation albums\nCompilation albums by Australian artists"
] |
[
"Gong (band)",
"The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972-74)",
"were they played on the radio?",
"was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,",
"what is the trilogy?",
"1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,",
"did they go high on charts?",
"pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts.",
"did they win any awards?",
"I don't know.",
"what happened after they didn't make the charts?",
"The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price."
] |
C_6045c4a8119245e68a570f9e7aa052f6_0
|
were they encouraged?
| 7 |
were Gong encouraged that new fans might buy the groups other albums at full price?
|
Gong (band)
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1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deia to look after she and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake. In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. As they settled in, they were played a rough mix of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, then already in production. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers, and who had replaced Oldfield in Ayers' band. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound. Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to she and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deia with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deia, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy. In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Gong are a progressive rock band that incorporates elements of jazz and space rock into their musical style. The group was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian musician Daevid Allen and English vocalist Gilli Smyth. Band members have included Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell and Theo Travis. Others who have played on stage with Gong include Don Cherry, Chris Cutler, Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Dave Stewart and Tatsuya Yoshida.
Gong's 1970 debut album, Magick Brother, featured a psychedelic pop sound. By the following year, the second album, Camembert Electrique, featured the more psychedelic rock/space rock sound with which they would be most associated. Between 1973 and 1974, Gong released their best known work, the allegorical Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, describing the adventures of Zero the Hero, the Good Witch Yoni and the Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong.
In 1975, Allen and Smyth left the band, which continued without them, releasing a series of jazz rock albums under the leadership of drummer Pierre Moerlen. This incarnation soon became known as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. Meanwhile, Smyth formed Mother Gong while Allen initiated a series of spin-off groups, including Planet Gong, New York Gong and Gongmaison, before returning to lead Gong once again in 1990 until his death in 2015. With Allen's encouragement, the band decided to continue, releasing the album Rejoice! I'm Dead! in September 2016 and The Universe Also Collapses in 2019.
History
Protogong (1967–68)
In September 1967, Australian singer and guitarist Daevid Allen, a member of the English psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom for 3 years following a French tour because his visa had expired. He settled in Paris, where he and his partner, London-born Sorbonne professor Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of Gong (later referred to by Allen as "Protogong") along with Ziska Baum on vocals and Loren Standlee on flute. However, the nascent band came to an abrupt end during the May 1968 student revolution, when Allen and Smyth were forced to flee the country after a warrant was issued for their arrest. They headed for Deià in Majorca, where they had lived for a time in 1966.
Gong 'proper' begins (1968–1971)
In August 1969, film director Jérôme Laperrousaz, a close friend of the pair, invited them back to France to record a soundtrack for a motorcycle racing movie which he was planning. This came to nothing at the time, but they were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly-formed independent label BYG Actuel to record an album, and so set about forming a new electric Gong band in Paris, recruiting their first rhythm section of Christian Tritsch (bass) and Rachid Houari (drums and percussion) and re-connecting with a saxophonist called Didier Malherbe whom they had met in Deià. However, Tritsch was not ready in time for the sessions and so Allen played the bass guitar himself. The album, entitled Magick Brother, was completed in October.
The re-born Gong played its debut gig at the BYG Actuel Festival in the small Belgian town of Amougies, on 27 October 1969, joined by Danny Laloux on hunting horn and percussion, and Dieter Gewissler and Gerry Fields on violin, and was introduced to the stage by bemused compere Frank Zappa. Magick Brother was released in March 1970, followed in April by a non-album single, "Est-Ce Que Je Suis; Garçon Ou Fille?" b/w "Hip Hip Hypnotise Ya", which again featured Laloux and Gewissler. In October, the band moved into an abandoned 12-room hunting lodge called Pavillon du Hay, near Voisines and Sens, 120 km south-east of Paris. They would be based there until early 1974.
Houari left the band in the spring of 1971 and was replaced by English drummer Pip Pyle, whom Allen had been introduced to by Robert Wyatt during the recording of his debut solo album, Banana Moon. The new line-up recorded a soundtrack for Laperrousaz's movie, now entitled Continental Circus, backed poet Dashiell Hedayat on his album Obsolete, and played at the second Glastonbury Festival, later documented on the Glastonbury Fayre album. Next, they began work on their second studio album, Camembert Electrique, later referred to by Allen as "the first real band album". It established the progressive, space rock sound which would make their name, leading, in the autumn, to their first UK tour. However, by the end of the year Pyle had left the group, to be replaced by another English drummer, Laurie Allan.
The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972–74)
Gong went through increasing line-up disruption in 1972. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deià to look after her and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake.
In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound.
Flying Teapot was released on 25 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first instalment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to her and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deià with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deià, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy.
In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.
Daevid Allen's departure and Shamal (1975–76)
Increasing tension and personality clashes led to Tim Blake being asked to leave in February 1975 during rehearsals for a tour. He was not replaced. Then, at a gig in Cheltenham on 10 April, the day before the release of Steve Hillage's Fish Rising album, Daevid Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him from doing so, and he left the band. The others decided to carry on without him.
In August, Pierre Moerlen was persuaded to return, replacing the unhappy and alcoholic Davison, and the band now also added Mireille Bauer on percussion, Jorge Pinchevsky on violin and Patrice Lemoine on synthesizer and, for the first time in Gong, keyboards. They toured the UK in November 1975, as documented on the 2005 release Live in Sherwood Forest '75, and worked on material for their next album, Shamal. Hillage, however, was increasingly uncomfortable without Allen, and with now being seen as the band's de facto leader. With a solo career beckoning, he and Giraudy decided to leave before Shamal was completed, participating in it only as guests. Howlett took over as lead male vocalist and Sandy Colley, Lemoine's partner and the band's cook, became his female counterpart. The album was released in February 1976 and they toured in support until a crisis was precipitated in May when Pinchevsky was refused entry to the U.K. for carrying marijuana. Ex-King Crimson violinist David Cross was tried out as a possible replacement, but before any progress could be made with this new line-up, the band split into two camps: Howlett wanted to keep vocals, but Moerlen and Bauer wanted the music to be entirely instrumental, with Malherbe undecided. Virgin Records executive Simon Draper chose Moerlen's way and Howlett left, quickly followed by Lemoine and Colley.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong and other 70s offshoots (1976–1980)
For contractual reasons, the Gong name remained in play for another two years, but the band was now effectively Pierre Moerlen's Gong, having little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen. Moerlen formed a new mallet percussion based line-up, adding his brother Benoit Moerlen, future Weather Report percussionist Mino Cinelu, journeyman guitarist Allan Holdsworth and Flying Teapot bassist Francis Moze to record the album Gazeuse! in late 1976. Malherbe, Holdsworth, Moze and Cinelu all left soon afterwards, but Moerlen kept a band going with American bassist Hansford Rowe until the late 1980s. To avoid confusion, it first became known as Gong-Expresso and then, from 1978, as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. One last album, Pentanine, was recorded in 2002 with Russian musicians before Moerlen died unexpectedly in May 2005, aged 53.
A Gong reunion event held in Paris in May 1977 brought together all of the current strands which had developed and re-asserted the primacy of the Daevid Allen-led band. It featured sets by Tim Blake, Lady June, Howlett's Strontium 90, Steve Hillage, 'Shamal Gong', Gong-Expresso, Daevid Allen and Euterpe, and was headlined by Trilogy Gong, the classic lineup of Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett and Moerlen. Their performance was documented on the live album Gong est Mort, Vive Gong. Strontium 90 was Mike Howlett's short-lived band which was notable for having two bass players, and for introducing Police members Sting and Stewart Copeland to their future guitarist Andy Summers.
Daevid Allen continued to develop the Gong mythology in his solo albums and with two new bands: Planet Gong (1977), which comprised Allen and Smyth playing with the British festival band Here & Now, and New York Gong (1979), comprising Allen and the American musicians who would later become known as Material. At the same time, Gilli Smyth formed Mother Gong with English guitarist/producer Harry Williamson and Didier Malherbe, and played in Spain and England. Allen delighted in this proliferation of groups and considered his role at this time to be that of an instigator, traveling around the world leaving active Gong-related bands in his wake.
Gongmaison and reunion (1989–1992)
After spending most of the Eighties in his native Australia, Allen returned to the UK in 1988 with a new project, The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, whose revolving cast included violinist Graham Clark and Gong saxophonist Didier Malherbe. This morphed into Gongmaison in 1989, which added Harry Williamson from Mother Gong and had a techno-influenced sound with electronic beats, as well as live percussion from Shyamal Maïtra. In 1990, the Gong name was revived for a one-off U.K. T.V. appearance with a line-up featuring Allen, Smyth and Malherbe, plus early 70s drummer Pip Pyle and three members of Here & Now (band): Stephen Lewry (lead guitar), Keith Bailey (bass) and Paul Noble (synth). In April 1992, Gongmaison became Gong permanently with the combined line-up of Allen, Malherbe, Bailey and Pyle, plus Graham Clark and Shyamal Maïtra from Gongmaison. Together they recorded the album Shapeshifter (subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 4) and toured extensively.
25th anniversary celebration (1994) and worldwide touring (1996–2001)
In 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th birthday with a show in London which featured the return of Gilli Smyth, bassist Mike Howlett and lead guitarist Stephen Lewry of Here & Now. This formed the basis of the band which toured worldwide from 1996 to 2001, with Pierre Moerlen replacing Pip Pyle on drums from 1997 through 1999. The album Zero to Infinity was released in 2000, by which time the line-up had changed again to Allen, Smyth, Malherbe and Howlett, plus new recruits on sax and Chris Taylor on drums. This line-up was unique in the band's history in having two sax/flute players.
Acid Mothers Gong (2003–04)
2003 saw a radical new line-up including Acid Mothers Temple members Kawabata Makoto and Cotton Casino, plus University of Errors guitarist Josh Pollock. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando drummed on the 2004 studio album Acid Motherhood, but for the subsequent live dates the rhythm section was Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and Acid Mothers Temple bassist Tsuyama Atsushi. A live album recorded by this line-up in 2004 was released as Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo and they played a few more one-off shows in 2006 and 2007.
Gong Family Unconventions (2004–06)
The European version of Gong had retired from regular touring in 2001, but there were subsequent one-off reunions, most notably at the "Gong Family Unconventions" (Uncons), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms as a one-day event and featured many ex-members and Gong family bands including Here & Now, House of Thandoy, Thom the Poet, Invisible Opera Company, Andy Bole, Bubbledub and Joie Hinton. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here & Now, System 7, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The next Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: 'Classic' Gong (Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Howlett, Travis, Taylor, plus the return of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy), System 7, The Steve Hillage Band, Hadouk, Tim Blake and Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch, Eat Static, Sacred Geometry Band, Acid Mothers Gong and many others. These events have all been compèred by Thom the Poet (now "Thom Moon 10").
Gong Global Family (2007)
In November 2007, Daevid Allen held a series of concerts in Brazil with a new band which he called Gong Global Family. This consisted of Allen on vocals and guitar, Josh Pollock on guitar, Fabio Golfetti (of Violeta de Outono) on guitar, Gabriel Costa (also from Violeta de Outono) on bass, Marcelo Ringel on flute and tenor saxophone, and Fred Barley on drums. He also performed with his other band, University of Errors (Allen, Pollock, Barley and Michael Clare). These shows took place in São Paulo on 21 and 22 November and São Carlos on 24 November. The 21 November show was filmed and released in the UK on DVD and CD by Voiceprint Records. These musicians, minus Marcelo, also recorded some new songs at Mosh studio, São Paulo.
Continuing to record, tour and evolve (2008–2014)
In June 2008, Gong played two concerts in London, at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank (opening Massive Attack's Meltdown festival) and at The Forum, with a line-up of Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett, Taylor and Travis. This line-up then released a new album, 2032, in 2009 and toured in support, including the Glade stage at Glastonbury Festival. They played at The Big Chill festival in the UK on 9 August 2009 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Travis, Taylor and new bassist Dave Sturt, as well as the Beautiful Days festival in Devon and the Lounge On The Farm festival near Canterbury.
Gong played four UK live shows in September 2010 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and new wind player Ian East. Support for these shows was provided by Nik Turner's Space Ritual.
Gong toured Europe in the fall of 2012 with the line-up of Allen, Smyth, Sturt and East, plus Orlando Allen (Acid Mothers Gong) on drums, and Fabio Golfetti (Gong Global Family) on guitar. It would be Gilli Smyth's final tour with the band.
They played in Brazil in May 2013 and again in 2014, this time with the addition of Kavus Torabi on guitar.
The 2014 line-up released a new studio album entitled I See You on 10 November, with Gilli Smyth guesting. However, Daevid Allen had been diagnosed with a cancerous cyst in his neck and had to undergo radiation therapy followed by an extensive period of recuperation. The I See You tour went ahead without him, and the line-up of Sturt, East, Golfetti, Torabi and a "mystery drummer" (revealed to be Cheb Nettles) played five dates in France and two in the UK.
The deaths of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth (2015–16)
On 5 February 2015, Daevid Allen released a statement announcing that the cancer had returned to his neck and had also spread to his lungs, and that he was "not interested in endless surgical operations", leaving him with "approximately six months to live". Just over a month after the initial announcement, on 13 March 2015, Daevid's son Orlando announced through Facebook that Allen had died in Byron Bay, Australia, aged 77.
On 11 April 2015, it was revealed that Allen had written an email to the band prior to his death, expressing his wish that the five remaining members continue performing following his passing and suggesting that Kavus Torabi become the new frontman of the band.
Gilli Smyth died on 22 August 2016, aged 83. She had been admitted to hospital in Byron Bay with pneumonia a couple of days previously.
Post-Daevid Allen: Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016–present)
On 5 July 2016, it was announced that the band line-up consisting of Kavus Torabi, Fabio Golfetti, Dave Sturt, Ian East and Cheb Nettles had recorded a new album entitled Rejoice! I'm Dead!, featuring guest appearances from Steve Hillage on guitar, Didier Malherbe on duduk and Graham Clark on violin, with Daevid Allen's vocals appearing on two tracks. Rejoice! I'm Dead! was released on 16 September 2016 through Snapper Music. On May 2019, the lineup followed up with their fifteenth album The Universe Also Collapses.
On August 2019, Universal Music announced the boxed set, Love From The Planet Gong: The Virgin Years 1973–75, encompassing Gong's tenure with Virgin Records, would be released on 27 September. Curated by Hillage, it contains remasters of four studio albums and previously unreleased live recordings made between 1973 and 1975.
Music and lyrics
Style and influences
Gong's music fuses many influences into a distinctive style which has been variously described by critics and journalists as experimental rock, jazz fusion, jazz rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock and space rock. Gong has also been associated with the Canterbury scene of progressive rock bands.
Rolling Stone described Gong's music as combining "psychedelic English whimsy, German kosmische space jams and Gallic libertine fusion."
Daevid Allen's guitar playing was influenced by Syd Barrett.
Mythology
The Gong mythology is a humorous collection of recurring characters and allegorical themes which permeate the albums of Gong and Daevid Allen, and to a lesser extent the early works of Steve Hillage. The characters were often based on, or used as pseudonyms for, band members, while the story itself was based on a vision which Allen had during the full moon of Easter 1966, in Deià, Majorca, in which he claimed he could see his future laid out before him. This mythology was hinted at through Gong's earlier albums but was not the central theme until the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy of 1973/74. It contains many similarities to concepts from Buddhist philosophy, e.g. optimism, the search for self, the denial of absolute reality and the search for the path to enlightenment. There are frequent references to the production and consumption of "tea", perhaps suggesting mushroom tea, although the word has also long been used to describe cannabis, especially in the 1940s and 1950s.
Flying Teapot: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 1 (1973)
The story begins on the album Flying Teapot (1973), when a pig-farming Egyptologist called Mista T. Being is sold a "magick ear ring" by an "antique teapot street vendor and tea label collector" called Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from the Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Being and Fish head off to the Hymnalayas of Tibet (sic) where they meet the "great beer yogi" Banana Ananda in a cave. Ananda tends to chant "Banana Nirvana Mañana" a lot and gets drunk on Foster's Australian Lager. (This latter development mirrors the real-life experience of band members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth who met their saxophonist, Didier Malherbe, in a cave in Majorca.)
Meanwhile, the mythology's central character, Zero the Hero, is going about his everyday life when he suddenly has a vision in Charing Cross Road, London. He is compelled to seek heroes and starts worshiping the Cock Pot Pixie, one of a number of Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong. These pixies are green, have propellers on their heads, and fly around in teapots (inspired by [Bertrand] Russell's teapot).
Zero is soon distracted by a cat to whom he offers his fish and chips. The cat is actually the Good Witch Yoni, and she gives Zero a potion in return.
Angel's Egg: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 2 (1973)
The second part, Angel's Egg (1973), begins with Zero falling asleep under the influence of the potion and finding himself floating through space. After accidentally scaring a space pilot called Captain Capricorn, Zero locates the Planet Gong, and spends some time with a prostitute who introduces him to the moon goddess Selene.
Zero's drug-induced trip to the Planet Gong continues, and the Pot Head Pixies explain to him how their flying teapots fly: a system known as Glidding. He is then taken to the One Invisible Temple of Gong.
Inside the temple, Zero is shown the Angel's Egg, the physical embodiment of the 32 Octave Doctors (descendants of the Great God Cell). The Angel's Egg is the magic-eye mandala that features on much of the band's sleeve-art. It is also a sort of recycling plant for Pot Head Pixies.
A grand plan is revealed to Zero: there will be a Great Melting Feast of Freeks which Zero must organise on Earth. When everyone is enjoying the Feast, a huge global concert, the Switch Doctor will turn everybody's third eye on, ushering in a New Age on Earth. The Switch Doctor is the Earth's resident Octave Doctor, who lives near Banana Ananda's cave, in a "potheadquarters" called the Compagnie d'Opera Invisible de Thibet (C.O.I.T.) and transmits all the details to the Gong Band via the Bananamoon Observatory.
You: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 3 (1974)
In the third instalment, You (1974), Zero must first return from his trip. He asks Hiram the Master Builder how to structure his vision and build his own Invisible Temple. Having done this, Zero establishes that he must organise the Great Melting Feast of Freeks on the Isle of Everywhere: Bali.
The event is going well, and the Switch Doctor switches on everyone's third eyes except for Zero's, for he is out the back, indulging in Earthly pleasures ("fruitcake").
Zero has missed out on the whole third eye revelation experience and is forced to continue his existence spinning around on the wheel of births and deaths and slowly converging on the Angel's Egg in a way which, to a certain extent, resembles Buddhist reincarnation.
Continuations (1992–2009)
The album Shapeshifter (1992) is the fourth instalment in the saga, in which Zero meets an urban shaman who agrees to take him to the next level of awareness on the proviso that Zero spends nine months on an aeroplane traveling where he wants, but not using money or eating anything other than airline food. Zero eventually dies in Australia under mysterious circumstances.
The next instalment is the album Zero to Infinity (2000), which sees Zero's spirit enjoying a body-free and virtual existence. During the course of this he becomes an android spheroid Zeroid. With the help of a strange animal called a gongalope, he learns that all the wisdom of the world exists within him and practises Lafta yoga and tea making. At the end he becomes one with an Invisible Temple and has a lot of fun.
The final instalment of the story, 2032 (2009), is set in that year, one which Daevid Allen had seen as significant for the enlightenment of humanity. The Planet Gong now serves as more of a digital portal for a humanity still grappling with contemporary issues of life.
Influence on other artists
Gong's influence has been seen in artists such as Ozric Tentacles and Insane Clown Posse, whose member Violent J listened to Gong's music for inspiration during the recording of ICP's 2009 album Bang! Pow! Boom!. Gong's music has also found fandom in the ambient music scene.
The Southern rock band Raging Slab has covered Gong's "The Pot Head Pixies" for NORML's Hempilation release. Japanese psych-rock band Acid Mothers Temple frequently covers Gong's "Master Builder", titled as "Om Riff", and have released 2 full albums dedicated to album-length renditions of the song; 2005's "IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno" and 2012's "IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out".
Actor Sherman Hemsley, best known for his role on The Jeffersons, was an avowed Gong fanatic, going so far as to have a Flying Teapot room in his house. The room, which had darkened windows, played Flying Teapot continuously via tape loops.
Personnel
Current members
Fabio Golfetti – lead guitar (2007, 2012–present)
Dave Sturt – bass (2009–present)
Ian East – saxophone, flute (2010–present)
Kavus Torabi – guitar, vocals (2014–present)
Cheb Nettles – drums (2014–present)
Discography
Daevid Allen's Gong
Magick Brother (1970)
Camembert Electrique (1971)
Continental Circus (1972, soundtrack)
Flying Teapot (1973)
Angel's Egg (1973)
You (1974)
Shapeshifter (1992)
Zero to Infinity (2000)
Acid Motherhood (2004) (with Acid Mothers Temple)
2032 (2009)
I See You (2014)
post-Daevid Allen
Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016)
The Universe Also Collapses (2019)
"Shamal Gong"
Shamal * (1976) (issued as a "Gong" album)
* Usually regarded as a transitional album between Daevid Allen's incarnation of the band and the Pierre Moerlen-led fusion line-up of the late 1970s.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Gazeuse! (1976) (Expresso in North America) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Expresso II (1978) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Downwind (1979)
Time Is the Key (1979)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (1980)
Leave It Open (1981)
Breakthrough (1986)
Second Wind (1988)
Full Circle Live '88 (1998)
Pentanine (2004)
Tribute (2010) (post-Pierre Moerlen)
Planet Gong
Live Floating Anarchy 1977 (1978)
New York Gong
About Time (1980)
Gongmaison
Gongmaison (1989)
Mother Gong
Fairy Tales (1979)
Mother Gong / Anthony Phillips – Battle of the Birds (1981)
Robot Woman (1981)
Robot Woman 2 (1982)
Robot Woman 3 (1986)
Fish in the Sky (1988)
The Owl and the Tree (with Daevid Allen) (1989)
Wild Child (1991)
She Made the World Magenta (1993)
Eye (1994)
Tree in Fish (1994)
Gilli Smyth, Daevid Allen and Orlando Allen
I Am Your Egg (2005)
Live albums
Haunted Chateau (1969)
Glastonbury Fayre (Gong contributed one side to this triple LP) (1971)
Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (contributed one side) (1973)
Gong est Mort, Vive Gong (French live album) (1977)
Gong Live Etc (UK live album) (1977)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1980)
Live at Sheffield '74 (1990)
Live au Bataclan 1973 (1990)
Live Floating Anarchy 1991 (Planet Gong) (1992)
Live 1991 (Mother Gong) (1992)
Live on T.V. 1990 (1993)
25th Birthday Party (1995)
Pre-Modernist Wireless: The Peel Sessions (1995)
Full Circle Live '88 (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1998)
Live 2 Infinitea (2000)
OK Friends (2002)
Glastonbury 1971 (2002)
Live in Sherwood Forest '75 (Shamal-Gong) (2005)
Glastonbury '79–'81 (Mother Gong) (2005)
Gong in the 70s (2006)
Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo (Acid Mothers Gong) (2006)
Mothergong O Amsterdam (Mother Gong) (2007)
Live in Brazil (2009)
Pulsing Signals (2022)
Compilation albums
Wingful of Eyes (A Retrospective, '75–'78) (Virgin Records, 1986)
The Mystery and the History of the Planet Gong (1989)
The Best of Gong (Charly Records, 1995)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 1997)
Best of Mother Gong (1998)
The World of Daevid Allen and Gong (3 CD compilation including almost all of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy and early album tracks) (2003)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 2005)
Gong in the 70's (Voiceprint, 2006)
A Storm in a Teapot (Charly, 2013)
Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy (4 CD or 5 LP box set) (Charly, 2015)
Love from the Planet Gong: The Virgin Years (1973–75) (Virgin, 2019)
Other appearances
Obsolete (album by French singer Dashiell Hedayat) (1971)
The Book of AM (produced by Daevid Allen, with Mother Gong musicians) (1978)
Filmography
2015: Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (DVD)
References
Further reading
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 1. SAF Publishing, 2007
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 2. SAF Publishing, 2009
Brown, Brian. "Gong: Angel's Egg", (Crawdaddy!) 26 March 2008
External links
Official web site for Gong, GAS and Gliss
Gong at Calyx, The Canterbury Music Website, by Aymeric Leroy – includes detailed chronology
"Not Just Another Gong Website" – comprehensive tapeography
The Archive – Archival photos of Gong, Mother Gong, Steve Hillage, Nik Turner, Here & Now, Hawkwind and many Free Festivals from the 1960s–1980s
Acid Motherhood voted weirdest album cover of all time
Canterbury scene
Concept album series
Musical groups established in 1967
Virgin Records artists
French progressive rock groups
British progressive rock groups
British psychedelic rock music groups
Space rock musical groups
Musical groups from Paris
Freak artists
French psychedelic rock music groups
| false |
[
"During World War I, Australia experienced strong anti-German sentiment. South Australia had a substantial diaspora of German-speaking people derived from migrants from Germany and Poland during the 19th century. One of the consequences of the sentiment was that many German-sounding placenames were changed. Another consequence was that many Lutheran church schools which taught the children in German were encouraged and eventually forced to close or be taken over by the state.\n\nThe Colony of South Australia had been established in 1836. The first groups of German emigrants arrived in 1838, encouraged by the founders of the colony. They were escaping religious persecution in Prussia, and settling to establish a new life where they were free to practice their religion. The situation in Germany changed after 1840 but hard-working German settlers continued to be encouraged to migrate. The first German-language newspaper in South Australia was published from 1847. Many of these settlers took the Oath of Allegiance and became naturalised citizens so that they could buy land. German immigrant farmers and their descendants spread across the expanding colony, and others took up influential positions in Adelaide as well.\n\nIn June 1917, 49 schools received notices that they would be taken over by the Minister of Education with effect from 1 July that year. The German teachers were to be replaced by English teachers, if the school could not be closed completely and have the children sent to a nearby school. The action to close the schools was a consequence of the new Education Act 1915 passed by the South Australian Parliament late in 1915. Section 53 of the act required that at least 4 hours of teaching each school day be in English, and required head teachers to submit a monthly statutory declaration that this had been the case over the preceding month. The legislation specifically identified German as not being English.\n\nSchools closed\nSome schools had voluntarily closed after the legislation was passed. The 49 schools that received notices to close from 1 July 1917 were at:\n\nIn addition, the Koonibba Aborigines mission station, west of Ceduna, was not affected at that time.\n\nReferences\n\nAustralia in World War I\n1910s in Australia\nSouth Australia-related lists\nAnti-German sentiment\nGerman-Australian culture\nHistory of Australia (1901–1945)\n1910s in South Australia",
"My Web was a social bookmarking website launched by Yahoo! in June 2005. It allowed users to bookmark a web page, along with a description, either just for him/herself, for selected contacts or for everyone. The user could also add tags so that other users could search for tags and see the bookmarked site. Users could add contacts to their My Web account, which allowed them to view the user's tags and also some tags that the viewer submitted.\n\nIn late 2006, Yahoo! introduced an improved Yahoo! Bookmarks service, with a tagging facility, and encouraged My Web users to transfer their bookmarks to this service.\n\nIn February 2009, Yahoo! announced plans to shut down MyWeb on March 18, 2009. MyWeb bookmarks are automatically available for use within Yahoo! Bookmarks, and users were encouraged to switch to Delicious if they preferred a social bookmarking experience.\n\nReferences\n\nDiscontinued Yahoo! services\nInternet properties established in 2005\nInternet properties disestablished in 2009\nDefunct American websites"
] |
[
"Gong (band)",
"The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972-74)",
"were they played on the radio?",
"was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,",
"what is the trilogy?",
"1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,",
"did they go high on charts?",
"pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts.",
"did they win any awards?",
"I don't know.",
"what happened after they didn't make the charts?",
"The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.",
"were they encouraged?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_6045c4a8119245e68a570f9e7aa052f6_0
|
what happened in 1974?
| 8 |
what happened to Gong in 1974?
|
Gong (band)
|
1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deia to look after she and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake. In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. As they settled in, they were played a rough mix of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, then already in production. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers, and who had replaced Oldfield in Ayers' band. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound. Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to she and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deia with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deia, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy. In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price. CANNOTANSWER
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In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p,
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Gong are a progressive rock band that incorporates elements of jazz and space rock into their musical style. The group was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian musician Daevid Allen and English vocalist Gilli Smyth. Band members have included Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell and Theo Travis. Others who have played on stage with Gong include Don Cherry, Chris Cutler, Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Dave Stewart and Tatsuya Yoshida.
Gong's 1970 debut album, Magick Brother, featured a psychedelic pop sound. By the following year, the second album, Camembert Electrique, featured the more psychedelic rock/space rock sound with which they would be most associated. Between 1973 and 1974, Gong released their best known work, the allegorical Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, describing the adventures of Zero the Hero, the Good Witch Yoni and the Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong.
In 1975, Allen and Smyth left the band, which continued without them, releasing a series of jazz rock albums under the leadership of drummer Pierre Moerlen. This incarnation soon became known as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. Meanwhile, Smyth formed Mother Gong while Allen initiated a series of spin-off groups, including Planet Gong, New York Gong and Gongmaison, before returning to lead Gong once again in 1990 until his death in 2015. With Allen's encouragement, the band decided to continue, releasing the album Rejoice! I'm Dead! in September 2016 and The Universe Also Collapses in 2019.
History
Protogong (1967–68)
In September 1967, Australian singer and guitarist Daevid Allen, a member of the English psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom for 3 years following a French tour because his visa had expired. He settled in Paris, where he and his partner, London-born Sorbonne professor Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of Gong (later referred to by Allen as "Protogong") along with Ziska Baum on vocals and Loren Standlee on flute. However, the nascent band came to an abrupt end during the May 1968 student revolution, when Allen and Smyth were forced to flee the country after a warrant was issued for their arrest. They headed for Deià in Majorca, where they had lived for a time in 1966.
Gong 'proper' begins (1968–1971)
In August 1969, film director Jérôme Laperrousaz, a close friend of the pair, invited them back to France to record a soundtrack for a motorcycle racing movie which he was planning. This came to nothing at the time, but they were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly-formed independent label BYG Actuel to record an album, and so set about forming a new electric Gong band in Paris, recruiting their first rhythm section of Christian Tritsch (bass) and Rachid Houari (drums and percussion) and re-connecting with a saxophonist called Didier Malherbe whom they had met in Deià. However, Tritsch was not ready in time for the sessions and so Allen played the bass guitar himself. The album, entitled Magick Brother, was completed in October.
The re-born Gong played its debut gig at the BYG Actuel Festival in the small Belgian town of Amougies, on 27 October 1969, joined by Danny Laloux on hunting horn and percussion, and Dieter Gewissler and Gerry Fields on violin, and was introduced to the stage by bemused compere Frank Zappa. Magick Brother was released in March 1970, followed in April by a non-album single, "Est-Ce Que Je Suis; Garçon Ou Fille?" b/w "Hip Hip Hypnotise Ya", which again featured Laloux and Gewissler. In October, the band moved into an abandoned 12-room hunting lodge called Pavillon du Hay, near Voisines and Sens, 120 km south-east of Paris. They would be based there until early 1974.
Houari left the band in the spring of 1971 and was replaced by English drummer Pip Pyle, whom Allen had been introduced to by Robert Wyatt during the recording of his debut solo album, Banana Moon. The new line-up recorded a soundtrack for Laperrousaz's movie, now entitled Continental Circus, backed poet Dashiell Hedayat on his album Obsolete, and played at the second Glastonbury Festival, later documented on the Glastonbury Fayre album. Next, they began work on their second studio album, Camembert Electrique, later referred to by Allen as "the first real band album". It established the progressive, space rock sound which would make their name, leading, in the autumn, to their first UK tour. However, by the end of the year Pyle had left the group, to be replaced by another English drummer, Laurie Allan.
The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972–74)
Gong went through increasing line-up disruption in 1972. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deià to look after her and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake.
In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound.
Flying Teapot was released on 25 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first instalment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to her and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deià with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deià, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy.
In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.
Daevid Allen's departure and Shamal (1975–76)
Increasing tension and personality clashes led to Tim Blake being asked to leave in February 1975 during rehearsals for a tour. He was not replaced. Then, at a gig in Cheltenham on 10 April, the day before the release of Steve Hillage's Fish Rising album, Daevid Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him from doing so, and he left the band. The others decided to carry on without him.
In August, Pierre Moerlen was persuaded to return, replacing the unhappy and alcoholic Davison, and the band now also added Mireille Bauer on percussion, Jorge Pinchevsky on violin and Patrice Lemoine on synthesizer and, for the first time in Gong, keyboards. They toured the UK in November 1975, as documented on the 2005 release Live in Sherwood Forest '75, and worked on material for their next album, Shamal. Hillage, however, was increasingly uncomfortable without Allen, and with now being seen as the band's de facto leader. With a solo career beckoning, he and Giraudy decided to leave before Shamal was completed, participating in it only as guests. Howlett took over as lead male vocalist and Sandy Colley, Lemoine's partner and the band's cook, became his female counterpart. The album was released in February 1976 and they toured in support until a crisis was precipitated in May when Pinchevsky was refused entry to the U.K. for carrying marijuana. Ex-King Crimson violinist David Cross was tried out as a possible replacement, but before any progress could be made with this new line-up, the band split into two camps: Howlett wanted to keep vocals, but Moerlen and Bauer wanted the music to be entirely instrumental, with Malherbe undecided. Virgin Records executive Simon Draper chose Moerlen's way and Howlett left, quickly followed by Lemoine and Colley.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong and other 70s offshoots (1976–1980)
For contractual reasons, the Gong name remained in play for another two years, but the band was now effectively Pierre Moerlen's Gong, having little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen. Moerlen formed a new mallet percussion based line-up, adding his brother Benoit Moerlen, future Weather Report percussionist Mino Cinelu, journeyman guitarist Allan Holdsworth and Flying Teapot bassist Francis Moze to record the album Gazeuse! in late 1976. Malherbe, Holdsworth, Moze and Cinelu all left soon afterwards, but Moerlen kept a band going with American bassist Hansford Rowe until the late 1980s. To avoid confusion, it first became known as Gong-Expresso and then, from 1978, as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. One last album, Pentanine, was recorded in 2002 with Russian musicians before Moerlen died unexpectedly in May 2005, aged 53.
A Gong reunion event held in Paris in May 1977 brought together all of the current strands which had developed and re-asserted the primacy of the Daevid Allen-led band. It featured sets by Tim Blake, Lady June, Howlett's Strontium 90, Steve Hillage, 'Shamal Gong', Gong-Expresso, Daevid Allen and Euterpe, and was headlined by Trilogy Gong, the classic lineup of Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett and Moerlen. Their performance was documented on the live album Gong est Mort, Vive Gong. Strontium 90 was Mike Howlett's short-lived band which was notable for having two bass players, and for introducing Police members Sting and Stewart Copeland to their future guitarist Andy Summers.
Daevid Allen continued to develop the Gong mythology in his solo albums and with two new bands: Planet Gong (1977), which comprised Allen and Smyth playing with the British festival band Here & Now, and New York Gong (1979), comprising Allen and the American musicians who would later become known as Material. At the same time, Gilli Smyth formed Mother Gong with English guitarist/producer Harry Williamson and Didier Malherbe, and played in Spain and England. Allen delighted in this proliferation of groups and considered his role at this time to be that of an instigator, traveling around the world leaving active Gong-related bands in his wake.
Gongmaison and reunion (1989–1992)
After spending most of the Eighties in his native Australia, Allen returned to the UK in 1988 with a new project, The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, whose revolving cast included violinist Graham Clark and Gong saxophonist Didier Malherbe. This morphed into Gongmaison in 1989, which added Harry Williamson from Mother Gong and had a techno-influenced sound with electronic beats, as well as live percussion from Shyamal Maïtra. In 1990, the Gong name was revived for a one-off U.K. T.V. appearance with a line-up featuring Allen, Smyth and Malherbe, plus early 70s drummer Pip Pyle and three members of Here & Now (band): Stephen Lewry (lead guitar), Keith Bailey (bass) and Paul Noble (synth). In April 1992, Gongmaison became Gong permanently with the combined line-up of Allen, Malherbe, Bailey and Pyle, plus Graham Clark and Shyamal Maïtra from Gongmaison. Together they recorded the album Shapeshifter (subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 4) and toured extensively.
25th anniversary celebration (1994) and worldwide touring (1996–2001)
In 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th birthday with a show in London which featured the return of Gilli Smyth, bassist Mike Howlett and lead guitarist Stephen Lewry of Here & Now. This formed the basis of the band which toured worldwide from 1996 to 2001, with Pierre Moerlen replacing Pip Pyle on drums from 1997 through 1999. The album Zero to Infinity was released in 2000, by which time the line-up had changed again to Allen, Smyth, Malherbe and Howlett, plus new recruits on sax and Chris Taylor on drums. This line-up was unique in the band's history in having two sax/flute players.
Acid Mothers Gong (2003–04)
2003 saw a radical new line-up including Acid Mothers Temple members Kawabata Makoto and Cotton Casino, plus University of Errors guitarist Josh Pollock. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando drummed on the 2004 studio album Acid Motherhood, but for the subsequent live dates the rhythm section was Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and Acid Mothers Temple bassist Tsuyama Atsushi. A live album recorded by this line-up in 2004 was released as Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo and they played a few more one-off shows in 2006 and 2007.
Gong Family Unconventions (2004–06)
The European version of Gong had retired from regular touring in 2001, but there were subsequent one-off reunions, most notably at the "Gong Family Unconventions" (Uncons), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms as a one-day event and featured many ex-members and Gong family bands including Here & Now, House of Thandoy, Thom the Poet, Invisible Opera Company, Andy Bole, Bubbledub and Joie Hinton. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here & Now, System 7, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The next Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: 'Classic' Gong (Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Howlett, Travis, Taylor, plus the return of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy), System 7, The Steve Hillage Band, Hadouk, Tim Blake and Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch, Eat Static, Sacred Geometry Band, Acid Mothers Gong and many others. These events have all been compèred by Thom the Poet (now "Thom Moon 10").
Gong Global Family (2007)
In November 2007, Daevid Allen held a series of concerts in Brazil with a new band which he called Gong Global Family. This consisted of Allen on vocals and guitar, Josh Pollock on guitar, Fabio Golfetti (of Violeta de Outono) on guitar, Gabriel Costa (also from Violeta de Outono) on bass, Marcelo Ringel on flute and tenor saxophone, and Fred Barley on drums. He also performed with his other band, University of Errors (Allen, Pollock, Barley and Michael Clare). These shows took place in São Paulo on 21 and 22 November and São Carlos on 24 November. The 21 November show was filmed and released in the UK on DVD and CD by Voiceprint Records. These musicians, minus Marcelo, also recorded some new songs at Mosh studio, São Paulo.
Continuing to record, tour and evolve (2008–2014)
In June 2008, Gong played two concerts in London, at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank (opening Massive Attack's Meltdown festival) and at The Forum, with a line-up of Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett, Taylor and Travis. This line-up then released a new album, 2032, in 2009 and toured in support, including the Glade stage at Glastonbury Festival. They played at The Big Chill festival in the UK on 9 August 2009 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Travis, Taylor and new bassist Dave Sturt, as well as the Beautiful Days festival in Devon and the Lounge On The Farm festival near Canterbury.
Gong played four UK live shows in September 2010 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and new wind player Ian East. Support for these shows was provided by Nik Turner's Space Ritual.
Gong toured Europe in the fall of 2012 with the line-up of Allen, Smyth, Sturt and East, plus Orlando Allen (Acid Mothers Gong) on drums, and Fabio Golfetti (Gong Global Family) on guitar. It would be Gilli Smyth's final tour with the band.
They played in Brazil in May 2013 and again in 2014, this time with the addition of Kavus Torabi on guitar.
The 2014 line-up released a new studio album entitled I See You on 10 November, with Gilli Smyth guesting. However, Daevid Allen had been diagnosed with a cancerous cyst in his neck and had to undergo radiation therapy followed by an extensive period of recuperation. The I See You tour went ahead without him, and the line-up of Sturt, East, Golfetti, Torabi and a "mystery drummer" (revealed to be Cheb Nettles) played five dates in France and two in the UK.
The deaths of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth (2015–16)
On 5 February 2015, Daevid Allen released a statement announcing that the cancer had returned to his neck and had also spread to his lungs, and that he was "not interested in endless surgical operations", leaving him with "approximately six months to live". Just over a month after the initial announcement, on 13 March 2015, Daevid's son Orlando announced through Facebook that Allen had died in Byron Bay, Australia, aged 77.
On 11 April 2015, it was revealed that Allen had written an email to the band prior to his death, expressing his wish that the five remaining members continue performing following his passing and suggesting that Kavus Torabi become the new frontman of the band.
Gilli Smyth died on 22 August 2016, aged 83. She had been admitted to hospital in Byron Bay with pneumonia a couple of days previously.
Post-Daevid Allen: Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016–present)
On 5 July 2016, it was announced that the band line-up consisting of Kavus Torabi, Fabio Golfetti, Dave Sturt, Ian East and Cheb Nettles had recorded a new album entitled Rejoice! I'm Dead!, featuring guest appearances from Steve Hillage on guitar, Didier Malherbe on duduk and Graham Clark on violin, with Daevid Allen's vocals appearing on two tracks. Rejoice! I'm Dead! was released on 16 September 2016 through Snapper Music. On May 2019, the lineup followed up with their fifteenth album The Universe Also Collapses.
On August 2019, Universal Music announced the boxed set, Love From The Planet Gong: The Virgin Years 1973–75, encompassing Gong's tenure with Virgin Records, would be released on 27 September. Curated by Hillage, it contains remasters of four studio albums and previously unreleased live recordings made between 1973 and 1975.
Music and lyrics
Style and influences
Gong's music fuses many influences into a distinctive style which has been variously described by critics and journalists as experimental rock, jazz fusion, jazz rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock and space rock. Gong has also been associated with the Canterbury scene of progressive rock bands.
Rolling Stone described Gong's music as combining "psychedelic English whimsy, German kosmische space jams and Gallic libertine fusion."
Daevid Allen's guitar playing was influenced by Syd Barrett.
Mythology
The Gong mythology is a humorous collection of recurring characters and allegorical themes which permeate the albums of Gong and Daevid Allen, and to a lesser extent the early works of Steve Hillage. The characters were often based on, or used as pseudonyms for, band members, while the story itself was based on a vision which Allen had during the full moon of Easter 1966, in Deià, Majorca, in which he claimed he could see his future laid out before him. This mythology was hinted at through Gong's earlier albums but was not the central theme until the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy of 1973/74. It contains many similarities to concepts from Buddhist philosophy, e.g. optimism, the search for self, the denial of absolute reality and the search for the path to enlightenment. There are frequent references to the production and consumption of "tea", perhaps suggesting mushroom tea, although the word has also long been used to describe cannabis, especially in the 1940s and 1950s.
Flying Teapot: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 1 (1973)
The story begins on the album Flying Teapot (1973), when a pig-farming Egyptologist called Mista T. Being is sold a "magick ear ring" by an "antique teapot street vendor and tea label collector" called Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from the Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Being and Fish head off to the Hymnalayas of Tibet (sic) where they meet the "great beer yogi" Banana Ananda in a cave. Ananda tends to chant "Banana Nirvana Mañana" a lot and gets drunk on Foster's Australian Lager. (This latter development mirrors the real-life experience of band members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth who met their saxophonist, Didier Malherbe, in a cave in Majorca.)
Meanwhile, the mythology's central character, Zero the Hero, is going about his everyday life when he suddenly has a vision in Charing Cross Road, London. He is compelled to seek heroes and starts worshiping the Cock Pot Pixie, one of a number of Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong. These pixies are green, have propellers on their heads, and fly around in teapots (inspired by [Bertrand] Russell's teapot).
Zero is soon distracted by a cat to whom he offers his fish and chips. The cat is actually the Good Witch Yoni, and she gives Zero a potion in return.
Angel's Egg: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 2 (1973)
The second part, Angel's Egg (1973), begins with Zero falling asleep under the influence of the potion and finding himself floating through space. After accidentally scaring a space pilot called Captain Capricorn, Zero locates the Planet Gong, and spends some time with a prostitute who introduces him to the moon goddess Selene.
Zero's drug-induced trip to the Planet Gong continues, and the Pot Head Pixies explain to him how their flying teapots fly: a system known as Glidding. He is then taken to the One Invisible Temple of Gong.
Inside the temple, Zero is shown the Angel's Egg, the physical embodiment of the 32 Octave Doctors (descendants of the Great God Cell). The Angel's Egg is the magic-eye mandala that features on much of the band's sleeve-art. It is also a sort of recycling plant for Pot Head Pixies.
A grand plan is revealed to Zero: there will be a Great Melting Feast of Freeks which Zero must organise on Earth. When everyone is enjoying the Feast, a huge global concert, the Switch Doctor will turn everybody's third eye on, ushering in a New Age on Earth. The Switch Doctor is the Earth's resident Octave Doctor, who lives near Banana Ananda's cave, in a "potheadquarters" called the Compagnie d'Opera Invisible de Thibet (C.O.I.T.) and transmits all the details to the Gong Band via the Bananamoon Observatory.
You: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 3 (1974)
In the third instalment, You (1974), Zero must first return from his trip. He asks Hiram the Master Builder how to structure his vision and build his own Invisible Temple. Having done this, Zero establishes that he must organise the Great Melting Feast of Freeks on the Isle of Everywhere: Bali.
The event is going well, and the Switch Doctor switches on everyone's third eyes except for Zero's, for he is out the back, indulging in Earthly pleasures ("fruitcake").
Zero has missed out on the whole third eye revelation experience and is forced to continue his existence spinning around on the wheel of births and deaths and slowly converging on the Angel's Egg in a way which, to a certain extent, resembles Buddhist reincarnation.
Continuations (1992–2009)
The album Shapeshifter (1992) is the fourth instalment in the saga, in which Zero meets an urban shaman who agrees to take him to the next level of awareness on the proviso that Zero spends nine months on an aeroplane traveling where he wants, but not using money or eating anything other than airline food. Zero eventually dies in Australia under mysterious circumstances.
The next instalment is the album Zero to Infinity (2000), which sees Zero's spirit enjoying a body-free and virtual existence. During the course of this he becomes an android spheroid Zeroid. With the help of a strange animal called a gongalope, he learns that all the wisdom of the world exists within him and practises Lafta yoga and tea making. At the end he becomes one with an Invisible Temple and has a lot of fun.
The final instalment of the story, 2032 (2009), is set in that year, one which Daevid Allen had seen as significant for the enlightenment of humanity. The Planet Gong now serves as more of a digital portal for a humanity still grappling with contemporary issues of life.
Influence on other artists
Gong's influence has been seen in artists such as Ozric Tentacles and Insane Clown Posse, whose member Violent J listened to Gong's music for inspiration during the recording of ICP's 2009 album Bang! Pow! Boom!. Gong's music has also found fandom in the ambient music scene.
The Southern rock band Raging Slab has covered Gong's "The Pot Head Pixies" for NORML's Hempilation release. Japanese psych-rock band Acid Mothers Temple frequently covers Gong's "Master Builder", titled as "Om Riff", and have released 2 full albums dedicated to album-length renditions of the song; 2005's "IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno" and 2012's "IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out".
Actor Sherman Hemsley, best known for his role on The Jeffersons, was an avowed Gong fanatic, going so far as to have a Flying Teapot room in his house. The room, which had darkened windows, played Flying Teapot continuously via tape loops.
Personnel
Current members
Fabio Golfetti – lead guitar (2007, 2012–present)
Dave Sturt – bass (2009–present)
Ian East – saxophone, flute (2010–present)
Kavus Torabi – guitar, vocals (2014–present)
Cheb Nettles – drums (2014–present)
Discography
Daevid Allen's Gong
Magick Brother (1970)
Camembert Electrique (1971)
Continental Circus (1972, soundtrack)
Flying Teapot (1973)
Angel's Egg (1973)
You (1974)
Shapeshifter (1992)
Zero to Infinity (2000)
Acid Motherhood (2004) (with Acid Mothers Temple)
2032 (2009)
I See You (2014)
post-Daevid Allen
Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016)
The Universe Also Collapses (2019)
"Shamal Gong"
Shamal * (1976) (issued as a "Gong" album)
* Usually regarded as a transitional album between Daevid Allen's incarnation of the band and the Pierre Moerlen-led fusion line-up of the late 1970s.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Gazeuse! (1976) (Expresso in North America) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Expresso II (1978) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Downwind (1979)
Time Is the Key (1979)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (1980)
Leave It Open (1981)
Breakthrough (1986)
Second Wind (1988)
Full Circle Live '88 (1998)
Pentanine (2004)
Tribute (2010) (post-Pierre Moerlen)
Planet Gong
Live Floating Anarchy 1977 (1978)
New York Gong
About Time (1980)
Gongmaison
Gongmaison (1989)
Mother Gong
Fairy Tales (1979)
Mother Gong / Anthony Phillips – Battle of the Birds (1981)
Robot Woman (1981)
Robot Woman 2 (1982)
Robot Woman 3 (1986)
Fish in the Sky (1988)
The Owl and the Tree (with Daevid Allen) (1989)
Wild Child (1991)
She Made the World Magenta (1993)
Eye (1994)
Tree in Fish (1994)
Gilli Smyth, Daevid Allen and Orlando Allen
I Am Your Egg (2005)
Live albums
Haunted Chateau (1969)
Glastonbury Fayre (Gong contributed one side to this triple LP) (1971)
Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (contributed one side) (1973)
Gong est Mort, Vive Gong (French live album) (1977)
Gong Live Etc (UK live album) (1977)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1980)
Live at Sheffield '74 (1990)
Live au Bataclan 1973 (1990)
Live Floating Anarchy 1991 (Planet Gong) (1992)
Live 1991 (Mother Gong) (1992)
Live on T.V. 1990 (1993)
25th Birthday Party (1995)
Pre-Modernist Wireless: The Peel Sessions (1995)
Full Circle Live '88 (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1998)
Live 2 Infinitea (2000)
OK Friends (2002)
Glastonbury 1971 (2002)
Live in Sherwood Forest '75 (Shamal-Gong) (2005)
Glastonbury '79–'81 (Mother Gong) (2005)
Gong in the 70s (2006)
Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo (Acid Mothers Gong) (2006)
Mothergong O Amsterdam (Mother Gong) (2007)
Live in Brazil (2009)
Pulsing Signals (2022)
Compilation albums
Wingful of Eyes (A Retrospective, '75–'78) (Virgin Records, 1986)
The Mystery and the History of the Planet Gong (1989)
The Best of Gong (Charly Records, 1995)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 1997)
Best of Mother Gong (1998)
The World of Daevid Allen and Gong (3 CD compilation including almost all of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy and early album tracks) (2003)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 2005)
Gong in the 70's (Voiceprint, 2006)
A Storm in a Teapot (Charly, 2013)
Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy (4 CD or 5 LP box set) (Charly, 2015)
Love from the Planet Gong: The Virgin Years (1973–75) (Virgin, 2019)
Other appearances
Obsolete (album by French singer Dashiell Hedayat) (1971)
The Book of AM (produced by Daevid Allen, with Mother Gong musicians) (1978)
Filmography
2015: Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (DVD)
References
Further reading
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 1. SAF Publishing, 2007
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 2. SAF Publishing, 2009
Brown, Brian. "Gong: Angel's Egg", (Crawdaddy!) 26 March 2008
External links
Official web site for Gong, GAS and Gliss
Gong at Calyx, The Canterbury Music Website, by Aymeric Leroy – includes detailed chronology
"Not Just Another Gong Website" – comprehensive tapeography
The Archive – Archival photos of Gong, Mother Gong, Steve Hillage, Nik Turner, Here & Now, Hawkwind and many Free Festivals from the 1960s–1980s
Acid Motherhood voted weirdest album cover of all time
Canterbury scene
Concept album series
Musical groups established in 1967
Virgin Records artists
French progressive rock groups
British progressive rock groups
British psychedelic rock music groups
Space rock musical groups
Musical groups from Paris
Freak artists
French psychedelic rock music groups
| true |
[
"Don Juan Manuel's Tales of Count Lucanor, in Spanish Libro de los ejemplos del conde Lucanor y de Patronio (Book of the Examples of Count Lucanor and of Patronio), also commonly known as El Conde Lucanor, Libro de Patronio, or Libro de los ejemplos (original Old Castilian: Libro de los enxiemplos del Conde Lucanor et de Patronio), is one of the earliest works of prose in Castilian Spanish. It was first written in 1335.\n\nThe book is divided into four parts. The first and most well-known part is a series of 51 short stories (some no more than a page or two) drawn from various sources, such as Aesop and other classical writers, and Arabic folktales.\n\nTales of Count Lucanor was first printed in 1575 when it was published at Seville under the auspices of Argote de Molina. It was again printed at Madrid in 1642, after which it lay forgotten for nearly two centuries.\n\nPurpose and structure\n\nA didactic, moralistic purpose, which would color so much of the Spanish literature to follow (see Novela picaresca), is the mark of this book. Count Lucanor engages in conversation with his advisor Patronio, putting to him a problem (\"Some man has made me a proposition...\" or \"I fear that such and such person intends to...\") and asking for advice. Patronio responds always with the greatest humility, claiming not to wish to offer advice to so illustrious a person as the Count, but offering to tell him a story of which the Count's problem reminds him. (Thus, the stories are \"examples\" [ejemplos] of wise action.) At the end he advises the Count to do as the protagonist of his story did.\n\nEach chapter ends in more or less the same way, with slight variations on: \"And this pleased the Count greatly and he did just so, and found it well. And Don Johán (Juan) saw that this example was very good, and had it written in this book, and composed the following verses.\" A rhymed couplet closes, giving the moral of the story.\n\nOrigin of stories and influence on later literature\nMany of the stories written in the book are the first examples written in a modern European language of various stories, which many other writers would use in the proceeding centuries. Many of the stories he included were themselves derived from other stories, coming from western and Arab sources.\n\nShakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew has the basic elements of Tale 35, \"What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\".\n\nTale 32, \"What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth\" tells the story that Hans Christian Andersen made popular as The Emperor's New Clothes.\n\nStory 7, \"What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana\", a version of Aesop's The Milkmaid and Her Pail, was claimed by Max Müller to originate in the Hindu cycle Panchatantra.\n\nTale 2, \"What happened to a good Man and his Son, leading a beast to market,\" is the familiar fable The miller, his son and the donkey.\n\nIn 2016, Baroque Decay released a game under the name \"The Count Lucanor\". As well as some protagonists' names, certain events from the books inspired past events in the game.\n\nThe stories\n\nThe book opens with a prologue which introduces the characters of the Count and Patronio. The titles in the following list are those given in Keller and Keating's 1977 translation into English. James York's 1868 translation into English gives a significantly different ordering of the stories and omits the fifty-first.\n\n What Happened to a King and His Favorite \n What Happened to a Good Man and His Son \n How King Richard of England Leapt into the Sea against the Moors\n What a Genoese Said to His Soul When He Was about to Die \n What Happened to a Fox and a Crow Who Had a Piece of Cheese in His Beak\n How the Swallow Warned the Other Birds When She Saw Flax Being Sown \n What Happened to a Woman Named Truhana \n What Happened to a Man Whose Liver Had to Be Washed \n What Happened to Two Horses Which Were Thrown to the Lion \n What Happened to a Man Who on Account of Poverty and Lack of Other Food Was Eating Bitter Lentils \n What Happened to a Dean of Santiago de Compostela and Don Yllán, the Grand Master of Toledo\n What Happened to the Fox and the Rooster \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Hunting Partridges \n The Miracle of Saint Dominick When He Preached against the Usurer \n What Happened to Lorenzo Suárez at the Siege of Seville \n The Reply that count Fernán González Gave to His Relative Núño Laynes \n What Happened to a Very Hungry Man Who Was Half-heartedly Invited to Dinner \n What Happened to Pero Meléndez de Valdés When He Broke His Leg \n What Happened to the Crows and the Owls \n What Happened to a King for Whom a Man Promised to Perform Alchemy \n What Happened to a Young King and a Philosopher to Whom his Father Commended Him \n What Happened to the Lion and the Bull \n How the Ants Provide for Themselves \n What Happened to the King Who Wanted to Test His Three Sons \n What Happened to the Count of Provence and How He Was Freed from Prison by the Advice of Saladin\n What Happened to the Tree of Lies \n What Happened to an Emperor and to Don Alvarfáñez Minaya and Their Wives \n What Happened in Granada to Don Lorenzo Suárez Gallinato When He Beheaded the Renegade Chaplain \n What Happened to a Fox Who Lay down in the Street to Play Dead \n What Happened to King Abenabet of Seville and Ramayquía His Wife \n How a Cardinal Judged between the Canons of Paris and the Friars Minor \n What Happened to the King and the Tricksters Who Made Cloth \n What Happened to Don Juan Manuel's Saker Falcon and an Eagle and a Heron \n What Happened to a Blind Man Who Was Leading Another \n What Happened to a Young Man Who Married a Strong and Ill-tempered Woman\n What Happened to a Merchant When He Found His Son and His Wife Sleeping Together \n What Happened to Count Fernán González with His Men after He Had Won the Battle of Hacinas \n What Happened to a Man Who Was Loaded down with Precious Stones and Drowned in the River \n What Happened to a Man and a Swallow and a Sparrow \n Why the Seneschal of Carcassonne Lost His Soul \n What Happened to a King of Córdova Named Al-Haquem \n What Happened to a Woman of Sham Piety \n What Happened to Good and Evil and the Wise Man and the Madman \n What Happened to Don Pero Núñez the Loyal, to Don Ruy González de Zavallos, and to Don Gutier Roiz de Blaguiello with Don Rodrigo the Generous \n What Happened to a Man Who Became the Devil's Friend and Vassal \n What Happened to a Philosopher who by Accident Went down a Street Where Prostitutes Lived \n What Befell a Moor and His Sister Who Pretended That She Was Timid \n What Happened to a Man Who Tested His Friends \n What Happened to the Man Whom They Cast out Naked on an Island When They Took away from Him the Kingdom He Ruled \n What Happened to Saladin and a Lady, the Wife of a Knight Who Was His Vassal \n What Happened to a Christian King Who Was Very Powerful and Haughty\n\nReferences\n\nNotes\n\nBibliography\n\n Sturm, Harlan\n\n Wacks, David\n\nExternal links\n\nThe Internet Archive provides free access to the 1868 translation by James York.\nJSTOR has the to the 1977 translation by Keller and Keating.\nSelections in English and Spanish (pedagogical edition) with introduction, notes, and bibliography in Open Iberia/América (open access teaching anthology)\n\n14th-century books\nSpanish literature\n1335 books",
"\"What Happened to Us\" is a song by Australian recording artist Jessica Mauboy, featuring English recording artist Jay Sean. It was written by Sean, Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim and Israel Cruz. \"What Happened to Us\" was leaked online in October 2010, and was released on 10 March 2011, as the third single from Mauboy's second studio album, Get 'Em Girls (2010). The song received positive reviews from critics.\n\nA remix of \"What Happened to Us\" made by production team OFM, was released on 11 April 2011. A different version of the song which features Stan Walker, was released on 29 May 2011. \"What Happened to Us\" charted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 14 and was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA). An accompanying music video was directed by Mark Alston, and reminisces on a former relationship between Mauboy and Sean.\n\nProduction and release\n\n\"What Happened to Us\" was written by Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz and Jay Sean. It was produced by Skaller, Cruz, Rohaim and Bobby Bass. The song uses C, D, and B minor chords in the chorus. \"What Happened to Us\" was sent to contemporary hit radio in Australia on 14 February 2011. The cover art for the song was revealed on 22 February on Mauboy's official Facebook page. A CD release was available for purchase via her official website on 10 March, for one week only. It was released digitally the following day.\n\nReception\nMajhid Heath from ABC Online Indigenous called the song a \"Jordin Sparks-esque duet\", and wrote that it \"has a nice innocence to it that rings true to the experience of losing a first love.\" Chris Urankar from Nine to Five wrote that it as a \"mid-tempo duet ballad\" which signifies Mauboy's strength as a global player. On 21 March 2011, \"What Happened to Us\" debuted at number 30 on the ARIA Singles Chart, and peaked at number 14 the following week. The song was certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA), for selling 70,000 copies. \"What Happened to Us\" spent a total of ten weeks in the ARIA top fifty.\n\nMusic video\n\nBackground\nThe music video for the song was shot in the Elizabeth Bay House in Sydney on 26 November 2010. The video was shot during Sean's visit to Australia for the Summerbeatz tour. During an interview with The Daily Telegraph while on the set of the video, Sean said \"the song is sick! ... Jessica's voice is amazing and we're shooting [the video] in this ridiculously beautiful mansion overlooking the harbour.\" The video was directed by Mark Alston, who had previously directed the video for Mauboy's single \"Let Me Be Me\" (2009). It premiered on YouTube on 10 February 2011.\n\nSynopsis and reception\nThe video begins showing Mauboy who appears to be sitting on a yellow antique couch in a mansion, wearing a purple dress. As the video progresses, scenes of memories are displayed of Mauboy and her love interest, played by Sean, spending time there previously. It then cuts to the scenes where Sean appears in the main entrance room of the mansion. The final scene shows Mauboy outdoors in a gold dress, surrounded by green grass and trees. She is later joined by Sean who appears in a black suit and a white shirt, and together they sing the chorus of the song to each other. David Lim of Feed Limmy wrote that the video is \"easily the best thing our R&B princess has committed to film – ever\" and praised the \"mansion and wondrous interior décor\". He also commended Mauboy for choosing Australian talent to direct the video instead of American directors, which she had used for her previous two music videos. Since its release, the video has received over two million views on Vevo.\n\nLive performances\nMauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" live for the first time during her YouTube Live Sessions program on 4 December 2010. She also appeared on Adam Hills in Gordon Street Tonight on 23 February 2011 for an interview and later performed the song. On 15 March 2011, Mauboy performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Sunrise. She also performed the song with Stan Walker during the Australian leg of Chris Brown's F.A.M.E. Tour in April 2011. Mauboy and Walker later performed \"What Happened to Us\" on Dancing with the Stars Australia on 29 May 2011. From November 2013 to February 2014, \"What Happened to Us\" was part of the set list of the To the End of the Earth Tour, Mauboy's second headlining tour of Australia, with Nathaniel Willemse singing Sean's part.\n\nTrack listing\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Just Witness Remix) – 3:45\n\nCD single\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Album Version) – 3:19\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (Sgt Slick Remix) – 6:33\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:39\n\nDigital download – Remix\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Jay Sean (OFM Remix) – 3:38\n\nDigital download\n \"What Happened to Us\" featuring Stan Walker – 3:20\n\nPersonnel\nSongwriting – Josh Alexander, Billy Steinberg, Jeremy Skaller, Rob Larow, Khaled Rohaim, Israel Cruz, Jay Sean\nProduction – Jeremy Skaller, Bobby Bass\nAdditional production – Israel Cruz, Khaled Rohaim\nLead vocals – Jessica Mauboy, Jay Sean\nMixing – Phil Tan\nAdditional mixing – Damien Lewis\nMastering – Tom Coyne \nSource:\n\nCharts\n\nWeekly chart\n\nYear-end chart\n\nCertification\n\nRadio dates and release history\n\nReferences\n\n2010 songs\n2011 singles\nJessica Mauboy songs\nJay Sean songs\nSongs written by Billy Steinberg\nSongs written by Jay Sean\nSongs written by Josh Alexander\nSongs written by Israel Cruz\nVocal duets\nSony Music Australia singles\nSongs written by Khaled Rohaim"
] |
[
"Gong (band)",
"The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972-74)",
"were they played on the radio?",
"was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,",
"what is the trilogy?",
"1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy,",
"did they go high on charts?",
"pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts.",
"did they win any awards?",
"I don't know.",
"what happened after they didn't make the charts?",
"The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.",
"were they encouraged?",
"I don't know.",
"what happened in 1974?",
"In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p,"
] |
C_6045c4a8119245e68a570f9e7aa052f6_0
|
did it win any awards?
| 9 |
did Gong 's Camembert Electrique win any awards?
|
Gong (band)
|
1972 saw the start of increasing line-up disruption for Gong. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deia to look after she and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake. In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. As they settled in, they were played a rough mix of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, then already in production. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers, and who had replaced Oldfield in Ayers' band. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound. Flying Teapot was released on 23 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first installment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to she and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deia with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deia, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy. In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price. CANNOTANSWER
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CANNOTANSWER
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Gong are a progressive rock band that incorporates elements of jazz and space rock into their musical style. The group was formed in Paris in 1967 by Australian musician Daevid Allen and English vocalist Gilli Smyth. Band members have included Didier Malherbe, Pip Pyle, Steve Hillage, Mike Howlett, Pierre Moerlen, Bill Laswell and Theo Travis. Others who have played on stage with Gong include Don Cherry, Chris Cutler, Bill Bruford, Brian Davison, Dave Stewart and Tatsuya Yoshida.
Gong's 1970 debut album, Magick Brother, featured a psychedelic pop sound. By the following year, the second album, Camembert Electrique, featured the more psychedelic rock/space rock sound with which they would be most associated. Between 1973 and 1974, Gong released their best known work, the allegorical Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, describing the adventures of Zero the Hero, the Good Witch Yoni and the Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong.
In 1975, Allen and Smyth left the band, which continued without them, releasing a series of jazz rock albums under the leadership of drummer Pierre Moerlen. This incarnation soon became known as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. Meanwhile, Smyth formed Mother Gong while Allen initiated a series of spin-off groups, including Planet Gong, New York Gong and Gongmaison, before returning to lead Gong once again in 1990 until his death in 2015. With Allen's encouragement, the band decided to continue, releasing the album Rejoice! I'm Dead! in September 2016 and The Universe Also Collapses in 2019.
History
Protogong (1967–68)
In September 1967, Australian singer and guitarist Daevid Allen, a member of the English psychedelic rock band Soft Machine, was denied re-entry to the United Kingdom for 3 years following a French tour because his visa had expired. He settled in Paris, where he and his partner, London-born Sorbonne professor Gilli Smyth, established the first incarnation of Gong (later referred to by Allen as "Protogong") along with Ziska Baum on vocals and Loren Standlee on flute. However, the nascent band came to an abrupt end during the May 1968 student revolution, when Allen and Smyth were forced to flee the country after a warrant was issued for their arrest. They headed for Deià in Majorca, where they had lived for a time in 1966.
Gong 'proper' begins (1968–1971)
In August 1969, film director Jérôme Laperrousaz, a close friend of the pair, invited them back to France to record a soundtrack for a motorcycle racing movie which he was planning. This came to nothing at the time, but they were subsequently approached by Jean Karakos of the newly-formed independent label BYG Actuel to record an album, and so set about forming a new electric Gong band in Paris, recruiting their first rhythm section of Christian Tritsch (bass) and Rachid Houari (drums and percussion) and re-connecting with a saxophonist called Didier Malherbe whom they had met in Deià. However, Tritsch was not ready in time for the sessions and so Allen played the bass guitar himself. The album, entitled Magick Brother, was completed in October.
The re-born Gong played its debut gig at the BYG Actuel Festival in the small Belgian town of Amougies, on 27 October 1969, joined by Danny Laloux on hunting horn and percussion, and Dieter Gewissler and Gerry Fields on violin, and was introduced to the stage by bemused compere Frank Zappa. Magick Brother was released in March 1970, followed in April by a non-album single, "Est-Ce Que Je Suis; Garçon Ou Fille?" b/w "Hip Hip Hypnotise Ya", which again featured Laloux and Gewissler. In October, the band moved into an abandoned 12-room hunting lodge called Pavillon du Hay, near Voisines and Sens, 120 km south-east of Paris. They would be based there until early 1974.
Houari left the band in the spring of 1971 and was replaced by English drummer Pip Pyle, whom Allen had been introduced to by Robert Wyatt during the recording of his debut solo album, Banana Moon. The new line-up recorded a soundtrack for Laperrousaz's movie, now entitled Continental Circus, backed poet Dashiell Hedayat on his album Obsolete, and played at the second Glastonbury Festival, later documented on the Glastonbury Fayre album. Next, they began work on their second studio album, Camembert Electrique, later referred to by Allen as "the first real band album". It established the progressive, space rock sound which would make their name, leading, in the autumn, to their first UK tour. However, by the end of the year Pyle had left the group, to be replaced by another English drummer, Laurie Allan.
The Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy (1972–74)
Gong went through increasing line-up disruption in 1972. Laurie Allan left in April to be replaced by Mac Poole, then Charles Hayward and then Rob Tait, before returning again late in the year. Gilli Smyth left for a time, returning to Deià to look after her and Daevid Allen's baby son, and was replaced by Diane Stewart, who was the partner of Tait and the ex-wife of Graham Bond. Christian Tritsch moved to guitar and was replaced on bass by former Magma member Francis Moze, while the band's sound was expanded with the addition of synthesizer player Tim Blake.
In October they were one of the first acts to sign to Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin Records label, and in late December traveled to Virgin's Manor Studio in Oxfordshire, England, to record their third album, Flying Teapot. Towards the end of their recording sessions they were joined by English guitarist Steve Hillage, whom they had met a few weeks earlier in France playing with Kevin Ayers. He arrived too late to contribute much to the album, but would soon become a key component in the Gong sound.
Flying Teapot was released on 25 May 1973, the same day as Tubular Bells, and was the first instalment of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy, which expounded upon the (previously only hinted at) Gong mythology developed by Allen. The second part, Angel's Egg, followed in December, now featuring the 'classic' rhythm section of Mike Howlett on bass and Pierre Moerlen on drums. In early 1974 Moerlen left to work with the French contemporary ensemble Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth left to give birth to her and Allen's second son. They were replaced once again by Rob Tait and Diane Stewart, and the band moved from its French base at Pavillon du Hay to an English one at Middlefield Farm, near Witney, Oxfordshire. Moerlen, and later Smyth, returned in order to complete the trilogy with the album You, but by the time of its release, in October 1974, Moerlen was back with Les Percussions de Strasbourg and Smyth had settled permanently in Deià with her young sons. Prior to touring in support of You, Allen visited Smyth and the boys in Deià, while the rest of the band, including the departed Moerlen, recorded the basic tracks for Hillage's first solo album, Fish Rising. Moerlen was initially replaced in Gong by a succession of stand-ins (Chris Cutler, Laurie Allan and Bill Bruford) until former Nice and Refugee drummer Brian Davison took the job in early 1975. Smyth had already been replaced by Hillage's partner Miquette Giraudy.
In June 1974, Camembert Electrique was given a belated UK release by Virgin, priced at 59p, the price of a typical single at the time; a promotional gimmick which they had used before for Faust and would use again for a reggae compilation in 1976. These ultra-budget albums sold in large quantities because of the low price, but the pricing made them ineligible for placement on the album charts. The hope was that new fans would be encouraged to buy the groups' other albums at full price.
Daevid Allen's departure and Shamal (1975–76)
Increasing tension and personality clashes led to Tim Blake being asked to leave in February 1975 during rehearsals for a tour. He was not replaced. Then, at a gig in Cheltenham on 10 April, the day before the release of Steve Hillage's Fish Rising album, Daevid Allen refused to go on stage, claiming that a "wall of force" was preventing him from doing so, and he left the band. The others decided to carry on without him.
In August, Pierre Moerlen was persuaded to return, replacing the unhappy and alcoholic Davison, and the band now also added Mireille Bauer on percussion, Jorge Pinchevsky on violin and Patrice Lemoine on synthesizer and, for the first time in Gong, keyboards. They toured the UK in November 1975, as documented on the 2005 release Live in Sherwood Forest '75, and worked on material for their next album, Shamal. Hillage, however, was increasingly uncomfortable without Allen, and with now being seen as the band's de facto leader. With a solo career beckoning, he and Giraudy decided to leave before Shamal was completed, participating in it only as guests. Howlett took over as lead male vocalist and Sandy Colley, Lemoine's partner and the band's cook, became his female counterpart. The album was released in February 1976 and they toured in support until a crisis was precipitated in May when Pinchevsky was refused entry to the U.K. for carrying marijuana. Ex-King Crimson violinist David Cross was tried out as a possible replacement, but before any progress could be made with this new line-up, the band split into two camps: Howlett wanted to keep vocals, but Moerlen and Bauer wanted the music to be entirely instrumental, with Malherbe undecided. Virgin Records executive Simon Draper chose Moerlen's way and Howlett left, quickly followed by Lemoine and Colley.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong and other 70s offshoots (1976–1980)
For contractual reasons, the Gong name remained in play for another two years, but the band was now effectively Pierre Moerlen's Gong, having little to do with the psychedelic space rock of Daevid Allen. Moerlen formed a new mallet percussion based line-up, adding his brother Benoit Moerlen, future Weather Report percussionist Mino Cinelu, journeyman guitarist Allan Holdsworth and Flying Teapot bassist Francis Moze to record the album Gazeuse! in late 1976. Malherbe, Holdsworth, Moze and Cinelu all left soon afterwards, but Moerlen kept a band going with American bassist Hansford Rowe until the late 1980s. To avoid confusion, it first became known as Gong-Expresso and then, from 1978, as Pierre Moerlen's Gong. One last album, Pentanine, was recorded in 2002 with Russian musicians before Moerlen died unexpectedly in May 2005, aged 53.
A Gong reunion event held in Paris in May 1977 brought together all of the current strands which had developed and re-asserted the primacy of the Daevid Allen-led band. It featured sets by Tim Blake, Lady June, Howlett's Strontium 90, Steve Hillage, 'Shamal Gong', Gong-Expresso, Daevid Allen and Euterpe, and was headlined by Trilogy Gong, the classic lineup of Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett and Moerlen. Their performance was documented on the live album Gong est Mort, Vive Gong. Strontium 90 was Mike Howlett's short-lived band which was notable for having two bass players, and for introducing Police members Sting and Stewart Copeland to their future guitarist Andy Summers.
Daevid Allen continued to develop the Gong mythology in his solo albums and with two new bands: Planet Gong (1977), which comprised Allen and Smyth playing with the British festival band Here & Now, and New York Gong (1979), comprising Allen and the American musicians who would later become known as Material. At the same time, Gilli Smyth formed Mother Gong with English guitarist/producer Harry Williamson and Didier Malherbe, and played in Spain and England. Allen delighted in this proliferation of groups and considered his role at this time to be that of an instigator, traveling around the world leaving active Gong-related bands in his wake.
Gongmaison and reunion (1989–1992)
After spending most of the Eighties in his native Australia, Allen returned to the UK in 1988 with a new project, The Invisible Opera Company of Tibet, whose revolving cast included violinist Graham Clark and Gong saxophonist Didier Malherbe. This morphed into Gongmaison in 1989, which added Harry Williamson from Mother Gong and had a techno-influenced sound with electronic beats, as well as live percussion from Shyamal Maïtra. In 1990, the Gong name was revived for a one-off U.K. T.V. appearance with a line-up featuring Allen, Smyth and Malherbe, plus early 70s drummer Pip Pyle and three members of Here & Now (band): Stephen Lewry (lead guitar), Keith Bailey (bass) and Paul Noble (synth). In April 1992, Gongmaison became Gong permanently with the combined line-up of Allen, Malherbe, Bailey and Pyle, plus Graham Clark and Shyamal Maïtra from Gongmaison. Together they recorded the album Shapeshifter (subsequently dubbed Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 4) and toured extensively.
25th anniversary celebration (1994) and worldwide touring (1996–2001)
In 1994, Gong celebrated its 25th birthday with a show in London which featured the return of Gilli Smyth, bassist Mike Howlett and lead guitarist Stephen Lewry of Here & Now. This formed the basis of the band which toured worldwide from 1996 to 2001, with Pierre Moerlen replacing Pip Pyle on drums from 1997 through 1999. The album Zero to Infinity was released in 2000, by which time the line-up had changed again to Allen, Smyth, Malherbe and Howlett, plus new recruits on sax and Chris Taylor on drums. This line-up was unique in the band's history in having two sax/flute players.
Acid Mothers Gong (2003–04)
2003 saw a radical new line-up including Acid Mothers Temple members Kawabata Makoto and Cotton Casino, plus University of Errors guitarist Josh Pollock. Allen and Smyth's son Orlando drummed on the 2004 studio album Acid Motherhood, but for the subsequent live dates the rhythm section was Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida and Acid Mothers Temple bassist Tsuyama Atsushi. A live album recorded by this line-up in 2004 was released as Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo and they played a few more one-off shows in 2006 and 2007.
Gong Family Unconventions (2004–06)
The European version of Gong had retired from regular touring in 2001, but there were subsequent one-off reunions, most notably at the "Gong Family Unconventions" (Uncons), the first of which was held in 2004 in the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms as a one-day event and featured many ex-members and Gong family bands including Here & Now, House of Thandoy, Thom the Poet, Invisible Opera Company, Andy Bole, Bubbledub and Joie Hinton. The 2005 Uncon was a 2-day affair featuring several Gong-related bands such as Here & Now, System 7, House of Thandoy and Kangaroo Moon. The next Uncon was a 3-day event held at the Melkweg in Amsterdam on 3–5 November 2006, with practically all Gong-related bands present: 'Classic' Gong (Allen, Smyth, Malherbe, Blake, Howlett, Travis, Taylor, plus the return of Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy), System 7, The Steve Hillage Band, Hadouk, Tim Blake and Jean-Philippe Rykiel, University of Errors, Here & Now, Mother Gong, Zorch, Eat Static, Sacred Geometry Band, Acid Mothers Gong and many others. These events have all been compèred by Thom the Poet (now "Thom Moon 10").
Gong Global Family (2007)
In November 2007, Daevid Allen held a series of concerts in Brazil with a new band which he called Gong Global Family. This consisted of Allen on vocals and guitar, Josh Pollock on guitar, Fabio Golfetti (of Violeta de Outono) on guitar, Gabriel Costa (also from Violeta de Outono) on bass, Marcelo Ringel on flute and tenor saxophone, and Fred Barley on drums. He also performed with his other band, University of Errors (Allen, Pollock, Barley and Michael Clare). These shows took place in São Paulo on 21 and 22 November and São Carlos on 24 November. The 21 November show was filmed and released in the UK on DVD and CD by Voiceprint Records. These musicians, minus Marcelo, also recorded some new songs at Mosh studio, São Paulo.
Continuing to record, tour and evolve (2008–2014)
In June 2008, Gong played two concerts in London, at Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank (opening Massive Attack's Meltdown festival) and at The Forum, with a line-up of Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Howlett, Taylor and Travis. This line-up then released a new album, 2032, in 2009 and toured in support, including the Glade stage at Glastonbury Festival. They played at The Big Chill festival in the UK on 9 August 2009 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Travis, Taylor and new bassist Dave Sturt, as well as the Beautiful Days festival in Devon and the Lounge On The Farm festival near Canterbury.
Gong played four UK live shows in September 2010 with Allen, Smyth, Hillage, Giraudy, Sturt, Taylor and new wind player Ian East. Support for these shows was provided by Nik Turner's Space Ritual.
Gong toured Europe in the fall of 2012 with the line-up of Allen, Smyth, Sturt and East, plus Orlando Allen (Acid Mothers Gong) on drums, and Fabio Golfetti (Gong Global Family) on guitar. It would be Gilli Smyth's final tour with the band.
They played in Brazil in May 2013 and again in 2014, this time with the addition of Kavus Torabi on guitar.
The 2014 line-up released a new studio album entitled I See You on 10 November, with Gilli Smyth guesting. However, Daevid Allen had been diagnosed with a cancerous cyst in his neck and had to undergo radiation therapy followed by an extensive period of recuperation. The I See You tour went ahead without him, and the line-up of Sturt, East, Golfetti, Torabi and a "mystery drummer" (revealed to be Cheb Nettles) played five dates in France and two in the UK.
The deaths of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth (2015–16)
On 5 February 2015, Daevid Allen released a statement announcing that the cancer had returned to his neck and had also spread to his lungs, and that he was "not interested in endless surgical operations", leaving him with "approximately six months to live". Just over a month after the initial announcement, on 13 March 2015, Daevid's son Orlando announced through Facebook that Allen had died in Byron Bay, Australia, aged 77.
On 11 April 2015, it was revealed that Allen had written an email to the band prior to his death, expressing his wish that the five remaining members continue performing following his passing and suggesting that Kavus Torabi become the new frontman of the band.
Gilli Smyth died on 22 August 2016, aged 83. She had been admitted to hospital in Byron Bay with pneumonia a couple of days previously.
Post-Daevid Allen: Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016–present)
On 5 July 2016, it was announced that the band line-up consisting of Kavus Torabi, Fabio Golfetti, Dave Sturt, Ian East and Cheb Nettles had recorded a new album entitled Rejoice! I'm Dead!, featuring guest appearances from Steve Hillage on guitar, Didier Malherbe on duduk and Graham Clark on violin, with Daevid Allen's vocals appearing on two tracks. Rejoice! I'm Dead! was released on 16 September 2016 through Snapper Music. On May 2019, the lineup followed up with their fifteenth album The Universe Also Collapses.
On August 2019, Universal Music announced the boxed set, Love From The Planet Gong: The Virgin Years 1973–75, encompassing Gong's tenure with Virgin Records, would be released on 27 September. Curated by Hillage, it contains remasters of four studio albums and previously unreleased live recordings made between 1973 and 1975.
Music and lyrics
Style and influences
Gong's music fuses many influences into a distinctive style which has been variously described by critics and journalists as experimental rock, jazz fusion, jazz rock, progressive rock, psychedelic rock and space rock. Gong has also been associated with the Canterbury scene of progressive rock bands.
Rolling Stone described Gong's music as combining "psychedelic English whimsy, German kosmische space jams and Gallic libertine fusion."
Daevid Allen's guitar playing was influenced by Syd Barrett.
Mythology
The Gong mythology is a humorous collection of recurring characters and allegorical themes which permeate the albums of Gong and Daevid Allen, and to a lesser extent the early works of Steve Hillage. The characters were often based on, or used as pseudonyms for, band members, while the story itself was based on a vision which Allen had during the full moon of Easter 1966, in Deià, Majorca, in which he claimed he could see his future laid out before him. This mythology was hinted at through Gong's earlier albums but was not the central theme until the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy of 1973/74. It contains many similarities to concepts from Buddhist philosophy, e.g. optimism, the search for self, the denial of absolute reality and the search for the path to enlightenment. There are frequent references to the production and consumption of "tea", perhaps suggesting mushroom tea, although the word has also long been used to describe cannabis, especially in the 1940s and 1950s.
Flying Teapot: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 1 (1973)
The story begins on the album Flying Teapot (1973), when a pig-farming Egyptologist called Mista T. Being is sold a "magick ear ring" by an "antique teapot street vendor and tea label collector" called Fred the Fish. The ear ring is capable of receiving messages from the Planet Gong via a pirate radio station called Radio Gnome Invisible. Being and Fish head off to the Hymnalayas of Tibet (sic) where they meet the "great beer yogi" Banana Ananda in a cave. Ananda tends to chant "Banana Nirvana Mañana" a lot and gets drunk on Foster's Australian Lager. (This latter development mirrors the real-life experience of band members Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth who met their saxophonist, Didier Malherbe, in a cave in Majorca.)
Meanwhile, the mythology's central character, Zero the Hero, is going about his everyday life when he suddenly has a vision in Charing Cross Road, London. He is compelled to seek heroes and starts worshiping the Cock Pot Pixie, one of a number of Pot Head Pixies from the Planet Gong. These pixies are green, have propellers on their heads, and fly around in teapots (inspired by [Bertrand] Russell's teapot).
Zero is soon distracted by a cat to whom he offers his fish and chips. The cat is actually the Good Witch Yoni, and she gives Zero a potion in return.
Angel's Egg: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 2 (1973)
The second part, Angel's Egg (1973), begins with Zero falling asleep under the influence of the potion and finding himself floating through space. After accidentally scaring a space pilot called Captain Capricorn, Zero locates the Planet Gong, and spends some time with a prostitute who introduces him to the moon goddess Selene.
Zero's drug-induced trip to the Planet Gong continues, and the Pot Head Pixies explain to him how their flying teapots fly: a system known as Glidding. He is then taken to the One Invisible Temple of Gong.
Inside the temple, Zero is shown the Angel's Egg, the physical embodiment of the 32 Octave Doctors (descendants of the Great God Cell). The Angel's Egg is the magic-eye mandala that features on much of the band's sleeve-art. It is also a sort of recycling plant for Pot Head Pixies.
A grand plan is revealed to Zero: there will be a Great Melting Feast of Freeks which Zero must organise on Earth. When everyone is enjoying the Feast, a huge global concert, the Switch Doctor will turn everybody's third eye on, ushering in a New Age on Earth. The Switch Doctor is the Earth's resident Octave Doctor, who lives near Banana Ananda's cave, in a "potheadquarters" called the Compagnie d'Opera Invisible de Thibet (C.O.I.T.) and transmits all the details to the Gong Band via the Bananamoon Observatory.
You: Radio Gnome Invisible, Part 3 (1974)
In the third instalment, You (1974), Zero must first return from his trip. He asks Hiram the Master Builder how to structure his vision and build his own Invisible Temple. Having done this, Zero establishes that he must organise the Great Melting Feast of Freeks on the Isle of Everywhere: Bali.
The event is going well, and the Switch Doctor switches on everyone's third eyes except for Zero's, for he is out the back, indulging in Earthly pleasures ("fruitcake").
Zero has missed out on the whole third eye revelation experience and is forced to continue his existence spinning around on the wheel of births and deaths and slowly converging on the Angel's Egg in a way which, to a certain extent, resembles Buddhist reincarnation.
Continuations (1992–2009)
The album Shapeshifter (1992) is the fourth instalment in the saga, in which Zero meets an urban shaman who agrees to take him to the next level of awareness on the proviso that Zero spends nine months on an aeroplane traveling where he wants, but not using money or eating anything other than airline food. Zero eventually dies in Australia under mysterious circumstances.
The next instalment is the album Zero to Infinity (2000), which sees Zero's spirit enjoying a body-free and virtual existence. During the course of this he becomes an android spheroid Zeroid. With the help of a strange animal called a gongalope, he learns that all the wisdom of the world exists within him and practises Lafta yoga and tea making. At the end he becomes one with an Invisible Temple and has a lot of fun.
The final instalment of the story, 2032 (2009), is set in that year, one which Daevid Allen had seen as significant for the enlightenment of humanity. The Planet Gong now serves as more of a digital portal for a humanity still grappling with contemporary issues of life.
Influence on other artists
Gong's influence has been seen in artists such as Ozric Tentacles and Insane Clown Posse, whose member Violent J listened to Gong's music for inspiration during the recording of ICP's 2009 album Bang! Pow! Boom!. Gong's music has also found fandom in the ambient music scene.
The Southern rock band Raging Slab has covered Gong's "The Pot Head Pixies" for NORML's Hempilation release. Japanese psych-rock band Acid Mothers Temple frequently covers Gong's "Master Builder", titled as "Om Riff", and have released 2 full albums dedicated to album-length renditions of the song; 2005's "IAO Chant From The Cosmic Inferno" and 2012's "IAO Chant From The Melting Paraiso Underground Freak Out".
Actor Sherman Hemsley, best known for his role on The Jeffersons, was an avowed Gong fanatic, going so far as to have a Flying Teapot room in his house. The room, which had darkened windows, played Flying Teapot continuously via tape loops.
Personnel
Current members
Fabio Golfetti – lead guitar (2007, 2012–present)
Dave Sturt – bass (2009–present)
Ian East – saxophone, flute (2010–present)
Kavus Torabi – guitar, vocals (2014–present)
Cheb Nettles – drums (2014–present)
Discography
Daevid Allen's Gong
Magick Brother (1970)
Camembert Electrique (1971)
Continental Circus (1972, soundtrack)
Flying Teapot (1973)
Angel's Egg (1973)
You (1974)
Shapeshifter (1992)
Zero to Infinity (2000)
Acid Motherhood (2004) (with Acid Mothers Temple)
2032 (2009)
I See You (2014)
post-Daevid Allen
Rejoice! I'm Dead! (2016)
The Universe Also Collapses (2019)
"Shamal Gong"
Shamal * (1976) (issued as a "Gong" album)
* Usually regarded as a transitional album between Daevid Allen's incarnation of the band and the Pierre Moerlen-led fusion line-up of the late 1970s.
Pierre Moerlen's Gong
Gazeuse! (1976) (Expresso in North America) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Expresso II (1978) (issued as a "Gong" album)
Downwind (1979)
Time Is the Key (1979)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (1980)
Leave It Open (1981)
Breakthrough (1986)
Second Wind (1988)
Full Circle Live '88 (1998)
Pentanine (2004)
Tribute (2010) (post-Pierre Moerlen)
Planet Gong
Live Floating Anarchy 1977 (1978)
New York Gong
About Time (1980)
Gongmaison
Gongmaison (1989)
Mother Gong
Fairy Tales (1979)
Mother Gong / Anthony Phillips – Battle of the Birds (1981)
Robot Woman (1981)
Robot Woman 2 (1982)
Robot Woman 3 (1986)
Fish in the Sky (1988)
The Owl and the Tree (with Daevid Allen) (1989)
Wild Child (1991)
She Made the World Magenta (1993)
Eye (1994)
Tree in Fish (1994)
Gilli Smyth, Daevid Allen and Orlando Allen
I Am Your Egg (2005)
Live albums
Haunted Chateau (1969)
Glastonbury Fayre (Gong contributed one side to this triple LP) (1971)
Greasy Truckers Live at Dingwalls Dance Hall (contributed one side) (1973)
Gong est Mort, Vive Gong (French live album) (1977)
Gong Live Etc (UK live album) (1977)
Pierre Moerlen's Gong Live (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1980)
Live at Sheffield '74 (1990)
Live au Bataclan 1973 (1990)
Live Floating Anarchy 1991 (Planet Gong) (1992)
Live 1991 (Mother Gong) (1992)
Live on T.V. 1990 (1993)
25th Birthday Party (1995)
Pre-Modernist Wireless: The Peel Sessions (1995)
Full Circle Live '88 (Pierre Moerlen's Gong) (1998)
Live 2 Infinitea (2000)
OK Friends (2002)
Glastonbury 1971 (2002)
Live in Sherwood Forest '75 (Shamal-Gong) (2005)
Glastonbury '79–'81 (Mother Gong) (2005)
Gong in the 70s (2006)
Acid Mothers Gong Live Tokyo (Acid Mothers Gong) (2006)
Mothergong O Amsterdam (Mother Gong) (2007)
Live in Brazil (2009)
Pulsing Signals (2022)
Compilation albums
Wingful of Eyes (A Retrospective, '75–'78) (Virgin Records, 1986)
The Mystery and the History of the Planet Gong (1989)
The Best of Gong (Charly Records, 1995)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 1997)
Best of Mother Gong (1998)
The World of Daevid Allen and Gong (3 CD compilation including almost all of the Radio Gnome Invisible trilogy and early album tracks) (2003)
The Very Best of Gong (Charly, 2005)
Gong in the 70's (Voiceprint, 2006)
A Storm in a Teapot (Charly, 2013)
Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy (4 CD or 5 LP box set) (Charly, 2015)
Love from the Planet Gong: The Virgin Years (1973–75) (Virgin, 2019)
Other appearances
Obsolete (album by French singer Dashiell Hedayat) (1971)
The Book of AM (produced by Daevid Allen, with Mother Gong musicians) (1978)
Filmography
2015: Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales (DVD)
References
Further reading
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 1. SAF Publishing, 2007
Allen, Daevid. Gong Dreaming 2. SAF Publishing, 2009
Brown, Brian. "Gong: Angel's Egg", (Crawdaddy!) 26 March 2008
External links
Official web site for Gong, GAS and Gliss
Gong at Calyx, The Canterbury Music Website, by Aymeric Leroy – includes detailed chronology
"Not Just Another Gong Website" – comprehensive tapeography
The Archive – Archival photos of Gong, Mother Gong, Steve Hillage, Nik Turner, Here & Now, Hawkwind and many Free Festivals from the 1960s–1980s
Acid Motherhood voted weirdest album cover of all time
Canterbury scene
Concept album series
Musical groups established in 1967
Virgin Records artists
French progressive rock groups
British progressive rock groups
British psychedelic rock music groups
Space rock musical groups
Musical groups from Paris
Freak artists
French psychedelic rock music groups
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[
"Le Cousin is a 1997 French film directed by Alain Corneau.\n\nPlot \nThe film deals with the relationship of the police and an informant in the drug scene.\n\nAwards and nominations\nLe Cousin was nominated for 5 César Awards but did not win in any category.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n1997 films\n1997 crime films\nFilms about drugs\nFilms directed by Alain Corneau\nFrench crime films\nFrench films\nFrench-language films",
"The 23rd Fangoria Chainsaw Awards is an award ceremony presented for horror films that were released in 2020. The nominees were announced on January 20, 2021. The film The Invisible Man won five of its five nominations, including Best Wide Release, as well as the write-in poll of Best Kill. Color Out Of Space and Possessor each took two awards. His House did not win any of its seven nominations. The ceremony was exclusively livestreamed for the first time on the SHUDDER horror streaming service.\n\nWinners and nominees\n\nReferences\n\nFangoria Chainsaw Awards"
] |
[
"Pete Maravich",
"Final season"
] |
C_c3c6a8aff42e42bb97e70c248b3446f9_0
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What was the final season?
| 1 |
What was the final season for Pete Maravich?
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Pete Maravich
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The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player. The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one. Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 67% completion rate behind the arc. During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks. CANNOTANSWER
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The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but
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Peter Press Maravich (; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in the Carolinas. Maravich starred in college with the LSU Tigers while playing for his father, head coach Press Maravich. He is the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. All of his accomplishments were achieved before the adoption of the three-point line and shot clock, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. He played for three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980 following a 10-year professional career.
One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was considered to be one of the greatest creative offensive talents ever and one of the best ball handlers of all time. He died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game in 1988 as a consequence of an undetected heart defect.
Early life
Maravich was born to Peter "Press" Maravich (1915–1987) and Helen Gravor Maravich (1925–1974) in Aliquippa, a steel town in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Maravich's father was the son of Serbian immigrants and a professional player–turned-coach. He showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long-range shots.
Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the school's first-ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University. The Maravich family's subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Maravich to attend Needham B. Broughton High School. His high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, where he averaged 33 points per game. Maravich never liked school and did not like Edwards Military Institute. It was known that Press Maravich was extremely protective of Maravich and would guard against any issue that might come up during his adolescence. Press threatened to shoot Maravich with a 45 caliber pistol if he drank or got into trouble. Maravich was 6 feet 4 inches in high school and was getting ready to play in college when his father took a coaching position at Louisiana State University.
College career
At that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.
In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6'5" (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.
Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:
First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.
Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range." It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game. And 12 Three Pointer per game.
Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)
More than 50 years later, however, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival. Maravich finished his college career in the 1970 National Invitation Tournament, where LSU finished fourth.
NCAA career statistics
Freshman
At this time, freshmen did not play on the varsity team and these stats do not count in the NCAA record books.
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1966–67
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 19 || 19 || ... || .452 || ... || .833 || 10.4 || ... || ... || ... || 43.6
Varsity
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1967–68
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .423 || ... || .811 || 7.5 || 4.0 || ... || ... || 43.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1968–69
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .444 || ... || .746 || 6.5 || 4.9 || ... || ... || 44.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1969–70
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 31 || 31 || ... || .447 || ... || .773 || 5.3 || 6.2 || ... || ... || 44.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" colspan=2|Career
| 83 || 83 || ... || .438 || ... || .775 || 6.5 || 5.1 || ... || ... || 44.2
Professional career
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks selected Maravich with the third pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA draft, where he played for coach Richie Guerin. He was not a natural fit in Atlanta, as the Hawks already boasted a top-notch scorer at the guard position in Lou Hudson. In fact, Maravich's flamboyant style stood in stark contrast to the conservative play of Hudson and star center Walt Bellamy. And it did not help that many of the veteran players resented the $1.9 million contract that Maravich received from the team—a very large salary at that time.
Maravich appeared in 81 games and averaged 23.2 points per contest—good enough to earn NBA All-Rookie Team honors. And he managed to blend his style with his teammates, so much so that Hudson set a career high by scoring 26.8 points per game. But the team stumbled to a 36–46 record—12 wins fewer than in the previous season. Still, the Hawks qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
Maravich struggled somewhat during his second season. His scoring average dipped to 19.3 points per game, and the Hawks finished with another disappointing 36–46 record. Once again they qualified for the playoffs, and once again they were eliminated in the first round. However, Atlanta fought hard against the Boston Celtics, with Maravich averaging 27.7 points in the series.
Maravich erupted in his third season, averaging 26.1 points (5th in the NBA) and dishing out 6.9 assists per game (6th in the NBA). With 2,063 points, he combined with Hudson (2,029 points) to become only the second set of teammates in league history to each score over 2,000 points in a single season. The Hawks soared to a 46–36 record, but again bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. However, the season was good enough to earn Maravich his first-ever appearance in the NBA All-Star Game, and also All-NBA Second Team honors.
The following season (1973–74) was his best yet—at least in terms of individual accomplishments. Maravich posted 27.7 points per game—second in the league behind Bob McAdoo—and earned his second appearance in the All-Star Game. However, Atlanta sank to a disappointing 35–47 record and missed the postseason entirely.
New Orleans Jazz
In the summer of 1974, an expansion franchise was preparing for its first season of competition in the NBA. The New Orleans Jazz were looking for something or someone to generate excitement among their new basketball fans. With his exciting style of play, Maravich was seen as the perfect man for the job. Additionally, he was already a celebrity in the state due to his accomplishments at LSU. To acquire Maravich, the Jazz traded two players and four draft picks to Atlanta.
The expansion team struggled mightily in its first season. Maravich managed to score 21.5 points per game, but shot a career-worst 41.9 percent from the floor. The Jazz posted a 23–59 record, worst in the NBA.
Jazz management did its best to give Maravich a better supporting cast. The team posted a 38–44 record in its second season (1975–76) but did not qualify for postseason play, despite the dramatic improvement. Maravich struggled with injuries that limited him to just 62 games that season, but he averaged 25.9 points per contest (third behind McAdoo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and continued his crowd-pleasing antics. He was elected to the All-NBA First Team that year.
The following season (1976–77) was his most productive in the NBA. He led the league in scoring with an average of 31.1 points per game. He scored 40 points or more in 13 games, and 50 or more in 4 games. His 68-point masterpiece against the Knicks was at the time the most points ever scored by a guard in a single game, and only two players at any position had ever scored more: Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. Baylor was head coach of the Jazz at that time.
Maravich earned his third all-star game appearance and was honored as All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season.
The following season, injuries to both knees forced him to miss 32 games during the 1977–78 season. Despite being robbed of some quickness and athleticism, he still managed to score 27.0 points per game, and he also added 6.7 assists per contest, his highest average as a member of the Jazz. Many of those assists went to new teammate Truck Robinson, who had joined the franchise as a free agent during the off-season. In his first year in New Orleans, he averaged 22.7 points and a league-best 15.7 rebounds per game. His presence prevented opponents from focusing their defensive efforts entirely on Maravich, and it lifted the Jazz to a 39–43 record—just short of making the club's first-ever appearance in the playoffs.
Knee problems plagued Maravich for the rest of his career. He played in just 49 games during the 1978–79 season. He scored 22.6 points per game that season and earned his fifth and final All-Star appearance. But his scoring and passing abilities were severely impaired. The team struggled on the court, and faced serious financial trouble as well. Management became desperate to make some changes. The Jazz traded Robinson to the Phoenix Suns, receiving draft picks and some cash in return. However, in 1979, team owner Sam Battistone moved the Jazz to Salt Lake City.
Final season
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979–80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.
The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61–21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one.
Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 66.7% completion rate behind the arc.
During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1970–71
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 81 || ... || 36.1 || .458 || ... || .800 || 3.7 || 4.4 || ... || ... || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971–72
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 66 || ... || 34.9 || .427 || ... || .811 || 3.9 || 6.0 || ... || ... || 19.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972–73
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 79 || ... || 39.1 || .441 || ... || .800 || 4.4 || 6.9 || ... || ... || 26.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973–74
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 76 || ... || 38.2 || .457 || ... || .826 || 4.9 || 5.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1974–75
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 79 || ... || 36.1 || .419 || ... || .811 || 5.3 || 6.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 21.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1975–76
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 62 || ... || 38.3 || .459|| ... || .811 || 4.8 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .4 || 25.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1976–77
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 73 || ... || 41.7 || .433 || ... || .835 || 5.1 || 5.4 || 1.2 || .3 ||style="background:#cfecec;"| 31.1*
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1977–78
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 50 || ... || 40.8 || .444 || ... || .870 || 3.6 || 6.7 || 2.0 || .2 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1978–79
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 49 || ... || 37.2 || .421 || ... || .841 || 2.5 || 5.0 || 1.2 || .4 || 22.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Utah
| 17 || ... || 30.7 || .412 || .636 || .820 || 2.4 || 3.2 || .9 || .2 || 17.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 26 || 4 || 17.0 || .494 || .750 ||.909 || 1.5 || 1.1 || .3 || .1 || 11.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 658 || ... || 37.0 || .441 || .667 || .820 || 4.2 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .3 || 24.2
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star
| 4 || 4 || 19.8 || .409 || ... || .778 || 2.0 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 10.8
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 5 || ... || 39.8 || .377 || ... || .692 || 5.2 || 4.8 || ... || ... || 22.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 36.5 || .446 || ... || .817 || 5.3 || 4.7 || ... || ... || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 39.0 || .419 || ... || .794 || 4.8 || 6.7 || ... || ... || 26.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1980
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 9 || ... || 11.6 || .490 || .333 || .667 || .9 || .7 || .3 || .0 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
| 26 || ... || 29.1 || .423 || .333 || .784 || 3.6 || 3.8 || ... || ... || 18.7
|-
Later life and death
After injuries forced his retirement from the game in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life". He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics, adopting a vegetarian diet in 1982. Eventually, he became a born-again Christian, embracing evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that serves Him [Jesus] to the utmost, not as a basketball player."
On January 5, 1988, Maravich collapsed and died of heart failure at age 40 while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included evangelical author James Dobson. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great." An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.
Maravich died the year after his father's passing and a number of years after his mother, who had died of suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot. Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Legacy
Maravich was survived by his wife Jackie and his sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, and Josh, aged 5. Only the previous year, Maravich had taken Jaeson to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game in Seattle, Washington, and introduced him to Michael Jordan.
Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, not even allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral. However, a proclivity to basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since ... My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing."
Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit that his tutelage might have provided, both sons eventually were inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball—Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.
On June 27, 2014, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed that LSU erect a statue of Maravich outside the Assembly Center, which already bore the basketball star's name. Former coach Dale Brown opposed such a monument, but Maravich's widow, Jackie McLachlan, said that she had been promised a statue after the passing of her husband. McLachlan said that she has noticed how fans struggle to get the Maravich name on the Assembly Center into a camera frame.
In February 2016, the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Maravich be installed on the campus.
A street in Belgrade, Serbia, is named after Pete Maravich.
Memorabilia
Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction. The signed game ball from his career-high 68-point night on February 25, 1977, sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction.
Honors, books, films and music
In 1987, roughly a year before his death, Maravich co-authored an award-winning (Gold Medallion) autobiography with Darrel Campbell titled Heir to a Dream that devoted much focus to his life after retirement from basketball and his later devotion to Christianity.
In 1987, Maravich and Darrel Campbell produced the four-episode basketball instructional video series Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
In 1988, Frank Schroeder and Darrel Campbell produced the documentary based on Pete Maravich's college career titled, Maravich Memories: The LSU Years.
After Maravich's death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially renaming the LSU home court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
In 1991, a biographical film written and produced by Darrel Campbell dramatizing his 8th-grade season entitled The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend was released.
In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History by a panel made up of NBA historians, players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was represented by his two sons at halftime.
In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film debuted on CBS entitled Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.
In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all time.
In 2007, two biographies of Maravich were released: Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill and Pistol by Mark Kriegel. Also in 2007, to promote Mark Kriegel's book "Pistol", Fox Sports conducted a contest to find "Pete Maravich's Biggest Fan". The winner was Scott Pollack of Sunrise, FL.
In 2021, he was named one of the members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team by a panel made up of NBA historians, players and coaches. He was one of the deceased players on the list.
In 1970, during his LSU days, Acapulco Music/The Panama Limited released "The Ballad of Pete Maravich by Bob Tinney and Woody Jenkins.
The Ziggens, a band from Southern California, wrote a song about Maravich entitled "Pistol Pete".
Collegiate awards
The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1970)
USBWA College Player of the Year (1969, 1970)
Naismith Award Winner (1970)
Helms Foundation Player of the Year (1970)
UPI Player of the Year (1970)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1970)
AP College Player of the Year (1970)
The Sporting News All-America First Team (1968, 1969, 1970)
Three-time AP and UPI First-Team All-America (1968, 1969, 1970)
Led the NCAA Division I in scoring with 43.8 ppg (1968); 44.2 (1969) and 44.5 ppg (1970)
Averaged 43.6 ppg on the LSU freshman team (1967)
Scored a career-high 69 points vs. Alabama (); 66 vs. Tulane (); 64 vs. Kentucky (); 61 vs. Vanderbilt ()
Holds LSU records for most field goals made (26) and attempted (57) in a game against Vanderbilt on
All-Southeastern Conference (1968, 1969, 1970)
#23 Jersey retired by LSU (2007)
In 1970, Maravich led LSU to a 20–8 record and a fourth-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament
Collegiate records
Points, career: 3,667 (three seasons)
Highest scoring average, points per game, career: 44.2 (3,667 points/83 games)
Points, season: 1,381 (1970)
Highest scoring average, points per game, season: 44.5 (1,381/31) (1970)
Games scoring 50 or more points, career: 28
Games scoring 50 or more points, season: 10 (1970)
Field goals made, career: 1,387
Field goals made, season: 522 (1970)
Field goal attempts, career: 3,166
Field goal attempts, season: 1,168 (1970)
Free throws made, game: 30 (in 31 attempts), vs. Oregon State,
Tied by Ben Woodside, North Dakota State, on
NBA awards
NBA All-Rookie Team
All-NBA First Team (1976, 1977)
All-NBA Second Team (1973, 1978)
Five-time NBA All-Star (1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Led the league in scoring (31.1 ppg) in 1977, his career best
Scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977
#7 jersey retired by the Utah Jazz (1985)
#7 jersey retired by the Superdome (1988)
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)
#7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) (2002), even though he never played for them—one of only four players to have a number retired by a team they did not play for; Maravich did play professionally for the New Orleans Jazz, however, and has remained a greatly admired figure amongst New Orleans sports fans ever since.
#44 jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks (2017)
NBA records
Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Broken by Vince Carter on
Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls,
Broken by Ben Wallace on
Second pair of teammates in NBA history to score 2,000 or more points in a season: 2, Atlanta Hawks ()
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029
Third pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets,
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.
Ranks 4th in NBA history – Free throws made, none missed, game: 18–18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Ranks 5th in NBA history – Free throws made, game: 23, Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz vs. New York Knicks, (2 OT)
See also
List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders
Further reading
Campbell, Darrel (2019). Hero & Friend: My Days with Pistol Pete. Percussion Films. .
Brown, Danny (2008). Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photographs of Pete Maravich at LSU. Louisiana State University Press
References
External links
NBA Historical Bio
ESPN bio
Pete Maravich's Greatest Achievement
‘68 All College MVP - 4 Days with Pistol Pete
Pete Maravich Bio LSU Tigers Athletics
1947 births
1988 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American evangelicals
American men's basketball players
American people of Serbian descent
Atlanta Hawks draft picks
Atlanta Hawks players
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
Boston Celtics players
College basketball announcers in the United States
LSU Tigers basketball players
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Needham B. Broughton High School alumni
New Orleans Jazz players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
People from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area
Basketball players from Raleigh, North Carolina
Utah Jazz players
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"The 2019 Super Rugby Final was played between the Crusaders of New Zealand and the Jaguares of Argentina. It was the 24th final in the Super Rugby competition's history. The Crusaders had qualified in first place on the regular season standings, while the Jaguares had qualified in second place. Both teams hosted quarter-final and semi-final matches.\n\nThe final was won by the Crusaders who beat the Jaguares by sixteen points. The Crusaders stretched their record number of Super Rugby wins to ten and completed what is called a three-peat by winning the tournament three times consecutively in what was the competition's lowest scoring final.\n\nRoad to the final \n\nThe 2019 season was a 15-team competition, consisting of three geographical conferences. Each conference leader at the end of the regular season, the from New Zealand, from Argentina and from Australia gained home berths in the quarterfinals, as did the top-ranked wildcard team, the from New Zealand's conference. Their four wildcard opponents in the quarterfinals were the next best teams as ranked at the end of the regular season.\n\nIn the quarter-finals the Crusaders beat fellow New Zealand team the Highlanders while the Jaguares beat the Chiefs. For the semi-finals it was the Crusaders defeating the Hurricanes in Christchurch and the Jaguares defeating the Brumbies in Buenos Aires. Because of being the higher placed team in the regular season log standings, the final was held in Christchurch.\n\nQuarterfinals\n\nSemifinals\n\nFinal\n\nDetails\n\nReferences \n\n2019 Super Rugby season\nSuper Rugby finals\n2019 in New Zealand rugby union\n2019 in Argentine rugby union\nCrusaders (rugby union) matches\nSports competitions in Christchurch",
"The 1919 South Australian Football League season was the 40th season of the top-level Australian rules football competition in South Australia.\n\nThe Grand Final of the 1919 SAFL season ended in a draw between and . The Grand Final Replay was won by in what is currently the last drawn SANFL Grand Final.\n\nLadder\n\nFinals series\n\nGrand Final\n\nReferences \n\nSAFL\nSouth Australian National Football League seasons"
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Pete Maravich
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The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player. The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one. Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 67% completion rate behind the arc. During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks. CANNOTANSWER
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He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule
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Peter Press Maravich (; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in the Carolinas. Maravich starred in college with the LSU Tigers while playing for his father, head coach Press Maravich. He is the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. All of his accomplishments were achieved before the adoption of the three-point line and shot clock, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. He played for three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980 following a 10-year professional career.
One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was considered to be one of the greatest creative offensive talents ever and one of the best ball handlers of all time. He died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game in 1988 as a consequence of an undetected heart defect.
Early life
Maravich was born to Peter "Press" Maravich (1915–1987) and Helen Gravor Maravich (1925–1974) in Aliquippa, a steel town in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Maravich's father was the son of Serbian immigrants and a professional player–turned-coach. He showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long-range shots.
Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the school's first-ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University. The Maravich family's subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Maravich to attend Needham B. Broughton High School. His high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, where he averaged 33 points per game. Maravich never liked school and did not like Edwards Military Institute. It was known that Press Maravich was extremely protective of Maravich and would guard against any issue that might come up during his adolescence. Press threatened to shoot Maravich with a 45 caliber pistol if he drank or got into trouble. Maravich was 6 feet 4 inches in high school and was getting ready to play in college when his father took a coaching position at Louisiana State University.
College career
At that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.
In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6'5" (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.
Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:
First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.
Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range." It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game. And 12 Three Pointer per game.
Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)
More than 50 years later, however, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival. Maravich finished his college career in the 1970 National Invitation Tournament, where LSU finished fourth.
NCAA career statistics
Freshman
At this time, freshmen did not play on the varsity team and these stats do not count in the NCAA record books.
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1966–67
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 19 || 19 || ... || .452 || ... || .833 || 10.4 || ... || ... || ... || 43.6
Varsity
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1967–68
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .423 || ... || .811 || 7.5 || 4.0 || ... || ... || 43.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1968–69
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .444 || ... || .746 || 6.5 || 4.9 || ... || ... || 44.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1969–70
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 31 || 31 || ... || .447 || ... || .773 || 5.3 || 6.2 || ... || ... || 44.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" colspan=2|Career
| 83 || 83 || ... || .438 || ... || .775 || 6.5 || 5.1 || ... || ... || 44.2
Professional career
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks selected Maravich with the third pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA draft, where he played for coach Richie Guerin. He was not a natural fit in Atlanta, as the Hawks already boasted a top-notch scorer at the guard position in Lou Hudson. In fact, Maravich's flamboyant style stood in stark contrast to the conservative play of Hudson and star center Walt Bellamy. And it did not help that many of the veteran players resented the $1.9 million contract that Maravich received from the team—a very large salary at that time.
Maravich appeared in 81 games and averaged 23.2 points per contest—good enough to earn NBA All-Rookie Team honors. And he managed to blend his style with his teammates, so much so that Hudson set a career high by scoring 26.8 points per game. But the team stumbled to a 36–46 record—12 wins fewer than in the previous season. Still, the Hawks qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
Maravich struggled somewhat during his second season. His scoring average dipped to 19.3 points per game, and the Hawks finished with another disappointing 36–46 record. Once again they qualified for the playoffs, and once again they were eliminated in the first round. However, Atlanta fought hard against the Boston Celtics, with Maravich averaging 27.7 points in the series.
Maravich erupted in his third season, averaging 26.1 points (5th in the NBA) and dishing out 6.9 assists per game (6th in the NBA). With 2,063 points, he combined with Hudson (2,029 points) to become only the second set of teammates in league history to each score over 2,000 points in a single season. The Hawks soared to a 46–36 record, but again bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. However, the season was good enough to earn Maravich his first-ever appearance in the NBA All-Star Game, and also All-NBA Second Team honors.
The following season (1973–74) was his best yet—at least in terms of individual accomplishments. Maravich posted 27.7 points per game—second in the league behind Bob McAdoo—and earned his second appearance in the All-Star Game. However, Atlanta sank to a disappointing 35–47 record and missed the postseason entirely.
New Orleans Jazz
In the summer of 1974, an expansion franchise was preparing for its first season of competition in the NBA. The New Orleans Jazz were looking for something or someone to generate excitement among their new basketball fans. With his exciting style of play, Maravich was seen as the perfect man for the job. Additionally, he was already a celebrity in the state due to his accomplishments at LSU. To acquire Maravich, the Jazz traded two players and four draft picks to Atlanta.
The expansion team struggled mightily in its first season. Maravich managed to score 21.5 points per game, but shot a career-worst 41.9 percent from the floor. The Jazz posted a 23–59 record, worst in the NBA.
Jazz management did its best to give Maravich a better supporting cast. The team posted a 38–44 record in its second season (1975–76) but did not qualify for postseason play, despite the dramatic improvement. Maravich struggled with injuries that limited him to just 62 games that season, but he averaged 25.9 points per contest (third behind McAdoo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and continued his crowd-pleasing antics. He was elected to the All-NBA First Team that year.
The following season (1976–77) was his most productive in the NBA. He led the league in scoring with an average of 31.1 points per game. He scored 40 points or more in 13 games, and 50 or more in 4 games. His 68-point masterpiece against the Knicks was at the time the most points ever scored by a guard in a single game, and only two players at any position had ever scored more: Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. Baylor was head coach of the Jazz at that time.
Maravich earned his third all-star game appearance and was honored as All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season.
The following season, injuries to both knees forced him to miss 32 games during the 1977–78 season. Despite being robbed of some quickness and athleticism, he still managed to score 27.0 points per game, and he also added 6.7 assists per contest, his highest average as a member of the Jazz. Many of those assists went to new teammate Truck Robinson, who had joined the franchise as a free agent during the off-season. In his first year in New Orleans, he averaged 22.7 points and a league-best 15.7 rebounds per game. His presence prevented opponents from focusing their defensive efforts entirely on Maravich, and it lifted the Jazz to a 39–43 record—just short of making the club's first-ever appearance in the playoffs.
Knee problems plagued Maravich for the rest of his career. He played in just 49 games during the 1978–79 season. He scored 22.6 points per game that season and earned his fifth and final All-Star appearance. But his scoring and passing abilities were severely impaired. The team struggled on the court, and faced serious financial trouble as well. Management became desperate to make some changes. The Jazz traded Robinson to the Phoenix Suns, receiving draft picks and some cash in return. However, in 1979, team owner Sam Battistone moved the Jazz to Salt Lake City.
Final season
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979–80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.
The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61–21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one.
Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 66.7% completion rate behind the arc.
During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1970–71
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 81 || ... || 36.1 || .458 || ... || .800 || 3.7 || 4.4 || ... || ... || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971–72
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 66 || ... || 34.9 || .427 || ... || .811 || 3.9 || 6.0 || ... || ... || 19.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972–73
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 79 || ... || 39.1 || .441 || ... || .800 || 4.4 || 6.9 || ... || ... || 26.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973–74
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 76 || ... || 38.2 || .457 || ... || .826 || 4.9 || 5.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1974–75
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 79 || ... || 36.1 || .419 || ... || .811 || 5.3 || 6.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 21.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1975–76
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 62 || ... || 38.3 || .459|| ... || .811 || 4.8 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .4 || 25.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1976–77
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 73 || ... || 41.7 || .433 || ... || .835 || 5.1 || 5.4 || 1.2 || .3 ||style="background:#cfecec;"| 31.1*
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1977–78
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 50 || ... || 40.8 || .444 || ... || .870 || 3.6 || 6.7 || 2.0 || .2 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1978–79
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 49 || ... || 37.2 || .421 || ... || .841 || 2.5 || 5.0 || 1.2 || .4 || 22.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Utah
| 17 || ... || 30.7 || .412 || .636 || .820 || 2.4 || 3.2 || .9 || .2 || 17.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 26 || 4 || 17.0 || .494 || .750 ||.909 || 1.5 || 1.1 || .3 || .1 || 11.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 658 || ... || 37.0 || .441 || .667 || .820 || 4.2 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .3 || 24.2
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star
| 4 || 4 || 19.8 || .409 || ... || .778 || 2.0 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 10.8
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 5 || ... || 39.8 || .377 || ... || .692 || 5.2 || 4.8 || ... || ... || 22.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 36.5 || .446 || ... || .817 || 5.3 || 4.7 || ... || ... || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 39.0 || .419 || ... || .794 || 4.8 || 6.7 || ... || ... || 26.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1980
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 9 || ... || 11.6 || .490 || .333 || .667 || .9 || .7 || .3 || .0 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
| 26 || ... || 29.1 || .423 || .333 || .784 || 3.6 || 3.8 || ... || ... || 18.7
|-
Later life and death
After injuries forced his retirement from the game in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life". He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics, adopting a vegetarian diet in 1982. Eventually, he became a born-again Christian, embracing evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that serves Him [Jesus] to the utmost, not as a basketball player."
On January 5, 1988, Maravich collapsed and died of heart failure at age 40 while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included evangelical author James Dobson. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great." An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.
Maravich died the year after his father's passing and a number of years after his mother, who had died of suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot. Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Legacy
Maravich was survived by his wife Jackie and his sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, and Josh, aged 5. Only the previous year, Maravich had taken Jaeson to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game in Seattle, Washington, and introduced him to Michael Jordan.
Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, not even allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral. However, a proclivity to basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since ... My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing."
Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit that his tutelage might have provided, both sons eventually were inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball—Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.
On June 27, 2014, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed that LSU erect a statue of Maravich outside the Assembly Center, which already bore the basketball star's name. Former coach Dale Brown opposed such a monument, but Maravich's widow, Jackie McLachlan, said that she had been promised a statue after the passing of her husband. McLachlan said that she has noticed how fans struggle to get the Maravich name on the Assembly Center into a camera frame.
In February 2016, the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Maravich be installed on the campus.
A street in Belgrade, Serbia, is named after Pete Maravich.
Memorabilia
Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction. The signed game ball from his career-high 68-point night on February 25, 1977, sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction.
Honors, books, films and music
In 1987, roughly a year before his death, Maravich co-authored an award-winning (Gold Medallion) autobiography with Darrel Campbell titled Heir to a Dream that devoted much focus to his life after retirement from basketball and his later devotion to Christianity.
In 1987, Maravich and Darrel Campbell produced the four-episode basketball instructional video series Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
In 1988, Frank Schroeder and Darrel Campbell produced the documentary based on Pete Maravich's college career titled, Maravich Memories: The LSU Years.
After Maravich's death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially renaming the LSU home court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
In 1991, a biographical film written and produced by Darrel Campbell dramatizing his 8th-grade season entitled The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend was released.
In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History by a panel made up of NBA historians, players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was represented by his two sons at halftime.
In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film debuted on CBS entitled Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.
In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all time.
In 2007, two biographies of Maravich were released: Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill and Pistol by Mark Kriegel. Also in 2007, to promote Mark Kriegel's book "Pistol", Fox Sports conducted a contest to find "Pete Maravich's Biggest Fan". The winner was Scott Pollack of Sunrise, FL.
In 2021, he was named one of the members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team by a panel made up of NBA historians, players and coaches. He was one of the deceased players on the list.
In 1970, during his LSU days, Acapulco Music/The Panama Limited released "The Ballad of Pete Maravich by Bob Tinney and Woody Jenkins.
The Ziggens, a band from Southern California, wrote a song about Maravich entitled "Pistol Pete".
Collegiate awards
The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1970)
USBWA College Player of the Year (1969, 1970)
Naismith Award Winner (1970)
Helms Foundation Player of the Year (1970)
UPI Player of the Year (1970)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1970)
AP College Player of the Year (1970)
The Sporting News All-America First Team (1968, 1969, 1970)
Three-time AP and UPI First-Team All-America (1968, 1969, 1970)
Led the NCAA Division I in scoring with 43.8 ppg (1968); 44.2 (1969) and 44.5 ppg (1970)
Averaged 43.6 ppg on the LSU freshman team (1967)
Scored a career-high 69 points vs. Alabama (); 66 vs. Tulane (); 64 vs. Kentucky (); 61 vs. Vanderbilt ()
Holds LSU records for most field goals made (26) and attempted (57) in a game against Vanderbilt on
All-Southeastern Conference (1968, 1969, 1970)
#23 Jersey retired by LSU (2007)
In 1970, Maravich led LSU to a 20–8 record and a fourth-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament
Collegiate records
Points, career: 3,667 (three seasons)
Highest scoring average, points per game, career: 44.2 (3,667 points/83 games)
Points, season: 1,381 (1970)
Highest scoring average, points per game, season: 44.5 (1,381/31) (1970)
Games scoring 50 or more points, career: 28
Games scoring 50 or more points, season: 10 (1970)
Field goals made, career: 1,387
Field goals made, season: 522 (1970)
Field goal attempts, career: 3,166
Field goal attempts, season: 1,168 (1970)
Free throws made, game: 30 (in 31 attempts), vs. Oregon State,
Tied by Ben Woodside, North Dakota State, on
NBA awards
NBA All-Rookie Team
All-NBA First Team (1976, 1977)
All-NBA Second Team (1973, 1978)
Five-time NBA All-Star (1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Led the league in scoring (31.1 ppg) in 1977, his career best
Scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977
#7 jersey retired by the Utah Jazz (1985)
#7 jersey retired by the Superdome (1988)
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)
#7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) (2002), even though he never played for them—one of only four players to have a number retired by a team they did not play for; Maravich did play professionally for the New Orleans Jazz, however, and has remained a greatly admired figure amongst New Orleans sports fans ever since.
#44 jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks (2017)
NBA records
Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Broken by Vince Carter on
Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls,
Broken by Ben Wallace on
Second pair of teammates in NBA history to score 2,000 or more points in a season: 2, Atlanta Hawks ()
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029
Third pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets,
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.
Ranks 4th in NBA history – Free throws made, none missed, game: 18–18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Ranks 5th in NBA history – Free throws made, game: 23, Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz vs. New York Knicks, (2 OT)
See also
List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders
Further reading
Campbell, Darrel (2019). Hero & Friend: My Days with Pistol Pete. Percussion Films. .
Brown, Danny (2008). Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photographs of Pete Maravich at LSU. Louisiana State University Press
References
External links
NBA Historical Bio
ESPN bio
Pete Maravich's Greatest Achievement
‘68 All College MVP - 4 Days with Pistol Pete
Pete Maravich Bio LSU Tigers Athletics
1947 births
1988 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American evangelicals
American men's basketball players
American people of Serbian descent
Atlanta Hawks draft picks
Atlanta Hawks players
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
Boston Celtics players
College basketball announcers in the United States
LSU Tigers basketball players
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Needham B. Broughton High School alumni
New Orleans Jazz players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
People from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area
Basketball players from Raleigh, North Carolina
Utah Jazz players
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[
"Ronnie Free (born Ronald Guy Free on January 15, 1936, in Charleston, South Carolina) is an American jazz drummer. His recording credits date back to the 1950s and he has collaborated with many notable jazz musicians including pianists Mose Allison, Oscar Pettiford, Sonny Clark, and bandleader Woody Herman.\nThe story of Ronnie Free's time in New York is told in an episode of NPR's \"The Jazz Loft\" series and as a resident of the loft Free functioned as the \"house drummer\" for many of the jam sessions that occurred there.\n\nDiscography\n\nWith Mose Allison\nRamblin' with Mose (Prestige, 1958)\nCreek Bank (Prestige, 1958)\nAutumn Song (Prestige, 1959)\nWith Lee Konitz and Jimmy Guiffre\nLee Konitz Meets Jimmy Giuffre (Verve, 1959)\n\nExternal links \nWhat Happened to Ronnie Free?\nThe Jazz Lesson ....... By Alan Freeman\nRon Free interview on \"The Story\" from WUNC\n\nAmerican session musicians\nMusicians from Charleston, South Carolina\n1936 births\nLiving people\n20th-century American drummers\nAmerican male drummers\n20th-century American male musicians",
"Stranger Things Have Happened is the second studio album of jazz standards by singer Justin Guarini that was released in 2005.\n\nCritical reception \n\nStephen Erlewine at AllMusic wrote that this album was the American Idol runner-up's attempt to reinvent himself after the failure of the movie From Justin to Kelly. The result is \"loungey, Am-Idol-styled vocal jazz, but Stranger Things Have Happened is vocal jazz all the same...Guarini has genuine, natural charisma as a supper club-styled singer, and that charisma when contrasted with his band's jazz chops has a nice, relaxed appeal.\" Despite its weaknesses, the album was \"a surprisingly successful reinvention.\"\n\nTrack listing\n\nReferences \n\n2005 albums\nJustin Guarini albums\nJazz albums by American artists\nCovers albums"
] |
[
"Pete Maravich",
"Final season",
"What was the final season?",
"The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but",
"What happened with the Jazz?",
"He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule"
] |
C_c3c6a8aff42e42bb97e70c248b3446f9_0
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What was the coaches rule?
| 3 |
What was Tom Nissalke rule at the Utah Jazz?
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Pete Maravich
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The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player. The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one. Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 67% completion rate behind the arc. During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks. CANNOTANSWER
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had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games,
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Peter Press Maravich (; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in the Carolinas. Maravich starred in college with the LSU Tigers while playing for his father, head coach Press Maravich. He is the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. All of his accomplishments were achieved before the adoption of the three-point line and shot clock, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. He played for three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980 following a 10-year professional career.
One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was considered to be one of the greatest creative offensive talents ever and one of the best ball handlers of all time. He died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game in 1988 as a consequence of an undetected heart defect.
Early life
Maravich was born to Peter "Press" Maravich (1915–1987) and Helen Gravor Maravich (1925–1974) in Aliquippa, a steel town in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Maravich's father was the son of Serbian immigrants and a professional player–turned-coach. He showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long-range shots.
Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the school's first-ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University. The Maravich family's subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Maravich to attend Needham B. Broughton High School. His high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, where he averaged 33 points per game. Maravich never liked school and did not like Edwards Military Institute. It was known that Press Maravich was extremely protective of Maravich and would guard against any issue that might come up during his adolescence. Press threatened to shoot Maravich with a 45 caliber pistol if he drank or got into trouble. Maravich was 6 feet 4 inches in high school and was getting ready to play in college when his father took a coaching position at Louisiana State University.
College career
At that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.
In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6'5" (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.
Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:
First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.
Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range." It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game. And 12 Three Pointer per game.
Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)
More than 50 years later, however, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival. Maravich finished his college career in the 1970 National Invitation Tournament, where LSU finished fourth.
NCAA career statistics
Freshman
At this time, freshmen did not play on the varsity team and these stats do not count in the NCAA record books.
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1966–67
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 19 || 19 || ... || .452 || ... || .833 || 10.4 || ... || ... || ... || 43.6
Varsity
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1967–68
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .423 || ... || .811 || 7.5 || 4.0 || ... || ... || 43.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1968–69
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .444 || ... || .746 || 6.5 || 4.9 || ... || ... || 44.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1969–70
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 31 || 31 || ... || .447 || ... || .773 || 5.3 || 6.2 || ... || ... || 44.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" colspan=2|Career
| 83 || 83 || ... || .438 || ... || .775 || 6.5 || 5.1 || ... || ... || 44.2
Professional career
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks selected Maravich with the third pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA draft, where he played for coach Richie Guerin. He was not a natural fit in Atlanta, as the Hawks already boasted a top-notch scorer at the guard position in Lou Hudson. In fact, Maravich's flamboyant style stood in stark contrast to the conservative play of Hudson and star center Walt Bellamy. And it did not help that many of the veteran players resented the $1.9 million contract that Maravich received from the team—a very large salary at that time.
Maravich appeared in 81 games and averaged 23.2 points per contest—good enough to earn NBA All-Rookie Team honors. And he managed to blend his style with his teammates, so much so that Hudson set a career high by scoring 26.8 points per game. But the team stumbled to a 36–46 record—12 wins fewer than in the previous season. Still, the Hawks qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
Maravich struggled somewhat during his second season. His scoring average dipped to 19.3 points per game, and the Hawks finished with another disappointing 36–46 record. Once again they qualified for the playoffs, and once again they were eliminated in the first round. However, Atlanta fought hard against the Boston Celtics, with Maravich averaging 27.7 points in the series.
Maravich erupted in his third season, averaging 26.1 points (5th in the NBA) and dishing out 6.9 assists per game (6th in the NBA). With 2,063 points, he combined with Hudson (2,029 points) to become only the second set of teammates in league history to each score over 2,000 points in a single season. The Hawks soared to a 46–36 record, but again bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. However, the season was good enough to earn Maravich his first-ever appearance in the NBA All-Star Game, and also All-NBA Second Team honors.
The following season (1973–74) was his best yet—at least in terms of individual accomplishments. Maravich posted 27.7 points per game—second in the league behind Bob McAdoo—and earned his second appearance in the All-Star Game. However, Atlanta sank to a disappointing 35–47 record and missed the postseason entirely.
New Orleans Jazz
In the summer of 1974, an expansion franchise was preparing for its first season of competition in the NBA. The New Orleans Jazz were looking for something or someone to generate excitement among their new basketball fans. With his exciting style of play, Maravich was seen as the perfect man for the job. Additionally, he was already a celebrity in the state due to his accomplishments at LSU. To acquire Maravich, the Jazz traded two players and four draft picks to Atlanta.
The expansion team struggled mightily in its first season. Maravich managed to score 21.5 points per game, but shot a career-worst 41.9 percent from the floor. The Jazz posted a 23–59 record, worst in the NBA.
Jazz management did its best to give Maravich a better supporting cast. The team posted a 38–44 record in its second season (1975–76) but did not qualify for postseason play, despite the dramatic improvement. Maravich struggled with injuries that limited him to just 62 games that season, but he averaged 25.9 points per contest (third behind McAdoo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and continued his crowd-pleasing antics. He was elected to the All-NBA First Team that year.
The following season (1976–77) was his most productive in the NBA. He led the league in scoring with an average of 31.1 points per game. He scored 40 points or more in 13 games, and 50 or more in 4 games. His 68-point masterpiece against the Knicks was at the time the most points ever scored by a guard in a single game, and only two players at any position had ever scored more: Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. Baylor was head coach of the Jazz at that time.
Maravich earned his third all-star game appearance and was honored as All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season.
The following season, injuries to both knees forced him to miss 32 games during the 1977–78 season. Despite being robbed of some quickness and athleticism, he still managed to score 27.0 points per game, and he also added 6.7 assists per contest, his highest average as a member of the Jazz. Many of those assists went to new teammate Truck Robinson, who had joined the franchise as a free agent during the off-season. In his first year in New Orleans, he averaged 22.7 points and a league-best 15.7 rebounds per game. His presence prevented opponents from focusing their defensive efforts entirely on Maravich, and it lifted the Jazz to a 39–43 record—just short of making the club's first-ever appearance in the playoffs.
Knee problems plagued Maravich for the rest of his career. He played in just 49 games during the 1978–79 season. He scored 22.6 points per game that season and earned his fifth and final All-Star appearance. But his scoring and passing abilities were severely impaired. The team struggled on the court, and faced serious financial trouble as well. Management became desperate to make some changes. The Jazz traded Robinson to the Phoenix Suns, receiving draft picks and some cash in return. However, in 1979, team owner Sam Battistone moved the Jazz to Salt Lake City.
Final season
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979–80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.
The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61–21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one.
Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 66.7% completion rate behind the arc.
During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1970–71
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 81 || ... || 36.1 || .458 || ... || .800 || 3.7 || 4.4 || ... || ... || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971–72
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 66 || ... || 34.9 || .427 || ... || .811 || 3.9 || 6.0 || ... || ... || 19.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972–73
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 79 || ... || 39.1 || .441 || ... || .800 || 4.4 || 6.9 || ... || ... || 26.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973–74
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 76 || ... || 38.2 || .457 || ... || .826 || 4.9 || 5.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1974–75
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 79 || ... || 36.1 || .419 || ... || .811 || 5.3 || 6.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 21.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1975–76
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 62 || ... || 38.3 || .459|| ... || .811 || 4.8 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .4 || 25.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1976–77
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 73 || ... || 41.7 || .433 || ... || .835 || 5.1 || 5.4 || 1.2 || .3 ||style="background:#cfecec;"| 31.1*
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1977–78
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 50 || ... || 40.8 || .444 || ... || .870 || 3.6 || 6.7 || 2.0 || .2 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1978–79
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 49 || ... || 37.2 || .421 || ... || .841 || 2.5 || 5.0 || 1.2 || .4 || 22.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Utah
| 17 || ... || 30.7 || .412 || .636 || .820 || 2.4 || 3.2 || .9 || .2 || 17.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 26 || 4 || 17.0 || .494 || .750 ||.909 || 1.5 || 1.1 || .3 || .1 || 11.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 658 || ... || 37.0 || .441 || .667 || .820 || 4.2 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .3 || 24.2
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star
| 4 || 4 || 19.8 || .409 || ... || .778 || 2.0 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 10.8
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 5 || ... || 39.8 || .377 || ... || .692 || 5.2 || 4.8 || ... || ... || 22.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 36.5 || .446 || ... || .817 || 5.3 || 4.7 || ... || ... || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 39.0 || .419 || ... || .794 || 4.8 || 6.7 || ... || ... || 26.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1980
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 9 || ... || 11.6 || .490 || .333 || .667 || .9 || .7 || .3 || .0 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
| 26 || ... || 29.1 || .423 || .333 || .784 || 3.6 || 3.8 || ... || ... || 18.7
|-
Later life and death
After injuries forced his retirement from the game in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life". He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics, adopting a vegetarian diet in 1982. Eventually, he became a born-again Christian, embracing evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that serves Him [Jesus] to the utmost, not as a basketball player."
On January 5, 1988, Maravich collapsed and died of heart failure at age 40 while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included evangelical author James Dobson. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great." An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.
Maravich died the year after his father's passing and a number of years after his mother, who had died of suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot. Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Legacy
Maravich was survived by his wife Jackie and his sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, and Josh, aged 5. Only the previous year, Maravich had taken Jaeson to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game in Seattle, Washington, and introduced him to Michael Jordan.
Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, not even allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral. However, a proclivity to basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since ... My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing."
Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit that his tutelage might have provided, both sons eventually were inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball—Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.
On June 27, 2014, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed that LSU erect a statue of Maravich outside the Assembly Center, which already bore the basketball star's name. Former coach Dale Brown opposed such a monument, but Maravich's widow, Jackie McLachlan, said that she had been promised a statue after the passing of her husband. McLachlan said that she has noticed how fans struggle to get the Maravich name on the Assembly Center into a camera frame.
In February 2016, the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Maravich be installed on the campus.
A street in Belgrade, Serbia, is named after Pete Maravich.
Memorabilia
Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction. The signed game ball from his career-high 68-point night on February 25, 1977, sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction.
Honors, books, films and music
In 1987, roughly a year before his death, Maravich co-authored an award-winning (Gold Medallion) autobiography with Darrel Campbell titled Heir to a Dream that devoted much focus to his life after retirement from basketball and his later devotion to Christianity.
In 1987, Maravich and Darrel Campbell produced the four-episode basketball instructional video series Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
In 1988, Frank Schroeder and Darrel Campbell produced the documentary based on Pete Maravich's college career titled, Maravich Memories: The LSU Years.
After Maravich's death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially renaming the LSU home court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
In 1991, a biographical film written and produced by Darrel Campbell dramatizing his 8th-grade season entitled The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend was released.
In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History by a panel made up of NBA historians, players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was represented by his two sons at halftime.
In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film debuted on CBS entitled Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.
In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all time.
In 2007, two biographies of Maravich were released: Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill and Pistol by Mark Kriegel. Also in 2007, to promote Mark Kriegel's book "Pistol", Fox Sports conducted a contest to find "Pete Maravich's Biggest Fan". The winner was Scott Pollack of Sunrise, FL.
In 2021, he was named one of the members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team by a panel made up of NBA historians, players and coaches. He was one of the deceased players on the list.
In 1970, during his LSU days, Acapulco Music/The Panama Limited released "The Ballad of Pete Maravich by Bob Tinney and Woody Jenkins.
The Ziggens, a band from Southern California, wrote a song about Maravich entitled "Pistol Pete".
Collegiate awards
The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1970)
USBWA College Player of the Year (1969, 1970)
Naismith Award Winner (1970)
Helms Foundation Player of the Year (1970)
UPI Player of the Year (1970)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1970)
AP College Player of the Year (1970)
The Sporting News All-America First Team (1968, 1969, 1970)
Three-time AP and UPI First-Team All-America (1968, 1969, 1970)
Led the NCAA Division I in scoring with 43.8 ppg (1968); 44.2 (1969) and 44.5 ppg (1970)
Averaged 43.6 ppg on the LSU freshman team (1967)
Scored a career-high 69 points vs. Alabama (); 66 vs. Tulane (); 64 vs. Kentucky (); 61 vs. Vanderbilt ()
Holds LSU records for most field goals made (26) and attempted (57) in a game against Vanderbilt on
All-Southeastern Conference (1968, 1969, 1970)
#23 Jersey retired by LSU (2007)
In 1970, Maravich led LSU to a 20–8 record and a fourth-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament
Collegiate records
Points, career: 3,667 (three seasons)
Highest scoring average, points per game, career: 44.2 (3,667 points/83 games)
Points, season: 1,381 (1970)
Highest scoring average, points per game, season: 44.5 (1,381/31) (1970)
Games scoring 50 or more points, career: 28
Games scoring 50 or more points, season: 10 (1970)
Field goals made, career: 1,387
Field goals made, season: 522 (1970)
Field goal attempts, career: 3,166
Field goal attempts, season: 1,168 (1970)
Free throws made, game: 30 (in 31 attempts), vs. Oregon State,
Tied by Ben Woodside, North Dakota State, on
NBA awards
NBA All-Rookie Team
All-NBA First Team (1976, 1977)
All-NBA Second Team (1973, 1978)
Five-time NBA All-Star (1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Led the league in scoring (31.1 ppg) in 1977, his career best
Scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977
#7 jersey retired by the Utah Jazz (1985)
#7 jersey retired by the Superdome (1988)
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)
#7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) (2002), even though he never played for them—one of only four players to have a number retired by a team they did not play for; Maravich did play professionally for the New Orleans Jazz, however, and has remained a greatly admired figure amongst New Orleans sports fans ever since.
#44 jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks (2017)
NBA records
Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Broken by Vince Carter on
Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls,
Broken by Ben Wallace on
Second pair of teammates in NBA history to score 2,000 or more points in a season: 2, Atlanta Hawks ()
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029
Third pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets,
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.
Ranks 4th in NBA history – Free throws made, none missed, game: 18–18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Ranks 5th in NBA history – Free throws made, game: 23, Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz vs. New York Knicks, (2 OT)
See also
List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders
Further reading
Campbell, Darrel (2019). Hero & Friend: My Days with Pistol Pete. Percussion Films. .
Brown, Danny (2008). Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photographs of Pete Maravich at LSU. Louisiana State University Press
References
External links
NBA Historical Bio
ESPN bio
Pete Maravich's Greatest Achievement
‘68 All College MVP - 4 Days with Pistol Pete
Pete Maravich Bio LSU Tigers Athletics
1947 births
1988 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American evangelicals
American men's basketball players
American people of Serbian descent
Atlanta Hawks draft picks
Atlanta Hawks players
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
Boston Celtics players
College basketball announcers in the United States
LSU Tigers basketball players
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Needham B. Broughton High School alumni
New Orleans Jazz players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
People from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area
Basketball players from Raleigh, North Carolina
Utah Jazz players
| false |
[
"This is a list of NBA All-Star Game head coaches. The National Basketball Association All-Star Game is an annual basketball exhibition game held during the National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season. From 1951-2017, the All-Star Game was played between the Western Conference All-Stars and the Eastern Conference All-Stars, where the head coach for each All- Star team was the coach of the NBA team with the best record from their respective conference.\n\nTo ensure that a different coach represents their conference each year, there is a rule against a head coach making a consecutive appearance. Instead, the coach with the next best record is selected. This rule is known as the \"Riley Rule\" and was introduced in the early 1990s after the dominance of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers team in the Western Conference, which was coached by Pat Riley. For the 2018 NBA All-Star Game, the format of the game changed. The starters and reserves were chosen as usual, but the two captains (one from each conference) draft their team from those starters and reserves. The coaches are also selected as usual, and matched with the captain from their respective conference. \n\nOnly Lenny Wilkens (SuperSonics, Cavaliers, and Hawks) and Alex Hannum (Hawks, Warriors, and 76ers) have represented three separate teams as the All-Star Game coach. Red Auerbach, the head coach for the Boston Celtics between 1950-1966, coached the most All-Star Games with 11 appearances.\n\nKey\n\nEastern Division / Conference (1951–2017)\n\nWestern Division / Conference (1951–2017)\n\n Red Auerbach stepped down from the Boston Celtics' head coaching position at the end of the .\n\nUnconferenced format (2018–present)\n\nMost selections\n\nReferences\n\nNational Basketball Association coaches\nHead coaches\nAll-Star Game head coaches",
"The Rooney Rule is a National Football League policy that requires league teams to interview ethnic-minority candidates for head coaching and senior football operation jobs. It is an example of affirmative action, even though there is no hiring quota or hiring preference given to minorities, only an interviewing quota. It was established in 2003, and variations of the rule are now in place in other industries.\n\nHistory and origin\n\nThe rule is named after Dan Rooney, the former owner of the Pittsburgh Steelers and former chairman of the league's diversity committee.\n\nIt was created as a reaction to the 2002 firings of head coaches Tony Dungy of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dennis Green of the Minnesota Vikings, at a time when Dungy had a winning record and Green had just had his first losing season in ten years. Shortly afterwards, U.S. civil rights attorneys Cyrus Mehri and Johnnie Cochran released a study showing that black head coaches, despite winning a higher percentage of games, were less likely to be hired and more likely to be fired than their white counterparts. Former NFL players Kellen Winslow and John Wooten then put together an affinity group of minority scouts, coaches, and front-office personnel, to advocate for the rule's creation.\n\nIts purpose was to ensure that minority coaches, especially African Americans, would be considered for high-level coaching positions. Fritz Pollard was the first minority head coach in NFL history (which was during the league's early years in the 1920s) and by the time the rule was implemented, only Tom Flores, Art Shell, Dennis Green, Ray Rhodes, Tony Dungy, and Herman Edwards had ever held head coaching jobs. (Only Dungy and Edwards were actively head coaching at the time of the rule's implementation, though Shell and Green would later return to head coaching). Dungy in particular had struggled for years before getting a head coaching job; he was often promoted as a head coaching candidate by Chuck Noll when Dungy was an assistant under Noll in the 1980s with the Steelers, but he would not become a head coach until 1996 when he took over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Another former Steelers assistant, Marvin Lewis, also struggled to find a head coaching position despite immense success as the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator and would not find a head coaching position until being hired by the Cincinnati Bengals in 2003, the year the Rooney Rule went into effect.\n\nImpact\n\nSince the Rooney Rule was established, several NFL franchises have hired African-American head coaches, including the Steelers themselves, who hired Mike Tomlin before their 2007 season. (The Steelers, however, had already interviewed Ron Rivera, who is ethnically Hispanic, to fulfill the requirement before interviewing Tomlin, and Rooney himself contends that Tomlin's hiring did not result from the Rule.) At the start of the 2006 season, the overall percentage of African-American coaches had jumped to 22%, up from 6% prior to the Rooney Rule.\n\nIn the next 12 seasons under the rule, the NFL added 14 non-white head coaches, although many lost their jobs after a few seasons.\n\nFor the 2019 season, eight NFL teams had head coaching vacancies to fill. However, only one team, the Miami Dolphins, hired a non-white coach, Brian Flores, who was then fired after three seasons (the final two of which were winning seasons).\n\n, the NFL has three African-American head coaches, the same number as in 2003 when the Rooney Rule was adopted.\n\nApplication\n\nThe rule does not apply if an assistant coach has language in his contract guaranteeing him the head coaching job in case of an opening. For example, this was the case when Mike Martz took over as head coach of the St. Louis Rams before the 2000 season. Also, the requirement does not apply if the assistant coach taking over the head position is a minority, as was the case with Mike Singletary and the San Francisco 49ers in late 2008.\n\n, Rooney Rule requirements apply to all searches for senior football operations positions within the NFL, regardless of a team's title for that position. It now also includes all ethnic minorities, not just African Americans.\n\n, two of the 32 head coaches in the NFL are African-American, with one Hispanic head coach. Recently, some legal scholars have advocated for extending the Rooney Rule to college football, where the number of minority head coaches hovers around 6%, well below the 12.6% of the total US population which is African-American.\n\nDetroit Lions case, 2003\n\nIn 2003, the NFL fined the Detroit Lions $200,000 for failure to interview African-American candidates for the team's vacant head coaching job. After Marty Mornhinweg was fired, the Lions immediately hired former San Francisco 49ers head coach Steve Mariucci to replace him without interviewing any other candidates. The Lions claimed they attempted to interview other candidates but that the African-American candidates withdrew from interviews, believing Mariucci's hiring was inevitable. The Lions did not hire another minority head coach until hiring Jim Caldwell in 2014. Previously, minority Wayne Fontes was head coach of the team.\n\n2012 controversial non-hirings and possible rule revision\nIn the wake of no minority hirings to fill eight head coaching and seven general management vacancies following the conclusion of the 2012 NFL regular season, NFL Executive Vice president of Human Resources Robert Gulliver stated, \"While there has been full compliance with the interview requirements of the Rooney Rule and we wish the new head coaches and general managers much success, the hiring results this year have been unexpected and reflect a disappointing lack of diversity.\" Analysts have pointed to the lack of interview offers for Baltimore Ravens' Offensive Coordinator Jim Caldwell, who, as head coach, led the Indianapolis Colts to a 14–2 2009 season along with winning the 2009 American Football Conference title before losing in Super Bowl XLIV, as evidence that the rule needs revision. Some sports analysts have called upon the NFL to modify the Rooney Rule by requiring NFL teams to interview a minority candidate outside their respective organizations, and extending the rule to include interviews for offensive and defensive coordinators.\n\n2020 controversy \nIn recent years, the trend of hiring head coaches in the NFL has shifted towards looking for successful offensive coordinators; a role in which minorities only hold two out of the 32 available positions. In 2020, five NFL teams had head coaching vacancies to fill, and only one of them hired a non-white coach. These five teams were criticized for passing on Eric Bieniemy, the offensive coordinator for the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. Under Bieniemy, the Kansas City Chiefs had the league's top-ranked offense in the 2018 season, and the 5th ranked offense in 2019.\n\nThe 2020 NFL offseason led to many figures questioning the effectiveness of this rule due to Bieniemy not receiving serious consideration for a head coaching position and other such controversies since the rule's inception. To fulfill the requirements of this rule, many teams interview non-white coaches that have been around the league for years and have had previously unsuccessful stints as head coaches, such as Marvin Lewis. Critics of the rule argue that the rule has been largely ineffective, and in some situations, it has even had the opposite effect; with non-white coaches being interviewed without being given serious consideration just to fulfill the requirement.\n\nIn May 2020 the NFL increased the requirements of the Rooney rule to require two external minority candidate interviews, rather than one, for head coaching jobs. In addition, teams must now interview at least one minority candidate for all coordinator positions. Also, teams and the NFL league office must also interview at least one minority candidate for senior-level positions, including general manager and club president jobs. Finally, for at least some positions, women may be interviewed to satisfy the requirement.\n\n2020 Resolution JC-2A\nIn November 2020, the NFL passed 2020 Resolution JC-2A, which rewards teams for developing minority candidates for head coach and/or GM positions. The resolution rewards teams whose minority candidates are hired away for one of those positions by awarding third-round draft picks, similar to the system for compensatory draft picks. For example, the first team to receive such picks, the Los Angeles Rams, will receive third-round picks in 2021 and 2022 after the Detroit Lions hired their director of college scouting, Brad Holmes, as their general manager.\n\nAn earlier version of the resolution would have rewarded teams for hiring minority candidates rather than for developing them.\n\n2022 Brian Flores lawsuit\nOn February 1, 2022, former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores sued the NFL, the Dolphins, the New York Giants, and the Denver Broncos, alleging racism, violations of federal employment law, and that his interviews were a sham meant solely to fulfill the Rooney Rule.\n\nOutside the NFL\nIn association football (soccer), players' representatives have been campaigning for a similar practice in England. Gordon Taylor, Chief Executive of the PFA (the players' trade union) said in September 2014 the sport \"has a 'hidden resistance' preventing black managers getting jobs,\" pointing out that \"you see so many black players on the pitch, yet we have two black managers out of 92.\" Garth Crooks, a prominent black former player, was especially scathing of the failure of The Football League (a large association of clubs below the top-tier Premier League) to pursue the matter, suggesting the league lacked courage. Black coaches Kieron Dyer and Titus Bramble spoke out against the idea of Rooney Rule, saying they did not want to be perceived as having their roles because of a \"quota\". On January 9, 2018, it was reported that the England national football team would implement the Rooney Rule for all future interviews for the manager position.\n\nOn August 2, 2020, the West Coast Conference (WCC), an NCAA Division I league, announced that it had adopted a similar policy effective immediately, calling its initiative the Russell Rule after Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Russell, who played in college at charter and current WCC member San Francisco. The WCC became the first Division I conference to establish such a policy. According to the WCC,\n\nOutside sports \nSome companies outside of sports, such as Pinterest, Facebook, Patreon and Checkr, have put similar rules in place for their hiring processes. In general, the Rooney rule in these companies focuses on the diversity of the applicants in the pipeline for a particular position; the rule requires pausing at some stage of the hiring process until some diversity benchmark has been reached for the pool of applicants at that stage. Inspired by the Rooney Rule, Diversity Lab created the Mansfield Rule in 2017, which is named after the first woman admitted to the practice of law in the U.S., Arabella Mansfield. The Mansfield Rule measures whether law firms have affirmatively considered (at least 30 percent of the candidate pool) historically underrepresented lawyers for leadership and governance roles, equity partner promotions, and lateral positions.\n\nSee also\nList of minority NFL head coaches\n\nReferences\n\nAffirmative action in the United States\nRecruitment"
] |
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"The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but",
"What happened with the Jazz?",
"He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule",
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"had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games,"
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C_c3c6a8aff42e42bb97e70c248b3446f9_0
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When did he finally get to play with the Jazz?
| 4 |
When did Pete Maravich finally get to play with the Jazz after being on the bench for 24 games?
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Pete Maravich
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The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player. The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one. Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 67% completion rate behind the arc. During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks. CANNOTANSWER
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games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.
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Peter Press Maravich (; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in the Carolinas. Maravich starred in college with the LSU Tigers while playing for his father, head coach Press Maravich. He is the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. All of his accomplishments were achieved before the adoption of the three-point line and shot clock, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. He played for three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980 following a 10-year professional career.
One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was considered to be one of the greatest creative offensive talents ever and one of the best ball handlers of all time. He died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game in 1988 as a consequence of an undetected heart defect.
Early life
Maravich was born to Peter "Press" Maravich (1915–1987) and Helen Gravor Maravich (1925–1974) in Aliquippa, a steel town in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Maravich's father was the son of Serbian immigrants and a professional player–turned-coach. He showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long-range shots.
Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the school's first-ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University. The Maravich family's subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Maravich to attend Needham B. Broughton High School. His high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, where he averaged 33 points per game. Maravich never liked school and did not like Edwards Military Institute. It was known that Press Maravich was extremely protective of Maravich and would guard against any issue that might come up during his adolescence. Press threatened to shoot Maravich with a 45 caliber pistol if he drank or got into trouble. Maravich was 6 feet 4 inches in high school and was getting ready to play in college when his father took a coaching position at Louisiana State University.
College career
At that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.
In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6'5" (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.
Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:
First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.
Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range." It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game. And 12 Three Pointer per game.
Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)
More than 50 years later, however, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival. Maravich finished his college career in the 1970 National Invitation Tournament, where LSU finished fourth.
NCAA career statistics
Freshman
At this time, freshmen did not play on the varsity team and these stats do not count in the NCAA record books.
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1966–67
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 19 || 19 || ... || .452 || ... || .833 || 10.4 || ... || ... || ... || 43.6
Varsity
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1967–68
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .423 || ... || .811 || 7.5 || 4.0 || ... || ... || 43.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1968–69
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .444 || ... || .746 || 6.5 || 4.9 || ... || ... || 44.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1969–70
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 31 || 31 || ... || .447 || ... || .773 || 5.3 || 6.2 || ... || ... || 44.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" colspan=2|Career
| 83 || 83 || ... || .438 || ... || .775 || 6.5 || 5.1 || ... || ... || 44.2
Professional career
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks selected Maravich with the third pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA draft, where he played for coach Richie Guerin. He was not a natural fit in Atlanta, as the Hawks already boasted a top-notch scorer at the guard position in Lou Hudson. In fact, Maravich's flamboyant style stood in stark contrast to the conservative play of Hudson and star center Walt Bellamy. And it did not help that many of the veteran players resented the $1.9 million contract that Maravich received from the team—a very large salary at that time.
Maravich appeared in 81 games and averaged 23.2 points per contest—good enough to earn NBA All-Rookie Team honors. And he managed to blend his style with his teammates, so much so that Hudson set a career high by scoring 26.8 points per game. But the team stumbled to a 36–46 record—12 wins fewer than in the previous season. Still, the Hawks qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
Maravich struggled somewhat during his second season. His scoring average dipped to 19.3 points per game, and the Hawks finished with another disappointing 36–46 record. Once again they qualified for the playoffs, and once again they were eliminated in the first round. However, Atlanta fought hard against the Boston Celtics, with Maravich averaging 27.7 points in the series.
Maravich erupted in his third season, averaging 26.1 points (5th in the NBA) and dishing out 6.9 assists per game (6th in the NBA). With 2,063 points, he combined with Hudson (2,029 points) to become only the second set of teammates in league history to each score over 2,000 points in a single season. The Hawks soared to a 46–36 record, but again bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. However, the season was good enough to earn Maravich his first-ever appearance in the NBA All-Star Game, and also All-NBA Second Team honors.
The following season (1973–74) was his best yet—at least in terms of individual accomplishments. Maravich posted 27.7 points per game—second in the league behind Bob McAdoo—and earned his second appearance in the All-Star Game. However, Atlanta sank to a disappointing 35–47 record and missed the postseason entirely.
New Orleans Jazz
In the summer of 1974, an expansion franchise was preparing for its first season of competition in the NBA. The New Orleans Jazz were looking for something or someone to generate excitement among their new basketball fans. With his exciting style of play, Maravich was seen as the perfect man for the job. Additionally, he was already a celebrity in the state due to his accomplishments at LSU. To acquire Maravich, the Jazz traded two players and four draft picks to Atlanta.
The expansion team struggled mightily in its first season. Maravich managed to score 21.5 points per game, but shot a career-worst 41.9 percent from the floor. The Jazz posted a 23–59 record, worst in the NBA.
Jazz management did its best to give Maravich a better supporting cast. The team posted a 38–44 record in its second season (1975–76) but did not qualify for postseason play, despite the dramatic improvement. Maravich struggled with injuries that limited him to just 62 games that season, but he averaged 25.9 points per contest (third behind McAdoo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and continued his crowd-pleasing antics. He was elected to the All-NBA First Team that year.
The following season (1976–77) was his most productive in the NBA. He led the league in scoring with an average of 31.1 points per game. He scored 40 points or more in 13 games, and 50 or more in 4 games. His 68-point masterpiece against the Knicks was at the time the most points ever scored by a guard in a single game, and only two players at any position had ever scored more: Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. Baylor was head coach of the Jazz at that time.
Maravich earned his third all-star game appearance and was honored as All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season.
The following season, injuries to both knees forced him to miss 32 games during the 1977–78 season. Despite being robbed of some quickness and athleticism, he still managed to score 27.0 points per game, and he also added 6.7 assists per contest, his highest average as a member of the Jazz. Many of those assists went to new teammate Truck Robinson, who had joined the franchise as a free agent during the off-season. In his first year in New Orleans, he averaged 22.7 points and a league-best 15.7 rebounds per game. His presence prevented opponents from focusing their defensive efforts entirely on Maravich, and it lifted the Jazz to a 39–43 record—just short of making the club's first-ever appearance in the playoffs.
Knee problems plagued Maravich for the rest of his career. He played in just 49 games during the 1978–79 season. He scored 22.6 points per game that season and earned his fifth and final All-Star appearance. But his scoring and passing abilities were severely impaired. The team struggled on the court, and faced serious financial trouble as well. Management became desperate to make some changes. The Jazz traded Robinson to the Phoenix Suns, receiving draft picks and some cash in return. However, in 1979, team owner Sam Battistone moved the Jazz to Salt Lake City.
Final season
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979–80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.
The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61–21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one.
Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 66.7% completion rate behind the arc.
During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1970–71
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 81 || ... || 36.1 || .458 || ... || .800 || 3.7 || 4.4 || ... || ... || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971–72
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 66 || ... || 34.9 || .427 || ... || .811 || 3.9 || 6.0 || ... || ... || 19.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972–73
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 79 || ... || 39.1 || .441 || ... || .800 || 4.4 || 6.9 || ... || ... || 26.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973–74
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 76 || ... || 38.2 || .457 || ... || .826 || 4.9 || 5.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1974–75
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 79 || ... || 36.1 || .419 || ... || .811 || 5.3 || 6.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 21.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1975–76
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 62 || ... || 38.3 || .459|| ... || .811 || 4.8 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .4 || 25.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1976–77
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 73 || ... || 41.7 || .433 || ... || .835 || 5.1 || 5.4 || 1.2 || .3 ||style="background:#cfecec;"| 31.1*
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1977–78
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 50 || ... || 40.8 || .444 || ... || .870 || 3.6 || 6.7 || 2.0 || .2 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1978–79
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 49 || ... || 37.2 || .421 || ... || .841 || 2.5 || 5.0 || 1.2 || .4 || 22.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Utah
| 17 || ... || 30.7 || .412 || .636 || .820 || 2.4 || 3.2 || .9 || .2 || 17.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 26 || 4 || 17.0 || .494 || .750 ||.909 || 1.5 || 1.1 || .3 || .1 || 11.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 658 || ... || 37.0 || .441 || .667 || .820 || 4.2 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .3 || 24.2
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star
| 4 || 4 || 19.8 || .409 || ... || .778 || 2.0 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 10.8
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 5 || ... || 39.8 || .377 || ... || .692 || 5.2 || 4.8 || ... || ... || 22.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 36.5 || .446 || ... || .817 || 5.3 || 4.7 || ... || ... || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 39.0 || .419 || ... || .794 || 4.8 || 6.7 || ... || ... || 26.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1980
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 9 || ... || 11.6 || .490 || .333 || .667 || .9 || .7 || .3 || .0 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
| 26 || ... || 29.1 || .423 || .333 || .784 || 3.6 || 3.8 || ... || ... || 18.7
|-
Later life and death
After injuries forced his retirement from the game in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life". He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics, adopting a vegetarian diet in 1982. Eventually, he became a born-again Christian, embracing evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that serves Him [Jesus] to the utmost, not as a basketball player."
On January 5, 1988, Maravich collapsed and died of heart failure at age 40 while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included evangelical author James Dobson. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great." An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.
Maravich died the year after his father's passing and a number of years after his mother, who had died of suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot. Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Legacy
Maravich was survived by his wife Jackie and his sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, and Josh, aged 5. Only the previous year, Maravich had taken Jaeson to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game in Seattle, Washington, and introduced him to Michael Jordan.
Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, not even allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral. However, a proclivity to basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since ... My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing."
Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit that his tutelage might have provided, both sons eventually were inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball—Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.
On June 27, 2014, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed that LSU erect a statue of Maravich outside the Assembly Center, which already bore the basketball star's name. Former coach Dale Brown opposed such a monument, but Maravich's widow, Jackie McLachlan, said that she had been promised a statue after the passing of her husband. McLachlan said that she has noticed how fans struggle to get the Maravich name on the Assembly Center into a camera frame.
In February 2016, the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Maravich be installed on the campus.
A street in Belgrade, Serbia, is named after Pete Maravich.
Memorabilia
Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction. The signed game ball from his career-high 68-point night on February 25, 1977, sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction.
Honors, books, films and music
In 1987, roughly a year before his death, Maravich co-authored an award-winning (Gold Medallion) autobiography with Darrel Campbell titled Heir to a Dream that devoted much focus to his life after retirement from basketball and his later devotion to Christianity.
In 1987, Maravich and Darrel Campbell produced the four-episode basketball instructional video series Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
In 1988, Frank Schroeder and Darrel Campbell produced the documentary based on Pete Maravich's college career titled, Maravich Memories: The LSU Years.
After Maravich's death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially renaming the LSU home court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
In 1991, a biographical film written and produced by Darrel Campbell dramatizing his 8th-grade season entitled The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend was released.
In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History by a panel made up of NBA historians, players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was represented by his two sons at halftime.
In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film debuted on CBS entitled Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.
In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all time.
In 2007, two biographies of Maravich were released: Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill and Pistol by Mark Kriegel. Also in 2007, to promote Mark Kriegel's book "Pistol", Fox Sports conducted a contest to find "Pete Maravich's Biggest Fan". The winner was Scott Pollack of Sunrise, FL.
In 2021, he was named one of the members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team by a panel made up of NBA historians, players and coaches. He was one of the deceased players on the list.
In 1970, during his LSU days, Acapulco Music/The Panama Limited released "The Ballad of Pete Maravich by Bob Tinney and Woody Jenkins.
The Ziggens, a band from Southern California, wrote a song about Maravich entitled "Pistol Pete".
Collegiate awards
The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1970)
USBWA College Player of the Year (1969, 1970)
Naismith Award Winner (1970)
Helms Foundation Player of the Year (1970)
UPI Player of the Year (1970)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1970)
AP College Player of the Year (1970)
The Sporting News All-America First Team (1968, 1969, 1970)
Three-time AP and UPI First-Team All-America (1968, 1969, 1970)
Led the NCAA Division I in scoring with 43.8 ppg (1968); 44.2 (1969) and 44.5 ppg (1970)
Averaged 43.6 ppg on the LSU freshman team (1967)
Scored a career-high 69 points vs. Alabama (); 66 vs. Tulane (); 64 vs. Kentucky (); 61 vs. Vanderbilt ()
Holds LSU records for most field goals made (26) and attempted (57) in a game against Vanderbilt on
All-Southeastern Conference (1968, 1969, 1970)
#23 Jersey retired by LSU (2007)
In 1970, Maravich led LSU to a 20–8 record and a fourth-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament
Collegiate records
Points, career: 3,667 (three seasons)
Highest scoring average, points per game, career: 44.2 (3,667 points/83 games)
Points, season: 1,381 (1970)
Highest scoring average, points per game, season: 44.5 (1,381/31) (1970)
Games scoring 50 or more points, career: 28
Games scoring 50 or more points, season: 10 (1970)
Field goals made, career: 1,387
Field goals made, season: 522 (1970)
Field goal attempts, career: 3,166
Field goal attempts, season: 1,168 (1970)
Free throws made, game: 30 (in 31 attempts), vs. Oregon State,
Tied by Ben Woodside, North Dakota State, on
NBA awards
NBA All-Rookie Team
All-NBA First Team (1976, 1977)
All-NBA Second Team (1973, 1978)
Five-time NBA All-Star (1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Led the league in scoring (31.1 ppg) in 1977, his career best
Scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977
#7 jersey retired by the Utah Jazz (1985)
#7 jersey retired by the Superdome (1988)
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)
#7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) (2002), even though he never played for them—one of only four players to have a number retired by a team they did not play for; Maravich did play professionally for the New Orleans Jazz, however, and has remained a greatly admired figure amongst New Orleans sports fans ever since.
#44 jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks (2017)
NBA records
Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Broken by Vince Carter on
Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls,
Broken by Ben Wallace on
Second pair of teammates in NBA history to score 2,000 or more points in a season: 2, Atlanta Hawks ()
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029
Third pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets,
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.
Ranks 4th in NBA history – Free throws made, none missed, game: 18–18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Ranks 5th in NBA history – Free throws made, game: 23, Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz vs. New York Knicks, (2 OT)
See also
List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders
Further reading
Campbell, Darrel (2019). Hero & Friend: My Days with Pistol Pete. Percussion Films. .
Brown, Danny (2008). Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photographs of Pete Maravich at LSU. Louisiana State University Press
References
External links
NBA Historical Bio
ESPN bio
Pete Maravich's Greatest Achievement
‘68 All College MVP - 4 Days with Pistol Pete
Pete Maravich Bio LSU Tigers Athletics
1947 births
1988 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American evangelicals
American men's basketball players
American people of Serbian descent
Atlanta Hawks draft picks
Atlanta Hawks players
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
Boston Celtics players
College basketball announcers in the United States
LSU Tigers basketball players
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Needham B. Broughton High School alumni
New Orleans Jazz players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
People from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area
Basketball players from Raleigh, North Carolina
Utah Jazz players
| false |
[
"\"Seven Steps to Heaven\" is a 1963 jazz composition by Victor Feldman and Miles Davis. Different lyrics to it were written much later by Cassandra Wilson and Jon Hendricks. This iconic jazz standard was introduced in 1963 by the Miles Davis Quintet. Although Feldman played and recorded with Davis in Los Angeles on Seven Steps to Heaven, and he appears on half of the tracks of the album, the West Coast-based pianist did not want to follow Davis to New York, where the album version of the composition was finally recorded with Herbie Hancock on piano.\n\nComposition\nSeven Steps to Heaven is a 32-bar composition in AABA form; it has an intro, an interlude and an ending - but these are the same. It was originally played in an up-tempo swing style.\n\nSee also\nList of post-1950 jazz standards\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\nlearn to play it\n\n1963 songs\n1960s jazz standards\nCompositions by Miles Davis\nSongs with lyrics by Jon Hendricks",
"Manfred Hausleitner (May 11, 1957) is an Austrian drummer.\n\nBiography\nAs one of Austria's leading Drummers, Manfred began studying drums at an early age of 6 with his father. He began learning about jazz when he signed up for the jazz institute at the Konservatiorium and Highschool in Vienna, where he studied with Erich Bachtraegl for 8 years in addition with Tino Contreiras/Mexico D.F. and Damaso Gonzales/Acapulco.\n\nHe has performed with Sérgio Mendes, Liza Minnelli (Vienna Concert), Art Farmer, Don Cherry (jazz), Friedrich Gulda, Dollar Brand ( Abdullah Ibrahim ), Jimmy Woode, Charlie Byrd (Austria/Germany concert tour), Sunny Murray, Makaya Ntshoko, Donald Kachamba from Malawi, Harry Sokal, Nat Adderley, Erwin Kiennast ..., as well as the cream of the Austrian jazz scene. Concerts at Jazzfestival Velden, Viktring, Wiesen\n\nThroughout the years Manfred committed himself to teaching students of all ages through private lessons and clinics around the country.\nManfred is a Hudson Music featured drum teacher.\n\nAfter his \"first\" music career Manfred got a good position in the business world and did not play the drums for 28 years (U.S. Department of State at U.S. Embassy in Vienna --- and General Manager for FTD / Fleurop - Interflora, Austria for 16 years).\nHe quit with his job 2004 and he did not get a chance for a new occupation at the age of 47 years. He restarted to play the drums 2004 with daily 8 hours training and is on the best way to continue his international career.\n\nReferences \n\nSchoepf, Alexander (April 1, 2007) \"Der lange Weg zurueck\" http://www.backbeat.at/backbeat/der-lange-weg-zuruck\n\nExternal links\n Homepage von Manfred Hausleitner\n Myspace\n\n1957 births\nLiving people\nJazz drummers\nAustrian drummers\nMale drummers\nMusicians from Vienna\nMale jazz musicians"
] |
[
"Pete Maravich",
"Final season",
"What was the final season?",
"The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but",
"What happened with the Jazz?",
"He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule",
"What was the coaches rule?",
"had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games,",
"When did he finally get to play with the Jazz?",
"games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player."
] |
C_c3c6a8aff42e42bb97e70c248b3446f9_0
|
How long did he play in Utah?
| 5 |
How long did Pete Maravich play in Utah?
|
Pete Maravich
|
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player. The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one. Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 67% completion rate behind the arc. During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks. CANNOTANSWER
|
The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird.
|
Peter Press Maravich (; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in the Carolinas. Maravich starred in college with the LSU Tigers while playing for his father, head coach Press Maravich. He is the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. All of his accomplishments were achieved before the adoption of the three-point line and shot clock, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. He played for three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980 following a 10-year professional career.
One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was considered to be one of the greatest creative offensive talents ever and one of the best ball handlers of all time. He died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game in 1988 as a consequence of an undetected heart defect.
Early life
Maravich was born to Peter "Press" Maravich (1915–1987) and Helen Gravor Maravich (1925–1974) in Aliquippa, a steel town in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Maravich's father was the son of Serbian immigrants and a professional player–turned-coach. He showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long-range shots.
Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the school's first-ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University. The Maravich family's subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Maravich to attend Needham B. Broughton High School. His high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, where he averaged 33 points per game. Maravich never liked school and did not like Edwards Military Institute. It was known that Press Maravich was extremely protective of Maravich and would guard against any issue that might come up during his adolescence. Press threatened to shoot Maravich with a 45 caliber pistol if he drank or got into trouble. Maravich was 6 feet 4 inches in high school and was getting ready to play in college when his father took a coaching position at Louisiana State University.
College career
At that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.
In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6'5" (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.
Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:
First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.
Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range." It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game. And 12 Three Pointer per game.
Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)
More than 50 years later, however, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival. Maravich finished his college career in the 1970 National Invitation Tournament, where LSU finished fourth.
NCAA career statistics
Freshman
At this time, freshmen did not play on the varsity team and these stats do not count in the NCAA record books.
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1966–67
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 19 || 19 || ... || .452 || ... || .833 || 10.4 || ... || ... || ... || 43.6
Varsity
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1967–68
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .423 || ... || .811 || 7.5 || 4.0 || ... || ... || 43.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1968–69
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .444 || ... || .746 || 6.5 || 4.9 || ... || ... || 44.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1969–70
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 31 || 31 || ... || .447 || ... || .773 || 5.3 || 6.2 || ... || ... || 44.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" colspan=2|Career
| 83 || 83 || ... || .438 || ... || .775 || 6.5 || 5.1 || ... || ... || 44.2
Professional career
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks selected Maravich with the third pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA draft, where he played for coach Richie Guerin. He was not a natural fit in Atlanta, as the Hawks already boasted a top-notch scorer at the guard position in Lou Hudson. In fact, Maravich's flamboyant style stood in stark contrast to the conservative play of Hudson and star center Walt Bellamy. And it did not help that many of the veteran players resented the $1.9 million contract that Maravich received from the team—a very large salary at that time.
Maravich appeared in 81 games and averaged 23.2 points per contest—good enough to earn NBA All-Rookie Team honors. And he managed to blend his style with his teammates, so much so that Hudson set a career high by scoring 26.8 points per game. But the team stumbled to a 36–46 record—12 wins fewer than in the previous season. Still, the Hawks qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
Maravich struggled somewhat during his second season. His scoring average dipped to 19.3 points per game, and the Hawks finished with another disappointing 36–46 record. Once again they qualified for the playoffs, and once again they were eliminated in the first round. However, Atlanta fought hard against the Boston Celtics, with Maravich averaging 27.7 points in the series.
Maravich erupted in his third season, averaging 26.1 points (5th in the NBA) and dishing out 6.9 assists per game (6th in the NBA). With 2,063 points, he combined with Hudson (2,029 points) to become only the second set of teammates in league history to each score over 2,000 points in a single season. The Hawks soared to a 46–36 record, but again bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. However, the season was good enough to earn Maravich his first-ever appearance in the NBA All-Star Game, and also All-NBA Second Team honors.
The following season (1973–74) was his best yet—at least in terms of individual accomplishments. Maravich posted 27.7 points per game—second in the league behind Bob McAdoo—and earned his second appearance in the All-Star Game. However, Atlanta sank to a disappointing 35–47 record and missed the postseason entirely.
New Orleans Jazz
In the summer of 1974, an expansion franchise was preparing for its first season of competition in the NBA. The New Orleans Jazz were looking for something or someone to generate excitement among their new basketball fans. With his exciting style of play, Maravich was seen as the perfect man for the job. Additionally, he was already a celebrity in the state due to his accomplishments at LSU. To acquire Maravich, the Jazz traded two players and four draft picks to Atlanta.
The expansion team struggled mightily in its first season. Maravich managed to score 21.5 points per game, but shot a career-worst 41.9 percent from the floor. The Jazz posted a 23–59 record, worst in the NBA.
Jazz management did its best to give Maravich a better supporting cast. The team posted a 38–44 record in its second season (1975–76) but did not qualify for postseason play, despite the dramatic improvement. Maravich struggled with injuries that limited him to just 62 games that season, but he averaged 25.9 points per contest (third behind McAdoo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and continued his crowd-pleasing antics. He was elected to the All-NBA First Team that year.
The following season (1976–77) was his most productive in the NBA. He led the league in scoring with an average of 31.1 points per game. He scored 40 points or more in 13 games, and 50 or more in 4 games. His 68-point masterpiece against the Knicks was at the time the most points ever scored by a guard in a single game, and only two players at any position had ever scored more: Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. Baylor was head coach of the Jazz at that time.
Maravich earned his third all-star game appearance and was honored as All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season.
The following season, injuries to both knees forced him to miss 32 games during the 1977–78 season. Despite being robbed of some quickness and athleticism, he still managed to score 27.0 points per game, and he also added 6.7 assists per contest, his highest average as a member of the Jazz. Many of those assists went to new teammate Truck Robinson, who had joined the franchise as a free agent during the off-season. In his first year in New Orleans, he averaged 22.7 points and a league-best 15.7 rebounds per game. His presence prevented opponents from focusing their defensive efforts entirely on Maravich, and it lifted the Jazz to a 39–43 record—just short of making the club's first-ever appearance in the playoffs.
Knee problems plagued Maravich for the rest of his career. He played in just 49 games during the 1978–79 season. He scored 22.6 points per game that season and earned his fifth and final All-Star appearance. But his scoring and passing abilities were severely impaired. The team struggled on the court, and faced serious financial trouble as well. Management became desperate to make some changes. The Jazz traded Robinson to the Phoenix Suns, receiving draft picks and some cash in return. However, in 1979, team owner Sam Battistone moved the Jazz to Salt Lake City.
Final season
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979–80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.
The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61–21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one.
Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 66.7% completion rate behind the arc.
During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1970–71
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 81 || ... || 36.1 || .458 || ... || .800 || 3.7 || 4.4 || ... || ... || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971–72
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 66 || ... || 34.9 || .427 || ... || .811 || 3.9 || 6.0 || ... || ... || 19.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972–73
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 79 || ... || 39.1 || .441 || ... || .800 || 4.4 || 6.9 || ... || ... || 26.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973–74
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 76 || ... || 38.2 || .457 || ... || .826 || 4.9 || 5.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1974–75
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 79 || ... || 36.1 || .419 || ... || .811 || 5.3 || 6.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 21.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1975–76
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 62 || ... || 38.3 || .459|| ... || .811 || 4.8 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .4 || 25.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1976–77
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 73 || ... || 41.7 || .433 || ... || .835 || 5.1 || 5.4 || 1.2 || .3 ||style="background:#cfecec;"| 31.1*
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1977–78
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 50 || ... || 40.8 || .444 || ... || .870 || 3.6 || 6.7 || 2.0 || .2 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1978–79
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 49 || ... || 37.2 || .421 || ... || .841 || 2.5 || 5.0 || 1.2 || .4 || 22.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Utah
| 17 || ... || 30.7 || .412 || .636 || .820 || 2.4 || 3.2 || .9 || .2 || 17.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 26 || 4 || 17.0 || .494 || .750 ||.909 || 1.5 || 1.1 || .3 || .1 || 11.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 658 || ... || 37.0 || .441 || .667 || .820 || 4.2 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .3 || 24.2
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star
| 4 || 4 || 19.8 || .409 || ... || .778 || 2.0 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 10.8
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 5 || ... || 39.8 || .377 || ... || .692 || 5.2 || 4.8 || ... || ... || 22.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 36.5 || .446 || ... || .817 || 5.3 || 4.7 || ... || ... || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 39.0 || .419 || ... || .794 || 4.8 || 6.7 || ... || ... || 26.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1980
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 9 || ... || 11.6 || .490 || .333 || .667 || .9 || .7 || .3 || .0 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
| 26 || ... || 29.1 || .423 || .333 || .784 || 3.6 || 3.8 || ... || ... || 18.7
|-
Later life and death
After injuries forced his retirement from the game in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life". He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics, adopting a vegetarian diet in 1982. Eventually, he became a born-again Christian, embracing evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that serves Him [Jesus] to the utmost, not as a basketball player."
On January 5, 1988, Maravich collapsed and died of heart failure at age 40 while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included evangelical author James Dobson. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great." An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.
Maravich died the year after his father's passing and a number of years after his mother, who had died of suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot. Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Legacy
Maravich was survived by his wife Jackie and his sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, and Josh, aged 5. Only the previous year, Maravich had taken Jaeson to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game in Seattle, Washington, and introduced him to Michael Jordan.
Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, not even allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral. However, a proclivity to basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since ... My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing."
Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit that his tutelage might have provided, both sons eventually were inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball—Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.
On June 27, 2014, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed that LSU erect a statue of Maravich outside the Assembly Center, which already bore the basketball star's name. Former coach Dale Brown opposed such a monument, but Maravich's widow, Jackie McLachlan, said that she had been promised a statue after the passing of her husband. McLachlan said that she has noticed how fans struggle to get the Maravich name on the Assembly Center into a camera frame.
In February 2016, the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Maravich be installed on the campus.
A street in Belgrade, Serbia, is named after Pete Maravich.
Memorabilia
Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction. The signed game ball from his career-high 68-point night on February 25, 1977, sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction.
Honors, books, films and music
In 1987, roughly a year before his death, Maravich co-authored an award-winning (Gold Medallion) autobiography with Darrel Campbell titled Heir to a Dream that devoted much focus to his life after retirement from basketball and his later devotion to Christianity.
In 1987, Maravich and Darrel Campbell produced the four-episode basketball instructional video series Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
In 1988, Frank Schroeder and Darrel Campbell produced the documentary based on Pete Maravich's college career titled, Maravich Memories: The LSU Years.
After Maravich's death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially renaming the LSU home court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
In 1991, a biographical film written and produced by Darrel Campbell dramatizing his 8th-grade season entitled The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend was released.
In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History by a panel made up of NBA historians, players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was represented by his two sons at halftime.
In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film debuted on CBS entitled Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.
In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all time.
In 2007, two biographies of Maravich were released: Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill and Pistol by Mark Kriegel. Also in 2007, to promote Mark Kriegel's book "Pistol", Fox Sports conducted a contest to find "Pete Maravich's Biggest Fan". The winner was Scott Pollack of Sunrise, FL.
In 2021, he was named one of the members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team by a panel made up of NBA historians, players and coaches. He was one of the deceased players on the list.
In 1970, during his LSU days, Acapulco Music/The Panama Limited released "The Ballad of Pete Maravich by Bob Tinney and Woody Jenkins.
The Ziggens, a band from Southern California, wrote a song about Maravich entitled "Pistol Pete".
Collegiate awards
The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1970)
USBWA College Player of the Year (1969, 1970)
Naismith Award Winner (1970)
Helms Foundation Player of the Year (1970)
UPI Player of the Year (1970)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1970)
AP College Player of the Year (1970)
The Sporting News All-America First Team (1968, 1969, 1970)
Three-time AP and UPI First-Team All-America (1968, 1969, 1970)
Led the NCAA Division I in scoring with 43.8 ppg (1968); 44.2 (1969) and 44.5 ppg (1970)
Averaged 43.6 ppg on the LSU freshman team (1967)
Scored a career-high 69 points vs. Alabama (); 66 vs. Tulane (); 64 vs. Kentucky (); 61 vs. Vanderbilt ()
Holds LSU records for most field goals made (26) and attempted (57) in a game against Vanderbilt on
All-Southeastern Conference (1968, 1969, 1970)
#23 Jersey retired by LSU (2007)
In 1970, Maravich led LSU to a 20–8 record and a fourth-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament
Collegiate records
Points, career: 3,667 (three seasons)
Highest scoring average, points per game, career: 44.2 (3,667 points/83 games)
Points, season: 1,381 (1970)
Highest scoring average, points per game, season: 44.5 (1,381/31) (1970)
Games scoring 50 or more points, career: 28
Games scoring 50 or more points, season: 10 (1970)
Field goals made, career: 1,387
Field goals made, season: 522 (1970)
Field goal attempts, career: 3,166
Field goal attempts, season: 1,168 (1970)
Free throws made, game: 30 (in 31 attempts), vs. Oregon State,
Tied by Ben Woodside, North Dakota State, on
NBA awards
NBA All-Rookie Team
All-NBA First Team (1976, 1977)
All-NBA Second Team (1973, 1978)
Five-time NBA All-Star (1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Led the league in scoring (31.1 ppg) in 1977, his career best
Scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977
#7 jersey retired by the Utah Jazz (1985)
#7 jersey retired by the Superdome (1988)
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)
#7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) (2002), even though he never played for them—one of only four players to have a number retired by a team they did not play for; Maravich did play professionally for the New Orleans Jazz, however, and has remained a greatly admired figure amongst New Orleans sports fans ever since.
#44 jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks (2017)
NBA records
Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Broken by Vince Carter on
Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls,
Broken by Ben Wallace on
Second pair of teammates in NBA history to score 2,000 or more points in a season: 2, Atlanta Hawks ()
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029
Third pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets,
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.
Ranks 4th in NBA history – Free throws made, none missed, game: 18–18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Ranks 5th in NBA history – Free throws made, game: 23, Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz vs. New York Knicks, (2 OT)
See also
List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders
Further reading
Campbell, Darrel (2019). Hero & Friend: My Days with Pistol Pete. Percussion Films. .
Brown, Danny (2008). Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photographs of Pete Maravich at LSU. Louisiana State University Press
References
External links
NBA Historical Bio
ESPN bio
Pete Maravich's Greatest Achievement
‘68 All College MVP - 4 Days with Pistol Pete
Pete Maravich Bio LSU Tigers Athletics
1947 births
1988 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American evangelicals
American men's basketball players
American people of Serbian descent
Atlanta Hawks draft picks
Atlanta Hawks players
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
Boston Celtics players
College basketball announcers in the United States
LSU Tigers basketball players
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Needham B. Broughton High School alumni
New Orleans Jazz players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
People from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area
Basketball players from Raleigh, North Carolina
Utah Jazz players
| false |
[
"The 2017 Utah Utes football team represented the University of Utah during the 2017 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was coached by thirteenth-year head coach Kyle Whittingham and played their home games in Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. They competed as members of the South Division of the Pac-12 Conference. They finished the season 7–6, 3–6 in Pac-12 play to finish in fifth place in the South Division. They were invited to the Heart of Dallas Bowl where they defeated West Virginia.\n\nSchedule\nUtah announced their 2017 football schedule on January 18, 2017. The Utes played FCS North Dakota, in-state rival BYU, and San Jose State in out-of-conference play. In Pac-12 conference play, the Utes did not play cross-divisional foes California and Oregon State.\n\nSource:\n\nGame summaries\n\nNorth Dakota\n\nat BYU\n\nSan Jose State\n\nat Arizona\n\nStanford\n\nat USC\n\nArizona State\n\nat Oregon\n\nUCLA\n\nWashington State\n\nat Washington\n\nColorado\n\nvs. West Virginia (Heart of Dallas Bowl)\n\nRankings\n\nCoaching staff\n\nSource:\n\nReferences\n\nUtah\nUtah Utes football seasons\nFirst Responder Bowl champion seasons\nUtah Utes football",
"Bryon Demetrise Russell (born December 31, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player. During a National Basketball Association (NBA) career that spanned from 1993 to 2006, he played for the Denver Nuggets, Washington Wizards and Los Angeles Lakers and was a key member of the Utah Jazz, helping them reach back-to-back NBA finals appearances in 1997 and 1998. Russell also played for the Hollywood Fame and Long Beach Breakers of the American Basketball Association (ABA). He finished his career with the Los Angeles Lightning of the International Basketball League (IBA), winning a championship in 2009.\n\nAfter playing three years of college basketball with Long Beach State University, Russell was drafted forty-fifth overall in the 1993 NBA draft by the Utah Jazz. From 1997 to 2000, he played in every regular-season game. He went to back-to-back NBA Finals with the Jazz in 1997 and 1998, but lost to the Chicago Bulls. Russell had his best season with the Jazz in the 1999–2000 season, when he averaged 14.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game. After playing nine seasons for the Jazz, Russell signed with the Washington Wizards as a free agent for the 2002–2003 season. Russell then signed with the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent for the 2003–2004 season and made it to the 2004 NBA Finals but lost to the Detroit Pistons. He then signed with the Denver Nuggets as a free agent and played with them from 2004 to 2006. He was a part of the Seattle SuperSonics roster for a brief time in 2006 after being traded by the Nuggets but never appeared in a game for them.\n\nRussell's alma mater, Long Beach State University, retired his jersey in 2010.\n\nRussell and Michael Jordan\nRussell is best remembered for guarding Michael Jordan at the end of Game 6 of the 1998 NBA Finals. Jordan made the game-winning shot over Russell, although many fans believe Jordan pushed off Russell during the play. The referees did not call a foul on the play, and Russell later remarked, \"Whether he pushed off or not, he was making that shot.\" He and Jordan were teammates when they played for the Washington Wizards during the 2002–03 NBA season, which was Jordan's last.\n\nIn 2009, Jordan mentioned Russell in his Hall of Fame induction speech, recalling an interaction they had during Jordan's first retirement in 1994: \"[A]t this time, I had no thoughts of coming back and playing the game of basketball. Bryon Russell came over to me and said, 'Why did you quit? You know I could guard you.' ... From this day forward, if I ever see [Russell] in shorts, I'm coming at him.\" In response, Russell challenged Jordan to a game of one-on-one for charity. Such a match-up has not yet taken place, though the Utah Flash of the NBDL did stage a halftime game between Russell and a Jordan look-alike.\n\nCareer statistics\n\nNBA statistics\n\nRegular season\n\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 67 || 48 || 16.7 || .484 || .091 || .614 || 2.7 || .8 || 1.0 || .3 || 5.0\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 63 || 15 || 13.7 || .437 || .295 || .667 || 2.2 || .5 || .8 || .2 || 4.5\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 59 || 9 || 9.8 || .394 || .350 || .716 || 1.5 || .5 || .5 || .1 || 2.9\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 81 || 81 || 31.2 || .479 || .409 || .701 || 4.1 || 1.5 || 1.6 || .3 || 10.8\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 82 || 7 || 27.1 || .430 || .341 || .766 || 4.0 || 1.2 || 1.1 || .4 || 9.0\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 50 || 50 || 35.4 || .464 || .354 || .795 || 5.3 || 1.5 || 1.5 || .3 || 12.4\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 82 || 70 || 35.4 || .446 || .396 || .750 || 5.2 || 1.9 || 1.6 || .3 || 14.1\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 78 || 46 || 31.7 || .440 || .413 || .779 || 4.2 || 2.1 || 1.2 || .3 || 12.0\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 66 || 40 || 30.3 || .380 || .341 || .821 || 4.5 || 2.1 || 1.0 || .3 || 9.6\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Washington\n| 70 || 23 || 19.8 || .353 || .329 || .768 || 3.0 || 1.0 || 1.0 || .1 || 4.5\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| L.A. Lakers\n| 72 || 1 || 13.1 || .402 || .384 || .769 || 2.0 || 1.0 || .4 || .2 || 4.0\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Denver\n| 70 || 2 || 14.7 || .377 || .376 || .792 || 2.5 || 1.0 || .6 || .2 || 4.4\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| \n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Denver\n| 1 || 0 || 3.0 || ... || ... || ... || 1.0 || 1.0 || .0 || .0 || .0\n|- class=sortbottom\n| style=\"text-align:center;\" colspan=2| Career\n| 841 || 392 || 23.5 || .431 || .369 || .750 || 3.5 || 1.3 || 1.0 || .2 || 7.9\n|- class=sortbottom\n\nPlayoff statistics\n\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| 1994\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 6 || 0 || 6.0 || .400 || .667 || 1.000 || 1.5 || .5 || .0 || .0 || 2.7\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| 1995\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 2 || 0 || 6.5 || .571 || .500 || .500 || 1.0 || 1.5 || .5 || .0 || 5.5\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| 1996\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 18 || 0 || 25.5 || .468 || .472 || .816 || 4.2 || 1.2 || 1.3 || .5 || 9.6\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| 1997\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 20 || 20 || 37.9 || .461 || .356 || .721 || 4.6 || 1.4 || 1.1 || .3 || 12.3\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| 1998\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 20 || 13 || 34.9 || .469 || .365 || .716 || 4.7 || 1.1 || 1.1 || .3 || 11.0\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| 1999\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 11 || 11 || 35.2 || .426 || .250 || .722 || 6.1 || 1.2 || 1.8 || .2 || 12.1\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| 2000\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 10 || 10 || 37.1 || .421 || .289 || .756 || 5.4 || 2.1 || 1.6 || .5 || 14.0\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| 2001\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 5 || 5 || 42.8 || .446 || .455 || .917 || 7.2 || 3.0 || .6 || .2 || 14.2\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| 2002\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Utah\n| 4 ||4 || 30.0 || .250 || .400 || 1.000 || 4.3 || 1.8 || 1.0 || .0 || 7.0\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| 2004\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| L.A. Lakers\n| 6 || 0 || 2.7 || .000 || .000 || ... || .2 || .3 || .2 || .0 || .0\n|-\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| 2005\n| style=\"text-align:left;\"| Denver\n| 3 || 0 || 3.0 || .000 || .000 || 1.000 || .0 || .0 || .0 || .0 || 1.0\n|- class=sortbottom\n| style=\"text-align:center;\" colspan=2| Career\n| 105 || 63 || 29.3 || .440 || .365 || .759 || 4.2 || 1.3 || 1.0 || .3 || 9.9\n|-\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\nGreatest NBA clutch shots\n\n1970 births\nLiving people\nAfrican-American basketball players\nAmerican men's basketball players\nBasketball players from California\nDenver Nuggets players\nLong Beach State Beach men's basketball players\nLos Angeles Lakers players\nSmall forwards\nSportspeople from San Bernardino, California\nUtah Jazz draft picks\nUtah Jazz players\nWashington Wizards players\n21st-century African-American sportspeople\n20th-century African-American sportspeople"
] |
[
"Pete Maravich",
"Final season",
"What was the final season?",
"The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but",
"What happened with the Jazz?",
"He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule",
"What was the coaches rule?",
"had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games,",
"When did he finally get to play with the Jazz?",
"games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.",
"How long did he play in Utah?",
"The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird."
] |
C_c3c6a8aff42e42bb97e70c248b3446f9_0
|
How long did he play with the Celtics?
| 6 |
How long did Pete Maravich play with the Celtics?
|
Pete Maravich
|
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player. The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one. Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 67% completion rate behind the arc. During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks. CANNOTANSWER
|
Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season,
|
Peter Press Maravich (; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in the Carolinas. Maravich starred in college with the LSU Tigers while playing for his father, head coach Press Maravich. He is the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. All of his accomplishments were achieved before the adoption of the three-point line and shot clock, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. He played for three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980 following a 10-year professional career.
One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was considered to be one of the greatest creative offensive talents ever and one of the best ball handlers of all time. He died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game in 1988 as a consequence of an undetected heart defect.
Early life
Maravich was born to Peter "Press" Maravich (1915–1987) and Helen Gravor Maravich (1925–1974) in Aliquippa, a steel town in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Maravich's father was the son of Serbian immigrants and a professional player–turned-coach. He showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long-range shots.
Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the school's first-ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University. The Maravich family's subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Maravich to attend Needham B. Broughton High School. His high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, where he averaged 33 points per game. Maravich never liked school and did not like Edwards Military Institute. It was known that Press Maravich was extremely protective of Maravich and would guard against any issue that might come up during his adolescence. Press threatened to shoot Maravich with a 45 caliber pistol if he drank or got into trouble. Maravich was 6 feet 4 inches in high school and was getting ready to play in college when his father took a coaching position at Louisiana State University.
College career
At that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.
In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6'5" (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.
Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:
First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.
Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range." It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game. And 12 Three Pointer per game.
Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)
More than 50 years later, however, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival. Maravich finished his college career in the 1970 National Invitation Tournament, where LSU finished fourth.
NCAA career statistics
Freshman
At this time, freshmen did not play on the varsity team and these stats do not count in the NCAA record books.
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1966–67
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 19 || 19 || ... || .452 || ... || .833 || 10.4 || ... || ... || ... || 43.6
Varsity
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1967–68
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .423 || ... || .811 || 7.5 || 4.0 || ... || ... || 43.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1968–69
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .444 || ... || .746 || 6.5 || 4.9 || ... || ... || 44.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1969–70
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 31 || 31 || ... || .447 || ... || .773 || 5.3 || 6.2 || ... || ... || 44.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" colspan=2|Career
| 83 || 83 || ... || .438 || ... || .775 || 6.5 || 5.1 || ... || ... || 44.2
Professional career
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks selected Maravich with the third pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA draft, where he played for coach Richie Guerin. He was not a natural fit in Atlanta, as the Hawks already boasted a top-notch scorer at the guard position in Lou Hudson. In fact, Maravich's flamboyant style stood in stark contrast to the conservative play of Hudson and star center Walt Bellamy. And it did not help that many of the veteran players resented the $1.9 million contract that Maravich received from the team—a very large salary at that time.
Maravich appeared in 81 games and averaged 23.2 points per contest—good enough to earn NBA All-Rookie Team honors. And he managed to blend his style with his teammates, so much so that Hudson set a career high by scoring 26.8 points per game. But the team stumbled to a 36–46 record—12 wins fewer than in the previous season. Still, the Hawks qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
Maravich struggled somewhat during his second season. His scoring average dipped to 19.3 points per game, and the Hawks finished with another disappointing 36–46 record. Once again they qualified for the playoffs, and once again they were eliminated in the first round. However, Atlanta fought hard against the Boston Celtics, with Maravich averaging 27.7 points in the series.
Maravich erupted in his third season, averaging 26.1 points (5th in the NBA) and dishing out 6.9 assists per game (6th in the NBA). With 2,063 points, he combined with Hudson (2,029 points) to become only the second set of teammates in league history to each score over 2,000 points in a single season. The Hawks soared to a 46–36 record, but again bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. However, the season was good enough to earn Maravich his first-ever appearance in the NBA All-Star Game, and also All-NBA Second Team honors.
The following season (1973–74) was his best yet—at least in terms of individual accomplishments. Maravich posted 27.7 points per game—second in the league behind Bob McAdoo—and earned his second appearance in the All-Star Game. However, Atlanta sank to a disappointing 35–47 record and missed the postseason entirely.
New Orleans Jazz
In the summer of 1974, an expansion franchise was preparing for its first season of competition in the NBA. The New Orleans Jazz were looking for something or someone to generate excitement among their new basketball fans. With his exciting style of play, Maravich was seen as the perfect man for the job. Additionally, he was already a celebrity in the state due to his accomplishments at LSU. To acquire Maravich, the Jazz traded two players and four draft picks to Atlanta.
The expansion team struggled mightily in its first season. Maravich managed to score 21.5 points per game, but shot a career-worst 41.9 percent from the floor. The Jazz posted a 23–59 record, worst in the NBA.
Jazz management did its best to give Maravich a better supporting cast. The team posted a 38–44 record in its second season (1975–76) but did not qualify for postseason play, despite the dramatic improvement. Maravich struggled with injuries that limited him to just 62 games that season, but he averaged 25.9 points per contest (third behind McAdoo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and continued his crowd-pleasing antics. He was elected to the All-NBA First Team that year.
The following season (1976–77) was his most productive in the NBA. He led the league in scoring with an average of 31.1 points per game. He scored 40 points or more in 13 games, and 50 or more in 4 games. His 68-point masterpiece against the Knicks was at the time the most points ever scored by a guard in a single game, and only two players at any position had ever scored more: Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. Baylor was head coach of the Jazz at that time.
Maravich earned his third all-star game appearance and was honored as All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season.
The following season, injuries to both knees forced him to miss 32 games during the 1977–78 season. Despite being robbed of some quickness and athleticism, he still managed to score 27.0 points per game, and he also added 6.7 assists per contest, his highest average as a member of the Jazz. Many of those assists went to new teammate Truck Robinson, who had joined the franchise as a free agent during the off-season. In his first year in New Orleans, he averaged 22.7 points and a league-best 15.7 rebounds per game. His presence prevented opponents from focusing their defensive efforts entirely on Maravich, and it lifted the Jazz to a 39–43 record—just short of making the club's first-ever appearance in the playoffs.
Knee problems plagued Maravich for the rest of his career. He played in just 49 games during the 1978–79 season. He scored 22.6 points per game that season and earned his fifth and final All-Star appearance. But his scoring and passing abilities were severely impaired. The team struggled on the court, and faced serious financial trouble as well. Management became desperate to make some changes. The Jazz traded Robinson to the Phoenix Suns, receiving draft picks and some cash in return. However, in 1979, team owner Sam Battistone moved the Jazz to Salt Lake City.
Final season
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979–80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.
The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61–21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one.
Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 66.7% completion rate behind the arc.
During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1970–71
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 81 || ... || 36.1 || .458 || ... || .800 || 3.7 || 4.4 || ... || ... || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971–72
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 66 || ... || 34.9 || .427 || ... || .811 || 3.9 || 6.0 || ... || ... || 19.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972–73
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 79 || ... || 39.1 || .441 || ... || .800 || 4.4 || 6.9 || ... || ... || 26.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973–74
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 76 || ... || 38.2 || .457 || ... || .826 || 4.9 || 5.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1974–75
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 79 || ... || 36.1 || .419 || ... || .811 || 5.3 || 6.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 21.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1975–76
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 62 || ... || 38.3 || .459|| ... || .811 || 4.8 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .4 || 25.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1976–77
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 73 || ... || 41.7 || .433 || ... || .835 || 5.1 || 5.4 || 1.2 || .3 ||style="background:#cfecec;"| 31.1*
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1977–78
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 50 || ... || 40.8 || .444 || ... || .870 || 3.6 || 6.7 || 2.0 || .2 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1978–79
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 49 || ... || 37.2 || .421 || ... || .841 || 2.5 || 5.0 || 1.2 || .4 || 22.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Utah
| 17 || ... || 30.7 || .412 || .636 || .820 || 2.4 || 3.2 || .9 || .2 || 17.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 26 || 4 || 17.0 || .494 || .750 ||.909 || 1.5 || 1.1 || .3 || .1 || 11.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 658 || ... || 37.0 || .441 || .667 || .820 || 4.2 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .3 || 24.2
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star
| 4 || 4 || 19.8 || .409 || ... || .778 || 2.0 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 10.8
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 5 || ... || 39.8 || .377 || ... || .692 || 5.2 || 4.8 || ... || ... || 22.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 36.5 || .446 || ... || .817 || 5.3 || 4.7 || ... || ... || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 39.0 || .419 || ... || .794 || 4.8 || 6.7 || ... || ... || 26.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1980
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 9 || ... || 11.6 || .490 || .333 || .667 || .9 || .7 || .3 || .0 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
| 26 || ... || 29.1 || .423 || .333 || .784 || 3.6 || 3.8 || ... || ... || 18.7
|-
Later life and death
After injuries forced his retirement from the game in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life". He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics, adopting a vegetarian diet in 1982. Eventually, he became a born-again Christian, embracing evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that serves Him [Jesus] to the utmost, not as a basketball player."
On January 5, 1988, Maravich collapsed and died of heart failure at age 40 while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included evangelical author James Dobson. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great." An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.
Maravich died the year after his father's passing and a number of years after his mother, who had died of suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot. Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Legacy
Maravich was survived by his wife Jackie and his sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, and Josh, aged 5. Only the previous year, Maravich had taken Jaeson to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game in Seattle, Washington, and introduced him to Michael Jordan.
Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, not even allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral. However, a proclivity to basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since ... My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing."
Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit that his tutelage might have provided, both sons eventually were inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball—Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.
On June 27, 2014, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed that LSU erect a statue of Maravich outside the Assembly Center, which already bore the basketball star's name. Former coach Dale Brown opposed such a monument, but Maravich's widow, Jackie McLachlan, said that she had been promised a statue after the passing of her husband. McLachlan said that she has noticed how fans struggle to get the Maravich name on the Assembly Center into a camera frame.
In February 2016, the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Maravich be installed on the campus.
A street in Belgrade, Serbia, is named after Pete Maravich.
Memorabilia
Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction. The signed game ball from his career-high 68-point night on February 25, 1977, sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction.
Honors, books, films and music
In 1987, roughly a year before his death, Maravich co-authored an award-winning (Gold Medallion) autobiography with Darrel Campbell titled Heir to a Dream that devoted much focus to his life after retirement from basketball and his later devotion to Christianity.
In 1987, Maravich and Darrel Campbell produced the four-episode basketball instructional video series Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
In 1988, Frank Schroeder and Darrel Campbell produced the documentary based on Pete Maravich's college career titled, Maravich Memories: The LSU Years.
After Maravich's death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially renaming the LSU home court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
In 1991, a biographical film written and produced by Darrel Campbell dramatizing his 8th-grade season entitled The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend was released.
In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History by a panel made up of NBA historians, players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was represented by his two sons at halftime.
In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film debuted on CBS entitled Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.
In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all time.
In 2007, two biographies of Maravich were released: Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill and Pistol by Mark Kriegel. Also in 2007, to promote Mark Kriegel's book "Pistol", Fox Sports conducted a contest to find "Pete Maravich's Biggest Fan". The winner was Scott Pollack of Sunrise, FL.
In 2021, he was named one of the members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team by a panel made up of NBA historians, players and coaches. He was one of the deceased players on the list.
In 1970, during his LSU days, Acapulco Music/The Panama Limited released "The Ballad of Pete Maravich by Bob Tinney and Woody Jenkins.
The Ziggens, a band from Southern California, wrote a song about Maravich entitled "Pistol Pete".
Collegiate awards
The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1970)
USBWA College Player of the Year (1969, 1970)
Naismith Award Winner (1970)
Helms Foundation Player of the Year (1970)
UPI Player of the Year (1970)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1970)
AP College Player of the Year (1970)
The Sporting News All-America First Team (1968, 1969, 1970)
Three-time AP and UPI First-Team All-America (1968, 1969, 1970)
Led the NCAA Division I in scoring with 43.8 ppg (1968); 44.2 (1969) and 44.5 ppg (1970)
Averaged 43.6 ppg on the LSU freshman team (1967)
Scored a career-high 69 points vs. Alabama (); 66 vs. Tulane (); 64 vs. Kentucky (); 61 vs. Vanderbilt ()
Holds LSU records for most field goals made (26) and attempted (57) in a game against Vanderbilt on
All-Southeastern Conference (1968, 1969, 1970)
#23 Jersey retired by LSU (2007)
In 1970, Maravich led LSU to a 20–8 record and a fourth-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament
Collegiate records
Points, career: 3,667 (three seasons)
Highest scoring average, points per game, career: 44.2 (3,667 points/83 games)
Points, season: 1,381 (1970)
Highest scoring average, points per game, season: 44.5 (1,381/31) (1970)
Games scoring 50 or more points, career: 28
Games scoring 50 or more points, season: 10 (1970)
Field goals made, career: 1,387
Field goals made, season: 522 (1970)
Field goal attempts, career: 3,166
Field goal attempts, season: 1,168 (1970)
Free throws made, game: 30 (in 31 attempts), vs. Oregon State,
Tied by Ben Woodside, North Dakota State, on
NBA awards
NBA All-Rookie Team
All-NBA First Team (1976, 1977)
All-NBA Second Team (1973, 1978)
Five-time NBA All-Star (1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Led the league in scoring (31.1 ppg) in 1977, his career best
Scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977
#7 jersey retired by the Utah Jazz (1985)
#7 jersey retired by the Superdome (1988)
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)
#7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) (2002), even though he never played for them—one of only four players to have a number retired by a team they did not play for; Maravich did play professionally for the New Orleans Jazz, however, and has remained a greatly admired figure amongst New Orleans sports fans ever since.
#44 jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks (2017)
NBA records
Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Broken by Vince Carter on
Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls,
Broken by Ben Wallace on
Second pair of teammates in NBA history to score 2,000 or more points in a season: 2, Atlanta Hawks ()
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029
Third pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets,
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.
Ranks 4th in NBA history – Free throws made, none missed, game: 18–18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Ranks 5th in NBA history – Free throws made, game: 23, Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz vs. New York Knicks, (2 OT)
See also
List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders
Further reading
Campbell, Darrel (2019). Hero & Friend: My Days with Pistol Pete. Percussion Films. .
Brown, Danny (2008). Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photographs of Pete Maravich at LSU. Louisiana State University Press
References
External links
NBA Historical Bio
ESPN bio
Pete Maravich's Greatest Achievement
‘68 All College MVP - 4 Days with Pistol Pete
Pete Maravich Bio LSU Tigers Athletics
1947 births
1988 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American evangelicals
American men's basketball players
American people of Serbian descent
Atlanta Hawks draft picks
Atlanta Hawks players
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
Boston Celtics players
College basketball announcers in the United States
LSU Tigers basketball players
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Needham B. Broughton High School alumni
New Orleans Jazz players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
People from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area
Basketball players from Raleigh, North Carolina
Utah Jazz players
| false |
[
"The 1997–98 NBA season was the 52nd season for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association. In the 1997 NBA draft, the Celtics selected Chauncey Billups from the University of Colorado with the third overall pick, and selected Ron Mercer from the University of Kentucky with the sixth pick. Billups only spent half of his rookie season in Boston, and was traded along with Dee Brown to the Toronto Raptors for Kenny Anderson at midseason. In the off-season, the team acquired second-year forward Walter McCarty from the New York Knicks, and signed free agents Travis Knight, Andrew DeClercq and Bruce Bowen. \n\nDespite finishing with the NBA's second worst record in 1996–97, the Celtics were back in the headlines after hiring University of Kentucky head coach Rick Pitino as their new coach. Pitino's Celtics career had an auspicious beginning on opening night when the Celtics upset Michael Jordan, and the 5-time defending NBA Champion Chicago Bulls, 92–85 at the FleetCenter on October 31. After a 1–5 start to the season, the Celtics held a 16–14 record as of January 3, but then lost eight of their next nine games, and later posted a six-game losing streak in March. Although the Celtics did not make the playoffs, they improved their win total by 21 games from the previous season, finishing sixth in the Atlantic Division with a 36–46 record. \n\nSecond-year star Antoine Walker averaged 22.4 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game, and was selected for the 1998 NBA All-Star Game, while Mercer averaged 15.3 points and 1.6 steals per game, and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. In addition, McCarty provided the team with 9.6 points and 1.3 steals per game, and Dana Barros contributed 9.8 points and 3.6 assists per game off the bench. Following the season, Knight was traded back to the Los Angeles Lakers.\n\nDraft picks\n\nRoster\n\nRoster Notes\n Power forward Popeye Jones was acquired from the Toronto Raptors at midseason, but did not play for the Celtics this season due to a torn ACL.\n\nRegular season\n\nSeason standings\n\nRecord vs. opponents\n\nGame log\n\nPlayer statistics\n\nAwards and records\n Ron Mercer, NBA All-Rookie Team 1st Team\n\nTransactions\n\nReferences\n\nSee also\n 1997–98 NBA season\n\nBoston Celtics seasons\nBoston Celtics\nBoston Celtics\nBoston Celtics\nCeltics\nCeltics",
"The 1996–97 NBA season was the 51st season for the Boston Celtics in the National Basketball Association. Celebrating its 50th anniversary as one of the NBA's original franchises, the Celtics selected Antoine Walker from the University of Kentucky with the sixth pick in the 1996 NBA draft. However, after a 4–8 start to the season, the Celtics lost 13 of their next 14 games as players like Dino Radja, Dana Barros, Dee Brown, Greg Minor and Pervis Ellison were all out for long stretches of the season with injuries. The team suffered through their worst season posting a 13-game losing streak between February and March, then losing ten straight games near the end of the season. The Celtics lost 34 of their final 38 games finishing last place in the Atlantic Division with a dreadful 15–67 record, which is the team's worst record in franchise history. \n\nWalker averaged 17.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.3 steals per game, and was selected to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. In addition, David Wesley averaged 16.8 points, 7.3 assists and 2.2 steals per game, while Rick Fox provided the team with 15.4 points, 5.2 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game, second-year forward Eric Williams contributed 15.0 points per game, and Todd Day provided with 14.5 points per game. Following the season, head coach M.L. Carr was fired, while Fox signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Lakers, Wesley signed with the Charlotte Hornets, Williams was traded to the Denver Nuggets, Day signed with the Miami Heat and Alton Lister retired. This was also the final season for Radja, who only played just 25 games this season due to a left knee injury, averaging 14.0 points, 8.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks per game. After failing his physical exam voiding an off-season trade that would have sent him to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Clarence Weatherspoon and Michael Cage, he returned to play in Europe signing a contract to play in Greece, and ending his four-year career in the NBA.\n\nFor the season, the Celtics updated their primary logo of a leprechaun spinning a basketball, adding gold, black and mahogany colors. The logo is still present as of 2022.\n\nDraft picks\n\nRoster\n\nRegular season\n\nSeason standings\n\nRecord vs. opponents\n\nGame log\n\nPlayer statistics\n\nAwards and records\n Antoine Walker, NBA All-Rookie Team 1st Team\n\nTransactions\n\nReferences\n\nSee also\n 1996–97 NBA season\n\nBoston Celtics seasons\nBoston Celtics\nBoston Celtics\nBoston Celtics\nCeltics\nCeltics"
] |
[
"Pete Maravich",
"Final season",
"What was the final season?",
"The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but",
"What happened with the Jazz?",
"He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule",
"What was the coaches rule?",
"had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games,",
"When did he finally get to play with the Jazz?",
"games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.",
"How long did he play in Utah?",
"The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird.",
"How long did he play with the Celtics?",
"Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a \"hired gun\" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season,"
] |
C_c3c6a8aff42e42bb97e70c248b3446f9_0
|
How did they do in the post season?
| 7 |
How did Celtics do in the post season in 1980?
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Pete Maravich
|
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player. The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one. Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 67% completion rate behind the arc. During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks. CANNOTANSWER
|
And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs.
|
Peter Press Maravich (; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in the Carolinas. Maravich starred in college with the LSU Tigers while playing for his father, head coach Press Maravich. He is the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. All of his accomplishments were achieved before the adoption of the three-point line and shot clock, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. He played for three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980 following a 10-year professional career.
One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was considered to be one of the greatest creative offensive talents ever and one of the best ball handlers of all time. He died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game in 1988 as a consequence of an undetected heart defect.
Early life
Maravich was born to Peter "Press" Maravich (1915–1987) and Helen Gravor Maravich (1925–1974) in Aliquippa, a steel town in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Maravich's father was the son of Serbian immigrants and a professional player–turned-coach. He showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long-range shots.
Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the school's first-ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University. The Maravich family's subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Maravich to attend Needham B. Broughton High School. His high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, where he averaged 33 points per game. Maravich never liked school and did not like Edwards Military Institute. It was known that Press Maravich was extremely protective of Maravich and would guard against any issue that might come up during his adolescence. Press threatened to shoot Maravich with a 45 caliber pistol if he drank or got into trouble. Maravich was 6 feet 4 inches in high school and was getting ready to play in college when his father took a coaching position at Louisiana State University.
College career
At that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.
In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6'5" (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.
Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:
First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.
Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range." It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game. And 12 Three Pointer per game.
Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)
More than 50 years later, however, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival. Maravich finished his college career in the 1970 National Invitation Tournament, where LSU finished fourth.
NCAA career statistics
Freshman
At this time, freshmen did not play on the varsity team and these stats do not count in the NCAA record books.
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1966–67
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 19 || 19 || ... || .452 || ... || .833 || 10.4 || ... || ... || ... || 43.6
Varsity
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1967–68
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .423 || ... || .811 || 7.5 || 4.0 || ... || ... || 43.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1968–69
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .444 || ... || .746 || 6.5 || 4.9 || ... || ... || 44.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1969–70
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 31 || 31 || ... || .447 || ... || .773 || 5.3 || 6.2 || ... || ... || 44.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" colspan=2|Career
| 83 || 83 || ... || .438 || ... || .775 || 6.5 || 5.1 || ... || ... || 44.2
Professional career
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks selected Maravich with the third pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA draft, where he played for coach Richie Guerin. He was not a natural fit in Atlanta, as the Hawks already boasted a top-notch scorer at the guard position in Lou Hudson. In fact, Maravich's flamboyant style stood in stark contrast to the conservative play of Hudson and star center Walt Bellamy. And it did not help that many of the veteran players resented the $1.9 million contract that Maravich received from the team—a very large salary at that time.
Maravich appeared in 81 games and averaged 23.2 points per contest—good enough to earn NBA All-Rookie Team honors. And he managed to blend his style with his teammates, so much so that Hudson set a career high by scoring 26.8 points per game. But the team stumbled to a 36–46 record—12 wins fewer than in the previous season. Still, the Hawks qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
Maravich struggled somewhat during his second season. His scoring average dipped to 19.3 points per game, and the Hawks finished with another disappointing 36–46 record. Once again they qualified for the playoffs, and once again they were eliminated in the first round. However, Atlanta fought hard against the Boston Celtics, with Maravich averaging 27.7 points in the series.
Maravich erupted in his third season, averaging 26.1 points (5th in the NBA) and dishing out 6.9 assists per game (6th in the NBA). With 2,063 points, he combined with Hudson (2,029 points) to become only the second set of teammates in league history to each score over 2,000 points in a single season. The Hawks soared to a 46–36 record, but again bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. However, the season was good enough to earn Maravich his first-ever appearance in the NBA All-Star Game, and also All-NBA Second Team honors.
The following season (1973–74) was his best yet—at least in terms of individual accomplishments. Maravich posted 27.7 points per game—second in the league behind Bob McAdoo—and earned his second appearance in the All-Star Game. However, Atlanta sank to a disappointing 35–47 record and missed the postseason entirely.
New Orleans Jazz
In the summer of 1974, an expansion franchise was preparing for its first season of competition in the NBA. The New Orleans Jazz were looking for something or someone to generate excitement among their new basketball fans. With his exciting style of play, Maravich was seen as the perfect man for the job. Additionally, he was already a celebrity in the state due to his accomplishments at LSU. To acquire Maravich, the Jazz traded two players and four draft picks to Atlanta.
The expansion team struggled mightily in its first season. Maravich managed to score 21.5 points per game, but shot a career-worst 41.9 percent from the floor. The Jazz posted a 23–59 record, worst in the NBA.
Jazz management did its best to give Maravich a better supporting cast. The team posted a 38–44 record in its second season (1975–76) but did not qualify for postseason play, despite the dramatic improvement. Maravich struggled with injuries that limited him to just 62 games that season, but he averaged 25.9 points per contest (third behind McAdoo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and continued his crowd-pleasing antics. He was elected to the All-NBA First Team that year.
The following season (1976–77) was his most productive in the NBA. He led the league in scoring with an average of 31.1 points per game. He scored 40 points or more in 13 games, and 50 or more in 4 games. His 68-point masterpiece against the Knicks was at the time the most points ever scored by a guard in a single game, and only two players at any position had ever scored more: Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. Baylor was head coach of the Jazz at that time.
Maravich earned his third all-star game appearance and was honored as All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season.
The following season, injuries to both knees forced him to miss 32 games during the 1977–78 season. Despite being robbed of some quickness and athleticism, he still managed to score 27.0 points per game, and he also added 6.7 assists per contest, his highest average as a member of the Jazz. Many of those assists went to new teammate Truck Robinson, who had joined the franchise as a free agent during the off-season. In his first year in New Orleans, he averaged 22.7 points and a league-best 15.7 rebounds per game. His presence prevented opponents from focusing their defensive efforts entirely on Maravich, and it lifted the Jazz to a 39–43 record—just short of making the club's first-ever appearance in the playoffs.
Knee problems plagued Maravich for the rest of his career. He played in just 49 games during the 1978–79 season. He scored 22.6 points per game that season and earned his fifth and final All-Star appearance. But his scoring and passing abilities were severely impaired. The team struggled on the court, and faced serious financial trouble as well. Management became desperate to make some changes. The Jazz traded Robinson to the Phoenix Suns, receiving draft picks and some cash in return. However, in 1979, team owner Sam Battistone moved the Jazz to Salt Lake City.
Final season
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979–80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.
The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61–21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one.
Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 66.7% completion rate behind the arc.
During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1970–71
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 81 || ... || 36.1 || .458 || ... || .800 || 3.7 || 4.4 || ... || ... || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971–72
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 66 || ... || 34.9 || .427 || ... || .811 || 3.9 || 6.0 || ... || ... || 19.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972–73
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 79 || ... || 39.1 || .441 || ... || .800 || 4.4 || 6.9 || ... || ... || 26.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973–74
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 76 || ... || 38.2 || .457 || ... || .826 || 4.9 || 5.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1974–75
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 79 || ... || 36.1 || .419 || ... || .811 || 5.3 || 6.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 21.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1975–76
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 62 || ... || 38.3 || .459|| ... || .811 || 4.8 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .4 || 25.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1976–77
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 73 || ... || 41.7 || .433 || ... || .835 || 5.1 || 5.4 || 1.2 || .3 ||style="background:#cfecec;"| 31.1*
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1977–78
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 50 || ... || 40.8 || .444 || ... || .870 || 3.6 || 6.7 || 2.0 || .2 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1978–79
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 49 || ... || 37.2 || .421 || ... || .841 || 2.5 || 5.0 || 1.2 || .4 || 22.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Utah
| 17 || ... || 30.7 || .412 || .636 || .820 || 2.4 || 3.2 || .9 || .2 || 17.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 26 || 4 || 17.0 || .494 || .750 ||.909 || 1.5 || 1.1 || .3 || .1 || 11.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 658 || ... || 37.0 || .441 || .667 || .820 || 4.2 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .3 || 24.2
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star
| 4 || 4 || 19.8 || .409 || ... || .778 || 2.0 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 10.8
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 5 || ... || 39.8 || .377 || ... || .692 || 5.2 || 4.8 || ... || ... || 22.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 36.5 || .446 || ... || .817 || 5.3 || 4.7 || ... || ... || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 39.0 || .419 || ... || .794 || 4.8 || 6.7 || ... || ... || 26.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1980
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 9 || ... || 11.6 || .490 || .333 || .667 || .9 || .7 || .3 || .0 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
| 26 || ... || 29.1 || .423 || .333 || .784 || 3.6 || 3.8 || ... || ... || 18.7
|-
Later life and death
After injuries forced his retirement from the game in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life". He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics, adopting a vegetarian diet in 1982. Eventually, he became a born-again Christian, embracing evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that serves Him [Jesus] to the utmost, not as a basketball player."
On January 5, 1988, Maravich collapsed and died of heart failure at age 40 while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included evangelical author James Dobson. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great." An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.
Maravich died the year after his father's passing and a number of years after his mother, who had died of suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot. Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Legacy
Maravich was survived by his wife Jackie and his sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, and Josh, aged 5. Only the previous year, Maravich had taken Jaeson to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game in Seattle, Washington, and introduced him to Michael Jordan.
Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, not even allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral. However, a proclivity to basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since ... My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing."
Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit that his tutelage might have provided, both sons eventually were inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball—Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.
On June 27, 2014, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed that LSU erect a statue of Maravich outside the Assembly Center, which already bore the basketball star's name. Former coach Dale Brown opposed such a monument, but Maravich's widow, Jackie McLachlan, said that she had been promised a statue after the passing of her husband. McLachlan said that she has noticed how fans struggle to get the Maravich name on the Assembly Center into a camera frame.
In February 2016, the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Maravich be installed on the campus.
A street in Belgrade, Serbia, is named after Pete Maravich.
Memorabilia
Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction. The signed game ball from his career-high 68-point night on February 25, 1977, sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction.
Honors, books, films and music
In 1987, roughly a year before his death, Maravich co-authored an award-winning (Gold Medallion) autobiography with Darrel Campbell titled Heir to a Dream that devoted much focus to his life after retirement from basketball and his later devotion to Christianity.
In 1987, Maravich and Darrel Campbell produced the four-episode basketball instructional video series Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
In 1988, Frank Schroeder and Darrel Campbell produced the documentary based on Pete Maravich's college career titled, Maravich Memories: The LSU Years.
After Maravich's death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially renaming the LSU home court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
In 1991, a biographical film written and produced by Darrel Campbell dramatizing his 8th-grade season entitled The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend was released.
In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History by a panel made up of NBA historians, players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was represented by his two sons at halftime.
In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film debuted on CBS entitled Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.
In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all time.
In 2007, two biographies of Maravich were released: Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill and Pistol by Mark Kriegel. Also in 2007, to promote Mark Kriegel's book "Pistol", Fox Sports conducted a contest to find "Pete Maravich's Biggest Fan". The winner was Scott Pollack of Sunrise, FL.
In 2021, he was named one of the members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team by a panel made up of NBA historians, players and coaches. He was one of the deceased players on the list.
In 1970, during his LSU days, Acapulco Music/The Panama Limited released "The Ballad of Pete Maravich by Bob Tinney and Woody Jenkins.
The Ziggens, a band from Southern California, wrote a song about Maravich entitled "Pistol Pete".
Collegiate awards
The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1970)
USBWA College Player of the Year (1969, 1970)
Naismith Award Winner (1970)
Helms Foundation Player of the Year (1970)
UPI Player of the Year (1970)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1970)
AP College Player of the Year (1970)
The Sporting News All-America First Team (1968, 1969, 1970)
Three-time AP and UPI First-Team All-America (1968, 1969, 1970)
Led the NCAA Division I in scoring with 43.8 ppg (1968); 44.2 (1969) and 44.5 ppg (1970)
Averaged 43.6 ppg on the LSU freshman team (1967)
Scored a career-high 69 points vs. Alabama (); 66 vs. Tulane (); 64 vs. Kentucky (); 61 vs. Vanderbilt ()
Holds LSU records for most field goals made (26) and attempted (57) in a game against Vanderbilt on
All-Southeastern Conference (1968, 1969, 1970)
#23 Jersey retired by LSU (2007)
In 1970, Maravich led LSU to a 20–8 record and a fourth-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament
Collegiate records
Points, career: 3,667 (three seasons)
Highest scoring average, points per game, career: 44.2 (3,667 points/83 games)
Points, season: 1,381 (1970)
Highest scoring average, points per game, season: 44.5 (1,381/31) (1970)
Games scoring 50 or more points, career: 28
Games scoring 50 or more points, season: 10 (1970)
Field goals made, career: 1,387
Field goals made, season: 522 (1970)
Field goal attempts, career: 3,166
Field goal attempts, season: 1,168 (1970)
Free throws made, game: 30 (in 31 attempts), vs. Oregon State,
Tied by Ben Woodside, North Dakota State, on
NBA awards
NBA All-Rookie Team
All-NBA First Team (1976, 1977)
All-NBA Second Team (1973, 1978)
Five-time NBA All-Star (1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Led the league in scoring (31.1 ppg) in 1977, his career best
Scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977
#7 jersey retired by the Utah Jazz (1985)
#7 jersey retired by the Superdome (1988)
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)
#7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) (2002), even though he never played for them—one of only four players to have a number retired by a team they did not play for; Maravich did play professionally for the New Orleans Jazz, however, and has remained a greatly admired figure amongst New Orleans sports fans ever since.
#44 jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks (2017)
NBA records
Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Broken by Vince Carter on
Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls,
Broken by Ben Wallace on
Second pair of teammates in NBA history to score 2,000 or more points in a season: 2, Atlanta Hawks ()
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029
Third pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets,
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.
Ranks 4th in NBA history – Free throws made, none missed, game: 18–18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Ranks 5th in NBA history – Free throws made, game: 23, Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz vs. New York Knicks, (2 OT)
See also
List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders
Further reading
Campbell, Darrel (2019). Hero & Friend: My Days with Pistol Pete. Percussion Films. .
Brown, Danny (2008). Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photographs of Pete Maravich at LSU. Louisiana State University Press
References
External links
NBA Historical Bio
ESPN bio
Pete Maravich's Greatest Achievement
‘68 All College MVP - 4 Days with Pistol Pete
Pete Maravich Bio LSU Tigers Athletics
1947 births
1988 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American evangelicals
American men's basketball players
American people of Serbian descent
Atlanta Hawks draft picks
Atlanta Hawks players
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
Boston Celtics players
College basketball announcers in the United States
LSU Tigers basketball players
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Needham B. Broughton High School alumni
New Orleans Jazz players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
People from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area
Basketball players from Raleigh, North Carolina
Utah Jazz players
| true |
[
"How Do They Do It? is a television series produced by Wag TV for Discovery Channel. Each programme explores how 2 or 3 ordinary objects are made and used. The show's slogan is \"Behind the ordinary is the extraordinary.\" The series is broadcast throughout the world on various Discovery-owned networks including:\n\nDiscovery Channel, Science Channel, DMAX and Quest in the United Kingdom;\nScience Channel in the United States;\nDiscovery Channel in Asia, Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands;\nDiscovery Channel and Discovery Science in Italy.\n\nSeries 1 and 2, which were co-produced with Rocket Surgery Productions, were narrated by Rupert Degas; series 3 and 4 were narrated by Iain Lee; and series 5 and 6 were narrated by Dominic Frisby. In 2008, the UK's Channel 5 began airing the series, presented by Robert Llewellyn. This version was released on DVD in the UK in May 2010.\n\nIn the United States, the series airs on the Science Channel and is narrated by Chris Broyles.\n\nThis programme is similar to the popular Canadian-produced documentary programme, How It's Made, also broadcast on Discovery Channel networks.\n\nEpisodes\n\nSeason 1 (2006) \n\nEpisodes in the first season aired with 60-minute runtimes (including commercials).\n\nSeason 2 (2006) \n\nEpisodes in the second season aired with 30-minute runtimes (including commercials).\n\nSeason 3 (2007)\n\nSeason 4 (2007)\n\nSeason 5 (2008)\n\nSeason 6 (2009)\n\nSeason 7 (2010)\n\nSeason 8 (2011)\n\nSeason 9 (2012)\n\nSeason 10 (2012)\n\nSeason 11 (2013)\n\nSeason 12 (2014)\n\nSeason 13 (2015)\n\nSeason 14 (2016)\n\nSeason 15 (2017)\n\nSeason 16\n\nSpecial\n\nEpisodes 60 minutes long taken the best from series 3 and 4\n\nFIVE (UK) version\n\nSeries 1\n\nEach episode is 30 minutes long and airs on terrestrial UK channel five. Each programme features 2 items from the original series with 1 new item filmed with presenter Robert Llewellyn. Llewellyn also presents links in between the original items.\n\nSeries 2\n\nSeries 3\n\nSeries 4\n\nSeries 4 does not feature a specially shot item with presenter Robert Llewellyn; instead this is a reversion of the Discovery Channel series 5 with filmed links presented by Robert between the items. This series was not made available on Five's online video site.\n\nSeries 5\n\nSeries 5 does not feature a specially shot item with presenter Robert Llewellyn; instead this is a reversion of the Discovery Channel series 6 with filmed links presented by Robert between the items. This series was not made available on Five's online video site.\n\nScience Channel\n\nSeason Unknown\n\nEpisodes in this group aired with 30-minute runtimes (including commercials). On hiatus as of February 2014.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n\n How Do They Do It?, Discovery Channel UK\n How Do They Do It?, Discovery Channel Asia\n ¿Cómo lo hacen?, Discovery Channel en Español\n Official Youtube channel with \"How Do They Do It?\" videos, among others\n WAG TV\n\nBritish documentary television series\n2000s Canadian documentary television series\nDiscovery Channel original programming\nDocumentary television series about industry",
"Hot Dog was a Saturday morning documentary series for children, seen on NBC from September 12, 1970 to September 4, 1971. Created by Frank Buxton and co-produced by Buxton and Lee Mendelson, the program was notable for its hosts – comedienne Jo Anne Worley, comedian Jonathan Winters and writer and actor Woody Allen. The pilot, televised on March 28, 1970, starred Worley, Allen and Tom Smothers, who was replaced with Winters when the show became a series.\n\nBased on Buxton's travels as a comedian (and later, as host of the ABC series Discovery), which took him on tours to various factories, Hot Dog explained, in a humorous manner, how we do things (such as snore) and how things were made (such as the eponymous hot dogs and their buns, plus condiments like mustard).\n\nSeventy topics were covered during the course of this series, which lasted 13 episodes and was rerun the rest of the season. NBC won a Peabody award for the series in 1970.\n\nSome of the music in this series was performed by The Youngbloods.\n\nSyndication and alternate versions\nReruns of Hot Dog were syndicated during the 1977–1978 television season, at a time when Allen had firmly established himself as a motion picture star, director, and writer. Portions of Hot Dog were also seen on a local KNBC children's program in Los Angeles, That's Cat, which debuted in 1976.\n\nIn 1971, the Individual topic segments were sold to schools on 16mm film.\n\nTopics \n(listed alphabetically)\n \"How does a frog jump?\"\n \"How does a letter get through the mail?\"\n \"How do they get toothpaste in the tube?\"\n \"How do they make a baseball glove?\" \n \"How do they make a hot dog roll?\"\n \"How do they make a surfboard?\"\n \"How do they make baseballs?\"\n “How do they make bicycles?”\n \"How do they make bowling balls?\"\n \"How do they make bubblegum?\"\n \"How do they make cartoons?\"\n \"How do they make chocolate?\"\n \"How do they make playing cards?\" \n \"How do they make pennies?\" \n \"How do they make plywood\"\n \"How do they make spaghetti?\"\n \"How do they make tennis shoes?\"\n \"How do they make toothbrushes?\"\n \"How do they make T-shirts?\"\n \"How money is made\"\n \"Is that really lead in a lead pencil?\"\n \"What makes popcorn pop?\"\n \"What's a compass?\"\n \"Where does honey come from?\"\n \"Where does lumber come from?\"\n \"Where do felt tip pens come from?\"\n \"Who invented the hot dog?\"\n\nReferences\n\n The Encyclopedia of Daytime Television by Wesley Hyatt (Billboard Books 1997)\n\nExternal links\n \n List of productions, including Hot Dog episodes. produced by Lee Mendelson – Frank Buxton Joint Film Productions\n Frank Buxton's web page on the series Hot Dog\n\nScience education television series\n1970s American documentary television series\n1970s American children's television series\n1970s American science fiction television series\n1970 American television series debuts\n1971 American television series endings\nAmerican children's education television series\nNBC original programming\nPeabody Award-winning television programs"
] |
[
"Pete Maravich",
"Final season",
"What was the final season?",
"The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but",
"What happened with the Jazz?",
"He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule",
"What was the coaches rule?",
"had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games,",
"When did he finally get to play with the Jazz?",
"games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.",
"How long did he play in Utah?",
"The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird.",
"How long did he play with the Celtics?",
"Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a \"hired gun\" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season,",
"How did they do in the post season?",
"And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs."
] |
C_c3c6a8aff42e42bb97e70c248b3446f9_0
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Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?
| 8 |
Are there any other interesting aspects about this article besides Pete Maravich career in Utah and Celtics?
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Pete Maravich
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The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player. The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one. Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 67% completion rate behind the arc. During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks. CANNOTANSWER
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Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season.
|
Peter Press Maravich (; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in the Carolinas. Maravich starred in college with the LSU Tigers while playing for his father, head coach Press Maravich. He is the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. All of his accomplishments were achieved before the adoption of the three-point line and shot clock, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. He played for three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980 following a 10-year professional career.
One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was considered to be one of the greatest creative offensive talents ever and one of the best ball handlers of all time. He died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game in 1988 as a consequence of an undetected heart defect.
Early life
Maravich was born to Peter "Press" Maravich (1915–1987) and Helen Gravor Maravich (1925–1974) in Aliquippa, a steel town in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Maravich's father was the son of Serbian immigrants and a professional player–turned-coach. He showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long-range shots.
Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the school's first-ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University. The Maravich family's subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Maravich to attend Needham B. Broughton High School. His high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, where he averaged 33 points per game. Maravich never liked school and did not like Edwards Military Institute. It was known that Press Maravich was extremely protective of Maravich and would guard against any issue that might come up during his adolescence. Press threatened to shoot Maravich with a 45 caliber pistol if he drank or got into trouble. Maravich was 6 feet 4 inches in high school and was getting ready to play in college when his father took a coaching position at Louisiana State University.
College career
At that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.
In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6'5" (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.
Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:
First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.
Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range." It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game. And 12 Three Pointer per game.
Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)
More than 50 years later, however, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival. Maravich finished his college career in the 1970 National Invitation Tournament, where LSU finished fourth.
NCAA career statistics
Freshman
At this time, freshmen did not play on the varsity team and these stats do not count in the NCAA record books.
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1966–67
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 19 || 19 || ... || .452 || ... || .833 || 10.4 || ... || ... || ... || 43.6
Varsity
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1967–68
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .423 || ... || .811 || 7.5 || 4.0 || ... || ... || 43.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1968–69
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .444 || ... || .746 || 6.5 || 4.9 || ... || ... || 44.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1969–70
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 31 || 31 || ... || .447 || ... || .773 || 5.3 || 6.2 || ... || ... || 44.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" colspan=2|Career
| 83 || 83 || ... || .438 || ... || .775 || 6.5 || 5.1 || ... || ... || 44.2
Professional career
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks selected Maravich with the third pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA draft, where he played for coach Richie Guerin. He was not a natural fit in Atlanta, as the Hawks already boasted a top-notch scorer at the guard position in Lou Hudson. In fact, Maravich's flamboyant style stood in stark contrast to the conservative play of Hudson and star center Walt Bellamy. And it did not help that many of the veteran players resented the $1.9 million contract that Maravich received from the team—a very large salary at that time.
Maravich appeared in 81 games and averaged 23.2 points per contest—good enough to earn NBA All-Rookie Team honors. And he managed to blend his style with his teammates, so much so that Hudson set a career high by scoring 26.8 points per game. But the team stumbled to a 36–46 record—12 wins fewer than in the previous season. Still, the Hawks qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
Maravich struggled somewhat during his second season. His scoring average dipped to 19.3 points per game, and the Hawks finished with another disappointing 36–46 record. Once again they qualified for the playoffs, and once again they were eliminated in the first round. However, Atlanta fought hard against the Boston Celtics, with Maravich averaging 27.7 points in the series.
Maravich erupted in his third season, averaging 26.1 points (5th in the NBA) and dishing out 6.9 assists per game (6th in the NBA). With 2,063 points, he combined with Hudson (2,029 points) to become only the second set of teammates in league history to each score over 2,000 points in a single season. The Hawks soared to a 46–36 record, but again bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. However, the season was good enough to earn Maravich his first-ever appearance in the NBA All-Star Game, and also All-NBA Second Team honors.
The following season (1973–74) was his best yet—at least in terms of individual accomplishments. Maravich posted 27.7 points per game—second in the league behind Bob McAdoo—and earned his second appearance in the All-Star Game. However, Atlanta sank to a disappointing 35–47 record and missed the postseason entirely.
New Orleans Jazz
In the summer of 1974, an expansion franchise was preparing for its first season of competition in the NBA. The New Orleans Jazz were looking for something or someone to generate excitement among their new basketball fans. With his exciting style of play, Maravich was seen as the perfect man for the job. Additionally, he was already a celebrity in the state due to his accomplishments at LSU. To acquire Maravich, the Jazz traded two players and four draft picks to Atlanta.
The expansion team struggled mightily in its first season. Maravich managed to score 21.5 points per game, but shot a career-worst 41.9 percent from the floor. The Jazz posted a 23–59 record, worst in the NBA.
Jazz management did its best to give Maravich a better supporting cast. The team posted a 38–44 record in its second season (1975–76) but did not qualify for postseason play, despite the dramatic improvement. Maravich struggled with injuries that limited him to just 62 games that season, but he averaged 25.9 points per contest (third behind McAdoo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and continued his crowd-pleasing antics. He was elected to the All-NBA First Team that year.
The following season (1976–77) was his most productive in the NBA. He led the league in scoring with an average of 31.1 points per game. He scored 40 points or more in 13 games, and 50 or more in 4 games. His 68-point masterpiece against the Knicks was at the time the most points ever scored by a guard in a single game, and only two players at any position had ever scored more: Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. Baylor was head coach of the Jazz at that time.
Maravich earned his third all-star game appearance and was honored as All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season.
The following season, injuries to both knees forced him to miss 32 games during the 1977–78 season. Despite being robbed of some quickness and athleticism, he still managed to score 27.0 points per game, and he also added 6.7 assists per contest, his highest average as a member of the Jazz. Many of those assists went to new teammate Truck Robinson, who had joined the franchise as a free agent during the off-season. In his first year in New Orleans, he averaged 22.7 points and a league-best 15.7 rebounds per game. His presence prevented opponents from focusing their defensive efforts entirely on Maravich, and it lifted the Jazz to a 39–43 record—just short of making the club's first-ever appearance in the playoffs.
Knee problems plagued Maravich for the rest of his career. He played in just 49 games during the 1978–79 season. He scored 22.6 points per game that season and earned his fifth and final All-Star appearance. But his scoring and passing abilities were severely impaired. The team struggled on the court, and faced serious financial trouble as well. Management became desperate to make some changes. The Jazz traded Robinson to the Phoenix Suns, receiving draft picks and some cash in return. However, in 1979, team owner Sam Battistone moved the Jazz to Salt Lake City.
Final season
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979–80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.
The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61–21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one.
Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 66.7% completion rate behind the arc.
During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1970–71
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 81 || ... || 36.1 || .458 || ... || .800 || 3.7 || 4.4 || ... || ... || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971–72
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 66 || ... || 34.9 || .427 || ... || .811 || 3.9 || 6.0 || ... || ... || 19.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972–73
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 79 || ... || 39.1 || .441 || ... || .800 || 4.4 || 6.9 || ... || ... || 26.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973–74
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 76 || ... || 38.2 || .457 || ... || .826 || 4.9 || 5.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1974–75
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 79 || ... || 36.1 || .419 || ... || .811 || 5.3 || 6.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 21.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1975–76
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 62 || ... || 38.3 || .459|| ... || .811 || 4.8 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .4 || 25.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1976–77
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 73 || ... || 41.7 || .433 || ... || .835 || 5.1 || 5.4 || 1.2 || .3 ||style="background:#cfecec;"| 31.1*
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1977–78
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 50 || ... || 40.8 || .444 || ... || .870 || 3.6 || 6.7 || 2.0 || .2 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1978–79
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 49 || ... || 37.2 || .421 || ... || .841 || 2.5 || 5.0 || 1.2 || .4 || 22.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Utah
| 17 || ... || 30.7 || .412 || .636 || .820 || 2.4 || 3.2 || .9 || .2 || 17.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 26 || 4 || 17.0 || .494 || .750 ||.909 || 1.5 || 1.1 || .3 || .1 || 11.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 658 || ... || 37.0 || .441 || .667 || .820 || 4.2 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .3 || 24.2
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star
| 4 || 4 || 19.8 || .409 || ... || .778 || 2.0 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 10.8
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 5 || ... || 39.8 || .377 || ... || .692 || 5.2 || 4.8 || ... || ... || 22.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 36.5 || .446 || ... || .817 || 5.3 || 4.7 || ... || ... || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 39.0 || .419 || ... || .794 || 4.8 || 6.7 || ... || ... || 26.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1980
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 9 || ... || 11.6 || .490 || .333 || .667 || .9 || .7 || .3 || .0 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
| 26 || ... || 29.1 || .423 || .333 || .784 || 3.6 || 3.8 || ... || ... || 18.7
|-
Later life and death
After injuries forced his retirement from the game in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life". He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics, adopting a vegetarian diet in 1982. Eventually, he became a born-again Christian, embracing evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that serves Him [Jesus] to the utmost, not as a basketball player."
On January 5, 1988, Maravich collapsed and died of heart failure at age 40 while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included evangelical author James Dobson. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great." An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.
Maravich died the year after his father's passing and a number of years after his mother, who had died of suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot. Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Legacy
Maravich was survived by his wife Jackie and his sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, and Josh, aged 5. Only the previous year, Maravich had taken Jaeson to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game in Seattle, Washington, and introduced him to Michael Jordan.
Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, not even allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral. However, a proclivity to basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since ... My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing."
Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit that his tutelage might have provided, both sons eventually were inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball—Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.
On June 27, 2014, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed that LSU erect a statue of Maravich outside the Assembly Center, which already bore the basketball star's name. Former coach Dale Brown opposed such a monument, but Maravich's widow, Jackie McLachlan, said that she had been promised a statue after the passing of her husband. McLachlan said that she has noticed how fans struggle to get the Maravich name on the Assembly Center into a camera frame.
In February 2016, the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Maravich be installed on the campus.
A street in Belgrade, Serbia, is named after Pete Maravich.
Memorabilia
Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction. The signed game ball from his career-high 68-point night on February 25, 1977, sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction.
Honors, books, films and music
In 1987, roughly a year before his death, Maravich co-authored an award-winning (Gold Medallion) autobiography with Darrel Campbell titled Heir to a Dream that devoted much focus to his life after retirement from basketball and his later devotion to Christianity.
In 1987, Maravich and Darrel Campbell produced the four-episode basketball instructional video series Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
In 1988, Frank Schroeder and Darrel Campbell produced the documentary based on Pete Maravich's college career titled, Maravich Memories: The LSU Years.
After Maravich's death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially renaming the LSU home court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
In 1991, a biographical film written and produced by Darrel Campbell dramatizing his 8th-grade season entitled The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend was released.
In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History by a panel made up of NBA historians, players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was represented by his two sons at halftime.
In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film debuted on CBS entitled Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.
In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all time.
In 2007, two biographies of Maravich were released: Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill and Pistol by Mark Kriegel. Also in 2007, to promote Mark Kriegel's book "Pistol", Fox Sports conducted a contest to find "Pete Maravich's Biggest Fan". The winner was Scott Pollack of Sunrise, FL.
In 2021, he was named one of the members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team by a panel made up of NBA historians, players and coaches. He was one of the deceased players on the list.
In 1970, during his LSU days, Acapulco Music/The Panama Limited released "The Ballad of Pete Maravich by Bob Tinney and Woody Jenkins.
The Ziggens, a band from Southern California, wrote a song about Maravich entitled "Pistol Pete".
Collegiate awards
The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1970)
USBWA College Player of the Year (1969, 1970)
Naismith Award Winner (1970)
Helms Foundation Player of the Year (1970)
UPI Player of the Year (1970)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1970)
AP College Player of the Year (1970)
The Sporting News All-America First Team (1968, 1969, 1970)
Three-time AP and UPI First-Team All-America (1968, 1969, 1970)
Led the NCAA Division I in scoring with 43.8 ppg (1968); 44.2 (1969) and 44.5 ppg (1970)
Averaged 43.6 ppg on the LSU freshman team (1967)
Scored a career-high 69 points vs. Alabama (); 66 vs. Tulane (); 64 vs. Kentucky (); 61 vs. Vanderbilt ()
Holds LSU records for most field goals made (26) and attempted (57) in a game against Vanderbilt on
All-Southeastern Conference (1968, 1969, 1970)
#23 Jersey retired by LSU (2007)
In 1970, Maravich led LSU to a 20–8 record and a fourth-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament
Collegiate records
Points, career: 3,667 (three seasons)
Highest scoring average, points per game, career: 44.2 (3,667 points/83 games)
Points, season: 1,381 (1970)
Highest scoring average, points per game, season: 44.5 (1,381/31) (1970)
Games scoring 50 or more points, career: 28
Games scoring 50 or more points, season: 10 (1970)
Field goals made, career: 1,387
Field goals made, season: 522 (1970)
Field goal attempts, career: 3,166
Field goal attempts, season: 1,168 (1970)
Free throws made, game: 30 (in 31 attempts), vs. Oregon State,
Tied by Ben Woodside, North Dakota State, on
NBA awards
NBA All-Rookie Team
All-NBA First Team (1976, 1977)
All-NBA Second Team (1973, 1978)
Five-time NBA All-Star (1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Led the league in scoring (31.1 ppg) in 1977, his career best
Scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977
#7 jersey retired by the Utah Jazz (1985)
#7 jersey retired by the Superdome (1988)
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)
#7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) (2002), even though he never played for them—one of only four players to have a number retired by a team they did not play for; Maravich did play professionally for the New Orleans Jazz, however, and has remained a greatly admired figure amongst New Orleans sports fans ever since.
#44 jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks (2017)
NBA records
Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Broken by Vince Carter on
Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls,
Broken by Ben Wallace on
Second pair of teammates in NBA history to score 2,000 or more points in a season: 2, Atlanta Hawks ()
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029
Third pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets,
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.
Ranks 4th in NBA history – Free throws made, none missed, game: 18–18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Ranks 5th in NBA history – Free throws made, game: 23, Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz vs. New York Knicks, (2 OT)
See also
List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders
Further reading
Campbell, Darrel (2019). Hero & Friend: My Days with Pistol Pete. Percussion Films. .
Brown, Danny (2008). Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photographs of Pete Maravich at LSU. Louisiana State University Press
References
External links
NBA Historical Bio
ESPN bio
Pete Maravich's Greatest Achievement
‘68 All College MVP - 4 Days with Pistol Pete
Pete Maravich Bio LSU Tigers Athletics
1947 births
1988 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American evangelicals
American men's basketball players
American people of Serbian descent
Atlanta Hawks draft picks
Atlanta Hawks players
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
Boston Celtics players
College basketball announcers in the United States
LSU Tigers basketball players
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Needham B. Broughton High School alumni
New Orleans Jazz players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
People from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area
Basketball players from Raleigh, North Carolina
Utah Jazz players
| 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"
] |
[
"Pete Maravich",
"Final season",
"What was the final season?",
"The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but",
"What happened with the Jazz?",
"He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule",
"What was the coaches rule?",
"had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games,",
"When did he finally get to play with the Jazz?",
"games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.",
"How long did he play in Utah?",
"The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird.",
"How long did he play with the Celtics?",
"Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a \"hired gun\" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season,",
"How did they do in the post season?",
"And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season."
] |
C_c3c6a8aff42e42bb97e70c248b3446f9_0
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What year did he retire?
| 9 |
What year did Pete Maravich retire?
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Pete Maravich
|
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player. The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one. Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 67% completion rate behind the arc. During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks. CANNOTANSWER
|
In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans,
|
Peter Press Maravich (; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in the Carolinas. Maravich starred in college with the LSU Tigers while playing for his father, head coach Press Maravich. He is the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. All of his accomplishments were achieved before the adoption of the three-point line and shot clock, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. He played for three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980 following a 10-year professional career.
One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was considered to be one of the greatest creative offensive talents ever and one of the best ball handlers of all time. He died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game in 1988 as a consequence of an undetected heart defect.
Early life
Maravich was born to Peter "Press" Maravich (1915–1987) and Helen Gravor Maravich (1925–1974) in Aliquippa, a steel town in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Maravich's father was the son of Serbian immigrants and a professional player–turned-coach. He showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long-range shots.
Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the school's first-ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University. The Maravich family's subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Maravich to attend Needham B. Broughton High School. His high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, where he averaged 33 points per game. Maravich never liked school and did not like Edwards Military Institute. It was known that Press Maravich was extremely protective of Maravich and would guard against any issue that might come up during his adolescence. Press threatened to shoot Maravich with a 45 caliber pistol if he drank or got into trouble. Maravich was 6 feet 4 inches in high school and was getting ready to play in college when his father took a coaching position at Louisiana State University.
College career
At that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.
In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6'5" (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.
Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:
First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.
Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range." It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game. And 12 Three Pointer per game.
Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)
More than 50 years later, however, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival. Maravich finished his college career in the 1970 National Invitation Tournament, where LSU finished fourth.
NCAA career statistics
Freshman
At this time, freshmen did not play on the varsity team and these stats do not count in the NCAA record books.
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1966–67
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 19 || 19 || ... || .452 || ... || .833 || 10.4 || ... || ... || ... || 43.6
Varsity
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1967–68
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .423 || ... || .811 || 7.5 || 4.0 || ... || ... || 43.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1968–69
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .444 || ... || .746 || 6.5 || 4.9 || ... || ... || 44.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1969–70
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 31 || 31 || ... || .447 || ... || .773 || 5.3 || 6.2 || ... || ... || 44.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" colspan=2|Career
| 83 || 83 || ... || .438 || ... || .775 || 6.5 || 5.1 || ... || ... || 44.2
Professional career
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks selected Maravich with the third pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA draft, where he played for coach Richie Guerin. He was not a natural fit in Atlanta, as the Hawks already boasted a top-notch scorer at the guard position in Lou Hudson. In fact, Maravich's flamboyant style stood in stark contrast to the conservative play of Hudson and star center Walt Bellamy. And it did not help that many of the veteran players resented the $1.9 million contract that Maravich received from the team—a very large salary at that time.
Maravich appeared in 81 games and averaged 23.2 points per contest—good enough to earn NBA All-Rookie Team honors. And he managed to blend his style with his teammates, so much so that Hudson set a career high by scoring 26.8 points per game. But the team stumbled to a 36–46 record—12 wins fewer than in the previous season. Still, the Hawks qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
Maravich struggled somewhat during his second season. His scoring average dipped to 19.3 points per game, and the Hawks finished with another disappointing 36–46 record. Once again they qualified for the playoffs, and once again they were eliminated in the first round. However, Atlanta fought hard against the Boston Celtics, with Maravich averaging 27.7 points in the series.
Maravich erupted in his third season, averaging 26.1 points (5th in the NBA) and dishing out 6.9 assists per game (6th in the NBA). With 2,063 points, he combined with Hudson (2,029 points) to become only the second set of teammates in league history to each score over 2,000 points in a single season. The Hawks soared to a 46–36 record, but again bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. However, the season was good enough to earn Maravich his first-ever appearance in the NBA All-Star Game, and also All-NBA Second Team honors.
The following season (1973–74) was his best yet—at least in terms of individual accomplishments. Maravich posted 27.7 points per game—second in the league behind Bob McAdoo—and earned his second appearance in the All-Star Game. However, Atlanta sank to a disappointing 35–47 record and missed the postseason entirely.
New Orleans Jazz
In the summer of 1974, an expansion franchise was preparing for its first season of competition in the NBA. The New Orleans Jazz were looking for something or someone to generate excitement among their new basketball fans. With his exciting style of play, Maravich was seen as the perfect man for the job. Additionally, he was already a celebrity in the state due to his accomplishments at LSU. To acquire Maravich, the Jazz traded two players and four draft picks to Atlanta.
The expansion team struggled mightily in its first season. Maravich managed to score 21.5 points per game, but shot a career-worst 41.9 percent from the floor. The Jazz posted a 23–59 record, worst in the NBA.
Jazz management did its best to give Maravich a better supporting cast. The team posted a 38–44 record in its second season (1975–76) but did not qualify for postseason play, despite the dramatic improvement. Maravich struggled with injuries that limited him to just 62 games that season, but he averaged 25.9 points per contest (third behind McAdoo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and continued his crowd-pleasing antics. He was elected to the All-NBA First Team that year.
The following season (1976–77) was his most productive in the NBA. He led the league in scoring with an average of 31.1 points per game. He scored 40 points or more in 13 games, and 50 or more in 4 games. His 68-point masterpiece against the Knicks was at the time the most points ever scored by a guard in a single game, and only two players at any position had ever scored more: Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. Baylor was head coach of the Jazz at that time.
Maravich earned his third all-star game appearance and was honored as All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season.
The following season, injuries to both knees forced him to miss 32 games during the 1977–78 season. Despite being robbed of some quickness and athleticism, he still managed to score 27.0 points per game, and he also added 6.7 assists per contest, his highest average as a member of the Jazz. Many of those assists went to new teammate Truck Robinson, who had joined the franchise as a free agent during the off-season. In his first year in New Orleans, he averaged 22.7 points and a league-best 15.7 rebounds per game. His presence prevented opponents from focusing their defensive efforts entirely on Maravich, and it lifted the Jazz to a 39–43 record—just short of making the club's first-ever appearance in the playoffs.
Knee problems plagued Maravich for the rest of his career. He played in just 49 games during the 1978–79 season. He scored 22.6 points per game that season and earned his fifth and final All-Star appearance. But his scoring and passing abilities were severely impaired. The team struggled on the court, and faced serious financial trouble as well. Management became desperate to make some changes. The Jazz traded Robinson to the Phoenix Suns, receiving draft picks and some cash in return. However, in 1979, team owner Sam Battistone moved the Jazz to Salt Lake City.
Final season
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979–80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.
The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61–21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one.
Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 66.7% completion rate behind the arc.
During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1970–71
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 81 || ... || 36.1 || .458 || ... || .800 || 3.7 || 4.4 || ... || ... || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971–72
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 66 || ... || 34.9 || .427 || ... || .811 || 3.9 || 6.0 || ... || ... || 19.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972–73
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 79 || ... || 39.1 || .441 || ... || .800 || 4.4 || 6.9 || ... || ... || 26.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973–74
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 76 || ... || 38.2 || .457 || ... || .826 || 4.9 || 5.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1974–75
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 79 || ... || 36.1 || .419 || ... || .811 || 5.3 || 6.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 21.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1975–76
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 62 || ... || 38.3 || .459|| ... || .811 || 4.8 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .4 || 25.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1976–77
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 73 || ... || 41.7 || .433 || ... || .835 || 5.1 || 5.4 || 1.2 || .3 ||style="background:#cfecec;"| 31.1*
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1977–78
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 50 || ... || 40.8 || .444 || ... || .870 || 3.6 || 6.7 || 2.0 || .2 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1978–79
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 49 || ... || 37.2 || .421 || ... || .841 || 2.5 || 5.0 || 1.2 || .4 || 22.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Utah
| 17 || ... || 30.7 || .412 || .636 || .820 || 2.4 || 3.2 || .9 || .2 || 17.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 26 || 4 || 17.0 || .494 || .750 ||.909 || 1.5 || 1.1 || .3 || .1 || 11.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 658 || ... || 37.0 || .441 || .667 || .820 || 4.2 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .3 || 24.2
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star
| 4 || 4 || 19.8 || .409 || ... || .778 || 2.0 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 10.8
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 5 || ... || 39.8 || .377 || ... || .692 || 5.2 || 4.8 || ... || ... || 22.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 36.5 || .446 || ... || .817 || 5.3 || 4.7 || ... || ... || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 39.0 || .419 || ... || .794 || 4.8 || 6.7 || ... || ... || 26.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1980
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 9 || ... || 11.6 || .490 || .333 || .667 || .9 || .7 || .3 || .0 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
| 26 || ... || 29.1 || .423 || .333 || .784 || 3.6 || 3.8 || ... || ... || 18.7
|-
Later life and death
After injuries forced his retirement from the game in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life". He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics, adopting a vegetarian diet in 1982. Eventually, he became a born-again Christian, embracing evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that serves Him [Jesus] to the utmost, not as a basketball player."
On January 5, 1988, Maravich collapsed and died of heart failure at age 40 while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included evangelical author James Dobson. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great." An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.
Maravich died the year after his father's passing and a number of years after his mother, who had died of suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot. Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Legacy
Maravich was survived by his wife Jackie and his sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, and Josh, aged 5. Only the previous year, Maravich had taken Jaeson to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game in Seattle, Washington, and introduced him to Michael Jordan.
Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, not even allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral. However, a proclivity to basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since ... My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing."
Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit that his tutelage might have provided, both sons eventually were inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball—Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.
On June 27, 2014, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed that LSU erect a statue of Maravich outside the Assembly Center, which already bore the basketball star's name. Former coach Dale Brown opposed such a monument, but Maravich's widow, Jackie McLachlan, said that she had been promised a statue after the passing of her husband. McLachlan said that she has noticed how fans struggle to get the Maravich name on the Assembly Center into a camera frame.
In February 2016, the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Maravich be installed on the campus.
A street in Belgrade, Serbia, is named after Pete Maravich.
Memorabilia
Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction. The signed game ball from his career-high 68-point night on February 25, 1977, sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction.
Honors, books, films and music
In 1987, roughly a year before his death, Maravich co-authored an award-winning (Gold Medallion) autobiography with Darrel Campbell titled Heir to a Dream that devoted much focus to his life after retirement from basketball and his later devotion to Christianity.
In 1987, Maravich and Darrel Campbell produced the four-episode basketball instructional video series Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
In 1988, Frank Schroeder and Darrel Campbell produced the documentary based on Pete Maravich's college career titled, Maravich Memories: The LSU Years.
After Maravich's death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially renaming the LSU home court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
In 1991, a biographical film written and produced by Darrel Campbell dramatizing his 8th-grade season entitled The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend was released.
In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History by a panel made up of NBA historians, players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was represented by his two sons at halftime.
In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film debuted on CBS entitled Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.
In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all time.
In 2007, two biographies of Maravich were released: Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill and Pistol by Mark Kriegel. Also in 2007, to promote Mark Kriegel's book "Pistol", Fox Sports conducted a contest to find "Pete Maravich's Biggest Fan". The winner was Scott Pollack of Sunrise, FL.
In 2021, he was named one of the members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team by a panel made up of NBA historians, players and coaches. He was one of the deceased players on the list.
In 1970, during his LSU days, Acapulco Music/The Panama Limited released "The Ballad of Pete Maravich by Bob Tinney and Woody Jenkins.
The Ziggens, a band from Southern California, wrote a song about Maravich entitled "Pistol Pete".
Collegiate awards
The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1970)
USBWA College Player of the Year (1969, 1970)
Naismith Award Winner (1970)
Helms Foundation Player of the Year (1970)
UPI Player of the Year (1970)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1970)
AP College Player of the Year (1970)
The Sporting News All-America First Team (1968, 1969, 1970)
Three-time AP and UPI First-Team All-America (1968, 1969, 1970)
Led the NCAA Division I in scoring with 43.8 ppg (1968); 44.2 (1969) and 44.5 ppg (1970)
Averaged 43.6 ppg on the LSU freshman team (1967)
Scored a career-high 69 points vs. Alabama (); 66 vs. Tulane (); 64 vs. Kentucky (); 61 vs. Vanderbilt ()
Holds LSU records for most field goals made (26) and attempted (57) in a game against Vanderbilt on
All-Southeastern Conference (1968, 1969, 1970)
#23 Jersey retired by LSU (2007)
In 1970, Maravich led LSU to a 20–8 record and a fourth-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament
Collegiate records
Points, career: 3,667 (three seasons)
Highest scoring average, points per game, career: 44.2 (3,667 points/83 games)
Points, season: 1,381 (1970)
Highest scoring average, points per game, season: 44.5 (1,381/31) (1970)
Games scoring 50 or more points, career: 28
Games scoring 50 or more points, season: 10 (1970)
Field goals made, career: 1,387
Field goals made, season: 522 (1970)
Field goal attempts, career: 3,166
Field goal attempts, season: 1,168 (1970)
Free throws made, game: 30 (in 31 attempts), vs. Oregon State,
Tied by Ben Woodside, North Dakota State, on
NBA awards
NBA All-Rookie Team
All-NBA First Team (1976, 1977)
All-NBA Second Team (1973, 1978)
Five-time NBA All-Star (1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Led the league in scoring (31.1 ppg) in 1977, his career best
Scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977
#7 jersey retired by the Utah Jazz (1985)
#7 jersey retired by the Superdome (1988)
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)
#7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) (2002), even though he never played for them—one of only four players to have a number retired by a team they did not play for; Maravich did play professionally for the New Orleans Jazz, however, and has remained a greatly admired figure amongst New Orleans sports fans ever since.
#44 jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks (2017)
NBA records
Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Broken by Vince Carter on
Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls,
Broken by Ben Wallace on
Second pair of teammates in NBA history to score 2,000 or more points in a season: 2, Atlanta Hawks ()
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029
Third pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets,
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.
Ranks 4th in NBA history – Free throws made, none missed, game: 18–18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Ranks 5th in NBA history – Free throws made, game: 23, Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz vs. New York Knicks, (2 OT)
See also
List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders
Further reading
Campbell, Darrel (2019). Hero & Friend: My Days with Pistol Pete. Percussion Films. .
Brown, Danny (2008). Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photographs of Pete Maravich at LSU. Louisiana State University Press
References
External links
NBA Historical Bio
ESPN bio
Pete Maravich's Greatest Achievement
‘68 All College MVP - 4 Days with Pistol Pete
Pete Maravich Bio LSU Tigers Athletics
1947 births
1988 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American evangelicals
American men's basketball players
American people of Serbian descent
Atlanta Hawks draft picks
Atlanta Hawks players
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
Boston Celtics players
College basketball announcers in the United States
LSU Tigers basketball players
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Needham B. Broughton High School alumni
New Orleans Jazz players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
People from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area
Basketball players from Raleigh, North Carolina
Utah Jazz players
| true |
[
"Lucie Šafářová was the defending champion, but did not compete this year.\n\nZheng Jie won the title with the score tied at 1 set all, after her opponent Li Na was forced to retire due to a heat illness. It was the first title of the year for Zheng and the second title in her career.\n\nSeeds\n\nDraw\n\nFinals\n\nTop half\n\nBottom half\n\nReferences\n Main and Qualifying Rounds\n\n2006 Estoril Open",
"Eleni Daniilidou was the defending champion, but did not compete this year.\n\nKim Clijsters won the title after Justine Henin-Hardenne was forced to retire due to a left wrist injury. The score was 6–7(4–7), 3–0.\n\nSeeds\nThe first two seeds received a bye into the second round.\n\nDraw\n\nFinals\n\nTop half\n\nBottom half\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n Official results archive (ITF)\n Official results archive (WTA)\n\nWomen's Singles\nSingles"
] |
[
"Pete Maravich",
"Final season",
"What was the final season?",
"The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but",
"What happened with the Jazz?",
"He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule",
"What was the coaches rule?",
"had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games,",
"When did he finally get to play with the Jazz?",
"games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.",
"How long did he play in Utah?",
"The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird.",
"How long did he play with the Celtics?",
"Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a \"hired gun\" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season,",
"How did they do in the post season?",
"And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season.",
"What year did he retire?",
"In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans,"
] |
C_c3c6a8aff42e42bb97e70c248b3446f9_0
|
Did he give a speech at his induction?
| 10 |
Did Pete Maravich give a speech at his induction?
|
Pete Maravich
|
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player. The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one. Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 67% completion rate behind the arc. During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks. CANNOTANSWER
|
CANNOTANSWER
|
Peter Press Maravich (; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in the Carolinas. Maravich starred in college with the LSU Tigers while playing for his father, head coach Press Maravich. He is the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. All of his accomplishments were achieved before the adoption of the three-point line and shot clock, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. He played for three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980 following a 10-year professional career.
One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was considered to be one of the greatest creative offensive talents ever and one of the best ball handlers of all time. He died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game in 1988 as a consequence of an undetected heart defect.
Early life
Maravich was born to Peter "Press" Maravich (1915–1987) and Helen Gravor Maravich (1925–1974) in Aliquippa, a steel town in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Maravich's father was the son of Serbian immigrants and a professional player–turned-coach. He showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long-range shots.
Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the school's first-ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University. The Maravich family's subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Maravich to attend Needham B. Broughton High School. His high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, where he averaged 33 points per game. Maravich never liked school and did not like Edwards Military Institute. It was known that Press Maravich was extremely protective of Maravich and would guard against any issue that might come up during his adolescence. Press threatened to shoot Maravich with a 45 caliber pistol if he drank or got into trouble. Maravich was 6 feet 4 inches in high school and was getting ready to play in college when his father took a coaching position at Louisiana State University.
College career
At that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.
In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6'5" (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.
Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:
First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.
Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range." It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game. And 12 Three Pointer per game.
Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)
More than 50 years later, however, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival. Maravich finished his college career in the 1970 National Invitation Tournament, where LSU finished fourth.
NCAA career statistics
Freshman
At this time, freshmen did not play on the varsity team and these stats do not count in the NCAA record books.
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1966–67
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 19 || 19 || ... || .452 || ... || .833 || 10.4 || ... || ... || ... || 43.6
Varsity
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1967–68
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .423 || ... || .811 || 7.5 || 4.0 || ... || ... || 43.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1968–69
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .444 || ... || .746 || 6.5 || 4.9 || ... || ... || 44.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1969–70
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 31 || 31 || ... || .447 || ... || .773 || 5.3 || 6.2 || ... || ... || 44.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" colspan=2|Career
| 83 || 83 || ... || .438 || ... || .775 || 6.5 || 5.1 || ... || ... || 44.2
Professional career
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks selected Maravich with the third pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA draft, where he played for coach Richie Guerin. He was not a natural fit in Atlanta, as the Hawks already boasted a top-notch scorer at the guard position in Lou Hudson. In fact, Maravich's flamboyant style stood in stark contrast to the conservative play of Hudson and star center Walt Bellamy. And it did not help that many of the veteran players resented the $1.9 million contract that Maravich received from the team—a very large salary at that time.
Maravich appeared in 81 games and averaged 23.2 points per contest—good enough to earn NBA All-Rookie Team honors. And he managed to blend his style with his teammates, so much so that Hudson set a career high by scoring 26.8 points per game. But the team stumbled to a 36–46 record—12 wins fewer than in the previous season. Still, the Hawks qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
Maravich struggled somewhat during his second season. His scoring average dipped to 19.3 points per game, and the Hawks finished with another disappointing 36–46 record. Once again they qualified for the playoffs, and once again they were eliminated in the first round. However, Atlanta fought hard against the Boston Celtics, with Maravich averaging 27.7 points in the series.
Maravich erupted in his third season, averaging 26.1 points (5th in the NBA) and dishing out 6.9 assists per game (6th in the NBA). With 2,063 points, he combined with Hudson (2,029 points) to become only the second set of teammates in league history to each score over 2,000 points in a single season. The Hawks soared to a 46–36 record, but again bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. However, the season was good enough to earn Maravich his first-ever appearance in the NBA All-Star Game, and also All-NBA Second Team honors.
The following season (1973–74) was his best yet—at least in terms of individual accomplishments. Maravich posted 27.7 points per game—second in the league behind Bob McAdoo—and earned his second appearance in the All-Star Game. However, Atlanta sank to a disappointing 35–47 record and missed the postseason entirely.
New Orleans Jazz
In the summer of 1974, an expansion franchise was preparing for its first season of competition in the NBA. The New Orleans Jazz were looking for something or someone to generate excitement among their new basketball fans. With his exciting style of play, Maravich was seen as the perfect man for the job. Additionally, he was already a celebrity in the state due to his accomplishments at LSU. To acquire Maravich, the Jazz traded two players and four draft picks to Atlanta.
The expansion team struggled mightily in its first season. Maravich managed to score 21.5 points per game, but shot a career-worst 41.9 percent from the floor. The Jazz posted a 23–59 record, worst in the NBA.
Jazz management did its best to give Maravich a better supporting cast. The team posted a 38–44 record in its second season (1975–76) but did not qualify for postseason play, despite the dramatic improvement. Maravich struggled with injuries that limited him to just 62 games that season, but he averaged 25.9 points per contest (third behind McAdoo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and continued his crowd-pleasing antics. He was elected to the All-NBA First Team that year.
The following season (1976–77) was his most productive in the NBA. He led the league in scoring with an average of 31.1 points per game. He scored 40 points or more in 13 games, and 50 or more in 4 games. His 68-point masterpiece against the Knicks was at the time the most points ever scored by a guard in a single game, and only two players at any position had ever scored more: Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. Baylor was head coach of the Jazz at that time.
Maravich earned his third all-star game appearance and was honored as All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season.
The following season, injuries to both knees forced him to miss 32 games during the 1977–78 season. Despite being robbed of some quickness and athleticism, he still managed to score 27.0 points per game, and he also added 6.7 assists per contest, his highest average as a member of the Jazz. Many of those assists went to new teammate Truck Robinson, who had joined the franchise as a free agent during the off-season. In his first year in New Orleans, he averaged 22.7 points and a league-best 15.7 rebounds per game. His presence prevented opponents from focusing their defensive efforts entirely on Maravich, and it lifted the Jazz to a 39–43 record—just short of making the club's first-ever appearance in the playoffs.
Knee problems plagued Maravich for the rest of his career. He played in just 49 games during the 1978–79 season. He scored 22.6 points per game that season and earned his fifth and final All-Star appearance. But his scoring and passing abilities were severely impaired. The team struggled on the court, and faced serious financial trouble as well. Management became desperate to make some changes. The Jazz traded Robinson to the Phoenix Suns, receiving draft picks and some cash in return. However, in 1979, team owner Sam Battistone moved the Jazz to Salt Lake City.
Final season
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979–80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.
The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61–21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one.
Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 66.7% completion rate behind the arc.
During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1970–71
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 81 || ... || 36.1 || .458 || ... || .800 || 3.7 || 4.4 || ... || ... || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971–72
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 66 || ... || 34.9 || .427 || ... || .811 || 3.9 || 6.0 || ... || ... || 19.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972–73
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 79 || ... || 39.1 || .441 || ... || .800 || 4.4 || 6.9 || ... || ... || 26.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973–74
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 76 || ... || 38.2 || .457 || ... || .826 || 4.9 || 5.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1974–75
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 79 || ... || 36.1 || .419 || ... || .811 || 5.3 || 6.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 21.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1975–76
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 62 || ... || 38.3 || .459|| ... || .811 || 4.8 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .4 || 25.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1976–77
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 73 || ... || 41.7 || .433 || ... || .835 || 5.1 || 5.4 || 1.2 || .3 ||style="background:#cfecec;"| 31.1*
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1977–78
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 50 || ... || 40.8 || .444 || ... || .870 || 3.6 || 6.7 || 2.0 || .2 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1978–79
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 49 || ... || 37.2 || .421 || ... || .841 || 2.5 || 5.0 || 1.2 || .4 || 22.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Utah
| 17 || ... || 30.7 || .412 || .636 || .820 || 2.4 || 3.2 || .9 || .2 || 17.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 26 || 4 || 17.0 || .494 || .750 ||.909 || 1.5 || 1.1 || .3 || .1 || 11.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 658 || ... || 37.0 || .441 || .667 || .820 || 4.2 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .3 || 24.2
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star
| 4 || 4 || 19.8 || .409 || ... || .778 || 2.0 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 10.8
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 5 || ... || 39.8 || .377 || ... || .692 || 5.2 || 4.8 || ... || ... || 22.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 36.5 || .446 || ... || .817 || 5.3 || 4.7 || ... || ... || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 39.0 || .419 || ... || .794 || 4.8 || 6.7 || ... || ... || 26.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1980
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 9 || ... || 11.6 || .490 || .333 || .667 || .9 || .7 || .3 || .0 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
| 26 || ... || 29.1 || .423 || .333 || .784 || 3.6 || 3.8 || ... || ... || 18.7
|-
Later life and death
After injuries forced his retirement from the game in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life". He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics, adopting a vegetarian diet in 1982. Eventually, he became a born-again Christian, embracing evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that serves Him [Jesus] to the utmost, not as a basketball player."
On January 5, 1988, Maravich collapsed and died of heart failure at age 40 while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included evangelical author James Dobson. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great." An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.
Maravich died the year after his father's passing and a number of years after his mother, who had died of suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot. Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Legacy
Maravich was survived by his wife Jackie and his sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, and Josh, aged 5. Only the previous year, Maravich had taken Jaeson to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game in Seattle, Washington, and introduced him to Michael Jordan.
Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, not even allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral. However, a proclivity to basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since ... My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing."
Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit that his tutelage might have provided, both sons eventually were inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball—Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.
On June 27, 2014, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed that LSU erect a statue of Maravich outside the Assembly Center, which already bore the basketball star's name. Former coach Dale Brown opposed such a monument, but Maravich's widow, Jackie McLachlan, said that she had been promised a statue after the passing of her husband. McLachlan said that she has noticed how fans struggle to get the Maravich name on the Assembly Center into a camera frame.
In February 2016, the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Maravich be installed on the campus.
A street in Belgrade, Serbia, is named after Pete Maravich.
Memorabilia
Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction. The signed game ball from his career-high 68-point night on February 25, 1977, sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction.
Honors, books, films and music
In 1987, roughly a year before his death, Maravich co-authored an award-winning (Gold Medallion) autobiography with Darrel Campbell titled Heir to a Dream that devoted much focus to his life after retirement from basketball and his later devotion to Christianity.
In 1987, Maravich and Darrel Campbell produced the four-episode basketball instructional video series Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
In 1988, Frank Schroeder and Darrel Campbell produced the documentary based on Pete Maravich's college career titled, Maravich Memories: The LSU Years.
After Maravich's death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially renaming the LSU home court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
In 1991, a biographical film written and produced by Darrel Campbell dramatizing his 8th-grade season entitled The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend was released.
In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History by a panel made up of NBA historians, players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was represented by his two sons at halftime.
In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film debuted on CBS entitled Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.
In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all time.
In 2007, two biographies of Maravich were released: Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill and Pistol by Mark Kriegel. Also in 2007, to promote Mark Kriegel's book "Pistol", Fox Sports conducted a contest to find "Pete Maravich's Biggest Fan". The winner was Scott Pollack of Sunrise, FL.
In 2021, he was named one of the members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team by a panel made up of NBA historians, players and coaches. He was one of the deceased players on the list.
In 1970, during his LSU days, Acapulco Music/The Panama Limited released "The Ballad of Pete Maravich by Bob Tinney and Woody Jenkins.
The Ziggens, a band from Southern California, wrote a song about Maravich entitled "Pistol Pete".
Collegiate awards
The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1970)
USBWA College Player of the Year (1969, 1970)
Naismith Award Winner (1970)
Helms Foundation Player of the Year (1970)
UPI Player of the Year (1970)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1970)
AP College Player of the Year (1970)
The Sporting News All-America First Team (1968, 1969, 1970)
Three-time AP and UPI First-Team All-America (1968, 1969, 1970)
Led the NCAA Division I in scoring with 43.8 ppg (1968); 44.2 (1969) and 44.5 ppg (1970)
Averaged 43.6 ppg on the LSU freshman team (1967)
Scored a career-high 69 points vs. Alabama (); 66 vs. Tulane (); 64 vs. Kentucky (); 61 vs. Vanderbilt ()
Holds LSU records for most field goals made (26) and attempted (57) in a game against Vanderbilt on
All-Southeastern Conference (1968, 1969, 1970)
#23 Jersey retired by LSU (2007)
In 1970, Maravich led LSU to a 20–8 record and a fourth-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament
Collegiate records
Points, career: 3,667 (three seasons)
Highest scoring average, points per game, career: 44.2 (3,667 points/83 games)
Points, season: 1,381 (1970)
Highest scoring average, points per game, season: 44.5 (1,381/31) (1970)
Games scoring 50 or more points, career: 28
Games scoring 50 or more points, season: 10 (1970)
Field goals made, career: 1,387
Field goals made, season: 522 (1970)
Field goal attempts, career: 3,166
Field goal attempts, season: 1,168 (1970)
Free throws made, game: 30 (in 31 attempts), vs. Oregon State,
Tied by Ben Woodside, North Dakota State, on
NBA awards
NBA All-Rookie Team
All-NBA First Team (1976, 1977)
All-NBA Second Team (1973, 1978)
Five-time NBA All-Star (1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Led the league in scoring (31.1 ppg) in 1977, his career best
Scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977
#7 jersey retired by the Utah Jazz (1985)
#7 jersey retired by the Superdome (1988)
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)
#7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) (2002), even though he never played for them—one of only four players to have a number retired by a team they did not play for; Maravich did play professionally for the New Orleans Jazz, however, and has remained a greatly admired figure amongst New Orleans sports fans ever since.
#44 jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks (2017)
NBA records
Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Broken by Vince Carter on
Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls,
Broken by Ben Wallace on
Second pair of teammates in NBA history to score 2,000 or more points in a season: 2, Atlanta Hawks ()
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029
Third pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets,
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.
Ranks 4th in NBA history – Free throws made, none missed, game: 18–18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Ranks 5th in NBA history – Free throws made, game: 23, Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz vs. New York Knicks, (2 OT)
See also
List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders
Further reading
Campbell, Darrel (2019). Hero & Friend: My Days with Pistol Pete. Percussion Films. .
Brown, Danny (2008). Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photographs of Pete Maravich at LSU. Louisiana State University Press
References
External links
NBA Historical Bio
ESPN bio
Pete Maravich's Greatest Achievement
‘68 All College MVP - 4 Days with Pistol Pete
Pete Maravich Bio LSU Tigers Athletics
1947 births
1988 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American evangelicals
American men's basketball players
American people of Serbian descent
Atlanta Hawks draft picks
Atlanta Hawks players
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
Boston Celtics players
College basketball announcers in the United States
LSU Tigers basketball players
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Needham B. Broughton High School alumni
New Orleans Jazz players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
People from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area
Basketball players from Raleigh, North Carolina
Utah Jazz players
| false |
[
"Mehryar Mohri is a professor of computer science at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University known for his work in machine learning, automata theory and algorithms, speech recognition and natural language processing. He is also an Engineering Director at Google and heads the Learning Theory team at Google Research.\n\nHe received his B.S from École Polytechnique (1987), his M.S. in computer science and applied mathematics from École Normale Supérieure (1989) and his Ph.D. in 1993 from the University of Paris 7 Denis Diderot. Prior to joining the Courant Institute in 2004, Mohri worked for ten years at Bell Labs and AT&T Labs, where he was Head of the Speech Algorithms Department.\n\nMohri's main areas of research are machine learning, theory, computational biology,\nand text and speech processing. He is\nthe author of many core weighted automata and finite state transducer algorithms and pioneered the application of weighted finite state transducers (WFSTs) to speech recognition and natural language processing with his colleagues at AT&T.\n\nAt the Eurospeech 2001 conference in Aalborg, a paper by Mohri and Michael Riley, “Network Optimizations for Large-Vocabulary Speech Recognition,” was given an award by the International Speech Communication Association as “the best paper published in Speech Communications during 1998-2000.” His work with Brian Roark, “Probabilistic Context-Free Grammar Induction Based on Structural Zeros,” won a best paper award at HLT-NAACL 2006. Mohri is Editorial Board member of Machine Learning and member of the advisory board for the Journal of Automata, Languages and Combinatorics.\n\nReferences\n\nAmerican computer scientists\nCourant Institute of Mathematical Sciences faculty\nUniversity of Paris alumni\nYear of birth missing (living people)\nLiving people\nMachine learning researchers\nAmerican people of Iranian descent\nNatural language processing researchers",
"\"No Speech\" is a 2000 song by German rock band Guano Apes. It was released their second single from their second album Don't Give Me Names on 24 July 2000. The music video shows the band performing inside a truck.\n\nTrack listing\n\nCD single\nNo Speech - 3:29\nOpen Your Eyes (Live at Viva Overdrive Studios, 14 April 2000) - 3:19\nNo Speech (Live at Viva Overdrive Studios, 14 April 2000) - 3:50\n\nCD single 2\nNo Speech - 3:29\nOpen Your Eyes (Live at Viva Overdrive Studios, 14 April 2000) - 3:19\nMine All Mine (Live at Viva Overdrive Studios, 14 April 2000) - 3:43\nNo Speech (Live at Viva Overdrive Studios, 14 April 2000) - 3:50\n\nPromo single\nNo Speech - 3:29\nOpen Your Eyes (Live at Viva Overdrive Studios, 14 April 2000) - 3:19\n\nPromo single 2\nNo Speech - 3:29\nMine All Mine - 3:48\nAin't Got Time - 2:42\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2000 singles\nGuano Apes songs\n1999 songs"
] |
[
"Pete Maravich",
"Final season",
"What was the final season?",
"The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but",
"What happened with the Jazz?",
"He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule",
"What was the coaches rule?",
"had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games,",
"When did he finally get to play with the Jazz?",
"games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.",
"How long did he play in Utah?",
"The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird.",
"How long did he play with the Celtics?",
"Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a \"hired gun\" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season,",
"How did they do in the post season?",
"And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs.",
"Are there any other interesting aspects about this article?",
"Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season.",
"What year did he retire?",
"In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans,",
"Did he give a speech at his induction?",
"I don't know."
] |
C_c3c6a8aff42e42bb97e70c248b3446f9_0
|
What else did he do during his career?
| 11 |
What else did Pete Maravich do during his career besides playing for Celtics and Utah?
|
Pete Maravich
|
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979-80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player. The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61-21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one. Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 67% completion rate behind the arc. During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks. CANNOTANSWER
|
Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest.
|
Peter Press Maravich (; June 22, 1947 – January 5, 1988), known by his nickname Pistol Pete, was an American professional basketball player. Maravich was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, and raised in the Carolinas. Maravich starred in college with the LSU Tigers while playing for his father, head coach Press Maravich. He is the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. All of his accomplishments were achieved before the adoption of the three-point line and shot clock, and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. He played for three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980 following a 10-year professional career.
One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was considered to be one of the greatest creative offensive talents ever and one of the best ball handlers of all time. He died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game in 1988 as a consequence of an undetected heart defect.
Early life
Maravich was born to Peter "Press" Maravich (1915–1987) and Helen Gravor Maravich (1925–1974) in Aliquippa, a steel town in Beaver County in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father-son relationship that motivated him toward achievement and fame in the sport. Maravich's father was the son of Serbian immigrants and a professional player–turned-coach. He showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, and long-range shots.
Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the school's first-ever game against a team from an all-black school. In 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University. The Maravich family's subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Maravich to attend Needham B. Broughton High School. His high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if holding a revolver, Maravich became known as "Pistol" Pete Maravich. He graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, where he averaged 33 points per game. Maravich never liked school and did not like Edwards Military Institute. It was known that Press Maravich was extremely protective of Maravich and would guard against any issue that might come up during his adolescence. Press threatened to shoot Maravich with a 45 caliber pistol if he drank or got into trouble. Maravich was 6 feet 4 inches in high school and was getting ready to play in college when his father took a coaching position at Louisiana State University.
College career
At that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College.
In only three years playing on the varsity team (and under his father's coaching) at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1967–68, 1,148 in 1968–69, and 1,381 in 1969–70—while averaging 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game, respectively. For his collegiate career, the 6'5" (1.96 m) guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests and led the NCAA in scoring for each of his three seasons.
Maravich's long-standing collegiate scoring record is particularly notable when three factors are taken into account:
First, because of the NCAA rules that prohibited him from taking part in varsity competition during his first year as a student, Maravich was prevented from adding to his career record for a full quarter of his time at LSU. During this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition.
Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line. This significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN.com, Bob Carter stated, "Though Maravich played before [...] the 3-point shot was established, he loved gunning from long range." It has been reported that former LSU coach Dale Brown charted every shot Maravich scored and concluded that, if his shots from three-point range had been counted as three points, Maravich's average would have totaled 57 points per game. And 12 Three Pointer per game.
Third, the shot clock had also not yet been instituted in NCAA play during Maravich's college career. (A time limit on ball possession speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stalling, and increases the number of possessions throughout the game, all resulting in higher overall scoring.)
More than 50 years later, however, many of his NCAA and LSU records still stand. Maravich was a three-time All-American. Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival. Maravich finished his college career in the 1970 National Invitation Tournament, where LSU finished fourth.
NCAA career statistics
Freshman
At this time, freshmen did not play on the varsity team and these stats do not count in the NCAA record books.
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1966–67
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 19 || 19 || ... || .452 || ... || .833 || 10.4 || ... || ... || ... || 43.6
Varsity
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1967–68
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .423 || ... || .811 || 7.5 || 4.0 || ... || ... || 43.8
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1968–69
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 26 || 26 || ... || .444 || ... || .746 || 6.5 || 4.9 || ... || ... || 44.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1969–70
| style="text-align:left;"| Louisiana State
| 31 || 31 || ... || .447 || ... || .773 || 5.3 || 6.2 || ... || ... || 44.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;" colspan=2|Career
| 83 || 83 || ... || .438 || ... || .775 || 6.5 || 5.1 || ... || ... || 44.2
Professional career
Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks selected Maravich with the third pick in the first round of the 1970 NBA draft, where he played for coach Richie Guerin. He was not a natural fit in Atlanta, as the Hawks already boasted a top-notch scorer at the guard position in Lou Hudson. In fact, Maravich's flamboyant style stood in stark contrast to the conservative play of Hudson and star center Walt Bellamy. And it did not help that many of the veteran players resented the $1.9 million contract that Maravich received from the team—a very large salary at that time.
Maravich appeared in 81 games and averaged 23.2 points per contest—good enough to earn NBA All-Rookie Team honors. And he managed to blend his style with his teammates, so much so that Hudson set a career high by scoring 26.8 points per game. But the team stumbled to a 36–46 record—12 wins fewer than in the previous season. Still, the Hawks qualified for the playoffs, where they lost to the New York Knicks in the first round.
Maravich struggled somewhat during his second season. His scoring average dipped to 19.3 points per game, and the Hawks finished with another disappointing 36–46 record. Once again they qualified for the playoffs, and once again they were eliminated in the first round. However, Atlanta fought hard against the Boston Celtics, with Maravich averaging 27.7 points in the series.
Maravich erupted in his third season, averaging 26.1 points (5th in the NBA) and dishing out 6.9 assists per game (6th in the NBA). With 2,063 points, he combined with Hudson (2,029 points) to become only the second set of teammates in league history to each score over 2,000 points in a single season. The Hawks soared to a 46–36 record, but again bowed out in the first round of the playoffs. However, the season was good enough to earn Maravich his first-ever appearance in the NBA All-Star Game, and also All-NBA Second Team honors.
The following season (1973–74) was his best yet—at least in terms of individual accomplishments. Maravich posted 27.7 points per game—second in the league behind Bob McAdoo—and earned his second appearance in the All-Star Game. However, Atlanta sank to a disappointing 35–47 record and missed the postseason entirely.
New Orleans Jazz
In the summer of 1974, an expansion franchise was preparing for its first season of competition in the NBA. The New Orleans Jazz were looking for something or someone to generate excitement among their new basketball fans. With his exciting style of play, Maravich was seen as the perfect man for the job. Additionally, he was already a celebrity in the state due to his accomplishments at LSU. To acquire Maravich, the Jazz traded two players and four draft picks to Atlanta.
The expansion team struggled mightily in its first season. Maravich managed to score 21.5 points per game, but shot a career-worst 41.9 percent from the floor. The Jazz posted a 23–59 record, worst in the NBA.
Jazz management did its best to give Maravich a better supporting cast. The team posted a 38–44 record in its second season (1975–76) but did not qualify for postseason play, despite the dramatic improvement. Maravich struggled with injuries that limited him to just 62 games that season, but he averaged 25.9 points per contest (third behind McAdoo and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and continued his crowd-pleasing antics. He was elected to the All-NBA First Team that year.
The following season (1976–77) was his most productive in the NBA. He led the league in scoring with an average of 31.1 points per game. He scored 40 points or more in 13 games, and 50 or more in 4 games. His 68-point masterpiece against the Knicks was at the time the most points ever scored by a guard in a single game, and only two players at any position had ever scored more: Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor. Baylor was head coach of the Jazz at that time.
Maravich earned his third all-star game appearance and was honored as All-NBA First Team for the second consecutive season.
The following season, injuries to both knees forced him to miss 32 games during the 1977–78 season. Despite being robbed of some quickness and athleticism, he still managed to score 27.0 points per game, and he also added 6.7 assists per contest, his highest average as a member of the Jazz. Many of those assists went to new teammate Truck Robinson, who had joined the franchise as a free agent during the off-season. In his first year in New Orleans, he averaged 22.7 points and a league-best 15.7 rebounds per game. His presence prevented opponents from focusing their defensive efforts entirely on Maravich, and it lifted the Jazz to a 39–43 record—just short of making the club's first-ever appearance in the playoffs.
Knee problems plagued Maravich for the rest of his career. He played in just 49 games during the 1978–79 season. He scored 22.6 points per game that season and earned his fifth and final All-Star appearance. But his scoring and passing abilities were severely impaired. The team struggled on the court, and faced serious financial trouble as well. Management became desperate to make some changes. The Jazz traded Robinson to the Phoenix Suns, receiving draft picks and some cash in return. However, in 1979, team owner Sam Battistone moved the Jazz to Salt Lake City.
Final season
The Utah Jazz began play in the 1979–80 season. Maravich moved with the team to Salt Lake City, but his knee problems were worse than ever. He appeared in 17 games early in the season, but his injuries prevented him from practicing much, and new coach Tom Nissalke had a strict rule that players who didn't practice were not allowed to play in games. Thus, Maravich was parked on the bench for 24 straight games, much to the dismay of Utah fans and to Maravich himself. During that time, Adrian Dantley emerged as the team's franchise player.
The Jazz placed Maravich on waivers in January 1980. He signed with the Celtics, the top team in the league that year, led by rookie superstar Larry Bird. Maravich adjusted to a new role as part-time contributor, giving Boston a "hired gun" off the bench. He helped the team post a 61–21 record in the regular season, best in the league. And, for the first time since his early career in Atlanta, Maravich was able to participate in the NBA playoffs. He appeared in nine games during that postseason, but the Celtics were upended by Julius Erving and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Eastern Conference finals, four games to one.
Realizing that his knee problems would never go away, Maravich retired at the end of that season. The NBA instituted the 3-point shot just in time for Maravich's last season in the league. He had always been famous for his long-range shooting, and his final year provided an official statistical gauge of his abilities. Between his limited playing time in Utah and Boston, he made 10 of 15 3-point shots, giving him a career 66.7% completion rate behind the arc.
During his ten-year career in the NBA, Maravich played in 658 games, averaging 24.2 points and 5.4 assists per contest. In 1987, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, and his No. 7 jersey has been retired by both the Jazz and the New Orleans Pelicans, as well as his No. 44 jersey by the Atlanta Hawks.
NBA career statistics
Regular season
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1970–71
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 81 || ... || 36.1 || .458 || ... || .800 || 3.7 || 4.4 || ... || ... || 23.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971–72
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 66 || ... || 34.9 || .427 || ... || .811 || 3.9 || 6.0 || ... || ... || 19.3
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972–73
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 79 || ... || 39.1 || .441 || ... || .800 || 4.4 || 6.9 || ... || ... || 26.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973–74
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 76 || ... || 38.2 || .457 || ... || .826 || 4.9 || 5.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1974–75
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 79 || ... || 36.1 || .419 || ... || .811 || 5.3 || 6.2 || 1.5 || .2 || 21.5
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1975–76
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 62 || ... || 38.3 || .459|| ... || .811 || 4.8 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .4 || 25.9
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1976–77
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 73 || ... || 41.7 || .433 || ... || .835 || 5.1 || 5.4 || 1.2 || .3 ||style="background:#cfecec;"| 31.1*
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1977–78
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 50 || ... || 40.8 || .444 || ... || .870 || 3.6 || 6.7 || 2.0 || .2 || 27.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1978–79
| style="text-align:left;"| New Orleans
| 49 || ... || 37.2 || .421 || ... || .841 || 2.5 || 5.0 || 1.2 || .4 || 22.6
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Utah
| 17 || ... || 30.7 || .412 || .636 || .820 || 2.4 || 3.2 || .9 || .2 || 17.1
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1979–80
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 26 || 4 || 17.0 || .494 || .750 ||.909 || 1.5 || 1.1 || .3 || .1 || 11.5
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career
| 658 || ... || 37.0 || .441 || .667 || .820 || 4.2 || 5.4 || 1.4 || .3 || 24.2
|- class="sortbottom"
| style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| All-Star
| 4 || 4 || 19.8 || .409 || ... || .778 || 2.0 || 3.8 || 1.0 || 0.0 || 10.8
Playoffs
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1971
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 5 || ... || 39.8 || .377 || ... || .692 || 5.2 || 4.8 || ... || ... || 22.0
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1972
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 36.5 || .446 || ... || .817 || 5.3 || 4.7 || ... || ... || 27.7
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1973
| style="text-align:left;"| Atlanta
| 6 || ... || 39.0 || .419 || ... || .794 || 4.8 || 6.7 || ... || ... || 26.2
|-
| style="text-align:left;"| 1980
| style="text-align:left;"| Boston
| 9 || ... || 11.6 || .490 || .333 || .667 || .9 || .7 || .3 || .0 || 6.0
|-
| style="text-align:center;" colspan=2|Career
| 26 || ... || 29.1 || .423 || .333 || .784 || 3.6 || 3.8 || ... || ... || 18.7
|-
Later life and death
After injuries forced his retirement from the game in the fall of 1980, Maravich became a recluse for two years. Through it all, Maravich said he was searching "for life". He tried the practices of yoga and Hinduism, read Trappist monk Thomas Merton's The Seven Storey Mountain and took an interest in the field of ufology, the study of unidentified flying objects. He also explored vegetarianism and macrobiotics, adopting a vegetarian diet in 1982. Eventually, he became a born-again Christian, embracing evangelical Christianity. A few years before his death, Maravich said, "I want to be remembered as a Christian, a person that serves Him [Jesus] to the utmost, not as a basketball player."
On January 5, 1988, Maravich collapsed and died of heart failure at age 40 while playing in a pickup basketball game in the gym at First Church of the Nazarene in Pasadena, California, with a group that included evangelical author James Dobson. Maravich had flown out from his home in Louisiana to tape a segment for Dobson's radio show that aired later that day. Dobson has said that Maravich's last words, less than a minute before he died, were "I feel great." An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be a rare congenital defect; he had been born with a missing left coronary artery, a vessel that supplies blood to the muscle fibers of the heart. His right coronary artery was grossly enlarged and had been compensating for the defect.
Maravich died the year after his father's passing and a number of years after his mother, who had died of suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot. Maravich is buried at Resthaven Gardens of Memory and Mausoleum in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Legacy
Maravich was survived by his wife Jackie and his sons Jaeson, who was 8 years old at the time of his death, and Josh, aged 5. Only the previous year, Maravich had taken Jaeson to the 1987 NBA All-Star Game in Seattle, Washington, and introduced him to Michael Jordan.
Since Maravich's children were very young when he died, Jackie Maravich initially shielded them from unwanted media attention, not even allowing Jaeson and Josh to attend their father's funeral. However, a proclivity to basketball seemed to be an inherited trait. During a 2003 interview, Jaeson told USA Today that, when he was still only a toddler, "My dad passed me a (Nerf) basketball, and I've been hooked ever since ... My dad said I shot and missed, and I got mad and I kept shooting. He said his dad told him he did the same thing."
Despite some setbacks coping with their father's death and without the benefit that his tutelage might have provided, both sons eventually were inspired to play high school and collegiate basketball—Josh at his father's alma mater, LSU.
On June 27, 2014, Governor Bobby Jindal proposed that LSU erect a statue of Maravich outside the Assembly Center, which already bore the basketball star's name. Former coach Dale Brown opposed such a monument, but Maravich's widow, Jackie McLachlan, said that she had been promised a statue after the passing of her husband. McLachlan said that she has noticed how fans struggle to get the Maravich name on the Assembly Center into a camera frame.
In February 2016, the LSU Athletic Hall of Fame Committee unanimously approved a proposal that a statue honoring Maravich be installed on the campus.
A street in Belgrade, Serbia, is named after Pete Maravich.
Memorabilia
Maravich's untimely death and mystique have made memorabilia associated with him among the most highly prized of any basketball collectibles. Game-used Maravich jerseys bring more money at auction than similar items from anybody other than George Mikan, with the most common items selling for $10,000 and up and a game-used LSU jersey selling for $94,300 in a 2001 Grey Flannel auction. The signed game ball from his career-high 68-point night on February 25, 1977, sold for $131,450 in a 2009 Heritage auction.
Honors, books, films and music
In 1987, roughly a year before his death, Maravich co-authored an award-winning (Gold Medallion) autobiography with Darrel Campbell titled Heir to a Dream that devoted much focus to his life after retirement from basketball and his later devotion to Christianity.
In 1987, Maravich and Darrel Campbell produced the four-episode basketball instructional video series Pistol Pete's Homework Basketball.
In 1988, Frank Schroeder and Darrel Campbell produced the documentary based on Pete Maravich's college career titled, Maravich Memories: The LSU Years.
After Maravich's death, Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer signed a proclamation officially renaming the LSU home court the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
In 1991, a biographical film written and produced by Darrel Campbell dramatizing his 8th-grade season entitled The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend was released.
In 1996, he was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History by a panel made up of NBA historians, players, and coaches. He was the only deceased player on the list. At the 1997 All-Star Game in Cleveland, he was represented by his two sons at halftime.
In 2001, a comprehensive 90-minute documentary film debuted on CBS entitled Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich.
In 2005, ESPNU named Maravich the greatest college basketball player of all time.
In 2007, two biographies of Maravich were released: Maravich by Wayne Federman and Marshall Terrill and Pistol by Mark Kriegel. Also in 2007, to promote Mark Kriegel's book "Pistol", Fox Sports conducted a contest to find "Pete Maravich's Biggest Fan". The winner was Scott Pollack of Sunrise, FL.
In 2021, he was named one of the members of the NBA 75th Anniversary Team by a panel made up of NBA historians, players and coaches. He was one of the deceased players on the list.
In 1970, during his LSU days, Acapulco Music/The Panama Limited released "The Ballad of Pete Maravich by Bob Tinney and Woody Jenkins.
The Ziggens, a band from Southern California, wrote a song about Maravich entitled "Pistol Pete".
Collegiate awards
The Sporting News College Player of the Year (1970)
USBWA College Player of the Year (1969, 1970)
Naismith Award Winner (1970)
Helms Foundation Player of the Year (1970)
UPI Player of the Year (1970)
Sporting News Player of the Year (1970)
AP College Player of the Year (1970)
The Sporting News All-America First Team (1968, 1969, 1970)
Three-time AP and UPI First-Team All-America (1968, 1969, 1970)
Led the NCAA Division I in scoring with 43.8 ppg (1968); 44.2 (1969) and 44.5 ppg (1970)
Averaged 43.6 ppg on the LSU freshman team (1967)
Scored a career-high 69 points vs. Alabama (); 66 vs. Tulane (); 64 vs. Kentucky (); 61 vs. Vanderbilt ()
Holds LSU records for most field goals made (26) and attempted (57) in a game against Vanderbilt on
All-Southeastern Conference (1968, 1969, 1970)
#23 Jersey retired by LSU (2007)
In 1970, Maravich led LSU to a 20–8 record and a fourth-place finish in the National Invitation Tournament
Collegiate records
Points, career: 3,667 (three seasons)
Highest scoring average, points per game, career: 44.2 (3,667 points/83 games)
Points, season: 1,381 (1970)
Highest scoring average, points per game, season: 44.5 (1,381/31) (1970)
Games scoring 50 or more points, career: 28
Games scoring 50 or more points, season: 10 (1970)
Field goals made, career: 1,387
Field goals made, season: 522 (1970)
Field goal attempts, career: 3,166
Field goal attempts, season: 1,168 (1970)
Free throws made, game: 30 (in 31 attempts), vs. Oregon State,
Tied by Ben Woodside, North Dakota State, on
NBA awards
NBA All-Rookie Team
All-NBA First Team (1976, 1977)
All-NBA Second Team (1973, 1978)
Five-time NBA All-Star (1973, 1974, 1977, 1978, 1979)
Led the league in scoring (31.1 ppg) in 1977, his career best
Scored a career-high 68 points against the New York Knicks on February 25, 1977
#7 jersey retired by the Utah Jazz (1985)
#7 jersey retired by the Superdome (1988)
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996)
NBA 75th Anniversary Team (2021)
#7 jersey retired by the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans) (2002), even though he never played for them—one of only four players to have a number retired by a team they did not play for; Maravich did play professionally for the New Orleans Jazz, however, and has remained a greatly admired figure amongst New Orleans sports fans ever since.
#44 jersey retired by the Atlanta Hawks (2017)
NBA records
Free throws made, quarter: 14, Pete Maravich, third quarter, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Broken by Vince Carter on
Free throw attempts, quarter: 16, Pete Maravich, second quarter, Atlanta Hawks at Chicago Bulls,
Broken by Ben Wallace on
Second pair of teammates in NBA history to score 2,000 or more points in a season: 2, Atlanta Hawks ()
Maravich: 2,063
Lou Hudson: 2,029
Third pair of teammates in NBA history to score 40 or more points in the same game: New Orleans Jazz vs. Denver Nuggets,
Maravich: 45
Nate Williams: 41
David Thompson of the Denver Nuggets also scored 40 points in this game.
Ranks 4th in NBA history – Free throws made, none missed, game: 18–18, Pete Maravich, Atlanta Hawks vs. Buffalo Braves,
Ranks 5th in NBA history – Free throws made, game: 23, Pete Maravich, New Orleans Jazz vs. New York Knicks, (2 OT)
See also
List of individual National Basketball Association scoring leaders by season
List of National Basketball Association players with most points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball players with 60 or more points in a game
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball season scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career scoring leaders
List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career free throw scoring leaders
List of National Basketball Association annual minutes leaders
Further reading
Campbell, Darrel (2019). Hero & Friend: My Days with Pistol Pete. Percussion Films. .
Brown, Danny (2008). Shooting the Pistol: Courtside Photographs of Pete Maravich at LSU. Louisiana State University Press
References
External links
NBA Historical Bio
ESPN bio
Pete Maravich's Greatest Achievement
‘68 All College MVP - 4 Days with Pistol Pete
Pete Maravich Bio LSU Tigers Athletics
1947 births
1988 deaths
All-American college men's basketball players
American evangelicals
American men's basketball players
American people of Serbian descent
Atlanta Hawks draft picks
Atlanta Hawks players
Basketball players from Pennsylvania
Boston Celtics players
College basketball announcers in the United States
LSU Tigers basketball players
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
National Basketball Association All-Stars
National Basketball Association broadcasters
National Basketball Association players with retired numbers
Needham B. Broughton High School alumni
New Orleans Jazz players
Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball)
People from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania
Shooting guards
Sportspeople from the Pittsburgh metropolitan area
Basketball players from Raleigh, North Carolina
Utah Jazz players
| true |
[
"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",
"Oil and Vinegar is a screenplay that was written but never filmed. It is a screenplay that John Hughes wrote and that Howard Deutch planned to direct. It would have starred Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick.\n\nPlot\nA soon-to-be-married man and a hitchhiking girl end up talking about their lives during the length of the car ride.\n\nProduction\n\nCasting\nThe film was set to have Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick as the two main characters.\n\nDevelopment\nThe screenplay was written by Hughes, with Howard Deutch set to direct. Its style was said to be similar to The Breakfast Club (1985) but instead of taking place in detention, it would have taken place in a car with Ringwald's and Broderick's characters both discussing their lives to each other.\n\nFuture\nWhen asked about Oil and Vinegar Howard Deutch said,\n\nYes. That was John's favorite script and he was saving it for himself, and I convinced him to let me do it. It was the story of a traveling salesman that Matthew Broderick was going to play, and a rock-and-roll girl, a real rocker. Polar opposites. Molly [Ringwald] was going to play that. And I had to make a personal decision about whether to go forward or not. We had rehearsals in a couple weeks, and I was exhausted, and my girlfriend Lea Thompson, who became my wife, said, \"You're going to die. You can't do this. I'm not going to stick around and watch that.\" And I think it was also sprinkled with the fact that I wanted to do one movie that was my movie, not necessarily in service to John, even though I loved John. So between the two things, I didn't... It could still happen. I would do it. Not with Matthew and Molly anymore, but the script is still there. It doesn't need anything. It's one of his great scripts. He had so many great scripts. For instance, he would stay up all night, music blasting, and at like 5:30 or 6 a.m., he'd hand me what was supposed to be a rewrite on Some Kind of Wonderful. We needed five pages, and it was 50 pages. I said, \"What did you do?! What is this?\" and he said, \"Oh, I didn't do that. I did something else. Tell me what you think?\" And it was Ferris Bueller's Day Off. He wrote the first half of the movie in, like, eight hours, and then finished it a couple days later. That was John. I never knew a writer who could do that. No one else had that ability. Even the stuff I fished out of the garbage was gold.\n\nReferences\n\nUnproduced screenplays\nFilms with screenplays by John Hughes (filmmaker)"
] |
[
"Richard Francis Burton",
"Early life and education (1821-41)"
] |
C_ca2d8e647fb14253bf34f57b5330ba47_1
|
where was burton educated?
| 1 |
Where was Richard Francis Burton educated?
|
Richard Francis Burton
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Burton was born in Torquay, Devon, at 21:30 on 19 March 1821; in his autobiography, he incorrectly claimed to have been born in the family home at Barham House in Elstree in Hertfordshire. He was baptized on 2 September 1821 at Elstree Church in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. His father, Lt.-Colonel Joseph Netterville Burton, of the 36th Regiment, was an Irish-born British army officer of Anglo-Irish extraction who through his mother's family - the Campbells of Tuam - was a first cousin of Lt.-Colonel Henry Peard Driscoll and Mrs Richard Graves. Richard's mother, Martha Baker, was the daughter and co-heiress of a wealthy English squire, Richard Baker (1762-1824), of Barham House, Hertfordshire, for whom he was named. Burton had two siblings, Maria Katherine Elizabeth Burton (who married Lt.-General Sir Henry William Stisted) and Edward Joseph Netterville Burton, born in 1823 and 1824, respectively. Burton's family travelled considerably during his childhood. In 1825, they moved to Tours, France. Burton's early education was provided by various tutors employed by his parents. He first began a formal education in 1829 at a preparatory school on Richmond Green in Richmond, Surrey, run by Rev. Charles Delafosse. Over the next few years, his family travelled between England, France, and Italy. Burton showed an early gift for languages and quickly learned French, Italian, Neapolitan, and Latin, as well as several dialects. During his youth, he was rumored to have carried on an affair with a young Roma (Gypsy) woman, learning the rudiments of her language, Romani. The peregrinations of his youth may have encouraged Burton to regard himself as an outsider for much of his life. As he put it, "Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause". Burton matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, on 19 November 1840. Before getting a room at the college, he lived for a short time in the house of Dr. William Alexander Greenhill, then physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary. Here, he met John Henry Newman, whose churchwarden was Dr. Greenhill. Despite his intelligence and ability, Burton was antagonised by his teachers and peers. During his first term, he is said to have challenged another student to a duel after the latter mocked Burton's moustache. Burton continued to gratify his love of languages by studying Arabic; he also spent his time learning falconry and fencing. In April 1842, he attended a steeplechase in deliberate violation of college rules and subsequently dared to tell the college authorities that students should be allowed to attend such events. Hoping to be merely "rusticated" - that is, suspended with the possibility of reinstatement, the punishment received by some less provocative students who had also visited the steeplechase - he was instead permanently expelled from Trinity College. CANNOTANSWER
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Burton's early education was provided by various tutors employed by his parents. He first began a formal education in 1829 at a preparatory school on Richmond Green in Richmond,
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Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, scholar, and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke twenty-nine European, Asian, and African languages.
Burton's best-known achievements include: a well-documented journey to Mecca in disguise, at a time when Europeans were forbidden access on pain of death; an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after early translations of Antoine Galland's French version); the publication of the Kama Sutra in English; a translation of The Perfumed Garden, the "Arab Kama Sutra"; and a journey with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile.
His works and letters extensively criticised colonial policies of the British Empire, even to the detriment of his career. Although he aborted his university studies, he became a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. A characteristic feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and information. William Henry Wilkins wrote: "So far as I can gather from all I have learned, the chief value of Burton’s version of The Scented Garden lay not so much in his translation of the text, though that of course was admirably done, as in the copious notes and explanations which he had gathered together for the purpose of annotating the book. He had made this subject a study of years. For the notes of the book alone he had been collecting material for thirty years, though his actual translation of it only took him eighteen months."
Burton was a captain in the army of the East India Company, serving in India, and later briefly in the Crimean War. Following this, he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa, where he led an expedition guided by locals and was the first European known to have seen Lake Tanganyika. In later life, he served as British consul in Fernando Pó (now Bioko, Equatorial Guinea), Santos in Brazil, Damascus (now Syria), and finally in Trieste (now Italy). He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood in 1886.
Biography
Early life and education (1821–1841)
Burton was born in Torquay, Devon, at 21:30 on 19 March 1821; in his autobiography, he incorrectly claimed to have been born in the family home at Barham House in Elstree in Hertfordshire. He was baptised on 2 September 1821 at Elstree Church in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. His father, Lt.-Colonel Joseph Netterville Burton, of the 36th Regiment, was an Irish-born British army officer of Anglo-Irish extraction who through his mother's family—the Campbells of Tuam—was a first cousin of Lt.-Colonel Henry Peard Driscoll and Mrs Richard Graves. Richard's mother, Martha Baker, was the daughter and co-heiress of a wealthy English squire, Richard Baker (1762–1824), of Barham House, Hertfordshire, for whom he was named. Burton had two siblings, Maria Katherine Elizabeth Burton (who married Lt.-General Sir Henry William Stisted) and Edward Joseph Netterville Burton, born in 1823 and 1824, respectively.
Burton's family travelled extensively during his childhood and employed various tutors to educate him. In 1825, they moved to Tours in France. In 1829, Burton began a formal education at a preparatory school in Richmond Green in Richmond, Surrey, run by Reverend Charles Delafosse. Over the next few years, his family travelled between England, France, and Italy. Burton showed a talent to learn languages and quickly learned French, Italian, Neapolitan and Latin, as well as several dialects. During his youth, he allegedly had an affair with a Roma girl and learned the rudiments of the Romani language. The peregrinations of his youth may have encouraged Burton to regard himself as an outsider for much of his life. As he put it, "Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause".
Burton matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, on 19 November 1840. Before getting a room at the college, he lived for a short time in the house of William Alexander Greenhill, then doctor at the Radcliffe Infirmary. Here, he met John Henry Newman, whose churchwarden was Greenhill. Despite his intelligence and ability, Burton was antagonised by his teachers and peers. During his first term, he is said to have challenged another student to a duel after the latter mocked Burton's moustache. Burton continued to gratify his love of languages by studying Arabic; he also spent his time learning falconry and fencing. In April 1842, he attended a steeplechase in deliberate violation of college rules and subsequently dared to tell the college authorities that students should be allowed to attend such events. Hoping to be merely "rusticated"—that is, suspended with the possibility of reinstatement, the punishment received by some less provocative students who had also visited the steeplechase—he was instead permanently expelled from Trinity College.
According to Ed Rice, speaking on Burton's university days, "He stirred the bile of the dons by speaking real—that is, Roman—Latin instead of the artificial type peculiar to England, and he spoke Greek Romaically, with the accent of Athens, as he had learned it from a Greek merchant at Marseilles, as well as the classical forms. Such a linguistic feat was a tribute to Burton's remarkable ear and memory, for he was only a teenager when he was in Italy and southern France."
Army career (1842–1853)
In his own words, "fit for nothing but to be shot at for six pence a day", Burton enlisted in the army of the East India Company at the behest of his ex-college classmates who were already members. He hoped to fight in the first Afghan war, but the conflict was over before he arrived in India. He was posted to the 18th Bombay Native Infantry based in Gujarat and under the command of General Charles James Napier. While in India, he became a proficient speaker of Hindustani, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sindhi, Saraiki and Marathi as well as Persian and Arabic. His studies of Hindu culture had progressed to such an extent that "my Hindu teacher officially allowed me to wear the janeo (Brahmanical Thread)". Him Chand, his gotra teacher, a Nagar Brahmin, could have been an apostate. Burton had a documented interest (and actively participated) in the cultures and religions of India. This was one of many peculiar habits that set him apart from other soldiers. While in the army, he kept a large menagerie of tame monkeys in the hopes of learning their language, accumulating sixty "words". He also earned the name "Ruffian Dick" for his "demonic ferocity as a fighter and because he had fought in single combat more enemies than perhaps any other man of his time".
According to Ed Rice, "Burton now regarded the seven years in India as time wasted." Yet, "He had already passed the official examinations in six languages and was studying two more and was eminently qualified." His religious experiences were varied, including attending Catholic services, becoming a Nāgar Brāhmin, adopting Sikhism, conversion to Islam, and undergoing chillá for Qadiri Sufism. Regarding Burton's Muslim beliefs, Ed Rice states, "Thus, he was circumcised, and made a Muslim, and lived like a Muslim and prayed and practiced like one." Furthermore, Burton, "...was entitled to call himself a hāfiz, one who can recite the Qur'ān from memory."
First explorations and journey to Mecca (1851–53)
Burton's pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca in 1853, was his realization of "the plans and hopes of many and many a year...to study thoroughly the inner life of the Moslem." Traveling through Alexandria in April, then Cairo in May, where he stayed in June during Ramadan, Burton first donned the guise of a Persian mirza, then a Sunnī "Shaykh, doctor, magician and dervish. Accompanied by an Indian boy slave called Nūr, Burton further equipped himself with a case for carrying the Qur'ān, but instead had three compartments for his watch and compass, money, and penknife, pencils, and numbered pieces of paper for taking notes. His diary he kept in a break pocket, unseen. Burton traveled onwards with a group of nomads to Suez, sailed to Yambu, and joined a caravan to Medina, where he arrived on 27 July, earning the title Zair. Departing Medina with the Damascus caravan on 31 August, Burton entered Mecca on 11 September. There, he participated in the Tawaf, traveled to Mount Arafat, and participated in the Stoning of the Devil, all the while taking notes on the Kaaba, its Black Stone, and the Zamzam Well. Departing Mecca, he journeyed to Jeddah, back to Cairo, returning to duty in Bombay. In India, Burton wrote his Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. Of his journey, Burton wrote, "at Mecca there is nothing theatrical, nothing that suggests the opera, but all is simple and impressive...tending, I believe, after its fashion, to good."
Motivated by his love of adventure, Burton got the approval of the Royal Geographical Society for an exploration of the area, and he gained permission from the board of directors of the East India Company to take leave from the army. His seven years in India gave Burton a familiarity with the customs and behaviour of Muslims and prepared him to attempt a Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca and, in this case, Medina). It was this journey, undertaken in 1853, which first made Burton famous. He had planned it whilst travelling disguised among the Muslims of Sindh, and had laboriously prepared for the adventure by study and practice (including undergoing the Muslim tradition of circumcision to further lower the risk of being discovered).
Although Burton was certainly not the first non-Muslim European to make the Hajj (Ludovico di Varthema did this in 1503 and Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1815), his pilgrimage is the most famous and the best documented of the time. He adopted various disguises including that of a Pashtun to account for any oddities in speech, but he still had to demonstrate an understanding of intricate Islamic traditions, and a familiarity with the minutiae of Eastern manners and etiquette. Burton's trek to Mecca was dangerous, and his caravan was attacked by bandits (a common experience at the time). As he put it, though "... neither Koran or Sultan enjoin the death of Jew or Christian intruding within the columns that note the sanctuary limits, nothing could save a European detected by the populace, or one who after pilgrimage declared himself an unbeliever". The pilgrimage entitled him to the title of Hajji and to wear the green head wrap. Burton's own account of his journey is given in A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah.
Burton sat for the examination as an Arab linguist. The examiner was Robert Lambert Playfair, who disliked Burton. As Professor George Percy Badger knew Arabic well, Playfair asked Badger to oversee the exam. Having been told that Burton could be vindictive, and wishing to avoid any animosity should Burton fail, Badger declined. Playfair conducted the tests; despite Burton's success living as an Arab, Playfair had recommended to the committee that Burton be failed. Badger later told Burton that "After looking [Burton's test] over, I [had] sent them back to [Playfair] with a note eulogising your attainments and ... remarking on the absurdity of the Bombay Committee being made to judge your proficiency inasmuch as I did not believe that any of them possessed a tithe of the knowledge of Arabic you did."
Early explorations (1854–55)
In May 1854, Burton traveled to Aden in preparation for his Somaliland Expedition, supported by the Royal Geographical Society. Other members included G.E. Herne, William Stroyan, and John Hanning Speke. Burton undertook the expedition to Harar, Speke investigated the Wady Nogal, while Herne and Stroyan stayed on at Berbera. According to Burton, "A tradition exists that with the entrance of the first [white] Christian Harar will fall." With Burton's entry, the "Guardian Spell" was broken.
This Somaliland Expedition lasted from 29October 1854 to 9February 1855, with much of the time spent in the port of Zeila, where Burton was a guest of the town's Governor al-Haji Sharmakay bin Ali Salih. Burton, "assuming the disguise of an Arab merchant" called Haji Mirza Abdullah, awaited word that the road to Harar was safe. On 29 December, Burton met with Gerard Adan in the village of Sagharrah, when Burton openly proclaimed himself an English officer with a letter for the Amīr of Harar. On 3 January 1855, Burton made it to Harar, and was graciously met by the Amir. Burton stayed in the city for ten days, officially a guest of the Amir but in reality his prisoner. The journey back was plagued by lack of supplies, and Burton wrote that he would have died of thirst had he not seen desert birds and realized they would be near water. Burton made it back to Berbera on 31 January 1855.
Following this adventure, Burton prepared to set out in search of the source of the Nile, accompanied by Lieutenant Speke, Lieutenant G. E. Herne and Lieutenant William Stroyan and a number of Africans employed as bearers. The schooner delivered them to Berbera on 7 April 1855. While the expedition was camped near Berbera, his party was attacked by a group of Somali waranle ("warriors") belonging to Isaaq clan. The officers estimated the number of attackers at 200. In the ensuing fight, Stroyan was killed and Speke was captured and wounded in eleven places before he managed to escape. Burton was impaled with a javelin, the point entering one cheek and exiting the other. This wound left a notable scar that can be easily seen on portraits and photographs. He was forced to make his escape with the weapon still transfixing his head. It was no surprise then that he found the Somalis to be a "fierce and turbulent race". However, the failure of this expedition was viewed harshly by the authorities, and a two-year investigation was set up to determine to what extent Burton was culpable for this disaster. While he was largely cleared of any blame, this did not help his career. He describes the harrowing attack in First Footsteps in East Africa (1856).
After recovering from his wounds in London, Burton traveled to Constantinople during the Crimean War, seeking a commission. He received one from General W.F. Beatson, as the Chief of staff for "Beatson's Horse", popularly called the Bashi-bazouks, and based in Gallipoli. Burton returned after an incident which disgraced Beatson, and implicated Burton as the instigator of a "mutiny", damaging his reputation.
Exploring the African Great Lakes (1856–1860)
In 1856, the Royal Geographical Society funded another expedition for Burton and Speke, "and exploration of the then utterly unknown Lake regions of Central Africa." They would travel from Zanzibar to Ujiji along a caravan route established in 1825 by an Arab slave and ivory merchant. The Great Journey commenced on 5 June 1857 with their departure from Zanzibar, where they had stayed at the residence of Atkins Hamerton, the British consul, their caravan consisting of Baluchi mercenaries led by Ramji, 36 porters, eventually a total of 132 persons, all led by the caravan leader Said bin Salim. From the beginning, Burton and Speke were hindered by disease, malaria, fevers, and other maladies, at times both having to be carried in a hammock. Pack animals died, and natives deserted, taking supplies with them. Yet, on 7 November 1857, they made it to Kazeh, and departed for Ujij on 14 Dec Speke wanted to head north, sure they would find the source of the Nile at what he later named Victoria Nyanza, but Burton persisted in heading west.
The expedition arrived at Lake Tanganyika on 13 February 1858. Burton was awestruck by the sight of the magnificent lake, but Speke, who had been temporarily blinded, was unable to see the body of water. By this point much of their surveying equipment was lost, ruined, or stolen, and they were unable to complete surveys of the area as well as they wished. Burton was again taken ill on the return journey; Speke continued exploring without him, making a journey to the north and eventually locating the great Lake Victoria, or Victoria Nyanza, on 3 August. Lacking supplies and proper instruments, Speke was unable to survey the area properly but was privately convinced that it was the long-sought source of the Nile. Burton's description of the journey is given in Lake Regions of Equatorial Africa (1860). Speke gave his own account in The Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (1863).
Burton and Speke made it back to Zanzibar on 4 March 1859, and left on 22 March for Aden. Speke immediately boarded for London, where he gave lectures, and was awarded a second expedition by the Society. Burton arrived London on 21 May, discovering "My companion now stood forth in his new colours, and angry rival." Speke additionally published What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (1863), while Burton's Zanzibar; City, Island, and Coast was eventually published in 1872.
Burton then departed on a trip to the United States in April 1860, eventually making it to Salt Lake City on 25 August. There he studied Mormonism and met Brigham Young. Burton departed San Francisco on 15 November, for the voyage back to England, where he published The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains to California.
Burton and Speke
A prolonged public quarrel followed, damaging the reputations of both Burton and Speke. Some biographers have suggested that friends of Speke (particularly Laurence Oliphant) had initially stirred up trouble between the two. Burton's sympathizers contend that Speke resented Burton's leadership role. Tim Jeal, who has accessed Speke's personal papers, suggests that it was more likely the other way around, Burton being jealous and resentful of Speke's determination and success. "As the years went by, [Burton] would neglect no opportunity to deride and undermine Speke's geographical theories and achievements".
Speke had earlier proven his mettle by trekking through the mountains of Tibet, but Burton regarded him as inferior as he did not speak any Arabic or African languages. Despite his fascination with non-European cultures, some have portrayed Burton as an unabashed imperialist convinced of the historical and intellectual superiority of the white race, citing his involvement in the Anthropological Society, an organization that established a doctrine of scientific racism. Speke appears to have been kinder and less intrusive to the Africans they encountered, and reportedly fell in love with an African woman on a future expedition.
The two men travelled home separately. Speke returned to London first and presented a lecture at the Royal Geographical Society, claiming Lake Victoria as the source of the Nile. According to Burton, Speke broke an agreement they had made to give their first public speech together. Apart from Burton's word, there is no proof that such an agreement existed, and most modern researchers doubt that it did. Tim Jeal, evaluating the written evidence, says the odds are "heavily against Speke having made a pledge to his former leader".
Speke undertook a second expedition, along with Captain James Grant and Sidi Mubarak Bombay, to prove that Lake Victoria was the true source of the Nile. Speke, in light of the issues he was having with Burton, had Grant sign a statement saying, among other things, "I renounce all my rights to publishing ... my own account [of the expedition] until approved of by Captain Speke or [the Royal Geographical Society]".
On 16 September 1864, Burton and Speke were scheduled to debate the source of the Nile at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. On the day before the debate, Burton and Speke sat near each other in the lecture hall. According to Burton's wife, Speke stood up, said "I can't stand this any longer," and abruptly left the hall. That afternoon Speke went hunting on the nearby estate of a relative. He was discovered lying near a stone wall, felled by a fatal gunshot wound from his hunting shotgun. Burton learned of Speke's death the following day while waiting for their debate to begin. A jury ruled Speke's death an accident. An obituary surmised that Speke, while climbing over the wall, had carelessly pulled the gun after himself with the muzzle pointing at his chest and shot himself. Alexander Maitland, Speke's only biographer, concurs.
Diplomatic service and scholarship (1861–1890)
On 22 January 1861, Burton and Isabel Arundel married in a quiet Catholic ceremony although he did not adopt the Catholic faith at this time. Shortly after this, the couple were forced to spend some time apart when he formally entered the Diplomatic Service as consul on the island of Fernando Po, now Bioko in Equatorial Guinea. This was not a prestigious appointment; because the climate was considered extremely unhealthy for Europeans, Isabel could not accompany him. Burton spent much of this time exploring the coast of West Africa, documenting his findings in Abeokuta and The Cameroons Mountains: An Exploration (1863), and A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome (1864). He described some of his experiences, including a trip up the Congo River to the Yellala Falls and beyond, in his 1876 book Two trips to gorilla land and the cataracts of the Congo.
The couple were reunited in 1865 when Burton was transferred to Santos in Brazil. Once there, Burton travelled through Brazil's central highlands, canoeing down the São Francisco River from its source to the falls of Paulo Afonso. He documented his experiences in The Highlands of Brazil (1869).
In 1868 and 1869 he made two visits to the war zone of the Paraguayan War, which he described in his Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay (1870).
In 1868 he was appointed as the British consul in Damascus, an ideal post for someone with Burton's knowledge of the region and customs. According to Ed Rice, "England wanted to know what was going on in the Levant," another chapter in The Great Game. Yet, the Turkish governor Mohammed Rashid 'Ali Pasha, feared anti-Turkish activities, and was opposed to Burton's assignment.
In Damascus, Burton made friends with Abdelkader al-Jazairi, while Isabel befriended Jane Digby, calling her "my most intimate friend." Burton also met with Charles Francis Tyrwhitt-Drake and Edward Henry Palmer, collaborating with Drake in writing Unexplored Syria (1872).
However, the area was in some turmoil at the time with considerable tensions between the Christian, Jewish and Muslim populations. Burton did his best to keep the peace and resolve the situation, but this sometimes led him into trouble. On one occasion, he claims to have escaped an attack by hundreds of armed horsemen and camel riders sent by Mohammed Rashid Pasha, the Governor of Syria. He wrote, "I have never been so flattered in my life than to think it would take three hundred men to kill me." Burton eventually suffered the enmity of the Greek Christian and Jewish communities. Then, his involvement with the Sházlis, a group of Muslims Burton called "Secret Christians longing for baptism," which Isabel called "his ruin." He was recalled in August 1871, prompting him to telegram Isabel "I am recalled. Pay, pack, and follow at convenience."
Burton was reassigned in 1872 to the sleepy port city of Trieste in Austria-Hungary. A "broken man", Burton was never particularly content with this post, but it required little work, was far less dangerous than Damascus (as well as less exciting), and allowed him the freedom to write and travel.
In 1863 Burton co-founded the Anthropological Society of London with Dr. James Hunt. In Burton's own words, the main aim of the society (through the publication of the periodical Anthropologia) was "to supply travellers with an organ that would rescue their observations from the outer darkness of manuscript and print their curious information on social and sexual matters". On 13 February 1886, Burton was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) by Queen Victoria.
He wrote a number of travel books in this period that were not particularly well received. His best-known contributions to literature were those considered risqué or even pornographic at the time, which were published under the auspices of the Kama Shastra society. These books include The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (1883) (popularly known as the Kama Sutra), The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1885) (popularly known as The Arabian Nights), The Perfumed Garden of the Shaykh Nefzawi (1886) and The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night (seventeen volumes 1886–98).
Published in this period but composed on his return journey from Mecca, The Kasidah has been cited as evidence of Burton's status as a Bektashi Sufi. Deliberately presented by Burton as a translation, the poem and his notes and commentary on it contain layers of Sufic meaning that seem to have been designed to project Sufi teaching in the West. "Do what thy manhood bids thee do/ from none but self expect applause;/ He noblest lives and noblest dies/ who makes and keeps his self-made laws" is The Kasidahs most-quoted passage. As well as references to many themes from Classical Western myths, the poem contains many laments that are accented with fleeting imagery such as repeated comparisons to "the tinkling of the Camel bell" that becomes inaudible as the animal vanishes in the darkness of the desert.
Other works of note include a collection of Hindu tales, Vikram and the Vampire (1870); and his uncompleted history of swordsmanship, The Book of the Sword (1884). He also translated The Lusiads, the Portuguese national epic by Luís de Camões, in 1880 and, the next year, wrote a sympathetic biography of the poet and adventurer. The book The Jew, the Gipsy and el Islam was published posthumously in 1898 and was controversial for its criticism of Jews and for its assertion of the existence of Jewish human sacrifices. (Burton's investigations into this had provoked hostility from the Jewish population in Damascus (see the Damascus affair). The manuscript of the book included an appendix discussing the topic in more detail, but by the decision of his widow, it was not included in the book when published).
Death
Burton died in Trieste early on the morning of 20 October 1890 of a heart attack. His wife Isabel persuaded a priest to perform the last rites, although Burton was not a Catholic, and this action later caused a rift between Isabel and some of Burton's friends. It has been suggested that the death occurred very late on 19 October and that Burton was already dead by the time the last rites were administered. On his religious views, Burton called himself an atheist, stating he was raised in the Church of England which he said was "officially (his) church".
Isabel never recovered from the loss. After his death she burned many of her husband's papers, including journals and a planned new translation of The Perfumed Garden to be called The Scented Garden, for which she had been offered six thousand guineas and which she regarded as his "magnum opus". She believed she was acting to protect her husband's reputation, and that she had been instructed to burn the manuscript of The Scented Garden by his spirit, but her actions were controversial. However, a substantial quantity of his written materials have survived, and are held by the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, including 21 boxes of his manuscripts, 24 boxes of correspondence, and other material.
Isabel wrote a biography in praise of her husband.
The couple are buried in a tomb in the shape of a Bedouin tent, designed by Isabel, in the cemetery of St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake in southwest London. The coffins of Sir Richard and Lady Burton can be seen through a window at the rear of the tent, which can be accessed via a short fixed ladder. Next to the lady chapel in the church there is a memorial stained-glass window to Burton, also erected by Isabel; it depicts Burton as a medieval knight. Burton's personal effects and a collection of paintings, photographs and objects relating to him are in the Burton Collection at Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham.
Kama Shastra Society
Burton had long had an interest in sexuality and some erotic literature. However, the Obscene Publications Act of 1857 had resulted in many jail sentences for publishers, with prosecutions being brought by the Society for the Suppression of Vice. Burton referred to the society and those who shared its views as Mrs Grundy. A way around this was the private circulation of books amongst the members of a society. For this reason Burton, together with Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot, created the Kama Shastra Society to print and circulate books that would be illegal to publish in public.
One of the most celebrated of all his books is his translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after early translations of Antoine Galland's French version) in ten volumes (1885), with seven further volumes being added later. The volumes were printed by the Kama Shastra Society in a subscribers-only edition of one thousand with a guarantee that there would never be a larger printing of the books in this form. The stories collected were often sexual in content and were considered pornography at the time of publication. In particular, the Terminal Essay in volume 10 of the Nights contained a 14,000-word essay entitled "Pederasty" (Volume 10, section IV, D), at the time a synonym for homosexuality (as it still is, in modern French). This was and remained for many years the longest and most explicit discussion of homosexuality in any language. Burton speculated that male homosexuality was prevalent in an area of the southern latitudes named by him the "Sotadic zone".
Perhaps Burton's best-known book is his translation of The Kama Sutra. It is untrue that he was the translator since the original manuscript was in ancient Sanskrit, which he could not read. However, he collaborated with Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot on the work and provided translations from other manuscripts of later translations. The Kama Shastra Society first printed the book in 1883 and numerous editions of the Burton translation are in print to this day.
His English translation from a French edition of the Arabic erotic guide The Perfumed Garden was printed as The Perfumed Garden of the Cheikh Nefzaoui: A Manual of Arabian Erotology (1886). After Burton's death, Isabel burnt many of his papers, including a manuscript of a subsequent translation, The Scented Garden, containing the final chapter of the work, on pederasty. Burton all along intended for this translation to be published after his death, to provide an income for his widow.
Scandals
Burton's writings are unusually open and frank about his interest in sex and sexuality. His travel writing is often full of details about the sexual lives of the inhabitants of areas he travelled through. Burton's interest in sexuality led him to make measurements of the lengths of the penises of male inhabitants of various regions, which he includes in his travel books. He also describes sexual techniques common in the regions he visited, often hinting that he had participated, hence breaking both sexual and racial taboos of his day. Many people at the time considered the Kama Shastra Society and the books it published scandalous.
Biographers disagree on whether or not Burton ever experienced homosexual sex (he never directly acknowledges it in his writing). Rumours began in his army days when Charles James Napier requested that Burton go undercover to investigate a male brothel reputed to be frequented by British soldiers. It has been suggested that Burton's detailed report on the workings of the brothel led some to believe he had been a customer. There is no documentary evidence that such a report was written or submitted, nor that Napier ordered such research by Burton, and it has been argued that this is one of Burton's embellishments.
A story that haunted Burton up to his death (recounted in some of his obituaries) was that he came close to being discovered one night when he lifted his robe to urinate rather than squatting as an Arab would. It was said that he was seen by an Arab and, to avoid exposure, killed him. Burton denied this, pointing out that killing the boy would almost certainly have led to his being discovered as an impostor. Burton became so tired of denying this accusation that he took to baiting his accusers, although he was said to enjoy the notoriety and even once laughingly claimed to have done it. A doctor once asked him: "How do you feel when you have killed a man?", Burton retorted: "Quite jolly, what about you?". When asked by a priest about the same incident Burton is said to have replied: "Sir, I'm proud to say I have committed every sin in the Decalogue." Stanley Lane-Poole, a Burton detractor, reported that Burton "confessed rather shamefacedly that he had never killed anybody at any time."
These allegations coupled with Burton's often irascible nature were said to have harmed his career and may explain why he was not promoted further, either in army life or in the diplomatic service. As an obituary described: "...he was ill fitted to run in official harness, and he had a Byronic love of shocking people, of telling tales against himself that had no foundation in fact." Ouida reported: "Men at the FO [Foreign Office] ... used to hint dark horrors about Burton, and certainly justly or unjustly he was disliked, feared and suspected ... not for what he had done, but for what he was believed capable of doing."
Sotadic Zone
Burton theorized about the existence of a Sotadic Zone''' in the closing essay of his English translation of The Arabian Nights (1885–1886). Excerpted and reprinted with permission from He asserted that there exists a geographic-climatic zone in which sodomy and pederasty (sexual intimacy between older men and young pubescent/adolescent boys) are endemic, prevalent, and celebrated among the indigenous inhabitants and within their cultures. The name derives from Sotades, a 3rd-century BC Ancient Greek poet who was the chief representative of a group of Ancient Greek writers of obscene, and sometimes pederastic, satirical poetry; these homoerotic verses are preserved in the Greek Anthology, a collection of poems spanning the Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature.
Burton first advanced his Sotadic Zone concept in the "Terminal Essay", contained in Volume 10 of his English translation of The Arabian Nights, which he called The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, published in England in 1886.
In popular culture
Fiction
In the short story "The Aleph" (1945) by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, a manuscript by Burton is discovered in a library. The manuscript contains a description of a mirror in which the whole universe is reflected.
The Riverworld series of science fiction novels (1971–83) by Philip José Farmer has a fictional and resurrected Burton as a primary character.
William Harrison's Burton and Speke is a 1984 novel about the two friends/rivals.
The World Is Made of Glass: A Novel by Morris West tells the story of Magda Liliane Kardoss von Gamsfeld in consultation with Carl Gustav Jung; Burton is mentioned on pp. 254–7 and again on p. 392.
Der Weltensammler by the Bulgarian-German writer Iliya Troyanov is a fictional reconstruction of three periods of Burton's life, focusing on his time in India, his pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca, and his explorations with Speke.
Burton is the main character in the "Burton and Swinburne" steampunk series by Mark Hodder (2010–2015): The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack; The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man; Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon; The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi; The Return of the Discontinued Man; and The Rise of the Automated Aristocrats. These novels depict an alternate world where Queen Victoria was killed early in her reign due to the inadvertent actions of a time-traveler acting as Spring-Heeled Jack, with a complex constitutional revision making Albert King in her place.
Though not one of the primary characters in the series, Burton plays an important historical role in the Area 51 series of books by Bob Mayer (written under the pen name Robert Doherty).
Burton and his partner Speke are recurrently mentioned in one of Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires, the 1863 novel Five Weeks in a Balloon, as the voyages of Kennedy and Ferguson are attempting to link their expeditions with those of Heinrich Barth in west Africa.
In the novel The Bookman's Promise (2004) by John Dunning, the protagonist buys a signed copy of a rare Burton book, and from there Burton and his work are major elements of the story. A section of the novel also fictionalizes a portion of Burton's life in the form of recollections of one of the characters.
Drama
In the BBC production of The Search for the Nile series (1972), Burton is portrayed by actor Kenneth Haigh.
The film Mountains of the Moon (1990) (starring Patrick Bergin as Burton) relates the story of the Burton-Speke exploration and subsequent controversy over the source of the Nile. The script was based on Harrison's novel.
In the Canadian film Zero Patience (1993), Burton is portrayed by John Robinson as having had "an unfortunate encounter" with the Fountain of Youth and is living in present-day Toronto. Upon discovering the ghost of the famous Patient Zero, Burton attempts to exhibit the finding at his Hall of Contagion at the Museum of Natural History.
In the American TV show The Sentinel, a monograph by Sir Richard Francis Burton is found by one of the main characters, Blair Sandburg, and is the origins for his concept of Sentinels and their roles in their respective tribes.
Chronology
Works and correspondence
Burton published over 40 books and countless articles, monographs and letters. A great number of his journal and magazine pieces have never been catalogued. Over 200 of these have been collected in PDF facsimile format at burtoniana.org.
Brief selections from a variety of Burton's writings are available in Frank McLynn's Of No Country: An Anthology of Richard Burton (1990; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
See also
Selim Aga
Mausoleum of Sir Richard and Lady Burton
List of polyglots
References
Sources
Books and articles
Hitchman, Francis (1887), Richard F. Burton, K.C.M.G.: His Early, Private and Public Life with an Account of his Travels and Explorations, Two volumes; London: Sampson and Low.
McDow, Thomas F. 'Trafficking in Persianness: Richard Burton between mimicry and similitude in the Indian Ocean and Persianate worlds'. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 30.3 (2010): 491–511.
Newman, James L. (2009), Paths without Glory: Richard Francis Burton in Africa, Potomac Books, Dulles, Virginia; .
Sparrow-Niang, Jane (2014). Bath and the Nile Explorers: In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Burton and Speke's encounter in Bath, September 1864, and their 'Nile Duel' which never happened. Bath: Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution.
Wisnicki, Adrian S. (2009). "Charting the Frontier: Indigenous Geography, Arab-Nyamwezi Caravans, and the East African Expedition of 1856–59". Victorian Studies 51.1 (Aut.): 103–37.
Film documentaries
Search for the Nile, 1971 BBC mini-series featuring Kenneth Haigh as Burton
In The Victorian Sex Explorer'', Rupert Everett documents Burton's travels. Part of the Channel Four (UK) 'Victorian Passions' season. First Broadcast on 9 June 2008.
External links
Complete Works of Richard Burton at burtoniana.org. Includes over 200 of Burton's journal and magazine pieces.
– index to world holdings of Burton archival materials
The Penetration of Arabia by David George Hogarth (1904) – discusses Burton in the second section, "The Successors"
Capt Sir Richard Burton Museum (sirrichardburtonmuseum.co.uk), "located in a private residence in central St Ives, Cornwall UK"
1821 births
1890 deaths
19th-century British male writers
19th-century English poets
19th-century English writers
19th-century explorers
19th-century linguists
19th-century British translators
Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford
Arabic–English translators
British Arabists
British atheists
British diplomats
British East India Company Army officers
British ethnographers
British ethnologists
British expatriates in the Ottoman Empire
British military personnel of the Crimean War
Burials at St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake
English atheists
English cartographers
English explorers
English male poets
English orientalists
English translators
English travel writers
Explorers of Africa
Explorers of Arabia
Explorers of Asia
Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society
Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England
Hajj accounts
Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
People from Elstree
People from Torquay
Portuguese–English translators
Translators of One Thousand and One Nights
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"Simon Burton, M.D., F.R.C.P. (c.1690–1744), was an English physician.\n\nLife\nBurton was born in Warwickshire about 1690, being the eldest son of Humphrey Burton, of Caresly, near Coventry. His mother was Judith, daughter of the Rev. Abraham Bohun, He was educated at Rugby School, and at New College, Oxford, where he proceeded B.A. 29 November 1710; M.A. 26 May 1714; M.B. 20 April 1716; and M.D. 21 July 1720. After practising for some years at Warwick, he removed to London, where he established himself in Savile Row, and obtained a large practice. He was admitted, 12 April 1731, a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians, of which he became a fellow on 3 April 1732.\n\nOn 19 October, in the following year Burton was appointed physician to St. George's Hospital, and subsequently royal physician in ordinary. He was one of the physicians who attended Alexander Pope in his last illness. He had a dispute on that occasion with Dr. Thomas Thompson, a well-known quack, and reference is made to it in the satire One Thousand Seven Hundred and Forty-Four, a Poem, by a Great Poet lately deceased. Burton survived Pope somewhat less than a fortnight, and died, after a few days' illness, 11 June 1744, at his house in Savile Row.\n\nReferences\n\nAttribution\n\n1690 births\n1744 deaths\n17th-century English medical doctors\n18th-century English medical doctors\nPeople from Warwickshire\nPeople educated at Rugby School\nAlumni of New College, Oxford\nFellows of the Royal College of Physicians\nPhysicians-in-Ordinary",
"Dr Henry Burton (27 February 1799 – 10 August 1849) was a British physician and chemist, who is famous for his identification of blue discolouration of the gums, the eponymous Burton line, as a symptom of lead poisoning.\n\nFamily\nHenry Burton was a son of the London property developer James Burton and his wife Elizabeth Westley (1761 – 1837). Henry was a brother of the gunpowder manufacturer William Ford Burton, the architect Decimus Burton, and the Egyptologist, James Burton.\n\nAs the Cambridge Alumni Database identifies, some sources, including the entry for Henry Burton in the Royal College of Physicians’s Lives of the Fellows, incorrectly state that Henry Burton was the son of one ‘John Burton’. This is incorrect: he was the son of the aforementioned James Burton.\n\nOn his father's side, his great-great grandparents were Rev. James Haliburton (1681–1756) and Margaret Eliott, daughter of Sir William Eliott, 2nd Baronet and aunt of George Augustus Eliott, 1st Baron Heathfield. Henry was descended from John Haliburton (1573–1627), from whom Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet could trace his descent on the maternal side. He was a cousin of the Tory MP Thomas Chandler Haliburton, and of the civil servant Arthur Lawrence Haliburton, 1st Baron Haliburton.\n\nCareer\nHenry was educated at Tonbridge School, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, at which he received the degrees MB, ML, MD, BS, and , and later at St Bartholomew's Hospital.\n\nHe went to sea on the 98-gun HMS Boyne before resigning from the Navy and entering the Gunpowder Office. In September 1825, he became Professor of Chemistry at St Thomas' Hospital, where he subsequently became Senior Physician. He was appointed Censor of the Royal College of Physicians in 1838 and later was appointed Consiliarius He is famous for his discovery that a blue line on the gums, the eponymous Burton line, is a symptom of lead poisoning.\n\nMarriage\nHenry Burton married Mary Elizabeth, eldest daughter of William Poulton of Maidenhead, at St. George's, Bloomsbury, in 1826. She died in 1829, without issue, and Henry did not remarry. Henry lived at 41 Jermyn Street, London, and 58 Marina, St. Leonard's-on-Sea.\n\nReferences \n\n19th-century English medical doctors\n1799 births\n1849 deaths\nPeople educated at Tonbridge School\nAlumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge"
] |
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"Richard Francis Burton",
"Early life and education (1821-41)",
"where was burton educated?",
"Burton's early education was provided by various tutors employed by his parents. He first began a formal education in 1829 at a preparatory school on Richmond Green in Richmond,"
] |
C_ca2d8e647fb14253bf34f57b5330ba47_1
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Did Burton attend a University?
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Did Richard Francis Burton attend a university?
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Richard Francis Burton
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Burton was born in Torquay, Devon, at 21:30 on 19 March 1821; in his autobiography, he incorrectly claimed to have been born in the family home at Barham House in Elstree in Hertfordshire. He was baptized on 2 September 1821 at Elstree Church in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. His father, Lt.-Colonel Joseph Netterville Burton, of the 36th Regiment, was an Irish-born British army officer of Anglo-Irish extraction who through his mother's family - the Campbells of Tuam - was a first cousin of Lt.-Colonel Henry Peard Driscoll and Mrs Richard Graves. Richard's mother, Martha Baker, was the daughter and co-heiress of a wealthy English squire, Richard Baker (1762-1824), of Barham House, Hertfordshire, for whom he was named. Burton had two siblings, Maria Katherine Elizabeth Burton (who married Lt.-General Sir Henry William Stisted) and Edward Joseph Netterville Burton, born in 1823 and 1824, respectively. Burton's family travelled considerably during his childhood. In 1825, they moved to Tours, France. Burton's early education was provided by various tutors employed by his parents. He first began a formal education in 1829 at a preparatory school on Richmond Green in Richmond, Surrey, run by Rev. Charles Delafosse. Over the next few years, his family travelled between England, France, and Italy. Burton showed an early gift for languages and quickly learned French, Italian, Neapolitan, and Latin, as well as several dialects. During his youth, he was rumored to have carried on an affair with a young Roma (Gypsy) woman, learning the rudiments of her language, Romani. The peregrinations of his youth may have encouraged Burton to regard himself as an outsider for much of his life. As he put it, "Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause". Burton matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, on 19 November 1840. Before getting a room at the college, he lived for a short time in the house of Dr. William Alexander Greenhill, then physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary. Here, he met John Henry Newman, whose churchwarden was Dr. Greenhill. Despite his intelligence and ability, Burton was antagonised by his teachers and peers. During his first term, he is said to have challenged another student to a duel after the latter mocked Burton's moustache. Burton continued to gratify his love of languages by studying Arabic; he also spent his time learning falconry and fencing. In April 1842, he attended a steeplechase in deliberate violation of college rules and subsequently dared to tell the college authorities that students should be allowed to attend such events. Hoping to be merely "rusticated" - that is, suspended with the possibility of reinstatement, the punishment received by some less provocative students who had also visited the steeplechase - he was instead permanently expelled from Trinity College. CANNOTANSWER
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Burton matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, on 19 November 1840.
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Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, scholar, and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke twenty-nine European, Asian, and African languages.
Burton's best-known achievements include: a well-documented journey to Mecca in disguise, at a time when Europeans were forbidden access on pain of death; an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after early translations of Antoine Galland's French version); the publication of the Kama Sutra in English; a translation of The Perfumed Garden, the "Arab Kama Sutra"; and a journey with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile.
His works and letters extensively criticised colonial policies of the British Empire, even to the detriment of his career. Although he aborted his university studies, he became a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. A characteristic feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and information. William Henry Wilkins wrote: "So far as I can gather from all I have learned, the chief value of Burton’s version of The Scented Garden lay not so much in his translation of the text, though that of course was admirably done, as in the copious notes and explanations which he had gathered together for the purpose of annotating the book. He had made this subject a study of years. For the notes of the book alone he had been collecting material for thirty years, though his actual translation of it only took him eighteen months."
Burton was a captain in the army of the East India Company, serving in India, and later briefly in the Crimean War. Following this, he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa, where he led an expedition guided by locals and was the first European known to have seen Lake Tanganyika. In later life, he served as British consul in Fernando Pó (now Bioko, Equatorial Guinea), Santos in Brazil, Damascus (now Syria), and finally in Trieste (now Italy). He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood in 1886.
Biography
Early life and education (1821–1841)
Burton was born in Torquay, Devon, at 21:30 on 19 March 1821; in his autobiography, he incorrectly claimed to have been born in the family home at Barham House in Elstree in Hertfordshire. He was baptised on 2 September 1821 at Elstree Church in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. His father, Lt.-Colonel Joseph Netterville Burton, of the 36th Regiment, was an Irish-born British army officer of Anglo-Irish extraction who through his mother's family—the Campbells of Tuam—was a first cousin of Lt.-Colonel Henry Peard Driscoll and Mrs Richard Graves. Richard's mother, Martha Baker, was the daughter and co-heiress of a wealthy English squire, Richard Baker (1762–1824), of Barham House, Hertfordshire, for whom he was named. Burton had two siblings, Maria Katherine Elizabeth Burton (who married Lt.-General Sir Henry William Stisted) and Edward Joseph Netterville Burton, born in 1823 and 1824, respectively.
Burton's family travelled extensively during his childhood and employed various tutors to educate him. In 1825, they moved to Tours in France. In 1829, Burton began a formal education at a preparatory school in Richmond Green in Richmond, Surrey, run by Reverend Charles Delafosse. Over the next few years, his family travelled between England, France, and Italy. Burton showed a talent to learn languages and quickly learned French, Italian, Neapolitan and Latin, as well as several dialects. During his youth, he allegedly had an affair with a Roma girl and learned the rudiments of the Romani language. The peregrinations of his youth may have encouraged Burton to regard himself as an outsider for much of his life. As he put it, "Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause".
Burton matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, on 19 November 1840. Before getting a room at the college, he lived for a short time in the house of William Alexander Greenhill, then doctor at the Radcliffe Infirmary. Here, he met John Henry Newman, whose churchwarden was Greenhill. Despite his intelligence and ability, Burton was antagonised by his teachers and peers. During his first term, he is said to have challenged another student to a duel after the latter mocked Burton's moustache. Burton continued to gratify his love of languages by studying Arabic; he also spent his time learning falconry and fencing. In April 1842, he attended a steeplechase in deliberate violation of college rules and subsequently dared to tell the college authorities that students should be allowed to attend such events. Hoping to be merely "rusticated"—that is, suspended with the possibility of reinstatement, the punishment received by some less provocative students who had also visited the steeplechase—he was instead permanently expelled from Trinity College.
According to Ed Rice, speaking on Burton's university days, "He stirred the bile of the dons by speaking real—that is, Roman—Latin instead of the artificial type peculiar to England, and he spoke Greek Romaically, with the accent of Athens, as he had learned it from a Greek merchant at Marseilles, as well as the classical forms. Such a linguistic feat was a tribute to Burton's remarkable ear and memory, for he was only a teenager when he was in Italy and southern France."
Army career (1842–1853)
In his own words, "fit for nothing but to be shot at for six pence a day", Burton enlisted in the army of the East India Company at the behest of his ex-college classmates who were already members. He hoped to fight in the first Afghan war, but the conflict was over before he arrived in India. He was posted to the 18th Bombay Native Infantry based in Gujarat and under the command of General Charles James Napier. While in India, he became a proficient speaker of Hindustani, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sindhi, Saraiki and Marathi as well as Persian and Arabic. His studies of Hindu culture had progressed to such an extent that "my Hindu teacher officially allowed me to wear the janeo (Brahmanical Thread)". Him Chand, his gotra teacher, a Nagar Brahmin, could have been an apostate. Burton had a documented interest (and actively participated) in the cultures and religions of India. This was one of many peculiar habits that set him apart from other soldiers. While in the army, he kept a large menagerie of tame monkeys in the hopes of learning their language, accumulating sixty "words". He also earned the name "Ruffian Dick" for his "demonic ferocity as a fighter and because he had fought in single combat more enemies than perhaps any other man of his time".
According to Ed Rice, "Burton now regarded the seven years in India as time wasted." Yet, "He had already passed the official examinations in six languages and was studying two more and was eminently qualified." His religious experiences were varied, including attending Catholic services, becoming a Nāgar Brāhmin, adopting Sikhism, conversion to Islam, and undergoing chillá for Qadiri Sufism. Regarding Burton's Muslim beliefs, Ed Rice states, "Thus, he was circumcised, and made a Muslim, and lived like a Muslim and prayed and practiced like one." Furthermore, Burton, "...was entitled to call himself a hāfiz, one who can recite the Qur'ān from memory."
First explorations and journey to Mecca (1851–53)
Burton's pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca in 1853, was his realization of "the plans and hopes of many and many a year...to study thoroughly the inner life of the Moslem." Traveling through Alexandria in April, then Cairo in May, where he stayed in June during Ramadan, Burton first donned the guise of a Persian mirza, then a Sunnī "Shaykh, doctor, magician and dervish. Accompanied by an Indian boy slave called Nūr, Burton further equipped himself with a case for carrying the Qur'ān, but instead had three compartments for his watch and compass, money, and penknife, pencils, and numbered pieces of paper for taking notes. His diary he kept in a break pocket, unseen. Burton traveled onwards with a group of nomads to Suez, sailed to Yambu, and joined a caravan to Medina, where he arrived on 27 July, earning the title Zair. Departing Medina with the Damascus caravan on 31 August, Burton entered Mecca on 11 September. There, he participated in the Tawaf, traveled to Mount Arafat, and participated in the Stoning of the Devil, all the while taking notes on the Kaaba, its Black Stone, and the Zamzam Well. Departing Mecca, he journeyed to Jeddah, back to Cairo, returning to duty in Bombay. In India, Burton wrote his Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. Of his journey, Burton wrote, "at Mecca there is nothing theatrical, nothing that suggests the opera, but all is simple and impressive...tending, I believe, after its fashion, to good."
Motivated by his love of adventure, Burton got the approval of the Royal Geographical Society for an exploration of the area, and he gained permission from the board of directors of the East India Company to take leave from the army. His seven years in India gave Burton a familiarity with the customs and behaviour of Muslims and prepared him to attempt a Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca and, in this case, Medina). It was this journey, undertaken in 1853, which first made Burton famous. He had planned it whilst travelling disguised among the Muslims of Sindh, and had laboriously prepared for the adventure by study and practice (including undergoing the Muslim tradition of circumcision to further lower the risk of being discovered).
Although Burton was certainly not the first non-Muslim European to make the Hajj (Ludovico di Varthema did this in 1503 and Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1815), his pilgrimage is the most famous and the best documented of the time. He adopted various disguises including that of a Pashtun to account for any oddities in speech, but he still had to demonstrate an understanding of intricate Islamic traditions, and a familiarity with the minutiae of Eastern manners and etiquette. Burton's trek to Mecca was dangerous, and his caravan was attacked by bandits (a common experience at the time). As he put it, though "... neither Koran or Sultan enjoin the death of Jew or Christian intruding within the columns that note the sanctuary limits, nothing could save a European detected by the populace, or one who after pilgrimage declared himself an unbeliever". The pilgrimage entitled him to the title of Hajji and to wear the green head wrap. Burton's own account of his journey is given in A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah.
Burton sat for the examination as an Arab linguist. The examiner was Robert Lambert Playfair, who disliked Burton. As Professor George Percy Badger knew Arabic well, Playfair asked Badger to oversee the exam. Having been told that Burton could be vindictive, and wishing to avoid any animosity should Burton fail, Badger declined. Playfair conducted the tests; despite Burton's success living as an Arab, Playfair had recommended to the committee that Burton be failed. Badger later told Burton that "After looking [Burton's test] over, I [had] sent them back to [Playfair] with a note eulogising your attainments and ... remarking on the absurdity of the Bombay Committee being made to judge your proficiency inasmuch as I did not believe that any of them possessed a tithe of the knowledge of Arabic you did."
Early explorations (1854–55)
In May 1854, Burton traveled to Aden in preparation for his Somaliland Expedition, supported by the Royal Geographical Society. Other members included G.E. Herne, William Stroyan, and John Hanning Speke. Burton undertook the expedition to Harar, Speke investigated the Wady Nogal, while Herne and Stroyan stayed on at Berbera. According to Burton, "A tradition exists that with the entrance of the first [white] Christian Harar will fall." With Burton's entry, the "Guardian Spell" was broken.
This Somaliland Expedition lasted from 29October 1854 to 9February 1855, with much of the time spent in the port of Zeila, where Burton was a guest of the town's Governor al-Haji Sharmakay bin Ali Salih. Burton, "assuming the disguise of an Arab merchant" called Haji Mirza Abdullah, awaited word that the road to Harar was safe. On 29 December, Burton met with Gerard Adan in the village of Sagharrah, when Burton openly proclaimed himself an English officer with a letter for the Amīr of Harar. On 3 January 1855, Burton made it to Harar, and was graciously met by the Amir. Burton stayed in the city for ten days, officially a guest of the Amir but in reality his prisoner. The journey back was plagued by lack of supplies, and Burton wrote that he would have died of thirst had he not seen desert birds and realized they would be near water. Burton made it back to Berbera on 31 January 1855.
Following this adventure, Burton prepared to set out in search of the source of the Nile, accompanied by Lieutenant Speke, Lieutenant G. E. Herne and Lieutenant William Stroyan and a number of Africans employed as bearers. The schooner delivered them to Berbera on 7 April 1855. While the expedition was camped near Berbera, his party was attacked by a group of Somali waranle ("warriors") belonging to Isaaq clan. The officers estimated the number of attackers at 200. In the ensuing fight, Stroyan was killed and Speke was captured and wounded in eleven places before he managed to escape. Burton was impaled with a javelin, the point entering one cheek and exiting the other. This wound left a notable scar that can be easily seen on portraits and photographs. He was forced to make his escape with the weapon still transfixing his head. It was no surprise then that he found the Somalis to be a "fierce and turbulent race". However, the failure of this expedition was viewed harshly by the authorities, and a two-year investigation was set up to determine to what extent Burton was culpable for this disaster. While he was largely cleared of any blame, this did not help his career. He describes the harrowing attack in First Footsteps in East Africa (1856).
After recovering from his wounds in London, Burton traveled to Constantinople during the Crimean War, seeking a commission. He received one from General W.F. Beatson, as the Chief of staff for "Beatson's Horse", popularly called the Bashi-bazouks, and based in Gallipoli. Burton returned after an incident which disgraced Beatson, and implicated Burton as the instigator of a "mutiny", damaging his reputation.
Exploring the African Great Lakes (1856–1860)
In 1856, the Royal Geographical Society funded another expedition for Burton and Speke, "and exploration of the then utterly unknown Lake regions of Central Africa." They would travel from Zanzibar to Ujiji along a caravan route established in 1825 by an Arab slave and ivory merchant. The Great Journey commenced on 5 June 1857 with their departure from Zanzibar, where they had stayed at the residence of Atkins Hamerton, the British consul, their caravan consisting of Baluchi mercenaries led by Ramji, 36 porters, eventually a total of 132 persons, all led by the caravan leader Said bin Salim. From the beginning, Burton and Speke were hindered by disease, malaria, fevers, and other maladies, at times both having to be carried in a hammock. Pack animals died, and natives deserted, taking supplies with them. Yet, on 7 November 1857, they made it to Kazeh, and departed for Ujij on 14 Dec Speke wanted to head north, sure they would find the source of the Nile at what he later named Victoria Nyanza, but Burton persisted in heading west.
The expedition arrived at Lake Tanganyika on 13 February 1858. Burton was awestruck by the sight of the magnificent lake, but Speke, who had been temporarily blinded, was unable to see the body of water. By this point much of their surveying equipment was lost, ruined, or stolen, and they were unable to complete surveys of the area as well as they wished. Burton was again taken ill on the return journey; Speke continued exploring without him, making a journey to the north and eventually locating the great Lake Victoria, or Victoria Nyanza, on 3 August. Lacking supplies and proper instruments, Speke was unable to survey the area properly but was privately convinced that it was the long-sought source of the Nile. Burton's description of the journey is given in Lake Regions of Equatorial Africa (1860). Speke gave his own account in The Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (1863).
Burton and Speke made it back to Zanzibar on 4 March 1859, and left on 22 March for Aden. Speke immediately boarded for London, where he gave lectures, and was awarded a second expedition by the Society. Burton arrived London on 21 May, discovering "My companion now stood forth in his new colours, and angry rival." Speke additionally published What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (1863), while Burton's Zanzibar; City, Island, and Coast was eventually published in 1872.
Burton then departed on a trip to the United States in April 1860, eventually making it to Salt Lake City on 25 August. There he studied Mormonism and met Brigham Young. Burton departed San Francisco on 15 November, for the voyage back to England, where he published The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains to California.
Burton and Speke
A prolonged public quarrel followed, damaging the reputations of both Burton and Speke. Some biographers have suggested that friends of Speke (particularly Laurence Oliphant) had initially stirred up trouble between the two. Burton's sympathizers contend that Speke resented Burton's leadership role. Tim Jeal, who has accessed Speke's personal papers, suggests that it was more likely the other way around, Burton being jealous and resentful of Speke's determination and success. "As the years went by, [Burton] would neglect no opportunity to deride and undermine Speke's geographical theories and achievements".
Speke had earlier proven his mettle by trekking through the mountains of Tibet, but Burton regarded him as inferior as he did not speak any Arabic or African languages. Despite his fascination with non-European cultures, some have portrayed Burton as an unabashed imperialist convinced of the historical and intellectual superiority of the white race, citing his involvement in the Anthropological Society, an organization that established a doctrine of scientific racism. Speke appears to have been kinder and less intrusive to the Africans they encountered, and reportedly fell in love with an African woman on a future expedition.
The two men travelled home separately. Speke returned to London first and presented a lecture at the Royal Geographical Society, claiming Lake Victoria as the source of the Nile. According to Burton, Speke broke an agreement they had made to give their first public speech together. Apart from Burton's word, there is no proof that such an agreement existed, and most modern researchers doubt that it did. Tim Jeal, evaluating the written evidence, says the odds are "heavily against Speke having made a pledge to his former leader".
Speke undertook a second expedition, along with Captain James Grant and Sidi Mubarak Bombay, to prove that Lake Victoria was the true source of the Nile. Speke, in light of the issues he was having with Burton, had Grant sign a statement saying, among other things, "I renounce all my rights to publishing ... my own account [of the expedition] until approved of by Captain Speke or [the Royal Geographical Society]".
On 16 September 1864, Burton and Speke were scheduled to debate the source of the Nile at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. On the day before the debate, Burton and Speke sat near each other in the lecture hall. According to Burton's wife, Speke stood up, said "I can't stand this any longer," and abruptly left the hall. That afternoon Speke went hunting on the nearby estate of a relative. He was discovered lying near a stone wall, felled by a fatal gunshot wound from his hunting shotgun. Burton learned of Speke's death the following day while waiting for their debate to begin. A jury ruled Speke's death an accident. An obituary surmised that Speke, while climbing over the wall, had carelessly pulled the gun after himself with the muzzle pointing at his chest and shot himself. Alexander Maitland, Speke's only biographer, concurs.
Diplomatic service and scholarship (1861–1890)
On 22 January 1861, Burton and Isabel Arundel married in a quiet Catholic ceremony although he did not adopt the Catholic faith at this time. Shortly after this, the couple were forced to spend some time apart when he formally entered the Diplomatic Service as consul on the island of Fernando Po, now Bioko in Equatorial Guinea. This was not a prestigious appointment; because the climate was considered extremely unhealthy for Europeans, Isabel could not accompany him. Burton spent much of this time exploring the coast of West Africa, documenting his findings in Abeokuta and The Cameroons Mountains: An Exploration (1863), and A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome (1864). He described some of his experiences, including a trip up the Congo River to the Yellala Falls and beyond, in his 1876 book Two trips to gorilla land and the cataracts of the Congo.
The couple were reunited in 1865 when Burton was transferred to Santos in Brazil. Once there, Burton travelled through Brazil's central highlands, canoeing down the São Francisco River from its source to the falls of Paulo Afonso. He documented his experiences in The Highlands of Brazil (1869).
In 1868 and 1869 he made two visits to the war zone of the Paraguayan War, which he described in his Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay (1870).
In 1868 he was appointed as the British consul in Damascus, an ideal post for someone with Burton's knowledge of the region and customs. According to Ed Rice, "England wanted to know what was going on in the Levant," another chapter in The Great Game. Yet, the Turkish governor Mohammed Rashid 'Ali Pasha, feared anti-Turkish activities, and was opposed to Burton's assignment.
In Damascus, Burton made friends with Abdelkader al-Jazairi, while Isabel befriended Jane Digby, calling her "my most intimate friend." Burton also met with Charles Francis Tyrwhitt-Drake and Edward Henry Palmer, collaborating with Drake in writing Unexplored Syria (1872).
However, the area was in some turmoil at the time with considerable tensions between the Christian, Jewish and Muslim populations. Burton did his best to keep the peace and resolve the situation, but this sometimes led him into trouble. On one occasion, he claims to have escaped an attack by hundreds of armed horsemen and camel riders sent by Mohammed Rashid Pasha, the Governor of Syria. He wrote, "I have never been so flattered in my life than to think it would take three hundred men to kill me." Burton eventually suffered the enmity of the Greek Christian and Jewish communities. Then, his involvement with the Sházlis, a group of Muslims Burton called "Secret Christians longing for baptism," which Isabel called "his ruin." He was recalled in August 1871, prompting him to telegram Isabel "I am recalled. Pay, pack, and follow at convenience."
Burton was reassigned in 1872 to the sleepy port city of Trieste in Austria-Hungary. A "broken man", Burton was never particularly content with this post, but it required little work, was far less dangerous than Damascus (as well as less exciting), and allowed him the freedom to write and travel.
In 1863 Burton co-founded the Anthropological Society of London with Dr. James Hunt. In Burton's own words, the main aim of the society (through the publication of the periodical Anthropologia) was "to supply travellers with an organ that would rescue their observations from the outer darkness of manuscript and print their curious information on social and sexual matters". On 13 February 1886, Burton was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) by Queen Victoria.
He wrote a number of travel books in this period that were not particularly well received. His best-known contributions to literature were those considered risqué or even pornographic at the time, which were published under the auspices of the Kama Shastra society. These books include The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (1883) (popularly known as the Kama Sutra), The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1885) (popularly known as The Arabian Nights), The Perfumed Garden of the Shaykh Nefzawi (1886) and The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night (seventeen volumes 1886–98).
Published in this period but composed on his return journey from Mecca, The Kasidah has been cited as evidence of Burton's status as a Bektashi Sufi. Deliberately presented by Burton as a translation, the poem and his notes and commentary on it contain layers of Sufic meaning that seem to have been designed to project Sufi teaching in the West. "Do what thy manhood bids thee do/ from none but self expect applause;/ He noblest lives and noblest dies/ who makes and keeps his self-made laws" is The Kasidahs most-quoted passage. As well as references to many themes from Classical Western myths, the poem contains many laments that are accented with fleeting imagery such as repeated comparisons to "the tinkling of the Camel bell" that becomes inaudible as the animal vanishes in the darkness of the desert.
Other works of note include a collection of Hindu tales, Vikram and the Vampire (1870); and his uncompleted history of swordsmanship, The Book of the Sword (1884). He also translated The Lusiads, the Portuguese national epic by Luís de Camões, in 1880 and, the next year, wrote a sympathetic biography of the poet and adventurer. The book The Jew, the Gipsy and el Islam was published posthumously in 1898 and was controversial for its criticism of Jews and for its assertion of the existence of Jewish human sacrifices. (Burton's investigations into this had provoked hostility from the Jewish population in Damascus (see the Damascus affair). The manuscript of the book included an appendix discussing the topic in more detail, but by the decision of his widow, it was not included in the book when published).
Death
Burton died in Trieste early on the morning of 20 October 1890 of a heart attack. His wife Isabel persuaded a priest to perform the last rites, although Burton was not a Catholic, and this action later caused a rift between Isabel and some of Burton's friends. It has been suggested that the death occurred very late on 19 October and that Burton was already dead by the time the last rites were administered. On his religious views, Burton called himself an atheist, stating he was raised in the Church of England which he said was "officially (his) church".
Isabel never recovered from the loss. After his death she burned many of her husband's papers, including journals and a planned new translation of The Perfumed Garden to be called The Scented Garden, for which she had been offered six thousand guineas and which she regarded as his "magnum opus". She believed she was acting to protect her husband's reputation, and that she had been instructed to burn the manuscript of The Scented Garden by his spirit, but her actions were controversial. However, a substantial quantity of his written materials have survived, and are held by the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, including 21 boxes of his manuscripts, 24 boxes of correspondence, and other material.
Isabel wrote a biography in praise of her husband.
The couple are buried in a tomb in the shape of a Bedouin tent, designed by Isabel, in the cemetery of St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake in southwest London. The coffins of Sir Richard and Lady Burton can be seen through a window at the rear of the tent, which can be accessed via a short fixed ladder. Next to the lady chapel in the church there is a memorial stained-glass window to Burton, also erected by Isabel; it depicts Burton as a medieval knight. Burton's personal effects and a collection of paintings, photographs and objects relating to him are in the Burton Collection at Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham.
Kama Shastra Society
Burton had long had an interest in sexuality and some erotic literature. However, the Obscene Publications Act of 1857 had resulted in many jail sentences for publishers, with prosecutions being brought by the Society for the Suppression of Vice. Burton referred to the society and those who shared its views as Mrs Grundy. A way around this was the private circulation of books amongst the members of a society. For this reason Burton, together with Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot, created the Kama Shastra Society to print and circulate books that would be illegal to publish in public.
One of the most celebrated of all his books is his translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after early translations of Antoine Galland's French version) in ten volumes (1885), with seven further volumes being added later. The volumes were printed by the Kama Shastra Society in a subscribers-only edition of one thousand with a guarantee that there would never be a larger printing of the books in this form. The stories collected were often sexual in content and were considered pornography at the time of publication. In particular, the Terminal Essay in volume 10 of the Nights contained a 14,000-word essay entitled "Pederasty" (Volume 10, section IV, D), at the time a synonym for homosexuality (as it still is, in modern French). This was and remained for many years the longest and most explicit discussion of homosexuality in any language. Burton speculated that male homosexuality was prevalent in an area of the southern latitudes named by him the "Sotadic zone".
Perhaps Burton's best-known book is his translation of The Kama Sutra. It is untrue that he was the translator since the original manuscript was in ancient Sanskrit, which he could not read. However, he collaborated with Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot on the work and provided translations from other manuscripts of later translations. The Kama Shastra Society first printed the book in 1883 and numerous editions of the Burton translation are in print to this day.
His English translation from a French edition of the Arabic erotic guide The Perfumed Garden was printed as The Perfumed Garden of the Cheikh Nefzaoui: A Manual of Arabian Erotology (1886). After Burton's death, Isabel burnt many of his papers, including a manuscript of a subsequent translation, The Scented Garden, containing the final chapter of the work, on pederasty. Burton all along intended for this translation to be published after his death, to provide an income for his widow.
Scandals
Burton's writings are unusually open and frank about his interest in sex and sexuality. His travel writing is often full of details about the sexual lives of the inhabitants of areas he travelled through. Burton's interest in sexuality led him to make measurements of the lengths of the penises of male inhabitants of various regions, which he includes in his travel books. He also describes sexual techniques common in the regions he visited, often hinting that he had participated, hence breaking both sexual and racial taboos of his day. Many people at the time considered the Kama Shastra Society and the books it published scandalous.
Biographers disagree on whether or not Burton ever experienced homosexual sex (he never directly acknowledges it in his writing). Rumours began in his army days when Charles James Napier requested that Burton go undercover to investigate a male brothel reputed to be frequented by British soldiers. It has been suggested that Burton's detailed report on the workings of the brothel led some to believe he had been a customer. There is no documentary evidence that such a report was written or submitted, nor that Napier ordered such research by Burton, and it has been argued that this is one of Burton's embellishments.
A story that haunted Burton up to his death (recounted in some of his obituaries) was that he came close to being discovered one night when he lifted his robe to urinate rather than squatting as an Arab would. It was said that he was seen by an Arab and, to avoid exposure, killed him. Burton denied this, pointing out that killing the boy would almost certainly have led to his being discovered as an impostor. Burton became so tired of denying this accusation that he took to baiting his accusers, although he was said to enjoy the notoriety and even once laughingly claimed to have done it. A doctor once asked him: "How do you feel when you have killed a man?", Burton retorted: "Quite jolly, what about you?". When asked by a priest about the same incident Burton is said to have replied: "Sir, I'm proud to say I have committed every sin in the Decalogue." Stanley Lane-Poole, a Burton detractor, reported that Burton "confessed rather shamefacedly that he had never killed anybody at any time."
These allegations coupled with Burton's often irascible nature were said to have harmed his career and may explain why he was not promoted further, either in army life or in the diplomatic service. As an obituary described: "...he was ill fitted to run in official harness, and he had a Byronic love of shocking people, of telling tales against himself that had no foundation in fact." Ouida reported: "Men at the FO [Foreign Office] ... used to hint dark horrors about Burton, and certainly justly or unjustly he was disliked, feared and suspected ... not for what he had done, but for what he was believed capable of doing."
Sotadic Zone
Burton theorized about the existence of a Sotadic Zone''' in the closing essay of his English translation of The Arabian Nights (1885–1886). Excerpted and reprinted with permission from He asserted that there exists a geographic-climatic zone in which sodomy and pederasty (sexual intimacy between older men and young pubescent/adolescent boys) are endemic, prevalent, and celebrated among the indigenous inhabitants and within their cultures. The name derives from Sotades, a 3rd-century BC Ancient Greek poet who was the chief representative of a group of Ancient Greek writers of obscene, and sometimes pederastic, satirical poetry; these homoerotic verses are preserved in the Greek Anthology, a collection of poems spanning the Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature.
Burton first advanced his Sotadic Zone concept in the "Terminal Essay", contained in Volume 10 of his English translation of The Arabian Nights, which he called The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, published in England in 1886.
In popular culture
Fiction
In the short story "The Aleph" (1945) by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, a manuscript by Burton is discovered in a library. The manuscript contains a description of a mirror in which the whole universe is reflected.
The Riverworld series of science fiction novels (1971–83) by Philip José Farmer has a fictional and resurrected Burton as a primary character.
William Harrison's Burton and Speke is a 1984 novel about the two friends/rivals.
The World Is Made of Glass: A Novel by Morris West tells the story of Magda Liliane Kardoss von Gamsfeld in consultation with Carl Gustav Jung; Burton is mentioned on pp. 254–7 and again on p. 392.
Der Weltensammler by the Bulgarian-German writer Iliya Troyanov is a fictional reconstruction of three periods of Burton's life, focusing on his time in India, his pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca, and his explorations with Speke.
Burton is the main character in the "Burton and Swinburne" steampunk series by Mark Hodder (2010–2015): The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack; The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man; Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon; The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi; The Return of the Discontinued Man; and The Rise of the Automated Aristocrats. These novels depict an alternate world where Queen Victoria was killed early in her reign due to the inadvertent actions of a time-traveler acting as Spring-Heeled Jack, with a complex constitutional revision making Albert King in her place.
Though not one of the primary characters in the series, Burton plays an important historical role in the Area 51 series of books by Bob Mayer (written under the pen name Robert Doherty).
Burton and his partner Speke are recurrently mentioned in one of Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires, the 1863 novel Five Weeks in a Balloon, as the voyages of Kennedy and Ferguson are attempting to link their expeditions with those of Heinrich Barth in west Africa.
In the novel The Bookman's Promise (2004) by John Dunning, the protagonist buys a signed copy of a rare Burton book, and from there Burton and his work are major elements of the story. A section of the novel also fictionalizes a portion of Burton's life in the form of recollections of one of the characters.
Drama
In the BBC production of The Search for the Nile series (1972), Burton is portrayed by actor Kenneth Haigh.
The film Mountains of the Moon (1990) (starring Patrick Bergin as Burton) relates the story of the Burton-Speke exploration and subsequent controversy over the source of the Nile. The script was based on Harrison's novel.
In the Canadian film Zero Patience (1993), Burton is portrayed by John Robinson as having had "an unfortunate encounter" with the Fountain of Youth and is living in present-day Toronto. Upon discovering the ghost of the famous Patient Zero, Burton attempts to exhibit the finding at his Hall of Contagion at the Museum of Natural History.
In the American TV show The Sentinel, a monograph by Sir Richard Francis Burton is found by one of the main characters, Blair Sandburg, and is the origins for his concept of Sentinels and their roles in their respective tribes.
Chronology
Works and correspondence
Burton published over 40 books and countless articles, monographs and letters. A great number of his journal and magazine pieces have never been catalogued. Over 200 of these have been collected in PDF facsimile format at burtoniana.org.
Brief selections from a variety of Burton's writings are available in Frank McLynn's Of No Country: An Anthology of Richard Burton (1990; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
See also
Selim Aga
Mausoleum of Sir Richard and Lady Burton
List of polyglots
References
Sources
Books and articles
Hitchman, Francis (1887), Richard F. Burton, K.C.M.G.: His Early, Private and Public Life with an Account of his Travels and Explorations, Two volumes; London: Sampson and Low.
McDow, Thomas F. 'Trafficking in Persianness: Richard Burton between mimicry and similitude in the Indian Ocean and Persianate worlds'. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 30.3 (2010): 491–511.
Newman, James L. (2009), Paths without Glory: Richard Francis Burton in Africa, Potomac Books, Dulles, Virginia; .
Sparrow-Niang, Jane (2014). Bath and the Nile Explorers: In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Burton and Speke's encounter in Bath, September 1864, and their 'Nile Duel' which never happened. Bath: Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution.
Wisnicki, Adrian S. (2009). "Charting the Frontier: Indigenous Geography, Arab-Nyamwezi Caravans, and the East African Expedition of 1856–59". Victorian Studies 51.1 (Aut.): 103–37.
Film documentaries
Search for the Nile, 1971 BBC mini-series featuring Kenneth Haigh as Burton
In The Victorian Sex Explorer'', Rupert Everett documents Burton's travels. Part of the Channel Four (UK) 'Victorian Passions' season. First Broadcast on 9 June 2008.
External links
Complete Works of Richard Burton at burtoniana.org. Includes over 200 of Burton's journal and magazine pieces.
– index to world holdings of Burton archival materials
The Penetration of Arabia by David George Hogarth (1904) – discusses Burton in the second section, "The Successors"
Capt Sir Richard Burton Museum (sirrichardburtonmuseum.co.uk), "located in a private residence in central St Ives, Cornwall UK"
1821 births
1890 deaths
19th-century British male writers
19th-century English poets
19th-century English writers
19th-century explorers
19th-century linguists
19th-century British translators
Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford
Arabic–English translators
British Arabists
British atheists
British diplomats
British East India Company Army officers
British ethnographers
British ethnologists
British expatriates in the Ottoman Empire
British military personnel of the Crimean War
Burials at St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake
English atheists
English cartographers
English explorers
English male poets
English orientalists
English translators
English travel writers
Explorers of Africa
Explorers of Arabia
Explorers of Asia
Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society
Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England
Hajj accounts
Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
People from Elstree
People from Torquay
Portuguese–English translators
Translators of One Thousand and One Nights
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[
"Memie Clifton \"M.C.\" Burton Jr. (born September 3, 1937 in Blytheville, Arkansas) is a retired American basketball player and medical doctor. In 1959, he became the first player in the history of the Big Ten Conference to lead the conference in both points (469) and rebounds (379). Burton turned down offers to play in the NBA in order to attend medical school and received his medical degree in 1963. He was inducted into the University of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor in 1988.\n\nMuskegon Heights High School\nA native of Muskegon, Michigan, Burton played three years for Muskegon Heights High School from 1953–1955. He set the school scoring records with 1,141 points and led the team to the state basketball championship in 1954. Burton scored 22 points in the championship game, a 43–41 victory over Flint Northern before a crowd of 11,835 at Jenison field house in East Lansing, Michigan. Burton's 423 points in 1954 represented 35% of the team's season total, and he was named to the All-Tournament High School Basketball Team selected by the Associated Press. The championship was the first for Muskegon coach Oscar (Okie) Johnson who had been the school's coach for 27 years.\n\nBurton was a straight \"A\" student who graduated second in his class from Muskegon Heights High School.\n\nUniversity of Michigan\nOver 50 colleges and universities offered scholarships to Burton, but Burton selected the University of Michigan, which offered him an academic scholarship and an opportunity to attend medical school.\n\nBurton played forward for the Michigan Wolverines basketball team. In 1959, Burton was selected to the first-team All-Big Ten team and was named the Most Valuable Player on the Michigan team. He scored 460 points and collected 379 rebounds in 1959, both of which broke the Michigan school records. His 1959 totals also made him the first player to lead the Big Ten Conference in both scoring and rebounds in the same year.\n\nMedical school and semi-pro basketball\nOn graduating from high school, Burton announced he was not interested in playing in the NBA and would instead continue his studies at the University of Michigan Medical School. Despite Burton's stated intention, the Detroit Pistons selected him as the 73rd pick in the 1959 NBA Draft. The Pistons offered Burton $15,000 a year to play in the NBA, but Burton declined. He later recalled that, in 1959, the NBA did not offer an income that could compete with a career as a medical doctor. He noted:\"The money made my decision earlier. Even the Pistons general manager at the time admitted that a degree in medicine would be worth more to me in five years than a career in basketball.\"\n\nWhile turning down the NBA, Burton did play semi-pro basketball to help pay his way through medical school. In the summer of 1959, he toured with an All-Star team playing against the Harlem Globetrotters. During his first two years of medical school, he played on weekends for the Holland Oilers in the Midwest Professional Basketball League (\"MPBL\"). He also played for the Battle Creek Warriors in 1961 and the Toledo Tartans in 1962.\n\nBurton graduated from medical school in 1963 and accepted an internship in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he supplemented his income by playing for the Grand Rapids Tackers of the MPBL. In 1964, Burton was inducted into the U.S. Navy. He was stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center, where he was permitted to play the 1964–65 season for the Grand Rapids Tackers in the newly formed North American Basketball League (\"NABL\").\n\nBurton's Naval duties prevented him from playing in the 1965–66 season, but he returned to the Tackers from 1966–1969. During the 1967–68 season, he led the Tackers to the NABL championship, led the league in rebounds, was third in scoring, and was selected as the NABL's Most Valuable Player.\n\nMedical practice\nAfter the 1968–69 NABL season, Burton ended his semi-pro basketball career and opened a medical practice in Grand Rapids, Michigan, specializing in obstetrics, gynecology, and infertility.\n\nBurton is a lecturer at schools, where he encourages students not to place all their eggs in the sports basket. He notes:\"Kids need more varied role models. … [E]verybody goes out and buys a $180 pair of Reeboks and thinks that is what is going to happen to them. Instead, maybe they should buy the old $30 pair of tennis shoes and two books by Hemingway or someone else just in case things don't work out. You can have two dreams. Politics, education, the science fields, the computer age is here – there are so many dreams that these kids can have.\"\nBurton currently works at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona as director of the ambulatory surgical center. He also maintains a practice in obstetrics and gynecology in Phoenix.\n\nSee also\nUniversity of Michigan Athletic Hall of Honor\n\nReferences\n\n1937 births\nLiving people\nAfrican-American basketball players\nBasketball players from Arkansas\nBasketball players from Michigan\nDetroit Pistons draft picks\nPeople from Blytheville, Arkansas\nSportspeople from Muskegon, Michigan\nMichigan Wolverines men's basketball players\nSmall forwards\nUniversity of Michigan Medical School alumni\nAmerican men's basketball players\n21st-century African-American people\n20th-century African-American sportspeople",
"Stephen Burton (born December 11, 1989) is a former American football wide receiver. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the seventh round of the 2011 NFL Draft. He played college football at West Texas A&M. On April 23, 2014, Burton had retired due to concussion concern.\n\nEarly years\nBurton attended Artesia High School in Lakewood, California where he received offensive Player of the Year honors as a wide receiver and running back. Although having great talent at wide receiver, Burton was offered no scholarships from any college. He eventually chose to attend the Junior College, Long Beach City College.\n\nCollege years\nWhile attending Long Beach, Burton played wide receiver and was the kick returner for the team. In 2007, he was named team MVP and won Second Team All-Conference as a wide receiver. After playing for Long Beach for his freshman and sophomore years, Burton decided to transfer to University of Oklahoma. However, Burton was unable to obtain enough credits to transfer and eventually decided to attend the Division II school, West Texas A&M. In his first season playing in a spread offense at West Texas A&M, he had three 100-yard receiving games. During his second year Burton had three 100-yard receiving games again and also had 70 receptions for 1,021 yards and 11 touchdowns.\n\nProfessional career\n\n2011 NFL Combine\n\nMinnesota Vikings\nBurton was drafted by the Vikings in the seventh round of the 2011 NFL Draft. He was signed to the Minnesota Vikings' active roster on October 25, 2011. His promotion was in response to the Vikings releasing wide receiver Bernard Berrian. Burton scored his first NFL touchdown with the Vikings on September 16, 2012 against the Indianapolis Colts. It was a 6-yard reception that was tipped by tight end Kyle Rudolph. Burton was released by the Vikings on August 31, 2013 (along with 18 others) to get to a 53-man roster.\n\nJacksonville Jaguars\nBurton was claimed off waivers by the Jacksonville Jaguars on September 1, 2013. He was placed on injured reserve on December 9, 2013 due to a concussion. On April 23, 2014, Burton retired at the age of 24 due to concussion concerns.\n\nCalgary Stampeders \nOn January 26, 2015, Burton unretired and signed a contract with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.\n\nWinnipeg Blue Bombers\nOn May 11, 2017, Burton signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the Canadian Football League. He was placed on the suspension list on May 28, 2017, and his contract expired at the end of the season.\n\nReferences\n\nExternal links\n \n Minnesota Vikings bio\n West Texas A&M football bio\n\n1989 births\nLiving people\nPeople from Lakewood, California\nPlayers of American football from California\nSportspeople from Los Angeles County, California\nAmerican football wide receivers\nCanadian football wide receivers\nAmerican players of Canadian football\nLong Beach City Vikings football players\nWest Texas A&M Buffaloes football players\nMinnesota Vikings players\nJacksonville Jaguars players\nCalgary Stampeders players"
] |
[
"Richard Francis Burton",
"Early life and education (1821-41)",
"where was burton educated?",
"Burton's early education was provided by various tutors employed by his parents. He first began a formal education in 1829 at a preparatory school on Richmond Green in Richmond,",
"Did Burton attend a University?",
"Burton matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, on 19 November 1840."
] |
C_ca2d8e647fb14253bf34f57b5330ba47_1
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What did he study there?
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What did Richard Francis Burton study at Trinity College, Oxford?
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Richard Francis Burton
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Burton was born in Torquay, Devon, at 21:30 on 19 March 1821; in his autobiography, he incorrectly claimed to have been born in the family home at Barham House in Elstree in Hertfordshire. He was baptized on 2 September 1821 at Elstree Church in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. His father, Lt.-Colonel Joseph Netterville Burton, of the 36th Regiment, was an Irish-born British army officer of Anglo-Irish extraction who through his mother's family - the Campbells of Tuam - was a first cousin of Lt.-Colonel Henry Peard Driscoll and Mrs Richard Graves. Richard's mother, Martha Baker, was the daughter and co-heiress of a wealthy English squire, Richard Baker (1762-1824), of Barham House, Hertfordshire, for whom he was named. Burton had two siblings, Maria Katherine Elizabeth Burton (who married Lt.-General Sir Henry William Stisted) and Edward Joseph Netterville Burton, born in 1823 and 1824, respectively. Burton's family travelled considerably during his childhood. In 1825, they moved to Tours, France. Burton's early education was provided by various tutors employed by his parents. He first began a formal education in 1829 at a preparatory school on Richmond Green in Richmond, Surrey, run by Rev. Charles Delafosse. Over the next few years, his family travelled between England, France, and Italy. Burton showed an early gift for languages and quickly learned French, Italian, Neapolitan, and Latin, as well as several dialects. During his youth, he was rumored to have carried on an affair with a young Roma (Gypsy) woman, learning the rudiments of her language, Romani. The peregrinations of his youth may have encouraged Burton to regard himself as an outsider for much of his life. As he put it, "Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause". Burton matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, on 19 November 1840. Before getting a room at the college, he lived for a short time in the house of Dr. William Alexander Greenhill, then physician to the Radcliffe Infirmary. Here, he met John Henry Newman, whose churchwarden was Dr. Greenhill. Despite his intelligence and ability, Burton was antagonised by his teachers and peers. During his first term, he is said to have challenged another student to a duel after the latter mocked Burton's moustache. Burton continued to gratify his love of languages by studying Arabic; he also spent his time learning falconry and fencing. In April 1842, he attended a steeplechase in deliberate violation of college rules and subsequently dared to tell the college authorities that students should be allowed to attend such events. Hoping to be merely "rusticated" - that is, suspended with the possibility of reinstatement, the punishment received by some less provocative students who had also visited the steeplechase - he was instead permanently expelled from Trinity College. CANNOTANSWER
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Burton continued to gratify his love of languages by studying Arabic; he also spent his time learning falconry and fencing.
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Sir Richard Francis Burton (; 19 March 1821 – 20 October 1890) was a British explorer, writer, scholar, and soldier. He was famed for his travels and explorations in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, as well as his extraordinary knowledge of languages and cultures. According to one count, he spoke twenty-nine European, Asian, and African languages.
Burton's best-known achievements include: a well-documented journey to Mecca in disguise, at a time when Europeans were forbidden access on pain of death; an unexpurgated translation of One Thousand and One Nights (commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after early translations of Antoine Galland's French version); the publication of the Kama Sutra in English; a translation of The Perfumed Garden, the "Arab Kama Sutra"; and a journey with John Hanning Speke as the first Europeans to visit the Great Lakes of Africa in search of the source of the Nile.
His works and letters extensively criticised colonial policies of the British Empire, even to the detriment of his career. Although he aborted his university studies, he became a prolific and erudite author and wrote numerous books and scholarly articles about subjects including human behaviour, travel, falconry, fencing, sexual practices, and ethnography. A characteristic feature of his books is the copious footnotes and appendices containing remarkable observations and information. William Henry Wilkins wrote: "So far as I can gather from all I have learned, the chief value of Burton’s version of The Scented Garden lay not so much in his translation of the text, though that of course was admirably done, as in the copious notes and explanations which he had gathered together for the purpose of annotating the book. He had made this subject a study of years. For the notes of the book alone he had been collecting material for thirty years, though his actual translation of it only took him eighteen months."
Burton was a captain in the army of the East India Company, serving in India, and later briefly in the Crimean War. Following this, he was engaged by the Royal Geographical Society to explore the east coast of Africa, where he led an expedition guided by locals and was the first European known to have seen Lake Tanganyika. In later life, he served as British consul in Fernando Pó (now Bioko, Equatorial Guinea), Santos in Brazil, Damascus (now Syria), and finally in Trieste (now Italy). He was a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and was awarded a knighthood in 1886.
Biography
Early life and education (1821–1841)
Burton was born in Torquay, Devon, at 21:30 on 19 March 1821; in his autobiography, he incorrectly claimed to have been born in the family home at Barham House in Elstree in Hertfordshire. He was baptised on 2 September 1821 at Elstree Church in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. His father, Lt.-Colonel Joseph Netterville Burton, of the 36th Regiment, was an Irish-born British army officer of Anglo-Irish extraction who through his mother's family—the Campbells of Tuam—was a first cousin of Lt.-Colonel Henry Peard Driscoll and Mrs Richard Graves. Richard's mother, Martha Baker, was the daughter and co-heiress of a wealthy English squire, Richard Baker (1762–1824), of Barham House, Hertfordshire, for whom he was named. Burton had two siblings, Maria Katherine Elizabeth Burton (who married Lt.-General Sir Henry William Stisted) and Edward Joseph Netterville Burton, born in 1823 and 1824, respectively.
Burton's family travelled extensively during his childhood and employed various tutors to educate him. In 1825, they moved to Tours in France. In 1829, Burton began a formal education at a preparatory school in Richmond Green in Richmond, Surrey, run by Reverend Charles Delafosse. Over the next few years, his family travelled between England, France, and Italy. Burton showed a talent to learn languages and quickly learned French, Italian, Neapolitan and Latin, as well as several dialects. During his youth, he allegedly had an affair with a Roma girl and learned the rudiments of the Romani language. The peregrinations of his youth may have encouraged Burton to regard himself as an outsider for much of his life. As he put it, "Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause".
Burton matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, on 19 November 1840. Before getting a room at the college, he lived for a short time in the house of William Alexander Greenhill, then doctor at the Radcliffe Infirmary. Here, he met John Henry Newman, whose churchwarden was Greenhill. Despite his intelligence and ability, Burton was antagonised by his teachers and peers. During his first term, he is said to have challenged another student to a duel after the latter mocked Burton's moustache. Burton continued to gratify his love of languages by studying Arabic; he also spent his time learning falconry and fencing. In April 1842, he attended a steeplechase in deliberate violation of college rules and subsequently dared to tell the college authorities that students should be allowed to attend such events. Hoping to be merely "rusticated"—that is, suspended with the possibility of reinstatement, the punishment received by some less provocative students who had also visited the steeplechase—he was instead permanently expelled from Trinity College.
According to Ed Rice, speaking on Burton's university days, "He stirred the bile of the dons by speaking real—that is, Roman—Latin instead of the artificial type peculiar to England, and he spoke Greek Romaically, with the accent of Athens, as he had learned it from a Greek merchant at Marseilles, as well as the classical forms. Such a linguistic feat was a tribute to Burton's remarkable ear and memory, for he was only a teenager when he was in Italy and southern France."
Army career (1842–1853)
In his own words, "fit for nothing but to be shot at for six pence a day", Burton enlisted in the army of the East India Company at the behest of his ex-college classmates who were already members. He hoped to fight in the first Afghan war, but the conflict was over before he arrived in India. He was posted to the 18th Bombay Native Infantry based in Gujarat and under the command of General Charles James Napier. While in India, he became a proficient speaker of Hindustani, Gujarati, Punjabi, Sindhi, Saraiki and Marathi as well as Persian and Arabic. His studies of Hindu culture had progressed to such an extent that "my Hindu teacher officially allowed me to wear the janeo (Brahmanical Thread)". Him Chand, his gotra teacher, a Nagar Brahmin, could have been an apostate. Burton had a documented interest (and actively participated) in the cultures and religions of India. This was one of many peculiar habits that set him apart from other soldiers. While in the army, he kept a large menagerie of tame monkeys in the hopes of learning their language, accumulating sixty "words". He also earned the name "Ruffian Dick" for his "demonic ferocity as a fighter and because he had fought in single combat more enemies than perhaps any other man of his time".
According to Ed Rice, "Burton now regarded the seven years in India as time wasted." Yet, "He had already passed the official examinations in six languages and was studying two more and was eminently qualified." His religious experiences were varied, including attending Catholic services, becoming a Nāgar Brāhmin, adopting Sikhism, conversion to Islam, and undergoing chillá for Qadiri Sufism. Regarding Burton's Muslim beliefs, Ed Rice states, "Thus, he was circumcised, and made a Muslim, and lived like a Muslim and prayed and practiced like one." Furthermore, Burton, "...was entitled to call himself a hāfiz, one who can recite the Qur'ān from memory."
First explorations and journey to Mecca (1851–53)
Burton's pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca in 1853, was his realization of "the plans and hopes of many and many a year...to study thoroughly the inner life of the Moslem." Traveling through Alexandria in April, then Cairo in May, where he stayed in June during Ramadan, Burton first donned the guise of a Persian mirza, then a Sunnī "Shaykh, doctor, magician and dervish. Accompanied by an Indian boy slave called Nūr, Burton further equipped himself with a case for carrying the Qur'ān, but instead had three compartments for his watch and compass, money, and penknife, pencils, and numbered pieces of paper for taking notes. His diary he kept in a break pocket, unseen. Burton traveled onwards with a group of nomads to Suez, sailed to Yambu, and joined a caravan to Medina, where he arrived on 27 July, earning the title Zair. Departing Medina with the Damascus caravan on 31 August, Burton entered Mecca on 11 September. There, he participated in the Tawaf, traveled to Mount Arafat, and participated in the Stoning of the Devil, all the while taking notes on the Kaaba, its Black Stone, and the Zamzam Well. Departing Mecca, he journeyed to Jeddah, back to Cairo, returning to duty in Bombay. In India, Burton wrote his Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El-Medinah and Meccah. Of his journey, Burton wrote, "at Mecca there is nothing theatrical, nothing that suggests the opera, but all is simple and impressive...tending, I believe, after its fashion, to good."
Motivated by his love of adventure, Burton got the approval of the Royal Geographical Society for an exploration of the area, and he gained permission from the board of directors of the East India Company to take leave from the army. His seven years in India gave Burton a familiarity with the customs and behaviour of Muslims and prepared him to attempt a Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca and, in this case, Medina). It was this journey, undertaken in 1853, which first made Burton famous. He had planned it whilst travelling disguised among the Muslims of Sindh, and had laboriously prepared for the adventure by study and practice (including undergoing the Muslim tradition of circumcision to further lower the risk of being discovered).
Although Burton was certainly not the first non-Muslim European to make the Hajj (Ludovico di Varthema did this in 1503 and Johann Ludwig Burckhardt in 1815), his pilgrimage is the most famous and the best documented of the time. He adopted various disguises including that of a Pashtun to account for any oddities in speech, but he still had to demonstrate an understanding of intricate Islamic traditions, and a familiarity with the minutiae of Eastern manners and etiquette. Burton's trek to Mecca was dangerous, and his caravan was attacked by bandits (a common experience at the time). As he put it, though "... neither Koran or Sultan enjoin the death of Jew or Christian intruding within the columns that note the sanctuary limits, nothing could save a European detected by the populace, or one who after pilgrimage declared himself an unbeliever". The pilgrimage entitled him to the title of Hajji and to wear the green head wrap. Burton's own account of his journey is given in A Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to Al-Madinah and Meccah.
Burton sat for the examination as an Arab linguist. The examiner was Robert Lambert Playfair, who disliked Burton. As Professor George Percy Badger knew Arabic well, Playfair asked Badger to oversee the exam. Having been told that Burton could be vindictive, and wishing to avoid any animosity should Burton fail, Badger declined. Playfair conducted the tests; despite Burton's success living as an Arab, Playfair had recommended to the committee that Burton be failed. Badger later told Burton that "After looking [Burton's test] over, I [had] sent them back to [Playfair] with a note eulogising your attainments and ... remarking on the absurdity of the Bombay Committee being made to judge your proficiency inasmuch as I did not believe that any of them possessed a tithe of the knowledge of Arabic you did."
Early explorations (1854–55)
In May 1854, Burton traveled to Aden in preparation for his Somaliland Expedition, supported by the Royal Geographical Society. Other members included G.E. Herne, William Stroyan, and John Hanning Speke. Burton undertook the expedition to Harar, Speke investigated the Wady Nogal, while Herne and Stroyan stayed on at Berbera. According to Burton, "A tradition exists that with the entrance of the first [white] Christian Harar will fall." With Burton's entry, the "Guardian Spell" was broken.
This Somaliland Expedition lasted from 29October 1854 to 9February 1855, with much of the time spent in the port of Zeila, where Burton was a guest of the town's Governor al-Haji Sharmakay bin Ali Salih. Burton, "assuming the disguise of an Arab merchant" called Haji Mirza Abdullah, awaited word that the road to Harar was safe. On 29 December, Burton met with Gerard Adan in the village of Sagharrah, when Burton openly proclaimed himself an English officer with a letter for the Amīr of Harar. On 3 January 1855, Burton made it to Harar, and was graciously met by the Amir. Burton stayed in the city for ten days, officially a guest of the Amir but in reality his prisoner. The journey back was plagued by lack of supplies, and Burton wrote that he would have died of thirst had he not seen desert birds and realized they would be near water. Burton made it back to Berbera on 31 January 1855.
Following this adventure, Burton prepared to set out in search of the source of the Nile, accompanied by Lieutenant Speke, Lieutenant G. E. Herne and Lieutenant William Stroyan and a number of Africans employed as bearers. The schooner delivered them to Berbera on 7 April 1855. While the expedition was camped near Berbera, his party was attacked by a group of Somali waranle ("warriors") belonging to Isaaq clan. The officers estimated the number of attackers at 200. In the ensuing fight, Stroyan was killed and Speke was captured and wounded in eleven places before he managed to escape. Burton was impaled with a javelin, the point entering one cheek and exiting the other. This wound left a notable scar that can be easily seen on portraits and photographs. He was forced to make his escape with the weapon still transfixing his head. It was no surprise then that he found the Somalis to be a "fierce and turbulent race". However, the failure of this expedition was viewed harshly by the authorities, and a two-year investigation was set up to determine to what extent Burton was culpable for this disaster. While he was largely cleared of any blame, this did not help his career. He describes the harrowing attack in First Footsteps in East Africa (1856).
After recovering from his wounds in London, Burton traveled to Constantinople during the Crimean War, seeking a commission. He received one from General W.F. Beatson, as the Chief of staff for "Beatson's Horse", popularly called the Bashi-bazouks, and based in Gallipoli. Burton returned after an incident which disgraced Beatson, and implicated Burton as the instigator of a "mutiny", damaging his reputation.
Exploring the African Great Lakes (1856–1860)
In 1856, the Royal Geographical Society funded another expedition for Burton and Speke, "and exploration of the then utterly unknown Lake regions of Central Africa." They would travel from Zanzibar to Ujiji along a caravan route established in 1825 by an Arab slave and ivory merchant. The Great Journey commenced on 5 June 1857 with their departure from Zanzibar, where they had stayed at the residence of Atkins Hamerton, the British consul, their caravan consisting of Baluchi mercenaries led by Ramji, 36 porters, eventually a total of 132 persons, all led by the caravan leader Said bin Salim. From the beginning, Burton and Speke were hindered by disease, malaria, fevers, and other maladies, at times both having to be carried in a hammock. Pack animals died, and natives deserted, taking supplies with them. Yet, on 7 November 1857, they made it to Kazeh, and departed for Ujij on 14 Dec Speke wanted to head north, sure they would find the source of the Nile at what he later named Victoria Nyanza, but Burton persisted in heading west.
The expedition arrived at Lake Tanganyika on 13 February 1858. Burton was awestruck by the sight of the magnificent lake, but Speke, who had been temporarily blinded, was unable to see the body of water. By this point much of their surveying equipment was lost, ruined, or stolen, and they were unable to complete surveys of the area as well as they wished. Burton was again taken ill on the return journey; Speke continued exploring without him, making a journey to the north and eventually locating the great Lake Victoria, or Victoria Nyanza, on 3 August. Lacking supplies and proper instruments, Speke was unable to survey the area properly but was privately convinced that it was the long-sought source of the Nile. Burton's description of the journey is given in Lake Regions of Equatorial Africa (1860). Speke gave his own account in The Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (1863).
Burton and Speke made it back to Zanzibar on 4 March 1859, and left on 22 March for Aden. Speke immediately boarded for London, where he gave lectures, and was awarded a second expedition by the Society. Burton arrived London on 21 May, discovering "My companion now stood forth in his new colours, and angry rival." Speke additionally published What Led to the Discovery of the Source of the Nile (1863), while Burton's Zanzibar; City, Island, and Coast was eventually published in 1872.
Burton then departed on a trip to the United States in April 1860, eventually making it to Salt Lake City on 25 August. There he studied Mormonism and met Brigham Young. Burton departed San Francisco on 15 November, for the voyage back to England, where he published The City of the Saints and Across the Rocky Mountains to California.
Burton and Speke
A prolonged public quarrel followed, damaging the reputations of both Burton and Speke. Some biographers have suggested that friends of Speke (particularly Laurence Oliphant) had initially stirred up trouble between the two. Burton's sympathizers contend that Speke resented Burton's leadership role. Tim Jeal, who has accessed Speke's personal papers, suggests that it was more likely the other way around, Burton being jealous and resentful of Speke's determination and success. "As the years went by, [Burton] would neglect no opportunity to deride and undermine Speke's geographical theories and achievements".
Speke had earlier proven his mettle by trekking through the mountains of Tibet, but Burton regarded him as inferior as he did not speak any Arabic or African languages. Despite his fascination with non-European cultures, some have portrayed Burton as an unabashed imperialist convinced of the historical and intellectual superiority of the white race, citing his involvement in the Anthropological Society, an organization that established a doctrine of scientific racism. Speke appears to have been kinder and less intrusive to the Africans they encountered, and reportedly fell in love with an African woman on a future expedition.
The two men travelled home separately. Speke returned to London first and presented a lecture at the Royal Geographical Society, claiming Lake Victoria as the source of the Nile. According to Burton, Speke broke an agreement they had made to give their first public speech together. Apart from Burton's word, there is no proof that such an agreement existed, and most modern researchers doubt that it did. Tim Jeal, evaluating the written evidence, says the odds are "heavily against Speke having made a pledge to his former leader".
Speke undertook a second expedition, along with Captain James Grant and Sidi Mubarak Bombay, to prove that Lake Victoria was the true source of the Nile. Speke, in light of the issues he was having with Burton, had Grant sign a statement saying, among other things, "I renounce all my rights to publishing ... my own account [of the expedition] until approved of by Captain Speke or [the Royal Geographical Society]".
On 16 September 1864, Burton and Speke were scheduled to debate the source of the Nile at a meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. On the day before the debate, Burton and Speke sat near each other in the lecture hall. According to Burton's wife, Speke stood up, said "I can't stand this any longer," and abruptly left the hall. That afternoon Speke went hunting on the nearby estate of a relative. He was discovered lying near a stone wall, felled by a fatal gunshot wound from his hunting shotgun. Burton learned of Speke's death the following day while waiting for their debate to begin. A jury ruled Speke's death an accident. An obituary surmised that Speke, while climbing over the wall, had carelessly pulled the gun after himself with the muzzle pointing at his chest and shot himself. Alexander Maitland, Speke's only biographer, concurs.
Diplomatic service and scholarship (1861–1890)
On 22 January 1861, Burton and Isabel Arundel married in a quiet Catholic ceremony although he did not adopt the Catholic faith at this time. Shortly after this, the couple were forced to spend some time apart when he formally entered the Diplomatic Service as consul on the island of Fernando Po, now Bioko in Equatorial Guinea. This was not a prestigious appointment; because the climate was considered extremely unhealthy for Europeans, Isabel could not accompany him. Burton spent much of this time exploring the coast of West Africa, documenting his findings in Abeokuta and The Cameroons Mountains: An Exploration (1863), and A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome (1864). He described some of his experiences, including a trip up the Congo River to the Yellala Falls and beyond, in his 1876 book Two trips to gorilla land and the cataracts of the Congo.
The couple were reunited in 1865 when Burton was transferred to Santos in Brazil. Once there, Burton travelled through Brazil's central highlands, canoeing down the São Francisco River from its source to the falls of Paulo Afonso. He documented his experiences in The Highlands of Brazil (1869).
In 1868 and 1869 he made two visits to the war zone of the Paraguayan War, which he described in his Letters from the Battlefields of Paraguay (1870).
In 1868 he was appointed as the British consul in Damascus, an ideal post for someone with Burton's knowledge of the region and customs. According to Ed Rice, "England wanted to know what was going on in the Levant," another chapter in The Great Game. Yet, the Turkish governor Mohammed Rashid 'Ali Pasha, feared anti-Turkish activities, and was opposed to Burton's assignment.
In Damascus, Burton made friends with Abdelkader al-Jazairi, while Isabel befriended Jane Digby, calling her "my most intimate friend." Burton also met with Charles Francis Tyrwhitt-Drake and Edward Henry Palmer, collaborating with Drake in writing Unexplored Syria (1872).
However, the area was in some turmoil at the time with considerable tensions between the Christian, Jewish and Muslim populations. Burton did his best to keep the peace and resolve the situation, but this sometimes led him into trouble. On one occasion, he claims to have escaped an attack by hundreds of armed horsemen and camel riders sent by Mohammed Rashid Pasha, the Governor of Syria. He wrote, "I have never been so flattered in my life than to think it would take three hundred men to kill me." Burton eventually suffered the enmity of the Greek Christian and Jewish communities. Then, his involvement with the Sházlis, a group of Muslims Burton called "Secret Christians longing for baptism," which Isabel called "his ruin." He was recalled in August 1871, prompting him to telegram Isabel "I am recalled. Pay, pack, and follow at convenience."
Burton was reassigned in 1872 to the sleepy port city of Trieste in Austria-Hungary. A "broken man", Burton was never particularly content with this post, but it required little work, was far less dangerous than Damascus (as well as less exciting), and allowed him the freedom to write and travel.
In 1863 Burton co-founded the Anthropological Society of London with Dr. James Hunt. In Burton's own words, the main aim of the society (through the publication of the periodical Anthropologia) was "to supply travellers with an organ that would rescue their observations from the outer darkness of manuscript and print their curious information on social and sexual matters". On 13 February 1886, Burton was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) by Queen Victoria.
He wrote a number of travel books in this period that were not particularly well received. His best-known contributions to literature were those considered risqué or even pornographic at the time, which were published under the auspices of the Kama Shastra society. These books include The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana (1883) (popularly known as the Kama Sutra), The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (1885) (popularly known as The Arabian Nights), The Perfumed Garden of the Shaykh Nefzawi (1886) and The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night (seventeen volumes 1886–98).
Published in this period but composed on his return journey from Mecca, The Kasidah has been cited as evidence of Burton's status as a Bektashi Sufi. Deliberately presented by Burton as a translation, the poem and his notes and commentary on it contain layers of Sufic meaning that seem to have been designed to project Sufi teaching in the West. "Do what thy manhood bids thee do/ from none but self expect applause;/ He noblest lives and noblest dies/ who makes and keeps his self-made laws" is The Kasidahs most-quoted passage. As well as references to many themes from Classical Western myths, the poem contains many laments that are accented with fleeting imagery such as repeated comparisons to "the tinkling of the Camel bell" that becomes inaudible as the animal vanishes in the darkness of the desert.
Other works of note include a collection of Hindu tales, Vikram and the Vampire (1870); and his uncompleted history of swordsmanship, The Book of the Sword (1884). He also translated The Lusiads, the Portuguese national epic by Luís de Camões, in 1880 and, the next year, wrote a sympathetic biography of the poet and adventurer. The book The Jew, the Gipsy and el Islam was published posthumously in 1898 and was controversial for its criticism of Jews and for its assertion of the existence of Jewish human sacrifices. (Burton's investigations into this had provoked hostility from the Jewish population in Damascus (see the Damascus affair). The manuscript of the book included an appendix discussing the topic in more detail, but by the decision of his widow, it was not included in the book when published).
Death
Burton died in Trieste early on the morning of 20 October 1890 of a heart attack. His wife Isabel persuaded a priest to perform the last rites, although Burton was not a Catholic, and this action later caused a rift between Isabel and some of Burton's friends. It has been suggested that the death occurred very late on 19 October and that Burton was already dead by the time the last rites were administered. On his religious views, Burton called himself an atheist, stating he was raised in the Church of England which he said was "officially (his) church".
Isabel never recovered from the loss. After his death she burned many of her husband's papers, including journals and a planned new translation of The Perfumed Garden to be called The Scented Garden, for which she had been offered six thousand guineas and which she regarded as his "magnum opus". She believed she was acting to protect her husband's reputation, and that she had been instructed to burn the manuscript of The Scented Garden by his spirit, but her actions were controversial. However, a substantial quantity of his written materials have survived, and are held by the Huntington Library in San Marino, California, including 21 boxes of his manuscripts, 24 boxes of correspondence, and other material.
Isabel wrote a biography in praise of her husband.
The couple are buried in a tomb in the shape of a Bedouin tent, designed by Isabel, in the cemetery of St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake in southwest London. The coffins of Sir Richard and Lady Burton can be seen through a window at the rear of the tent, which can be accessed via a short fixed ladder. Next to the lady chapel in the church there is a memorial stained-glass window to Burton, also erected by Isabel; it depicts Burton as a medieval knight. Burton's personal effects and a collection of paintings, photographs and objects relating to him are in the Burton Collection at Orleans House Gallery, Twickenham.
Kama Shastra Society
Burton had long had an interest in sexuality and some erotic literature. However, the Obscene Publications Act of 1857 had resulted in many jail sentences for publishers, with prosecutions being brought by the Society for the Suppression of Vice. Burton referred to the society and those who shared its views as Mrs Grundy. A way around this was the private circulation of books amongst the members of a society. For this reason Burton, together with Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot, created the Kama Shastra Society to print and circulate books that would be illegal to publish in public.
One of the most celebrated of all his books is his translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night (commonly called The Arabian Nights in English after early translations of Antoine Galland's French version) in ten volumes (1885), with seven further volumes being added later. The volumes were printed by the Kama Shastra Society in a subscribers-only edition of one thousand with a guarantee that there would never be a larger printing of the books in this form. The stories collected were often sexual in content and were considered pornography at the time of publication. In particular, the Terminal Essay in volume 10 of the Nights contained a 14,000-word essay entitled "Pederasty" (Volume 10, section IV, D), at the time a synonym for homosexuality (as it still is, in modern French). This was and remained for many years the longest and most explicit discussion of homosexuality in any language. Burton speculated that male homosexuality was prevalent in an area of the southern latitudes named by him the "Sotadic zone".
Perhaps Burton's best-known book is his translation of The Kama Sutra. It is untrue that he was the translator since the original manuscript was in ancient Sanskrit, which he could not read. However, he collaborated with Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot on the work and provided translations from other manuscripts of later translations. The Kama Shastra Society first printed the book in 1883 and numerous editions of the Burton translation are in print to this day.
His English translation from a French edition of the Arabic erotic guide The Perfumed Garden was printed as The Perfumed Garden of the Cheikh Nefzaoui: A Manual of Arabian Erotology (1886). After Burton's death, Isabel burnt many of his papers, including a manuscript of a subsequent translation, The Scented Garden, containing the final chapter of the work, on pederasty. Burton all along intended for this translation to be published after his death, to provide an income for his widow.
Scandals
Burton's writings are unusually open and frank about his interest in sex and sexuality. His travel writing is often full of details about the sexual lives of the inhabitants of areas he travelled through. Burton's interest in sexuality led him to make measurements of the lengths of the penises of male inhabitants of various regions, which he includes in his travel books. He also describes sexual techniques common in the regions he visited, often hinting that he had participated, hence breaking both sexual and racial taboos of his day. Many people at the time considered the Kama Shastra Society and the books it published scandalous.
Biographers disagree on whether or not Burton ever experienced homosexual sex (he never directly acknowledges it in his writing). Rumours began in his army days when Charles James Napier requested that Burton go undercover to investigate a male brothel reputed to be frequented by British soldiers. It has been suggested that Burton's detailed report on the workings of the brothel led some to believe he had been a customer. There is no documentary evidence that such a report was written or submitted, nor that Napier ordered such research by Burton, and it has been argued that this is one of Burton's embellishments.
A story that haunted Burton up to his death (recounted in some of his obituaries) was that he came close to being discovered one night when he lifted his robe to urinate rather than squatting as an Arab would. It was said that he was seen by an Arab and, to avoid exposure, killed him. Burton denied this, pointing out that killing the boy would almost certainly have led to his being discovered as an impostor. Burton became so tired of denying this accusation that he took to baiting his accusers, although he was said to enjoy the notoriety and even once laughingly claimed to have done it. A doctor once asked him: "How do you feel when you have killed a man?", Burton retorted: "Quite jolly, what about you?". When asked by a priest about the same incident Burton is said to have replied: "Sir, I'm proud to say I have committed every sin in the Decalogue." Stanley Lane-Poole, a Burton detractor, reported that Burton "confessed rather shamefacedly that he had never killed anybody at any time."
These allegations coupled with Burton's often irascible nature were said to have harmed his career and may explain why he was not promoted further, either in army life or in the diplomatic service. As an obituary described: "...he was ill fitted to run in official harness, and he had a Byronic love of shocking people, of telling tales against himself that had no foundation in fact." Ouida reported: "Men at the FO [Foreign Office] ... used to hint dark horrors about Burton, and certainly justly or unjustly he was disliked, feared and suspected ... not for what he had done, but for what he was believed capable of doing."
Sotadic Zone
Burton theorized about the existence of a Sotadic Zone''' in the closing essay of his English translation of The Arabian Nights (1885–1886). Excerpted and reprinted with permission from He asserted that there exists a geographic-climatic zone in which sodomy and pederasty (sexual intimacy between older men and young pubescent/adolescent boys) are endemic, prevalent, and celebrated among the indigenous inhabitants and within their cultures. The name derives from Sotades, a 3rd-century BC Ancient Greek poet who was the chief representative of a group of Ancient Greek writers of obscene, and sometimes pederastic, satirical poetry; these homoerotic verses are preserved in the Greek Anthology, a collection of poems spanning the Classical and Byzantine periods of Greek literature.
Burton first advanced his Sotadic Zone concept in the "Terminal Essay", contained in Volume 10 of his English translation of The Arabian Nights, which he called The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, published in England in 1886.
In popular culture
Fiction
In the short story "The Aleph" (1945) by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, a manuscript by Burton is discovered in a library. The manuscript contains a description of a mirror in which the whole universe is reflected.
The Riverworld series of science fiction novels (1971–83) by Philip José Farmer has a fictional and resurrected Burton as a primary character.
William Harrison's Burton and Speke is a 1984 novel about the two friends/rivals.
The World Is Made of Glass: A Novel by Morris West tells the story of Magda Liliane Kardoss von Gamsfeld in consultation with Carl Gustav Jung; Burton is mentioned on pp. 254–7 and again on p. 392.
Der Weltensammler by the Bulgarian-German writer Iliya Troyanov is a fictional reconstruction of three periods of Burton's life, focusing on his time in India, his pilgrimage to Medina and Mecca, and his explorations with Speke.
Burton is the main character in the "Burton and Swinburne" steampunk series by Mark Hodder (2010–2015): The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack; The Curious Case of the Clockwork Man; Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon; The Secret of Abdu El Yezdi; The Return of the Discontinued Man; and The Rise of the Automated Aristocrats. These novels depict an alternate world where Queen Victoria was killed early in her reign due to the inadvertent actions of a time-traveler acting as Spring-Heeled Jack, with a complex constitutional revision making Albert King in her place.
Though not one of the primary characters in the series, Burton plays an important historical role in the Area 51 series of books by Bob Mayer (written under the pen name Robert Doherty).
Burton and his partner Speke are recurrently mentioned in one of Jules Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires, the 1863 novel Five Weeks in a Balloon, as the voyages of Kennedy and Ferguson are attempting to link their expeditions with those of Heinrich Barth in west Africa.
In the novel The Bookman's Promise (2004) by John Dunning, the protagonist buys a signed copy of a rare Burton book, and from there Burton and his work are major elements of the story. A section of the novel also fictionalizes a portion of Burton's life in the form of recollections of one of the characters.
Drama
In the BBC production of The Search for the Nile series (1972), Burton is portrayed by actor Kenneth Haigh.
The film Mountains of the Moon (1990) (starring Patrick Bergin as Burton) relates the story of the Burton-Speke exploration and subsequent controversy over the source of the Nile. The script was based on Harrison's novel.
In the Canadian film Zero Patience (1993), Burton is portrayed by John Robinson as having had "an unfortunate encounter" with the Fountain of Youth and is living in present-day Toronto. Upon discovering the ghost of the famous Patient Zero, Burton attempts to exhibit the finding at his Hall of Contagion at the Museum of Natural History.
In the American TV show The Sentinel, a monograph by Sir Richard Francis Burton is found by one of the main characters, Blair Sandburg, and is the origins for his concept of Sentinels and their roles in their respective tribes.
Chronology
Works and correspondence
Burton published over 40 books and countless articles, monographs and letters. A great number of his journal and magazine pieces have never been catalogued. Over 200 of these have been collected in PDF facsimile format at burtoniana.org.
Brief selections from a variety of Burton's writings are available in Frank McLynn's Of No Country: An Anthology of Richard Burton (1990; New York: Charles Scribner's Sons).
See also
Selim Aga
Mausoleum of Sir Richard and Lady Burton
List of polyglots
References
Sources
Books and articles
Hitchman, Francis (1887), Richard F. Burton, K.C.M.G.: His Early, Private and Public Life with an Account of his Travels and Explorations, Two volumes; London: Sampson and Low.
McDow, Thomas F. 'Trafficking in Persianness: Richard Burton between mimicry and similitude in the Indian Ocean and Persianate worlds'. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 30.3 (2010): 491–511.
Newman, James L. (2009), Paths without Glory: Richard Francis Burton in Africa, Potomac Books, Dulles, Virginia; .
Sparrow-Niang, Jane (2014). Bath and the Nile Explorers: In commemoration of the 150th anniversary of Burton and Speke's encounter in Bath, September 1864, and their 'Nile Duel' which never happened. Bath: Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution.
Wisnicki, Adrian S. (2009). "Charting the Frontier: Indigenous Geography, Arab-Nyamwezi Caravans, and the East African Expedition of 1856–59". Victorian Studies 51.1 (Aut.): 103–37.
Film documentaries
Search for the Nile, 1971 BBC mini-series featuring Kenneth Haigh as Burton
In The Victorian Sex Explorer'', Rupert Everett documents Burton's travels. Part of the Channel Four (UK) 'Victorian Passions' season. First Broadcast on 9 June 2008.
External links
Complete Works of Richard Burton at burtoniana.org. Includes over 200 of Burton's journal and magazine pieces.
– index to world holdings of Burton archival materials
The Penetration of Arabia by David George Hogarth (1904) – discusses Burton in the second section, "The Successors"
Capt Sir Richard Burton Museum (sirrichardburtonmuseum.co.uk), "located in a private residence in central St Ives, Cornwall UK"
1821 births
1890 deaths
19th-century British male writers
19th-century English poets
19th-century English writers
19th-century explorers
19th-century linguists
19th-century British translators
Alumni of Trinity College, Oxford
Arabic–English translators
British Arabists
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British diplomats
British East India Company Army officers
British ethnographers
British ethnologists
British expatriates in the Ottoman Empire
British military personnel of the Crimean War
Burials at St Mary Magdalen Roman Catholic Church Mortlake
English atheists
English cartographers
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English male poets
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English travel writers
Explorers of Africa
Explorers of Arabia
Explorers of Asia
Fellows of the Royal Geographical Society
Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England
Hajj accounts
Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
People from Elstree
People from Torquay
Portuguese–English translators
Translators of One Thousand and One Nights
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"Robert Storms Van Howe is an American pediatrician and circumcision researcher from Marquette, Michigan. He was a professor of pediatrics at Central Michigan University College of Medicine at its founding, where he was the Chief of Pediatrics until 2017. He holds a masters' degree in biostatistics and previously taught pediatrics at Michigan State University.\n\nResearch\nVan Howe's research includes a study published in 2007 in BJU International. The study reported that the five most sensitive points on the human penis were all in areas of it that are removed by circumcision and that uncircumcised men's penises were four times more sensitive, on average, than were those of circumcised men. Critics of this study have noted that it was funded by the National Organization of Circumcision Information Resource Centers (NOCIRC), an anti-circumcision activist group. Van Howe maintains that this funding did not bias his study, telling ABC News, \"The study was based on an objective finding\" and \"There's no way you can change what a person felt or didn't feel.\"\n\nViews on circumcision\nVan Howe has said that \"Circumcision is as harmful as it is unnecessary\".\n\nReferences\n\nLiving people\nCentral Michigan University faculty\nMichigan State University faculty\nAmerican pediatricians\nPeople from Marquette, Michigan\nGenital integrity activists\nAmerican health activists\nYear of birth missing (living people)",
"The Predator is the third EP by American metalcore band Ice Nine Kills and was self-released by the band on January 15, 2013. The EP debuted at No. 9 on the Billboard Heatseekers chart.\n\nIt is the only album to feature Steve Koch as bassist and backup singer after his departure in 2013, and the last album to feature Justin Morrow as rhythm guitarist; he would switch to bass guitar and backing vocals (on live performance only) while still playing rhythm guitar in studio in 2013.\n\nThe tracks \"The Coffin Is Moving\" and \"What I Never Learned in Study Hall\" later would be featured on the band's 2014 album The Predator Becomes the Prey.\n\nThe track \"What I Never Learned in Study Hall\" was later re-recorded acoustically for Take Action. Vol. 11 making it similar to the song's predecessors \"What I Really Learned in Study Hall\" and \"What I Should Have Learned in Study Hall\". Unlike the original version, the acoustic version did not feature Tyler Carter as guest vocalist, but instead featured former Kid's Jackson Summer vocalist Kate Ellen Dean.\n\nTrack listing\n\nPersonnel \n Spencer Charnas - lead vocals, piano on \"A Reptile's Dysfunction\"\n Justin \"JD\" DeBlieck - lead guitar, lead vocals\n Justin Morrow - rhythm guitar\n Steve Koch - bass guitar, backing vocals\n Connor Sullivan - drums\n Steve Sopchak - producer, engineer, mixing\n\nCharts\n\nReferences\n\n2013 EPs\nIce Nine Kills EPs\nSelf-released EPs"
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